Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1119

 GOTHIC VILLA FURNITURE. 1095 2017 2018 damask, and silver edging and tassels. We may observe here, that there is no end to the variety of form and combination which might be introduced in Gothic chairs. The Gothic style of Architecture, is, of all others, that which affords the most fertile sources of invention ; not only in the forms and disposition of its masses, or prin- cipal parts, but in all its various details and ornaments. The Grecian style of art is directly the re- verse. The expense of the Gothic style is the only serious objection which can be made against it. To a Briton this style is rich in as- sociations of the most interesting description. Fig. 2016 is a drawingroom chair with a cane back and seat. It may be executed in oak, or oak and ebony, the ornamental carvings being gilt. The whole chair may also be executed in any easily carved wood, and afterwards painted and gilt, so as to imitate oak, ebony, ivory, and gold. This was not an uncommon practice in the more magnificent articles of furniture of former times, as we may still see by the chairs at Knowle, in Kent, and by those in the collection of Mr. Thompson of Frognall Priory. Fig. 2017 is a drawingroom chair of oak, partly gilt, and having the cushion of blue damask. Fig. 2018 is a light drawing- room chair, made of any soft wood, and painted. The hollow moulding is supposed to be of a light gi-een colour j the tillet gilt, and the cover of the cushion green, with gold edging. Fig. 2020 is a stool with a stuffed top, which may serve either for a drawingroom, or a library. 2163. A Sofa in the Gothic style will be foimd in the general view, fig. 2021, and also a piano- forte ; both of which are charac- teristics of the drawingroom. 2164. Table. Fig. 2019 is a drawingrooin table. The top is supposed to be inlaid with variously figured oak, ebony, and ivory ; the pillar is of oak. encircled with ebony, and striped with gold. 2165. A General View of the Interior of a Drawingroom, fitted up and furnished tn the Gothic Style, is given in fig. 2021. " The tracery of the ceiling should be of oak, or of stucco painted in imitation of that wood. The fillets and flowers should be gilt ; the panels painted blue, and the ornaments of the cornice also gilt. The dado should be of oak, painted and gilt. In this Design are shown two different varieties of chairs, a piano-forte, a music-stool, a music-desk, a Canterbury, a sofa, a fire-screen, and a footstool." We need not express an opinion of this interior ; for every reader, we think, must be pleased with it. Even the studies of furniture which it affords are interesting ; the Gothic piano-forte and music-stool, with the Canterbury on the left hand, and the music stand on the right ; the Gothic couch, with its footstool ; the two beautiful chairs; and, finally, the fire- screen, all claim attention, and are each separately worthy of study. 2020