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The Period of WrenHistory of Early American Colonial Furniture

Chair with Enclosed Arms and Squab Seat

Staircase in the Style of Wren

Second State Room at 31 Old Burlington Street

It was at about this time that marqueterie was perfected and the table on page 21 is an excellent example of this class of work. It is, however, more difficult than at any other period to locate accurately exact dates of manufacture; Dutch influence was paramount, and whether the articles were made in Holland some ten or twenty years earlier than when reproductions, sometimes by the same workmen, were made in England cannot be authoritatively stated. Another example of marqueterie is the fine cabinet shown on page 24, and on this piece the vase-shaped bases and the feet are partly gilt, a method of decorating both furniture and mouldings which came into fashion (on English and early American Colonial furniture )at this period and which became so much in vogue during the early eighteenth century.

In order to display Oriental china and Delf pottery, the collection of which both in Holland and England had become an absolute mania, cabinets, corner cupboards, chimney shelves, tops of cabinets, and in fact every available space was utilized. No doubt it was for such purpose that the specimen illustrated on page 27 was designed. A feature of this class of furniture was the peculiar cross-banding and the careful selection of the wood with which such work was executed.

An entire chapter might be devoted to the successive styles of fire-dogs employed in England previous to the introduction of enclosed grates early in the eighteenth century. During the Wren period they were usually of brass or iron, the stems somewhat resembling the form of contemporary chandeliers. The frequency with which such fire-dogs are illustrated in earlier Dutch pictures proclaims their origin; several instances exist in which they are of silver, highly ornamented. Another variety was of bronze, enamelled in various colours, as in the example illustrated on page 21, the design of which is Atlantes supporting the arms borne by the Stuart Kings.

It is to the Stuarts (in English and early American Colonial furniture ) that we owe the earliest manufactories of glass mirrors in England. Evelyn refers to his visit in 1673 " to the Italian glass house at Greenwich where glasse was blown of finer mettal than that of Murano at Venice," and again in 1676 to the new works at Lambeth, where he " saw the Duke of Buckingham's Glasse Worke where they made huge vases of mettal as clear and ponderous and thick as chrystal, also looking-glasses far larger and better than any that came from Venice."

From this time forward, no room was considered complete without one or more examples, and the very fine mirror (shown on page 21) possesses particular interest as being similar to the celebrated pair in the State Room at Hampton Court, and like those examples, has the quaint double bevelling and incised line on the glass borders so peculiar to this period.

Compared to the price at which it can now be obtained, glass for mirrors was then very costly, and naturally elaborate frames were often used, some­times decorated with the finest marqueterie, as the specimen also shown on page 21 . Silver furniture was peculiar to and one of the greatest extravagances of this age, and mirror frames, as well as chairs, tables, and fire-irons were so manufactured.

The chair shown at the bottom of page 23, which is one of a set of twelve, is curious as an example of the tortoise-shell lacquer with which some of the finest furniture was then decorated: the top of the frame is carved with scroll ornament, this carving being gilded. The arm-chair with cane seat and back shown at the top of the same page may be considered typical of the reign of William and Mary, but it is most unusual to find a specimen where the carving is so elaborate or the design so graceful.

The early American Colonial furniture two tables illustrated on page 24, although dating from the seven­teenth century, bear little trace of Dutch influence, in fact are amongst the first examples of English furniture in which Italian feeling again pre­dominates.