Posts Tagged ‘gateleg tables’

CLOCK CASES
Up to the present we have not dealt with clocks, for the good reason that nothing in the way of a clock case was made before the second half of the seventeenth century. Earlier clocks were of what is known as the lantern type, consisting of a brass framework with turned corner pillars and a round dial fixed at the front. Of the movements of clocks there is no space to deal in this book. It would require a book in itself to explain the various kinds and the phases through which the mechanism passed. Suffice it to say that the early type were fitted with the verge movement in which he teeth of a rotating crown wheel engaged the pallets of a balance arbor. The pendulum came into use soon after the middle of the seventeenth century.
A lantern clock is shown in Fig. 89. It was intended to stand on a bracket, the power being supplied by a weight suspended by a chain. A single hour hand was fitted, pointing to numerals engraved on either a brass or silvered dial. A striking mechanism was usually fitted, the bell being mounted upon curved metal bars as in the present example. Just below it a fretted brass pediment was fitted, this being generally of the dolphin device and engraved as shown. At the corners turned brass finials were fitted.
Bracket Clocks.—During the second half of the seventeenth century wooden bracket clock cases became popular, and these were generally of the form shown in Fig. go. They were roughly square in shape and a ” basket ” top was fitted to provide interior space for the bell. Various kinds were made, some being of walnut, cross-grained as in the general run of contemporary furniture, others were veneered with tortoiseshell, elaborate marquetry (this form of decoration is dealt with later), and some were in ebony. In some the basket top was of brass fretted and engraved, the better to allow the sound of the bell to emerge. In most the cases were glazed on all four sides to allow the mechanism to be seen.
Later, during the first half of the eighteenth century, the
bell-top ” clock was introduced, the name arising out of the formation of the top. One example is given in Fig. 91. In this the square front has been heightened and the top of the door is rounded to give space to the small dial which records either the date or enables the clock to be set either to ” strike ” or ” silent.” It should be noted that no bracket clocks of this type were fitted with a seconds hand because a movement of this kind needs a far longer pendulum than could be accommodated in a small case. The fourth clock on p. H3 belongs to an altogether later period, the second half of the eighteenth century, but it is given here so that easy comparison of the styles can be made.
Grandfather Clocks.—Speaking of the long pendulum brings us to the grandfather case introduced during the reign of Charles II. The details in them were similar to those in the furniture of the time, though there was something characteristic in their treatment which seems to belong peculiarly to clock cases. They were mostly of veneered walnut and occasionally ebony, and the hoods were made to slide either forwards or upwards, usually the former. They were generally flat at the top, as in the example in Fig. 88, and twist columns were fitted at the corners, these opening with the door. In many specimens a piece of bottle glass was introduced in the large door in the waist to enable the movement of the pendulum to be seen. This was fitted in either a round or oval frame.
Frets were often introduced in the frieze, these being backed with silk, and the mouldings were of a delicate type, far finer than those usually used in furniture. The workmanship was invariably of a high quality, and this, coupled with the characteristic details, suggests that it became customary for some men to specialise in case making as distinct from the ordinary cabinet making. The late seventeenth century examples were usually veneered with marquetry, whilst the Queen Anne specimens were of plain walnut, decorated with cross-bandings and herring-bone bandings.

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South African Furniture

SOUTH AFRICA
THE DISTINCTIVE FURNITURE of the
Cape of Good Hope reflected the styles of the two major colonial powers in the area: Britain and the Netherlands. The various struggles in Europe had also been played out in the colonies, but by 1800 British dominance was assured. In 1820, more British settlers established themselves further up the East coast. The Cape’s position at the mid-point of the trading routes between Europe and the Far East also gave rise to influences from such places as Batavia.
A wide range of furniture was made in the Cape both for the metropolitan homes of Cape Town and the famous white-painted and gabled homesteads of the vineyards. Their forms and motifs were often simplified versions of those in Europe. A slight delay is generally considered when dating colonial furniture. The Empire style, omnipresent in Europe, appears to have had little influence in the Cape, except maybe in an increased linearity of design. Its preference for highly polished timber and expensive gilt-bronze mounts did not suit the local traditions, life styles, or materials.
The most recognizable aspect of South African furniture is the use of local timbers, which unlike mahogany, do not tend to take a glass-like polish to their surfaces. Most characteristic is the combined and contrasting use of stinkwood and yellowwood.
COLONIAL CHAIRS
A wide variety of different chairs were made in the early 19th century. Some so-called “Adam” chairs from the early
Painting in oil on wood This shows typical wall decoration, curtains, and furniture styles of the early 19th century. All the furniture, with the exception of the writing bureau, was made according to the prevalent Neoclassical style. 1815. PRA
years of the century survive at Groot Constantin. With their upholstered, oval back-panels, this type is luxurious and rare. Far more common are
Sheraton and Neoclassical chairs —the latter with pierced vertical splats, caned or thonged (animal hide strips) seats, and tapering, square-section legs that were sometimes fluted. The Sheraton variety, introduced around 1810, had a wide top rail, generally above a second horizontal bar splat and square seat. Later the front leg was either turned or ring-turned. More provincial chairs, the tulbagh, of simplified box-like form, survived into this period. These shapes are also evident on the rusbank, a Cape type of settee-cum-settle with a chair-back.
TABLES AND CUPBOARDS
D-end dining tables and gateleg tables were also produced during these years. Different timbers were sometimes used for the top, frieze, and legs, which were often tapered and fluted like other chairs of the period. Chests of drawers in the Sheraton style, which were popular in Britain, seem to have been relatively rare in the Cape; South African cabinets tended to favour earlier serpentine lines. However, the monumental armoires, corner-cupboards, and wardrobes, so typical of high-production Cape furniture in the 18th century, seem to have been produced into the early years of the next century.

This round, stinkwood table has a moulded edge above a plain apron with a beaded edge. The table top is supported on four ring-turned, tapering legs terminating in turned feet. 1830-40.
Thonged seat
NORTH EASTERN CAPE CHAIR
The top rail of this stinkwood chair is inlaid in yellowwood with simple geometric motifs, which are repeated in the two additional back rails. The chair has simple, carved uprights and similarly carved legs joined by an H-stretcher. One of a pair. 1830-40.
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE CABINET
This low cabinet is made from amboyna, stinkwood, and satinwood. It has a rectangular top, shaped at the front above two bowed
doors, divided by a fluted pilaster. The canted corners of the cabinet are also fluted and are raised on claw-and-ball feet. Early 19th century.

SOUTH WESTERN CAPE HALF-MOON TABLES
These two half-moon tables, which can be placed together to make one round table, have table tops and aprons made from yellowwood, and square-section, tapering legs made from the darker stinkwood with yellowwood inlay. The aprons have a simple moulded edge with stinkwood beading. Сupboard is of simple rectilinear form and has a moulded rectangular top above two panelled doors. The panels have chamfered edges and are set within an additional, rectangular frame. The case has a shaped apron and stands on shaped, bracket feet. I820 30.
The two panelled doors
have chamfered edges set in a rectangular frame.
A shaped apron
rests above shaped bracket feel.
EASTERN CAPE CUPBOARD
CAPE TOWN TEA TABLE
The rectangular top of this satinwood and stinkwood tea table sits above a plain apron. The table is supported on square-section, tapering legs.

SOUTH AFRICA 227
WESTERN CAPE SETTEE
This stinkwood settee has a carved top rail above a seat back comprising a series of evenly spaced pierced panels – ten in total - and gently outswept arms with simple scroll terminals. The settee is supported on tapering, square-section legs joined by H-stretchers. c.1800.

Early chairs
Before the 16th century rooms were sparsely furnished, and the range of furniture was limited. Chairs were scarce and, like stools, were viewed as symbols of authority. It was not until the 16th century that more comfortable chairs were made. At this time the major artistic impetus spread northward from Italy, and chairs were made in quantity only in southern Europe. By the I7th century, as lifestyles became more settled, there was a greater demand for comfort in seat furniture.

A Turner’s or “thrown” chair
s of this type were produced in Britain from the 16th century, and
still made in provincial areas into the 19th century. “Throwing” was early term for turning. These chairs were often made from ash, which strong and ideal for turning, although susceptible to woodworm. late 17th century; ht Iml3ft3in; value H)
SOUTHERN EUROPE
The earliest prototype was the 16th-century Italian X-frame folding chair, usually in walnut, Inch was adopted in northern Europe from the end of the century. Spanish examples exist that are inlaid with ivory and metals in stellar and geometric designs in the Moorish fashion.
Armchairs of the 16th and 17th centuries were refined versions of the carved chaise caquetoire (gossiping chair) which, with its solid, carved back and trapezoidal seat, was not very comfortable. As revealed by the engravings of the Flemish designer Hans Vredeman de Vries (1526-(.1604) in his Differents Pourtraicts de Menuiserie ((.1585), the earliest-surviving traditional easy chairs were executed principally in Tuscany, Spain, Portugal, and The Netherlands in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Known as the sillon De fraileros (”monk’s chair”) in Spain, this type of chair was usually of walnut, with scrolled and acanthus-carved stiles. The upper section Was supported by plain legs joined by waved stretchers, and the chair was upholstered with
intricately tooled and embossed leather stretched by ornamental heavy brass nails. Examples from The Netherlands often have lion finials surmounting the stiles.
NORTHERN EUROPE
Turning on a foot-operated lathe (which revolved the legs while the wood was cut to the required shape) became an increasingly popular decorative technique in northern Europe, and by the early 17th century most legs were turned. This form of decoration remained fashionable until the end of the century. Designs became increasingly intricate at this time, culminating in the “barley-sugar” (spiral) twist.
Peculiar to the 17th century is the oak joined chair with arms, often called a wainscot chair in Britain. Similar designs were made in many countries throughout northern Europe, and examples are still found in some numbers. This type of chair commonly has a scroll-carved toprail, sometimes inscribed with initials or a date. Its characteristic feature is a panel back, often symmetrically carved with stylized
leaves, lozenges, roundels, and lunettes. The seat
is solid, but would originally have had a squab cushion, and the front supports are ring-turned, with the legs joined by stretchers. Chairs of this type were made until the end of the 17th century and represent the final stage of the age of the joiner, as this period is often called. Designs and techniques changed considerably after this time, but in many provincial areas the traditional methods of construction continued to be used.

•    woods invariably indigenous – walnut in southern Europe and oak in northern Europe; rosewood was used to a limited extent during the 17th century in Portugal
•    DAMAGE examples that pre-date 1600 are extremely rare, and 17th-century examples should be examined closely for repairs; age, wear, and tear will have taken their toll – the legs and the lower part of the back are particularly vulnerable
•    DECORATION painted decoration, upholstery, leather, and caning have often been changed; if the originals remain, they increase the value
•    COPIES AND FAKES most 17th-century chairs are stylistically of a very simple form, the same designs being produced over a long period, making them difficult to date; turners’ chairs arc popular with collectors and are often faked – copies are difficult to detect as they may be quite old themselves, and tend to be in the same woods as the originals (ash or oak, not walnut), with good-quality carving; the colour of the wood on all unpolished surfaces should be closely examined, as should the overall patina

Gateleg and dropleaf tables.
Tables that can extend are adaptable, and this quality has ensured the continuous survival of the gateleg for at least four centuries. A gateleg table is one with a flap (or flaps) which, when extended, rests on supports swinging out from the the table’s undcrtrarric. The supports consist of legs, joined by stretchers at the top and bottom to form gate-like structures.
17TH-CENTURY GATELEG TABLES
Small side tables with foldover tops and pivoting gateleg arrangements were already among the luxury furnishings of grand houses in the 16th century. As domestic comfort increased during the 17th century, so such tables proliferated. Early examples tend to be of half-round or half-ellipse shape when folded, with a doubled-over top hinged across the straight edge. When pulled away from the wall and opened out this top forms a circle or an oval, supported firmly underneath by its joined gate-frame, which pivots outward on wooden hinges from the centre of the LinderftarrC at both top and bottom. Variants of this scheme include square or octagonal tops, and tables with baseboards between the stretchers of the main structure.
As dining habits evolved in the later 17th century, and the large communal hall was replaced by more intimate parlours where meals were taken, the long, rectangular trestle table gave way to rounded gateleg tables, convenient and conducive to conversation. They could be moved away from the centre of a room and folded down to a note compact size when space was needed for dancing or music-making.
The later 17th century was the golden period of the gateleg table, with a plethora of variations on the basic structure being made. Foldover tops continued, especially for small tables for gaming and needlework, but they were largely superseded by the type consisting of a fixed central section with a hinged flap and a gateleg on either side. The supports for the flaps generally swivelled out from one end of the central rectangular structure and folded back parallel with it. Extra large tables, which might seat up to twelve people comfortably, would have two gates on each side to support the flap. Rule joins between the flaps and the fixed central sections of good-quality gateleg tables made after c. 1690 gave smooth contact between the edges of the central section and the flaps without leaving any gaps.
DESIGN VARIATIONS
In many gateleg tables there was a drawer, or even two, in the frieze of the central section. Small foldover tables of exceptional quality might have three or more small drawers opening in the rounded face of a wide frieze. An unusual type of small table had a single central gate that pivoted in the centre of the underframe, to support either a leaf on each side or a vertically tilting solid top, made without flaps. Another rare alternative was a small cupboard at one or both ends of the central scctjnon of a two-flap table.
The greatest variation in appearance was given by the decorative treatments of legs and stretchers. Plain bar supports might be
grooved or given profile shaping, while hamster, bobbin, or spiral turning resulted in some exuberant underframes, which have developed a rich patina over the years. Carving on friezes and stretchers was common on early tables with foldover tops, but not on larger gateleg tables with fall flaps. The most common late 17 th-century gateleg tables were made in oak or elm, while the finest are of walnut, cedar, yew, or some other rare, but usually native, timber. Fruinvoods, such as apple, pear, or cherry, supplemented oak and elm in rural areas.
DROPLEAF TABLES
Gateleg tables, mainly of oak and elm, were made throughout the 18th century, chiefly for the homes of farmers and the more prosperous country people. Their place at the forefront of fashion was taken from c.1720 by the dropleaf table: a type of flap table with a pivoting leg to support the extended leaf but without the under-stretcher, of the gate-Form underframing. Both types of table reflect the increasingly comfortable and civilized surroundings and activities of the 18th-century middle classes – dining, tea-drinking, card-playing, doing needlework, and conversing in small groups.
As with the design of chairs at this time, the understretcher was relinquished. By the end of Queen Anne’s reign (1714), both tables and chairs were usually supported on cabriole legs without understretchers. The undcrfrunung of the table was now confined to the underside of the top, and the moving supports. The supports consisted of legs joined at right angles to sturdy rails, pivoted outward on wooden knuckle hinges set into the central undcrframe. The flaps u; to generally secured to the central section of the top with brass rule
hinges, countersunk into the underside.
Some dropleaf tables were made of oak or walnut, but fashionable mahogany was
the choice for most after c.1730. The outward curves of the cabriole 1( were often embellished with cars I acanthus leaves or lion-masks; carved claw-and-ball feet were a similar decorative change from plain pad feet. Less stylish but eminently serviceable were the square and rectangular dropleaf tables, operating on the same principle as round tables and produced for the rest of the century.
The dropleaf table, like the gateleg, continued to be widely made and used, particularly in provincial districts where both types could be considered traditional rather than fashionable pieces of furniture. Plenty of examples still exist and are to be found in such locally available timbers as fruitwood, ash, elm, yew and oak, as well as mahogany. As with most regional furniture of enduring design, it is often very difficult to attribute anything more than a vague date to them.
SPIDER-LEG AND SUTHERLAND TABLES
The gateleg principle was adopted for an exceptionally delicate form of flap-top table, which was popular during the 1760s and 1770s. Appropriately known as a spider-leg table, from the slenderness of its supports, it was a small occasional table for use in the drawing-room, made in fine timbers. Its turned legs and stretchers were usually quite plain, and it had either one or two flaps; some examples have cleverly curved base stretchers to make space for the user’s legs.
A new form of flap table was introduced during the mid-19th century. Known as a Sutherland table, it was named after the Duchess of Sutherland, Queen Victoria’s Mistress of the Robes, and was a sort of cousin to the Pembroke table. It was characterized b) an extremely narrow central section supported off a trestle-like, cheval or “horse” base . se with a relatively deep flap on either side. The base, with its sturdy supports and splayed feet at either end, was often embellished with carving or turning in the full-blown Victorian manner, while the flap supports, which pivoted outward from the centre of the underframe just below, the top, tended to be comparatively slim. The usefulness of such a table is immediately apparent: its narrowness in the folded position enables it to be tucked away in a small space, while the deep flaps provide a relatively spacious top when opened out. Sutherland tables were made with rectangular as well as rounded flaps. While the best were of figured walnut or some other eye-catching timber, sometimes with inlaid or marquetry decoration as an additional embellishment, more utilitarian versions were produced in oak, chit, or even painted pine. Nearly Lill of these types have casters attached to the feet for extra mobility.
Other types of space-saver on the dropleaf principle included 18th-century North American butterfly tables, named after the shape of the supports for the leaves, and handkerchief tables, with triangular tops and leaves.