South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-09-02
" Jacobean Furniture

social development
All at once the word Jacohesr
was on every tongue. as colonial had
been before. Attics. cellars and
barns were searched again this
time for oak and walnut. not ma
hoSany. and for heavy square con-
struction not for handy less and
delicate restraint IL was the mar
velous carved chest that first an
nounced itself and then a six-leg-
sed nishooy, and the lower part ~
a thousand legged table - which
now We call a gate These. we said
with inspiration. arc the gods co.
the drst settlers. mahogany Is bur
modern stun.
But this time We we're more saw
ant than before. and instead OF
starving our eager minds on the oc-
casional resurre,ted American hit.
we went ar once 20 the source. 10
ENGLAND, and there found in abund-
ance lfor the long purse a charm
Ing sequence or styles covering an
the times OF our earlier history as
settlers and colonizers Thus wers
we able 10 identify these strange
early pieces of our own and TO rec
ognize our quarry when found in
dusty corner.
That very old pieces are found.
pieces brought over here in the
days Of their mode. is proved 90 ans
collector I'm two towns on Long
Island sound / recently found for
sale two six-legged hiShboys VIII
liam and Mary. and that great rarity.
straight oak chair known as 70
Farthingale chair. made without
arms for the purpose OF accomnlo-
dating the enormous crinoline or
farthingale Of its day This chair
may have supported the stify dress
ed ladies Of Elizabeth's court. SO like
il was 10 the italian models of Tudor
times
One might almost say that since
Henry Wits introduction Of The
styles or the italian Renaissance il-
to England. that country has pro-
duced no original STYLE Of furniture.
But lest this statement be resented
by affronted savants and hurt senti-
mentalists, side by side with that
fact must be placed another. that
England has played upon the STYLES
she imported with such skill and
grace that she has thus produced
variants OF great and peculiar beauty.
England has taken the furniture
creations or Europe through the cen
turtles and has impressed them with
her national traits. with a resulting
beauty entirely her own The effect
is bewilderinE 20 all but the students
OF style. for without study one S.
often unable 20 account FOR certain
alterations OF detail and conetruc-
ton 10 cannot DE too often re-
peated that as each nation in turn
adopted the italian Renaissa nee.
that nation impressed IT'S own signet
upon the style. Thus came AN the
variations
It is TO be remeu1 bered that in the
case of England. the affair is one Of
great interest and complication Doc
the 18th century Pistaccio and his
artist mates hurried from Italy AZ
the bidding OF Henry VIII and plant
ed their classic patterns in the Brit
ish kingdom That was an infusion
or the pure Renaissance. and 10
lasted well into Elizabeth's time be-
fore the Anglo Saxon temperament
altered IL characterized
BY the time James 7. in 1903. es-
tablished the stuart reign the style
became markedly British. and Brit
ish STYLES called Jacobean in COM
pliment TO James I.atinized name
prevailed until another imported
fashion came along. Then came an
other and another. and so on even
until the end Of Georgian styles and
the beginning Of Victorian