Sep
24
Antique Tudor Furniture
September 24, 2009 |
Tudor furniture
In England the prospering wool trade and the sale of monastic lands
after Henry VIITs dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s 1 :d to a
national proliferation of manor houses, reaching an extreme fom with
‘prodigy’ houses such as the magnificent Longleat in Warminster begun
in the 1560s. These stately homes were enlarged and multiplied in
Elizabeth I’s reign, when the expense of entertaining the Queen’s en-
tourage, and of improving features that her critical eye might find
defective, led to more than one devious scheme to keep her away.
The geometric gardens and curious plans of these buildingi, some
shaped as their owner’s initials (as was the ornament often ca|ved on
the furniture they contained), expressed the Tudor delight in intellectual
curiosities.
Many English beds, cupboards and refectory tables resembled the
massive and bulbous forms illustrated in Flemish and German pattern-
books, especially those of Hans Vredeman de Vries. English pieces were
generally joined of oak, with turned stretchers and legs that occasionally
dominated design, as in the wholly-turned bobbin chairs with triangular
sei a. Various local woods were combined in the geometric pattern,
chequering, and strapwork inlaid into gate-leg tables, beds, chairs and
the pilasters that commonly divided the oak wainscoting of room walls.
The use of the word ‘cupboard’ in Tudor times is something of an
anomaly, for although it originally meant ‘cup-board’ that is a table for
cups and plates, it began to acquire partly or fully enclosed sections.
Hi 1 and parlour cupboards for instance, were made in two stages, in
wh ch either both stages or the upper one only were enclosed by doors;
the press cupboard on the other hand was completely enclosed by doors.
Fo cupboards were often made with doors that had ventilation holes
cut into them.
The court cupboard was an Elizabethan innovation and corresponded
to he old sense of cup-board for it was an open three-tiered side-table
used for holding the family plate. The central and upper stages often had
dn iters decorated with strapwork. The word ‘court’ seems to have been
dei ved from the French court, meaning short, for these cupboards were
rarely made more than four feet high, but on the other hand they were
widely used at Court.
Another Elizabethan development was the draw table which, as the
name suggests, was an extendable table with two leaves beneath the
main surface. The first reference to such a table is in an inventory, taken
in 1552, of the Duke of Somerset’s furniture. A particular feature of the
tables is the large bulbs on the legs called ‘cup and cover’ from their
similarity to silver covered cups.
airs of this period with panelled backs and arched crests were
d with strange conglomerations of Tudor roses, Gothic linenfold
ent, dates and grapes, pomegranates and foliage, grotesques,
stumpy figures and other motifs ornamented tables, beds, benches and
X-shaped chairs.
Th i 16th century spanned the middle and late periods of the Ming
Dynasty in China, a century which finally saw the arrival of mass-
produced ceramics and the beginnings of the export trade to Europe.
Th Portuguese were the first to reach China in 1516, although it was
not until 1595, when the Dutch East India Company established itself
in Canton, that large-scale exports began.
The craft of the potter was influenced as never before by the Chinese
court which for the first time began sending large orders for porcelain
des gned and decorated in a manner specified by the court. As a result,
both the quality and style of porcelains reflected the often widely differ-
ing tastes and desires of both the various Emperors and others who had
influence at Court, in particular the despotic Moslem eunuchs employed
the e.
Cheng-te 1506-21 Chai-ching 1522-66 Lung-ching 1567-72 Wan-li 15/’i -1619
During the reign of Cheng-te (1506-21) supplies of ‘Mohammedan
Blue’ became available again after a lapse of some 60 odd years. This
was the cobalt ore imported from Persia, that had been responsible for
the blue of ‘blue and white’ since the 14th century. Also at this time
deposits of cobalt ore of good quality were discovered near Ch ng-te
Chen. The so-called ‘Mohammedan wares’ are interesting examples of
the blue and white of this period. They were so named because they were
heavily influenced by the Moslem eunuchs at the Emperor’s court. Most
of the articles made were writing table utensils - ink slabs, brush rests,
boxes and vases. They are usually inscribed with a motto in Arabic and
are often decorated with Mohammedan scrolls or arabesques.
Although the Imperial factories were dominated by the eunuchs, other
blue and white pieces of non-Moslem character were also made. These
represent a transition between the classical styles of the 15th century and
the mass-produced styles of the Chia-ching and Wan-li periods. Bowls,
ewers and vases were made in abundance with characteristic 15th century
decoration. The blue of this period has a somewhat greyish huei as do
some of the wares of the previous reign of Hung-chih (1488-1505). From
surviving pieces made in private factories it would seem that some
potters at least were making an effort to continue the traditional styles
of decoration, regardless of the Moslem influence.
Cheng-te was succeeded by Chia-ching (1522-66), a devout Taoist,
who had little or no interest in governing. Nevertheless, despite the lack
of Imperial direction the blue and white of this reign, when prqduced
for the court, was of a high standard. The cobalt deposits discovered in
the previous reign were now reaching the potter, who began to ust them
in preference to Mohammedan Blue.
Because of the Emperor’s dedication to Taoism, the commonest motifs
were Taoist, in particular a peach tree shaped into the form of sh m, the
Chinese character for longevity. Children at play or wa-wa decdration
was also popular and indicates a growing trend towards a new nati ralism
and less use of traditional motifs. Much of the porcelain of this period
however, was below Imperial quality as mass production became the
order of the day.
The decline of the Ming Dynasty became clearly evident during the
reign of Wan-li (1573-1619), a decline which was reflected in the quality
of Imperial porcelain. The potter’s work was made more difficult by
various factors, not least of which was the exhaustion of the fine clay
beds at Ma-ts’ang and the oppression of the potters by the court eunuchs
who were intent on amassing their own porcelain collections. Neverthe-
less the period was one of innovation; a pair of delicately potted
Italian Maiolica
Italian maiolica, which was well-developed by the end of the 15th
ceiiiury, maintained its distinctiveness well into the 16th century. Two
cei Ires of note are Deruta and Gubbio.
The Gubbio workshops of Giorgio Andreoli specialized in the applica-
tion of a brilliant ruby-coloured lustre. This factory remained in the
farhily until 1576. Deruta, in Umbria, started to produce wares with a
brassy-yellow lustre from about 1500, but the fine quality rapidly
deteriorated from about 1530. From the late years of the 19th century,
the lustres of Deruta have been imitated in a poor manner, by Cantagalli
of Florence, who uses a boldly painted cockerel in blue as his mark.
The principal development in maiolica in this century was the style of
pa nting called istoratio, pictorial representations of the writings of men
such as Ariosto, Ovid, Pliny and other authors of antiquity, as well as
th« (Bible. Painters took their inspiration from both engravings and
woodcuts; after 1830 the principal engravings used were those of
Marcantonio Raimondi after the works of Raphael. Wares of this latter
type were at one time referred to by collectors as ‘Raphael wares’. The
finest examples of this much copied fashion were produced originally
in the workshops of Orazio Fontana in about 1565.
lljwas during the middle years of the 16th century that Italian potters
appear to have become increasingly acquainted with Chinese porcelain,
the* result being to leave the thick white tin-glaze with little or no decora-
tiojnL a form of ware (bianchi) which soon found favour abroad.
German Salt-Glazed Stoneware
Despite the popularity of tin-glazed earthenware, the use of a clear
leadj-glaze over the natural coloured clay bodies was to continue
thiojughout Europe and had by the 16th century reached a very high
standard. But wares of this type were to take second place in Germany
lt-glazed stoneware, a development which took place towards the
of the 14th century.
oneware has all the advantages of a hard-paste porcelain, merely
ing the colour and the quality of translucency. Due to the high
nt of silicic acid, the material vitrifies at a high temperature and
pugh a glaze is not essential, the appearance and texture were im-
proved by throwing common salt into the kiln at the peak firing-
terhperature. The resultant close-fitting glaze was often coloured an
attractive brown by the previous application of a clay slip rich in iron.
The earliest of these wares were probably made at Siegburg, in the
Rhineland, where the tall slender jugs, known as Jacobakennen were
made as early as 1400. Wares from the 16th century can sometimes be
identified by the initials or signatures of such well known Siegburg potters
as uyniitgen, Symonds, Flack or Oem, all of whom were engaged in
producing a wide variety of well designed vessels, including the tall
cone-like tankards (Schnellen), or the long-spouted ewers (Schnabel-
kaake), wares usually decorated with moulded or carved relief decoration.
Ex irnples of these stonewares sometimes have English silvermounts.