Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1112

 1088 COTTAGE, FAllM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. IJK' chair is removed from the stool, the latter forms a tahle for the child to put its playthings on. The shelf for the feet is made to move higher or lower as may be required. The chair is only fixed on the stool when the child is to sit at table to eat, which it may do when about eighteen months of age. 2146. A Child's Washing-stand. Fig. 2002 is a child's washing- stand, consisting of a table about eighteen inches high, with a large basin and a soap cup sunk in one side of the top. The table is made lower than a chair, in order that the nurse may have the more power over the child when she is washing it. When the child is only a few weeks old, it is immersed, or bathed in the basin ; but as it grows larger, it sits on the top of the table, with its legs in the water. Sect. II. Gothic Furniture for Villas. 2147. The Designs for Gothic Furniture whXch we shall submit are few; because such designs are, in general, more expensive to execute than those for modern furniture ; partly from the greater quantity of work in them, but chiefly because modern workmen are unaccustomed to this kind of workmanship. What passes for Gothic furniture among cabinet-makers and upholsterers is, generally, a very different thing from the correct Gothic designs supplied by Architects who have imbued their minds with this style of art. Wherever, therefore, a house is to be furnished in the Gothic style, we repeat our recommendation to put the whole under the direction of a competent Archi- tect. Indeed, it would be of great advantage to the wealthy, who have not leisin-e themselves to attend to the subjects of taste and pin-ity of design in furnisliing their houses, if they were, on every occasion, not only of furnishing a room, but even of adding or changing a piece of furniture in a room already furnished, to consult an Architect before doing so ; since nothing is more common than to find the style (in regard both to art and expense) in which a house is furnished, totally at variance with its external Ar- chitecture. Even in single rooms, we find the most heterogeneous mixtures of forms and colours, arising from the desire of the occupant to possess such or such a particular article of furniture, which has been seen somewhere else, without at all considering pro- priety either with regard to expense, style, or effect. This arises from one of the most common errors of mankind ; viz., that of looking to parts by themselves alone, and not considering them with reference to the whole to which they belong. We have before observed, and it cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the reader, that the first glance at the exterior of a house, like hearing the sound of the first bar of a piece of music, ought to give a correct idea of the style of all which is to follow. Whoever has cultivated a taste for architectural beauty miKt feel the force of this truth. 21 48. Previously to the Time of the Tudors, Mr. Hunt observes, " household furniture was in general of a rude substantial character : the tables were formed of boards on tressels ; the seats were massy oak benches or stools ; and the floors were strewed with straw." (^Chaucer.) The higher orders had, nevertheless, many costly and splendid articles : such as embroidered beds, tapestry hangings, and magnificent plate. From the time of Henry IV. to that of Henry VI. it appears that the same style of furniture prevailed throughout Europe. An improved style was introduced into England during the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., in consequence of the encouragement held out by those monarchs to induce artisans of all countries to settle in their doininions. Some ot the handsomest pieces of furniture of those days belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, as ap- pears by the fine specimens in the possession of John Thompson, Esq., of FrognaBi Priory, Hampstead. SuBSECT. 1. Gothic Furniture for Halls. 2149. The Hall of the manor-house, in the times when Tudor Architecture prevailed, was the usual place for dining in. It was a large room, in the form of a parallelogram, having an oriel window at the upper end, and other windows, filled with painted glass, high up in the side-walls. Near the oriel window was the dais, or raised floor, set aside for the master of the house and his most distinguished guests. Under a screen was the passage to the offices, and over it the gallery for the minstrels. The fire was originally