33. Their customs and conveniencies of life being so different from ours, we have, in designing furniture to accord with Greek architecture, nothing to limit the artist besides the general principles of design, except attention to their species and style of ornament. Their absurd mixtures of the parts of animals we would recommend the artist to avoid, and indeed to avoid such forms altogether. But their beautiful mouldings composed of varled curves with flat portions, to give breadth of middle shade, and contrast to the small deep-cut rectangular mouldings which accompany them;-their principle, of giving depth of shade by depth of sinking in preference to making considerable projections; and, in a word, their chaste simplicity of design, and judicious admixture of bold and simple ornament, we cannot too strongly press on the attention of the artist.

Roman Style of Furnishing.

34. THE remains of Roman furniture discovered among the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the imperfect descriptions their authors have given, are almost the only sources from whence we have any information respecting the style of furnishing adopted by the ancient Romans. But these inform us that it did not materially differ from that of the Greeks.

The custom of dining in a reclined posture was introduced among the Romans about the time of the second Punic war, but it never became general, and was evidently considered a luxurious and immodest innovation.

The conversation-seats of the Greeks seem to have been imitated, and also their tripods for braziers, as well as their tripods for religious ceremonies. Of the tables of the Romans, some were sustained by a single pillar, with a flat base or pedestal; others by a pillar with a base, supported by three or four low turned feet; others with three or four legs, these legs not unfrequently standing on a flat base, and sometimes on a flat base raised a little either on turned feet or paws of animals. The most splendid articles of Roman decoration seem to have been their candelabra; of these it appears there were two kinds: one used for supporting lamps, the other for supporting fire, or lights, in religious ceremonies. The candelabrum was sometimes six feet in height.

35. The general character of the ornament of Roman furniture was considerably inferior to that of the Greeks; it was more confused, wanted proportion of the parts to the whole, and chimerical figures were employed in greater abundance, and combined with less taste. The ornaments from the vegetable kingdom have been selected with less care, and often disposed in garlands and festoons; and these are artificial arrangements of the productions of nature which must ever fail to harmonize with solid matter.

The mouldings of the Romans are composed solely of rectangular and circular forms, combined in various ways ;-shade and relief are obtained by projection, and the under-cutting and deep-cut channels of the Greeks do not seem to have been, in any case, a subject of imitation, their mouldings are also more divided into small parts.

These peculiarities render the Roman articles of furniture, in some degree, formal and mechanical; and here we use the term mechanical to express the absence of that knowledge of the principles of art which is requisite to the perfection of design.

Old English Furniture.*

36. For this division of our subject, there remains very little to guide the taste of the artist in the selection of furniture that shall be appropriate for a mansion in the purest and best

• Commonly styled Gothic furniture.

D

style of Old English Architecture; for, before houses sufficiently commodious and adapted to the reception of a splendid assortment of furniture had been erected, the decline of taste in cathedral-architecture had manifestly taken place in England.

37. The old English house-architecture, which is now so much imitated, was formed during this decline, and seems to be the result of a mixture of the rectangular cathedral style, with the semblance of castle-architecture. Parts of such houses unite well with a picturesque landscape, and, in the hands of an artist, may be turned to account in producing "pretty bits" of composition; which, not unfrequently, tempt people to fix on having their residences in this style. It was introduced during the reign of Elizabeth, and it has been justly remarked, that the taste of that time is easily recognized by an affectation of elegance, amid an ostentatious parade of puerile ornament and fantastic decoration. A strange mixture of the emblems of religion, with armorial bearings and mythological figures, was not uncommonly introduced in the same design. The style of the whole being harsh, formal, and vulgar.

Rectilinear parts, either turned to resemble an assemblage of balls, or flat and ornamented with carving, having very little relief, were most predominant in this style of furnishing.

38. But, from want of examples, no peculiar features may be said to limit the application of the principles of design followed by the old English to furniture beyond the obvious one, that nothing inconsistent with their mode of designing should be adopted.

The continuity of the principal vertical lines, or parts, crowned with finials, should be preserved instead of the horizontal ones, and yet, buttresses, and arches, and battlements, should be sparingly introduced, if at all, it being directly contrary to good taste to imitate the external features of a building in its furniture.

39. It is too common for people to imagine that to make furniture in the old English style, nothing more is necessary than to use pointed arches, and clustered columns; and even these are generally executed in a barbarous style. Neither of these, however, are essential, and the clustered columns can rarely be used with propriety in small works.

It is in the peculiar mouldings and the ornaments that the features of the style must be sought; and the best knowledge of these will be gathered from the internal screens, niches, canopies, pews, seats, and monuments, of ancient Cathedrals and Churches.

The mouldings of this style are bold, and remarkable for their strong contrast of light and shade; their sectional curves are very frequently of contrary flexure, and their flat parts rarely at right-angles to one another. Their ornaments are often set in dots in a moulding designed to receive them. When finials are not incompatible with fitness, the principal lines should either simply, or joined, terminate in such ornaments.

Tracery is one of the peculiar characteristics of this style, but in its imitation the modern artist rarely succeeds from want of attention to the beauty of form, and proportion of the works, of our forefathers. Acute angles and harsh intersecting circles are used where oblique surfaces and easy varying curves ought to be employed.

There is a wide scope for novelty in this style, and if ever it be taken up by a person of good taste, who is perfectly familiar with the habitudes of the ancient artists, we may expect it to predominate among people of fashion; but such furniture cannot become common, so long as Greek and Roman architecture are so prevalent.

OF THE FURNITURE OF ENTRANCE-HALLS, &C.

11

CHAPTER III.

OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF FURNITURE,

40. IN furnishing, the first thing which calls for attention is the right appropriation of furniture to its object; and in this a considerable degree of variety, and consequently pleasure, is afforded to the visitant and inhabitants of a mansion; for, with every change of occupation, a corresponding variation is met with in the furniture.

Of the Furniture of Entrance-Halls, Saloons, Galleries, Anti-Rooms, &c. 41. In rooms of this class, we are to remember that they are used only as places of passage being, at the most, only used for waiting, or while examining the works of art they contain. Hence, in addition to sculpture or paintings, the furniture should be confined to a suitable number of marble tables, with massive carved or plain frames, and a convenient number of seats and chairs, of simple and elegant forms, such as will bear strict examination, and yet not be attractive from colour; for these rooms ought to produce their impression by architectural effect, or through the works of art they contain, either of which would be diminished by rich and attractive furniture.

In the entrance-hall, marble side-tables, as temporary places for putting any thing down, are very convenient and necessary.

The chairs of the entrance-hall usually bear the crest of the owner. Hall chairs are generally executed in oak, owing to the dullness and heaviness of the colour of mahogany; the seats being of the same wood as the rest of the chairs, of whatever kind of wood they are made.

42. We give an example of a richly-carved Hall Chair in plate I, Cabinet-making. It may be easily reduced to a plainer species by omission and alteration of the ornament. The scrolls may terminate in flat round pateras instead of roses, and much of the ornament may be omitted; so that, in fact, a plain simple chair may be formed from this design, though one of the richest that need be used for this purpose.

In Staircases, Galleries, and Anti-rooms, seats are more appropriate than chairs; they should be designed for one, two, or three persons. Narrow tables, supported by scroll-brackets springing from a plinth, and fixed to the walls, form neat and useful appendages, and there should always be such a quantity of furniture of this description as to fully stock the rooms, without rendering them so full as to be inconvenient. The Entrance-Hall is a room where paintings are out of place, but sculpture, armour, and the like, may be effectually employed as means of preventing the walls appearing bare.

43. Rooms for games, such as billiards, &c., should have furniture of a little plainer kind than that of the hall; and whatever ornaments them should have some analogy to the use made of the rooms.