Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1122

 1098 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. can draw with equal ease whatever comes before them. Trees, plants, flowers, animals human figures, landscapes, marine scenery, and buildings are all transferred by him to paper with equal facility and rapidity. When we mention that, in addition to this, he is, like Mr. Varden (a young Architect similarly gifted), a practical surveyor, and a drawer up of specifications and estimates, our readers may imagine how well we think him deserving of public patronage. 2023 Sect. III. Elizabethan Furniture for Villas. 2168. The Style of Finishing and Furniture which prevailed in England during the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. exhibits a mixture of the Italian Architecture with the Gothic ; sometimes very rudely composed ; and, at other times, in consequence of being in ^he hands of superior artists, forming harmonious compositions of lines and forms. The remains of furniture in this style are abun- dant throughout the country ; and, as we have beforfe observed, it has of late become fashionable among the metropolitan cabinet- makers to collect it. We shall give a few examples, for the sake of showing that this mixed style may be easily applied to all the articles of mo- dern convenience and luxury. Those who wish to see designs for Elizabethan furniture on a larger scale will find whatever they could desire, by consulting the elegant work of Mr. Shaw, or the splendid descrijition of Hatfield House by Mr. Robinson. Hat- field House is one of the most perfect exist- ing specimens of Eli- zabethan Architecture externally, and of Eli- zabethan finishing and furniture within. Mr. Robinson's descrip- tion is, therefore, a va- luable reference book for Architects. The object of Mr. Shaw's work is " to extend 'historical correctness in art, by placing within the^ reach of its professors a standard authority for all articles used in domestic purposes ; from the earliest period in which such specimens exist, to the reign of James I." We may here observe that the pleasure derived from seeing or possessing curious ancient furniture, is of a kind often quite distinct from that derived from seeing or possessing fiirniture in correct style, or in elegant forms. Let, for example, any reader observe the chair given in the next paragraph, fig. 2027, and then turn to any of the chairs shown in Flaxman's Compositions from Eschylus and Homer, or even look on some of those in Mr. Hope's work, figs. 2023 to 2026. There is no one who would not be desirous of possessing a chair both of the Grecian and the Elizabethan kind ; but the Elizabethan chair would be valued merely as a curious piece of antiquity ; while the other would be prized for its expression, for its suitableness as a seat, for its simplicity, and for the great eflfeot produced in it by a very few lines. This effect of the Grecian chair being independent of all historical associations, since it is, in fact, merely an imaginary composition, results wholly from the beauty of the design. A chair in the Tiidor style is equally expressive in its way ; and is a far more perfect object as a work of art, independent of historical associations, than any description of mixed or Elizabethan chair : but, though it possesses the beauties of unity of expression and of style in the highest degree, it wants that beauty of simplicity, or that evidence of effecting the most