Esther Singleton

“ The dressing-room exhibits the toilet-table and commode with all the affairs requisite to dress as bason stands, stools, glasses, and boxes with all the innocent trifles of youth.
“The drawing-room is to concentrate the elegance of the whole house, and is the highest display of richness of furniture. It being appropriated to the formal visits of the highest in rank, and nothing of a scientific nature should be introduced to take up the attention of any individual, from the general conversation that takes place on such occasions. ”

“ La Joüe is a real past master in the art of introducing into a decorative panel a cascade which sometimes falls from nowhere and loses itself in pearly foam: for him everything serves as a pretext for a cascade: neighing horses plunging in the water, an open-jawed dragon clinging to the base of a column, a hunted stag vomiting a jet of water into a fount whose marble rim is full of twists and contortions. ”

“ The large Tudor bed was the richest piece of furniture. Apart from the sheets of finest linen, the soft and handsome blankets, the counterpane of marvellous needlework, the quilts of silk and rugs of fur, and the curtains 56of tapestry, samite, silk or velvet, it was a mass of superb carving luxuriantly expressed upon headboard, canopy, tester, columns, and panels. ”

“ The great pleasure that builders and workmen of all kinds (those called cabinet-makers, I think, only excepted) have of late years taken in the study of architecture has induced me to the compiling of this work. And indeed I am very sorry that cabinet-makers should have been supine therein; because of all small architectural works none is more ornamental to buildings than theirs, when well and justly executed, as being generally made with such kinds of materials which Nature has wantonly adorned with delightful textures of colours that contribute very greatly to their beauty. ”

“ All these small rooms being intended for recreation of the mind, nothing should be neglected to render the decoration fine and gay. It is here that genius may soar and abandon itself to the vivacity of its caprices, whilst in the apartments de parade it must restrict itself to the most rigid rules of conduct and good taste, and not fall into the unrestrained liberties of the carving of to-day, which should be banished with all the more reason that true architects scarcely tolerate them in the rooms we are now describing. ”

“ The dining-room is one of the principal apartments of a house, and ought always to be of a bold and an accommodating proportion. In noblemen’s dining-rooms, where the windows are all on the side opposite 342to the fires, there may then be a recess at each end of the room in which a sideboard may stand, with columns before it placed at the extremities, which produces a very august appearance and renders the service considerably more easy at dinner than where there is but one sideboard. The furniture of a dining-room ought to be bold, substantial and magnificent, in proportion to its dimensions. ”

“ Some want the most essential part, I mean the Entablature or cornice; and though it be the best fence against the injuries of the weather, it is left out to save charges. In some other houses, the rooms are so small and strait, that one knows not where to place the most necessary furniture. Others, through the oddness of some new and insignificant ornaments, seem to exceed the wildest Gothic. It were an endless thing to enumerate all the absurdities which many of our builders introduce every day into their way of building. ”

“ It will be noticed that there is no carving on this bed which depends for its elegance upon the richness of its furniture. At this period, green, yellow and crimson were the favourite colours for draping the bed. The materials chosen were silk damask, worsted damask, plain satin, silk, or serge, according to the wealth of the owner; and when it is remembered that the windows were hung with the same stuff, and the chairs, stools, cushions, table-carpets and cupboard cloth and cushions were of similar stuff, it will be admitted that a Jacobean bedroom is lacking neither in beauty nor richness. ”

“ Colbert’s industrial system was founded upon the idea of useful luxury. Everything in common use had to be beautiful, and the result was that, although the taste was aristocratic, the result upon France was democratic. Silk and velvet, tapestry and rugs, vases of porphyry and porcelain, candelabra and andirons, clocks and articles of silver, rich cabinets and armoires, in fact, all kinds of useful and ornamental articles were soon to be found in middle-class houses as well as in the homes of the wealthy. ”

“ The decoration and furnishing of houses are to houses what clothes are to people: everything of this nature becomes old, and in a very few years seems to be superannuated and ridiculous. The industrial arts, which concur with architecture in the embellishment of buildings, receive the same impulse from the spirit of fashion, and no kind of beauty or worth possessed by these articles of taste can assure them any longer existence than the interval of time necessary to find a new taste to replace them. ”

“ A drawing-room is of that sort which admits of the highest taste and elegance; in furnishing of which, workmen in every nation exert the utmost efforts of their genius. To assist me in what I have here shewn, I had the opportunity of seeing the Prince of Wales’s, the Duke of York’s, and other noblemen’s drawing-rooms. ”

“ The French, who till of late never adopted the ornaments of the ancients, and jealous as all mankind are of the reputation of their national taste, have branded those ornaments with the vague and fantastical appellation of arabesque, a stile which, though entirely distinct from the grotesque, has, notwithstanding, been most absurdly and universally confounded with it by the ignorant. ”

“ White dimity, plain or corded, is peculiarly applicable for the furniture, which, with a fringe or gymp-head, produces an effect of elegance and neatness truly agreeable. The Manchester stuffs have been wrought into Bed-furniture with good success. Printed cottons and linens are also very suitable, the elegance and variety of patterns of which afford as much scope for taste, elegance and simplicity as the most lively fancy can wish. In general, the lining to these kinds of furniture is a plain white cotton. To furniture of a dark pattern, a green silk lining may be used with a good effect. ”

“ Carved panels with pilasters, painted white and brightened with gold, decorate the walls. A rich cornice, ornamented with consoles, and whose metopes are enriched with bas-reliefs and trophies, runs around these panels. The ceiling should be tastefully painted, and pictures, mirrors and handsome furniture should complete the decoration.
White and gold, according to D’Aviler, is the most elegant composition, especially if the wall behind the balustrade, where the bed is placed, is covered with a tapestry of blue silk, and the bed hung with blue and white curtains, ornamented with gold braid. ”

“ Finally, according to Havard, the true difference between a lit d’ange and a “lit vu de pieds” of to-day is not to be determined by the dimensions of the canopy, nor by the arrangement of the curtains or lambrequins, which are the same, but that the foot of the bed is not simply covered by a long courtepointe, or counterpane, but should have the squares of drapery (cantonnières) , hanging from the mattress repeating the form and trimmings of the upper valance and rest of the bed furniture. ”

“ Although he was most particular about proportion and joinery, he took the greatest delight in ornamentation, caring far more for his ornate carving and swags of drapery than for his wood, or his materials. Indeed, he nearly always desires his handsome pieces to be gilded, or painted, or japanned; and he says nothing whatever about textiles, although his beds and sofas with canopies are so dependent upon festoons and curtains for their effect. The covers upon his “French chairs” often exhibit Chinese subjects, flowers, Æsop’s fables, or the gallant Watteau-like scenes ”

“ The favourite Tudor chimney-piece and overmantel was a mass of rich carving, consisting of arch panels, mouldings, scrolls, coats-of-arms, flowers, vines, columns, and interlaced strapwork, supported by beautiful, or grotesque, terminal figures. Simpler styles are now being introduced in sympathy with the growing taste for Classic severity. The fire-place still remains large enough to admit of big logs, and the hearth is equipped with andirons, tongs, bellows, and sometimes a fender,—all of great artistic beauty. ”

“ Dead gold and burnished gold are both used, and the profusion of scrolls, leafy boughs, guilloches, heavy foliage, lozenge-shaped imbrications embossed with flowers in high relief, shells and flowers in high relief, arranged as festoons, garlands, bouquets, and sheaves, not to speak of the acanthus, the mascaron and the cartouche, produce an appearance of luxury and brilliancy that was unknown until the days of Louis XIV.
In the reign of Louis XIV., it was generally understood that every piece of decorative work should consist of a combination of the straight line and the curve. ”

“ The full drawing is one of Cuvilliés’s designs, and shows a bewildering combination of scrolls as a background for the beautiful carving of flowers and leaves. In the foreground a dog attacks a very savage dragon, whose wings bristle with anger and who darts forth his forked tongue. ”

“ I have seen very cultivated strangers gazing at the locks and bolts of the doors and windows at Versailles and the Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre as if they were chefs-d’œuvre, from whose beauty they could not tear themselves away. ”

“ In 1550, we read of a “fayre large cabinett covered with crimson velvet with the King’s arms crowned.” In the Seventeenth Century, the cabinet was panelled and carved, adorned with turned pillars, pendants or swelling bulbs, or it was of the newer style with applied ornaments and turned supports. Frequently also an imported cabinet was to be seen in the English home of this century,—a beautiful specimen of Dutch marquetry, of Italian inlay, of Oriental lacquer, or, indeed, of Boulle work, to say nothing of the splendid examples of Flemish carving. ”

“ In 1710, D’Aviler defines the word picture (tableau) as a subject of painting, usually in oil on canvas or wood, and contained in a frame or border. “Pictures greatly contribute to the decoration of the interior of buildings. The big ones figure in churches, drawing-rooms, galleries and other big places. Those of medium size called easel-pictures are placed in the spaces above the chimney-piece, above the doors and in the panels of the walls, or else on the tapestry against the walls. ”

“ The Directoire and the Empire demanded that the forms of the settee, sofa, and chaise longue should be severe to accord with the arm-chairs. The back of the sofa was stuffed, but not the sides or wings. At each end was placed a feather pillow covered with the same material as the sofa. The most popular sofa had a square back that was carried around the seat, forming wings at each side instead of the elbow or arm. The new sofas were called Méridienne and canapé pommier. Tapestry, figured satin, worsted damask or printed cloth, put on with braid, were used for coverings. ”

“ Plate LXIV. is a reproduction of one of Percier and Fontaine’s bedrooms. “The ornaments that decorate this room,” they say, “are painted in oil upon plaster; they fill, without being of any determined subjects, various compartments; and among them are pictures of fruit, fragments of ordinary objects, painted in grisaille on a light background.” All the furniture—the table opposite the bed, the tripod, the toilet, the bed and the frame over the mantel-piece—is covered with bronzes, enamelled paintings and incrustations of various kinds of wood. ”

“ The kitchen, the hall, the dining-parlour, the ante-room, the dining-room, the library, the breakfast-room, the music-room, the gallery of paintings, the bedroom and dressing apartments, ought to have their proper suits of furniture, and to be finished in a style, that will at once, show, to a competent judge, the place they are destined for. ”

“ We have introduced a great diversity of ceilings, frieze and decorated pilasters, and have added grace and beauty to the whole, by a mixture of grotesque [23] stucco 300and painted ornaments, together with the flowing rinceau, [24] with its fanciful figures and winding foliage.
“A proper arrangement and relief of apartments are branches of architecture in which the French have excelled all other nations; these have united magnificence with utility in the hôtels of their nobility, and have rendered them objects of universal imitation. ”