Part 4 (1/2)

III

STUART OR JACOBEAN. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Waring._

GATE-LEG TABLE.]

III

STUART OR JACOBEAN. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

James I. 1603-1625.

Charles I. 1625-1649.

The Commonwealth 1649-1660.

1619. Tapestry factory established at Mortlake, under Sir Francis Crane.

---- Banqueting Hall added to Whitehall by Inigo Jones.

1632. Vandyck settled in London on invitation of Charles I.

1651. Navigation Act pa.s.sed; aimed blow (1572-1652) at Dutch carrying trade. All goods to be imported in English s.h.i.+ps or in s.h.i.+ps of country producing goods.

With the advent of the House of Stuart the England under James I. saw new fas.h.i.+ons introduced in furniture. It has already been mentioned that the greater number of old houses which are now termed Tudor or Elizabethan were erected in the days of James I. At the beginning of a new monarchy fas.h.i.+on in art rarely changes suddenly, so that the early pieces of Jacobean furniture differ very little from Elizabethan in character. Consequently the Court cupboard, dated 1603, and mirror of the same year (ill.u.s.trated on p. 70), though bearing the date of the first year of the reign of James, more properly belong to Tudor days.

In the Bodleian Library at Oxford there is preserved a chair of fine workmans.h.i.+p and of historic memory. It was made from the oak timbers of the _Golden Hind_, the s.h.i.+p in which Sir Francis Drake made his adventurous voyage of discovery round the world. In spite of many secret enemies ”deaming him the master thiefe of the unknowne world,” Queen Elizabeth came to Deptford and came aboard the _Golden Hind_ and ”there she did make Captain Drake knight, in the same s.h.i.+p, for reward of his services; his armes were given him, a s.h.i.+p on the world, which s.h.i.+p, by Her Majestie's commandment, is lodged in a dock at Deptford, for a monument to all posterity.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the ”Connoisseur.”_

OAK CHAIR MADE FROM THE TIMBER OF THE _GOLDEN HIND_. COMMONLY CALLED ”SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S CHAIR.”

(_At the Bodleian Library._)]

It remained for many years at Deptford dockyard, and became the resort of holiday folk, who made merry in the cabin, which was converted into a miniature banqueting hall; but when it was too far decayed to be repaired it was broken up, and a sufficient quant.i.ty of sound wood was selected from it and made into a chair, which was presented to the University of Oxford. This was in the time of Charles II., and the poet Cowley has written some lines on it, in which he says that Drake and his _Golden Hind_ could not have wished a more blessed fate, since to ”this Pythagorean s.h.i.+p”

”... a seat of endless rest is given To her in Oxford, and to him in heaven--”

which, though quite unintentional on the part of the poet, is curiously satiric.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the Master of the Charterhouse._

OAK TABLE, DATED 1616, BEARING ARMS OF THOMAS SUTTON, FOUNDER OF THE CHARTERHOUSE HOSPITAL.]

The piece is highly instructive as showing the prevailing design for a sumptuous chair in the late seventeenth century. The middle arch in the back of the chair is disfigured by a tablet with an inscription, which has been placed there.

Of the early days of James I. is a finely carved oak table, dated 1616.