Books about antiques.(Furniture History in Miniature)(Book Review)

Furniture history in miniature

In 1660 Charles II was crowned I in England after a decade of exile in Fiance, his mother's homeland. He brought back with him a strongly Francophile court and a taste for luxury and pleasure that was a pleasing antidote to Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth.

The book under consideration applies a strong magnifying lens to the furniture made in England under Charles and his successors James II, William and Mary, and Anne. It is a small slice of time, from 1660 to 1714--just about the life expectancy of a seventeenth-century man. Yet for the collector and student of the furniture of this period, lots happened, and lots more was said to have happened. The author discovered this early enough to declare: "I have attempted to write this book from first principles and, in the main, from primary evidence--bills, inventories and, of course, the furniture itself....Furniture history has a way of accumulating ideas and opinions rather as some submarine crustaceans build their houses, resulting in an ungainly accretion of traditions and half-truths cemented by doubtful snippets of received wisdom and all balanced on the back of a few overburdened facts. My primary task has been to dismantle this unwieldy edifice and put in its place something built on more rational lines."

He sets out to establish a solid stylistic chronology, relying heavily on dated objects or those with invincible provenances, tradesmen's bills, and house inventories. Aesthetic considerations play no part, for here furniture is considered historical evidence. That said, the many color photographs are crisp, detailed, and aesthetically gratifying, while thoroughly charting the evolution of styles and construction techniques. The book is divided into two parts. Part one treats the reigns of Charles It and James II, and part two the reigns of William and Mary and of Anne. In each section the furniture is divided into three categories: case furniture, seating furniture, and tables, stands, and mirrors. Part one ends with an asymmetrical chapter on lacquer; japanning, and varnish, gilding, and silvering. Therein are recipes for making and applying all of these finishes with photographs of how they should look on furniture. There are even photographs of the raw materials for Oriental lacquer, shellac, and various kinds of varnish. To enhance the color and figure of walnut before varnishing, for example, the author quotes the diarist John Evelyn as recommending baking the boards in an oven or nesting them in a warm stable and then polishing them with the oil that is coaxed to the surface to make them look "black and sleek" The author writes: "It is not clear how heat would encourage the wood to look 'black and sleek', but the effect of the ammonia rising from the floor of a warm stable would certainly tend to heighten the colour and figure of the wood. Modem furniture makers, restorers and fakers achieve the same effect by 'fuming' wood, particularly oak, with ammonia to ...