Part 1 (1/2)

Chats on Old Furniture.

by Arthur Hayden.

PREFACE

This volume has been written to enable those who have a taste for the furniture of a bygone day to arrive at some conclusion as to the essential points of the various styles made in England.

An attempt has been made to give some lucid historical account of the progress and development in the art of making domestic furniture, with especial reference to its evolution in this country.

Inasmuch as many of the finest specimens of old English woodwork and furniture have left the country of their origin and crossed the Atlantic, it is time that the public should awaken to the fact that the heritages of their forefathers are objects of envy to all lovers of art.

It is a painful reflection to know that the temptation of money will shortly denude the old farmhouses and manor houses of England of their unappreciated treasures. Before the hand of the despoiler shall have s.n.a.t.c.hed everything within reach, it is the hope of the writer that this little volume may not fall on stony ground, and that the possessors of fine old English furniture may realise their responsibilities.

It has been thought advisable to touch upon French furniture as exemplified in the national collections of such importance as the Jones Bequest at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Wallace Collection, to show the influence of foreign art upon our own designers. Similarly, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch furniture, of which many remarkable examples are in private collections in this country, has been dealt with in pa.s.sing, to enable the reader to estimate the relation of English art to contemporary foreign schools of decoration and design.

The authorities of the Victoria and Albert Museum have willingly extended their a.s.sistance in regard to photographs, and by the special permission of the Board of Education the frontispiece and other representative examples in the national collection appear as ill.u.s.trations to this volume.

I have to acknowledge generous a.s.sistance and courteous permission from owners of fine specimens in allowing me facilities for reproducing ill.u.s.trations of them in this volume.

I am especially indebted to the Right Honourable Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, G.C.B., I.S.O., and to the Rev. Canon Haig Brown, Master of the Charterhouse, for the inclusion of ill.u.s.trations of furniture of exceptional interest.

The proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ have generously furnished me with lists of prices obtained at auction from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_, and have allowed the reproduction of ill.u.s.trations which have appeared in the pages of the _Connoisseur_.

My thanks are due to Messrs. Hampton, of Pall Mall, for their kind permission to include as ill.u.s.trations several fine pieces from their collection of antique furniture. I am under a similar obligation to Messrs. Waring, who have kindly allowed me to select some of their typical examples.

To my other friends, without whose kind advice and valuable aid this volume could never have appeared, I tender a grateful and appreciative acknowledgment of my indebtedness.

ARTHUR HAYDEN.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Italian Chair about 1620_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Spanish Chest._]

I

THE RENAISSANCE ON THE CONTINENT

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portion of carved cornice of pinewood, from the Palazzo Bensi Ceccini, Venice.

Italian; middle of sixteenth century.

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE