Cabinet (furniture)

“ The whole was faintly lit by a silver and crystal lamp that hung by slender chains from the ceiling, which was covered by drawn grey silk.
A cabinet of beautiful workmanship inlaid with painted china plaques, a desk of marquetry and ormolu covered with rich articles, and an exquisite lute of ivory and ebony tied with jade green ribbons completed the furniture. ”

“ The hands that opened its drawers had grown withered, shrivelled, and at last had been folded in death. The children that played with the lower handles had got tall enough to open the desk,—to reach the upper shelves behind the folding doors,—grown bent after a while,—and followed those who had gone before, and left the old cabinet to be ransacked by a new generation. ”

“ A cabinet maker named A. Heppelwhite published in 1789 a large set of designs for every sort of reception room and bedroom furniture. We see in these the mahogany chairs with pierced strapwork backs, library and pedestal tables, mechanical desks and bureaux, which continued in fashion during the early years of this century. Fanciful sashed glass doors closed in the bookcases; interrupted pediments and pedestals provided space for busts round the tops of these cases. Fluted legs, and occasionally lion-headed supports, uphold the tables and chairs. ”

“ There are larger handles upon the sides, as was the custom. The cabinet in the upper part is very similar to the one in Illustration 103, but there is no lacquering upon the curved tops behind the doors. With the thoroughness of workmanship and dislike of sham which characterized the cabinet-makers of the eighteenth century, there are fine pieces of mahogany inside at the back of the looking-glasses. The cabinet in the desk proper, which is covered by the slanting lid when closed, is unusually good, with the curved drawers, set also in a curve. ”

“ After the Civil War, when Charles II. came into his own again, the furniture of the Restoration period{112} most certainly took its colour from the gay Court with which the Merry Monarch surrounded himself. The cabinet which we reproduce has the royal arms embroidered on the cover, and is a beautiful example{113} of intricate cabinetmaking. The surface of the piece is entirely covered with needlework. ”

“ The wood of this secretary is oak, and the entire piece is covered with lacquer in brilliant red, blue, and gold. The upper part, or cabinet, has doors which are lacquered on the inside, with looking-glasses on the outside. A looking-glass is also set into the middle of the top. These glasses are all the original ones and are of heavy plate with the old bevel upon the edges. Above the compartments, and fitting into the two arches of the top are semi-circular-shaped flap doors, which open downward. Between these and the pigeonholes are two shallow drawers extending across the cabinet. ”

“ The most compact cabinet work will give way, the seams of flooring open, and the planks even bend. Furniture of every sort is distorted; in short, nothing escapes their dreadful power. The nights at this period are cool and refreshing. ”

“ They depend far more upon the architectural form and talent displayed by the cabinet-maker and designer than upon the skill and art of the decorator. The first cabinets à porte date from the Renaissance, and received their name at the moment when one kind of bahut, placed on four feet, contested popularity with another kind that stood on a base with doors, and foreshadowed the form of those pieces of furniture called à deux corps. ”

“ If the room is large enough, a secretary after an Eighteenth Century model will be a beautiful and distinguished piece of furniture. I have such a secretary in my own sitting-room, a chest of drawers surmounted by a cabinet of shelves with glass doors, but I do not use it as a desk. I use the shelves for my old china and porcelains, and the drawers for pamphlets and the thousand and one things that are too flimsily bound for bookshelves. Of course, if one has a large correspondence and uses one's home as an office, it is better to have a large desk with a top which closes. ”

“ In the manufacture of furniture at one time or another nearly every variety of wood has been used, if not for the body of the frame, then for its enrichment, and every quarter of the globe has been laid under contribution. The island of Borneo yielded Amboyna wood, with its beautiful mottlings and curlings, and a very splendid cabinet was made of it for the ill-fated Marie Antoinette by the famous cabinet-maker of her day, Riesener. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Cabinet has equipment for two compositors, supply of leads and slugs and assortment of materials such as brass and copper thin spaces and quads. Fig. 25. Double “City” Stand with working cases and case racks. Note that the lower case may be pushed up when necessary to allow access to galley underneath. The closed-in cabinet is the modern plan for a compositor's working stand and for holding cases of type in common use. This is a frame or stand enclosed at the sides and back to exclude dust and debris from the cases. ”

“ Among the new articles supplied for the compositor's use are cabinets for holding assortments of metal furniture, brass rules, leads, slugs, and small cases or drawers for special material. The tops of some of these cabinets hold the lead and rule cutter and the rule-mitering machine, with a small inclined shelf above, as shown in Fig. 38. These cabinets will hold a large amount of material in small space. When conveniently situated and properly supplied with material they save time and effort on the part of the compositor.
Fig. 40. Sort Cabinet, for storage of extra quantities of type, etc. ”

“ We must follow, however, for a moment, the two persons whom the young Count had seen enter the hotel of Villequier, and accompany them at once into the chamber to which they proceeded after passing the portal. It was a splendid cabinet, filled with every sort of rare and costly furniture, which was displayed to the greater perfection by the dark but rich tapestry that covered the walls. ”

“ The sarcophagus, or cassone, of oak, or more commonly of chesnut or walnut, sometimes painted and gilded, sometimes carved with scrolls and figures; the cabinet designed with architectural outline, and fitted up inside with steps and pillars like a temple; chairs which are wonderful to look upon as guardians of a stately doorway, but uninviting as seats; tables inlaid, gilded, and carved, with slabs of marble or of Florentine Mosaic work, but which from their height are as a rule impossible to use for any domestic purpose ”

“ Polhemus Cabinet, case rack and galley top. Fig. 27. Polhemus Cabinet, working side, lower case on tilting brackets. The old-style working stand or cabinet as illustrated in Figs. 20, 21, usually made it necessary for a workman to stand directly in front of a number of cases which he rarely used but which might be frequently used by other compositors. In small workshops this arrangement offers no inconvenience and there need be little loss of time or patience among courteous fellow workmen. ”

“ The eighteenth-century upholsterer, of course, could not have done his work without brass tacks, and quantities 10 of them have been found in the course of archaeological excavation at the site of the Hay-Bucktrout-Dickinson cabinet shop on Nicholson Street. The colonial cabinetmaker sometimes used small nails for such special purposes as attaching drawer guides. But he would no more have nailed together a piece of furniture than would his modern counterpart. ”

“ Of course I can't be certain without a careful examination, but I believe that cabinet, beautiful as it is, is merely the counterpart of this one."
He paused and looked at me, his eyes bright with the enthusiasm of the connoisseur.
"I'm not sure I understand your jargon," I said. "What do you mean by 'counterpart?'"
"Boule furniture," he explained, "is usually of ebony inlaid with tortoise-shell, and incrusted with arabesques in metals of various kinds. ”

“ In comparison with the sixteenth-century ebony cabinet of the period of Henry IV., finely inlaid with ivory in most refined style, it is obvious that a great variety of sumptuous furniture was being made by the production of such diverse types as these, and that the craftsmen were possessed of a wealth of invention. ”

“ It is the business of the cabinet-maker to manufacture particular kinds of household furniture, such as tables, stands, bureaus, sideboards, desks, book-cases, sofas, bedsteads, &c., as well as a certain description of chairs made of mahogany and maple. Many of the operations of this business are similar to those of the carpenter and joiner, although they require to be conducted with greater nicety and exactness. ”

“ In France, the cabinet maker has ever excelled in the production of ornamental furniture; and by constant reference to older specimens in the Museums and Palaces of his country, he is far better acquainted with what may be called the traditions of his craft than his English brother. ”

“ A beautiful lacquered cabinet with its fascinating mounts and its soft, wonderful red or black and gold tones is a thing to conjure with. Lacquered furniture is lovely for some dining-rooms and morning-rooms. The tables should always be protected with glass tops, which also applies to other painted furniture. ”

“ As the Renaissance became general these early forms gave place to larger, more elaborate and more architectural efforts, until the cabinet became one of the most sumptuous of household adornments. It was natural that the countries which were earliest and most deeply touched by the Renaissance should excel in the designing of these noble and costly pieces of furniture. The cabinets of Italy, France and the Netherlands were especially rich and monumental. ”

“ The desk top lifts up, and inside there are pigeon-holes and drawers finished in satin-wood. The hole in the rail above the doors is not a keyhole, but in it fits a handle by which the whole upper part of the desk is raised on an iron rod so as to suit the height of who-ever uses it. This piece is at the Museum of the Cooper Institute. The rage for furniture in Empire style was not confined to France alone, but crossed the channel to England, where it became even less attractive, and was also used by our own cabinet-makers, as has been shown in previous chapters. ”

“ The furniture in the house at Great Ormond Street, with so much of his personal estate in that house as consists in plate, silver, jewels, rings, gold, precious stones, watches, chinaware and the like, and three cabinets, one black cabinet upon a black frame with painting on the inside of the folding doors and on the inside of the top and on the drawers, one cabinet japanned or painted, less than the first, on a japanned or painted frame, one cabinet or box, less than the last, being of stone inlaid with the figure of birds, etc., for her natural life, then to go to her executor. ”

“ The full-page illustration shews these, which are all classical in character; and though there is no particular grace in the outline or form of the cabinet, there is a certain dignity and solemnity, relieved from oppressiveness by the fine chasing and gilding of the metal enrichments, and the excellent colour and figuring of the rich Spanish mahogany used.
On secretaires and tables, a common ornament of this description of furniture, is a column of mahogany, with a capital and base of bronze (either gilt, part gilt, or green) , in the form of the head of a sphinx with the foot of an animal ”

“ Cabinet collections are always supposed to be of small objects, and in this sense we speak of a cabinet picture. Cabinet-work is, by extension, the art of fine woodwork such as was used at one time largely in making the delicate decorative furniture for such rooms and collections. ”

“ The now familiar bureau with bookcase above, and drop-down, sloping front covering drawers and recesses, dates from this time. The escutcheon of the lac cabinet is illustrated in detail as a tailpiece to this chapter to show the particular style of work found on the locks and hinges and drawer-handles of pieces of this nature. As has{153} been said before, it is especially useful to the collector to make himself thoroughly familiar with these details of the various periods. ”

“ Some 268of these artists and their works have been noticed in the chapters on Renaissance architecture and metal work. The cabinet (Fig. 238) is a good example of the architectonic style of French furniture of the sixteenth century. French wood carving is distinguished from the Italian of this period by the great use of the cartouche and strap-work (Fig. 239) , which was so characteristic of the Henri-Deux style.
Fig. 237.—Chair Decorated with Gauffered Leather; Early Sixteenth Century; Italian Style. (J.)
Fig. 238.—French Cabinet; Sixteenth-Century Work. (P.)
Fig. ”

“ Illus. 288.—Combination Piano, Desk, and Toilet-table, about 1800.
Illustration 288 shows one of the curious combinations which the cabinet-makers of about 1800 seemed to be so fond of designing. Their books have complicated drawings of tables and desks with mechanical devices for transforming the simple-looking piece of furniture into one full of compartments, [295] drawers, and boxes, with contrivances which allow surprising combinations to spring out. Sheraton, who was a shrewd observer, said, “A fancifulness seems most peculiar to the taste of females” ”