The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-04-16

ties. with legs in the shape of an X, were
also favored by the Anglo-Saxons, but
everything was rough, primitive. designed
neither for comfort nor beauty Very
natural that it should be so, considering
their rude life, these people who drank
their ale from buckets and stuck their can
dies upon spikes, instead of fitting them
into anything resembling candlestick
\ love efgaudy colors was displayed, how
ever, in the draperies and hangings of the
houses. no less than in the dresses Of their
inmates.
WOOD CARVING AMONG THE NORMANS.
With the Normans began different
era. and during the three or four hundred
years succeeding William the Conqueror
all the arts, but especially that of wood
carving, tlourfShed as never before. Eiv-
erything furnished them designs Beau
ttul chiselling covered their buildings, and
everything wooden, either of public state
or private furniture, was most elaborately
carven. Some of the chairs belonging to
abbots of that day, displaying exquisite
workmanship, are still preserved, and the
spires and pinnacles of Norman sacred ed
ifices are reproduced in the carved panels
of pews i'll many old churches.
OF course. at that time everything made
had an individuality, because artists then
gave the same time and thought to pro
ducing one exquisite object which they
would now give to constructing Il model
from which perhaps million exactly sim
liar articles are made. Now we lay upon
our tables knives Of this or that famous
make. each d perfect fac-simile Of the
other. Those used in mediaeyal castles
had their handles elaborately carved, no
two alike
Tables, it appears, have always been
more or less sacred. The ancients kissed
them when threatened with danger, offer
ings were laid upon them before idolatrous
shrines. In the Hebrew Temple even Il
table was permitted; in fact, tables and
affairs have frequently been one and the
same. Trestles tables. like the camp
chairs before mentioned, were used by the
Anglo-Saxons, and in the time of Queen
Elizabeth and James | the tables were
distinguished by their peculiar legs, which
tapered at the extreMities, but in the mid
die swelled ont to gigantic girth. In
the Chapter House Of Salisbury Cathedral
is great circular table, very massive, and
believed to he over 600 years old
FLlMSY FURNITURE.
After the time of Charles [ the furni-
ture became noticeably more fimsy i'll
construction, less truly English in style
Wood carving gradually became an art
fallen into disuse, and with the advent Of
the Georges artistic effort III furniture
making seemed to be abandoned.
AS we now contemplate the old fash
iOned four poster, we eXclaim at its clum
siness and ut the senseleSS custom of en-
closing sleeper within thick curtains, to
the exclusion Of ventilation. Very unhy
gienic things those curtains appear now
adays, but in their day they were invalu
able Sir Walter Scott. in ..Ivanh0e,
describes the Lady Rowena seated in her
chamber attended by maidens and sur
rounded by every magnifcence befttinS Il
Saxon princess, and tells how the walls Of
the apartment, rudely built contained 50
many crevices that the rich silken hang
ings covering them swayed in the night
air, and the flame Of the torches streamed
sideways like the unfurled pennon Of Il
chieftain Under circumstances like
these the ample bed curtains, to which
reference is likewise made, must have
played an important part in the defence Of
beauty against rheums, catarrhs and other
similar eclipses.
The roof or tester Of the four poster
WAS also valuable. as it frequently hap
pened that the ceilings Of madiaeval man
sions leaked, permitting the free advent
of rain on snow "A bedde of tymbre'
of this sort was usual in the fifteenth cen
tury, but the very poor people slept on
straw pallets with wooden holsters, like
our friends the japanese. Three centu-
ries earlier pillows Of straw were used,
and bear skins formed part of the bed
covering.
BEDS IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
Beds were considered so important in
the fourteenth century, were so elaborate
" upholstered and so richly decorated,
that people made specific mention of them
in their wills. Lord Ferrers bequeathed
his son his green bed with arms thereon, -
and left his daughter "his white bed and all
the furniture and arms of UAord and Fer
rers thereon. Feather beds first came
into use ut this time, and their hangings
are described variously as being of ''black
satin, red camora, blue, red and white
silk, and black velvet They were also
hung with tapestry picturing historical and
scriptural scenes, or emblematic devices.
The widow of the Black Prince, in her
will, dated 1885, refers to bed of ''red
velvet embroidered with ostrich feathers
of silver, and heads of leopards of gold,
with boughs and leaves issuing out of their
mouths. The will of Lady Neville,
bearing the same date, mentions ''white
courelit and tester powdered with popin-
jays We use the word "popinjay' oc
casionally as referring to fOp, but it was
then the name for a parrot or woodpecker,
So no doubt these birds formed the design
on the tester Later in the time of James
II the woodwork of a bed was curiously
carved, the hangings of crimson velvet
embroidered with gold and silver thread,
the coverlet of damask silk adorned with
plumes of pink and white ostrich feathers.
In the sixteenth century, by which time
great magnifcence had been reached in
the interior decorations of houses, these
treasures formed part of the furniture of
a gentleman residence in London Three
tables with trestles firmly mortised in the
floor SO as to be immOvable; three ''lytel'
chairs for women; four 'joyned stooles'
and wicker screen. The window seats
were then much preferred as lounging
places, and were filed with embroidered
cusb;onc EEa our divaus IF todav WollS