Esther Singleton

“ A handsome piece of furniture or silver, beautiful porcelain, rare tulips, rich curtains and rugs, valuable paintings, fine glass, and curios from the Far East would induce the opulent Dutchman to part with large sums; and his wife spent the greater part of her life in ornamenting and beautifying the home, taking care of the treasures it contained, and, above all, in keeping the house and its contents clean and in order. A rich merchant, Asselijn, said:—
Ziet wat een fraei kasteel! ”

“ In the centre of the room there stands a large and heavy oak table, with low chairs of the same, and covered with leather seats arranged symmetrically around it. In one corner of the room we note a reading-desk on which rests an enormous Bible bound in leather, with great brass mounts. The chimneypiece is enormous; if it is winter, a tremendous peat and wood fire is perpetually burning; if summer, the fireplace is ornamented with large, handsome faïence, or porcelain vases. ”

“ The old woman seated in a plain, two-backed, rush-bottomed chair seems to be dusting the legs of a spinet. Another two-backed chair stands in front of the bed, which from the positions of its pillows looks as if it might consist of an upper and lower berth, as was and still is often the case in the simpler homes in the Netherlands. Straight curtains hang from the cornice, a warming-pan is seen on the right, while above the cornice of the bed a child looks out of the shutters in the upper gallery. ”

“ A compartment ceiling of intricate design appears in Plate XXIV.
The arabesque, which so often forms a central motive, is usually in the form of a flower stem, a knot of ribbon or a candelabra, symmetrically arranged with branches to right and left, and charged with trophies, vases, fantastic beings, animals, etc., at the caprice of the artist. These delicate ornaments flourish in the panels, mingling with the horn of plenty, bold sirens, and medallions of antique heroes in high relief. ”

“ English travellers of this period unanimously praised the way the Dutch houses were kept. One wrote: “They are not large, but neat, beautiful outside and well furnished inside; and the furniture is so clean and in good order that it appears to be more an exhibition than for daily use.” The farms also attracted the attention of the stranger. Another traveller said: “The Dutch farmer keeps his land as neatly as a courtier trims his beard; and his house is as choice as a lady who comes out of her dressing-room. ”

“ Although an Englishwoman, Mary had all the virtues and tastes of a Dutch vrouw. She kept her husband informed of all that happened from day to day, bewailed his absence and neglect, and busied herself and her Maids of Honour with needlework, and, perhaps, with tenderly dusting her cherished porcelain. When in London, she used to spend many an hour and all her pocket money shopping at the India houses and in the New Exchange. She set the fashion for china-mania, and may well have inspired Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s lines:
“What shall I do to spend the hateful day ... ”

“ Any able artist, sculptor, architect, goldsmith, or image-maker, driven from home by the perpetual civil wars in England, France and Italy, was sure of refuge and employment at the Court of Burgundy. Thus, for a century and a half, the Low Countries were the most important art centre of Europe. Dijon and Brussels, the capitals of the Burgundian dominions, were Meccas of Mediaeval Art; and Tournay, Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Dinant, and many other industrial centres swarmed with craftsmen who produced all that was luxurious and beautiful for domestic comfort and decoration. ”

“ The dark and heavy serge curtains that hang at the windows prevent us from distinguishing the furniture of the room very clearly; but we gradually make out the articles one by one. We note the splendid array of vases and beakers that adorn the wide mantelpiece, and also the top of the china cabinet of sacredaan wood, and the massive and richly carved, or deeply panelled, linen wardrobe, or kas. ”

“ The general impression of this apartment is brown, derived not only from the panelled ceiling, high wainscot and carved chimney-piece, but from the wall hangings of leather with its raised patterns of faded gold and the high-backed carved furniture.
Brightness is contributed by the array of brass, porcelain, delft, rugs, cushions and tiled fireplace, with its fine brass andirons, bellows and other equipments. On the ledge of the wainscot handsome jars and vases and other specimens of porcelain and delft are symmetrically arranged, and on the wall hang plaques and brass sconces. ”

“ Until the middle of the seventeenth century, Flanders may be said to have overshadowed Holland in the field of Decorative Art, although, as we have seen, the two most important designers of domestic furniture—De Vries and Crispin van de Passe—were Dutch. The reason of Flemish preponderance was that the sovereigns and regents resided at Mechlin, Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp, and to those courts the ablest men in the arts and crafts naturally flocked. With the decay of Antwerp, we enter the period of the Flemish Decadence, and Amsterdam rises to wealth and power at her rival’s expense. ”

“ As there was no manufactory for high-warp tapestry in France, Francis I decided to establish one in Fontainebleau in 1539, and gathered there fifteen skilled Flemish workmen whom he placed under the direction of Philibert Babou, Sieur de la Bourdaizière, and Sebastian Serlio, the Italian architect.
Throughout the Renaissance, tapestry was regarded on a level with painting. The Pope, the Doges of Venice and the wealthy families—the D’Estes, the Medicis and Sforzas—made superb collections and decorated their halls with splendid hangings. ”

“ First we notice a large kas or armoire, with heavy ball feet and pieces of china arranged on the top. More china adorns the chimney-shelf, and the chimney-piece with its valance is characteristic. The heavy carved beams, the windows with small leaded panes decorated with coats-of-arms, the tiled floor spread with a carpet, give an air of comfort to the room. The chairs are of the four-backed variety, the table is square, the stool has turned legs and stretchers, and there is a Bible on a stand and a Friesland clock on the wall. ”

“ It may easily be understood how the woodwork of a room might conceal a whole series of shelves to which sliding panels, or panels opening outwards as doors, gave access. These various compartments served as cabinets for curios, bookcases, glass and plate cupboards, wardrobes and larders. When one of these compartments was made as a separate piece of furniture to stand by itself out against the flat wall of a room, it was called a cabinet, or armoire. As late as the middle of the seventeenth century, however, the armoire was generally part of the fixed woodwork. ”

“ Towards the close of the century the craze for Oriental wares had assumed such proportions that in France Louis XIV enacted sumptuary laws to protect native industries; and in Holland and England the artisans grumbled bitterly over the hard times occasioned by the vogue. The Eastern workmen accepted patterns and supplied orders that natives of Western Europe could not venture to undertake. The guilds and city companies admitted the superiority of Oriental work, and cried aloud for protection. ”

“ Under his grandson, Philip the Good, the Burgundian Court displayed greater splendour than any other in Europe. The reigning dukes were powerful protectors of the arts. Their immense resources, 32drawn from the Flemish hives of industry, enabled them to indulge their taste for architecture, painting, sculpture, illuminated books, tapestry, goldsmiths’ work and sumptuous furniture. They were also insatiable collectors of everything that was curious and rare. ”

“ As in all other departments of human taste, thought and activity, there is no sudden change in Decorative Art, no swift rupture with old traditions. There is a period of transition, during which one style supplants another almost imperceptibly. Even when one great genius arises, he meets with opposition from the members of the old school ”

“ The supporting sides consist of Classic columns, pilasters or caryatides; and all the decoration is in harmony with the rest of the furniture of this period.
On looking over the pictures by the great artists of the Netherlands, we cannot help noticing their delight in painting glass. The play of light and shade, and direct and reflected rays in flasks, bottles, vases, goblets and wine glasses of varied form strongly appealed to the great masters of genre and still life. ”

“ But after all this if one enters their homes and notices the abundance of all kinds of furniture, and the order and neatness of everything, it gives one great pleasure, and one looks upon it as a wonder. ”

“ The linen blinds so closely meet the spotless muslin curtains, which are drawn stiffly across the lower panes on two horizontal sticks, that a stray sunbeam can hardly make its way into the room, even if it has been able to struggle through the thick branches of the clipt lime-trees that adorn the front of the house. On one of the tables a tray stands, with a hospitable array of cups and saucers, teapot, etc., and is protected from the dust by a crochet or muslin cover. The huge family Bible, with its huge brass clasps, has an honourable place, often on a stand by itself. ”

“ Most frequently the same room serves at once as bedroom, kitchen and storehouse for the fishing utensils. Some houses, however, have a second and separate room, called here the saloon, in which furniture and clothes are kept, but that is almost aristocratic luxury. The rooms which are flush with the ground have no ceiling, and communicate with the garret, over which the tile or thatch roof rises at right angles. ”

“ It is carved in the richest fashion, and is often enriched with gilding and painting; it is also adorned with marquetry. The mattresses, bolsters and pillows are of down or feathers, the sheets and blankets of finest linen and wool, for which Flanders is famous; and the hangings are of silk, velvet, tapestry, serge, or gilded leather. The Renaissance bed is never allowed to stand in an alcove: it is far too handsome a piece of furniture for that. Its canopy, often richly carved, is rectangular and exactly the size of the bed, which is large ”

“ The great artists of the period were extraordinarily versatile: they were architects, sculptors, painters, glass-painters, goldsmiths, designers for furniture and triumphal arches, machinists, historians, engravers, numismatologists, and sometimes geographers and poets all at once; and a talent for art always seemed to run through all the members of one family through several generations, including both men and women.
Plate VIII.—Cabinet (Sixteenth Century) . ”

“ The love of cleanliness, too, has its extravagances, as, for instance, in the neighbourhood we speak of we once enjoyed the comic spectacle of a man sitting astride on the ridge of his house, with a pail slung round his neck, scrubbing away at the tiles.”
Holland has not escaped the present taste for the collection of antiquities; but in that country where there is so deep a love of home, and where the peasants guard their possessions with the same tenacity and affection as the rich do their heirlooms, the collector is only rewarded after long years of patient search. ”

“ We should not be astonished that porcelain is so dear in Europe: we shall be still less so when we learn that besides the great profits taken by the European merchants and by their Chinese agents, it is rarely that a baking is entirely successful; sometimes indeed it is a total failure. Thus for one workman who grows rich, there are a hundred ruined ”

“ The plain box, or chest, was the origin of all the developments of Mediaeval furniture. It had many uses: it contained the treasures and valuables of the lord; it was used as a packing-case or trunk for travelling; with supports at the four corners and back, and arms added above, it served as a chair or settle, with a seat that could be lifted on hinges; raised also on legs and supplied with a daïs, it became a dressoir, credence, or sideboard; chest-upon-chest superimposed, developed into the elaborate armoire ”

“ The meeting of Charles the Bold with the Emperor at Trèves, in 1473, occasioned a great display of magnificence. The far-famed luxury of the Burgundian Court was well exhibited during the eight weeks that the two Courts spent in the Rhenish city. Charles gave the most superb entertainments. The Abbey of Saint Maximin, which the Duke chose for his temporary residence, was fitted up for the occasion with furniture, tapestries, richly embroidered stuffs, gold and silver from his palaces. ”

“ Cleanliness in the house and order in the garden, with its clipped trees and hedges of formal designs and stiff flower beds, still persist. The Dutch house of the present day is described by the Rev. J. Ballingal In the North Holland Polders as follows: “Their houses are as often furnished in very modern style, though the furniture is sure to be solid and good. They have the utmost contempt for anything sham and flimsy. In their jewellery, of which a great deal is worn, they would never think of buying false diamonds or imitation coral. ”

“ In the fourteenth century, as Gothic Art blossomed after the disturbing influence of the Crusades, carving entered more extensively into the decoration of furniture, as it was more highly developed in ecclesiastical art. The cabinet-makers of the period were skilful carvers: in France and Flanders these huchiers-menuisiers were called upon to supply royal and princely castles with artistic furniture, the accounts of which have come down to us. We find not only carved oak, but also tables inlaid with ebony and ivory. ”

“ At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Empire style was in vogue in Holland, as it was throughout Europe. When the Town Hall on the Dam in Amsterdam was presented by the city to the King of Holland, Louis Napoleon, in 1808, the Royal apartments were fitted up in the Empire style, and these hangings and furniture may be seen to-day. A great deal of Empire furniture is scattered through the museums of Belgium and Holland, as well as in the castles and mansions of the nobles and merchants who followed the fashions. ”