Bedroom
Furniture
Furniture
In the consideration of ancient Egyptian
furniture we find valuable assistance in the examples carefully preserved to
us, and accessible to everyone, in the British Museum, and one or two of
these deserve passing notice.
Nothing can be more suitable for its purpose
then the "Workman's Stool:" the seat is precisely like that of a modern
kitchen chair (all wood), slightly concaved to promote the sitter's comfort,
and supported by three legs curving outwards. This is simple, convenient,
and admirably adapted for long service. For a specimen of more ornamental
work, the folding stool in the same glass case should be examined; the
supports are crossed in a similar way to those of a modern camp-stool, and
the lower parts of the legs carved as heads of geese, with inlayings of
ivory to assist the design and give richness to its execution.
Portions of legs and rails, turned as if by a
modern lathe, mortice holes and tenons, fill us with wonder as we look upon
work which, at the most modern computation, must be 3,000 years old, and may
be of a date still more remote.
In the same room, arranged in cases round the
wall, is a collection of several objects which, if scarcely to be classed
under the head of furniture, are articles of luxury and comfort, and
demonstrate the extraordinary state of civilisation enjoyed by the old
Egyptians, and help us to form a picture of their domestic habits.
Amongst these are boxes inlaid with various
woods, and also with little squares of bright turquoise blue pottery let in
as a relief; others veneered with ivory; wooden spoons, carved in most
intricate designs, of which one, representing a girl amongst lotus flowers,
is a work of great artistic skill; boats of wood, head rests, and models of
parts of houses and granaries, together with writing materials, different
kinds of tools and implements, and a quantity of personal ornaments and
requisites.
"For furniture, various woods were employed,
ebony, acacia or sont, cedar, sycamore, and others of species not
determined. Ivory, both of the hippopotamus and elephant, was used for
inlaying, as also were glass pastes; and specimens of marquetry are not
uncommon. In the paintings in the tombs, gorgeous pictures and gilded
furniture are depicted. For cushions and mattresses, linen cloth and colored
stuffs, filled with feathers of the waterfowl, appear to have been used,
while seats have plaited bottoms of linen cord or tanned and dyed leather
thrown over them, and sometimes the skins of panthers served this purpose.
For carpets they used mats of palm fibre, on which they often sat. On the
whole, an Egyptian house was lightly furnished, and not encumbered with so
many articles as are in use at the present day."
The above paragraph forms part of the notice
with which the late Dr. Birch, the eminent antiquarian, formerly at the head
of this department of the British Museum, has prefaced a catalogue of the
antiquities alluded to. The visitor to the Museum should be careful to
procure one of these useful and inexpensive guides to this portion of its
contents.
Some illustrations taken from ancient statues
and bas reliefs in the British Museum, from copies of wall paintings at
Thebes, and other sources, give us a good idea of the furniture of this
interesting people. In one of these will be seen a representation of the
wooden head-rest which prevented the disarrangement of the coiffure of an
Egyptian lady of rank. A very similiar head-rest, with a cushion attached
for comfort to the neck, is still in common use by the Japanese of the
present day.
Greek Furniture
An early reference to Greek furniture is made
by Homer, who describes coverlids of dyed wool, tapestries, carpets, and
other accessories, which must therefore have formed part of the contents of
a great man's residence centuries before the period which we recognise as
the "meridian" of Greek art.
In the second Vase-room of the British Museum
the painting on one of these vases represents two persons sitting on a
couch, upon which is a cushion of rich material, while for the comfort of
the sitters there is a footstool, probably of ivory. On the opposite leaf
there is an illustration of a has relief in stone, "Bacchus received as a
guest by Icarus," in which the couch has turned legs and the feet are
ornamented with carved leaf work.
We know, too, from other illustrations of
tripods used for sacred purposes, and as supports for braziers, that tables
were made of wood, of marble, and of metal; also folding chairs, and couches
for sleeping and resting, but not for reclining at meals, as was the fashion
at a later period. In most of the designs for these various articles of
furniture there is a similarity of treatment of the head, legs, and feet of
lions, leopards, and sphinxes to that which we have noticed in the Assyrian
patterns.
The description of an interesting piece of
furniture may be noticed here, because its date is verified by its
historical associations, and it was seen and described by Pausanias about
800 years afterwards. This is the famous chest of Cypselus of Corinth, the
story of which runs that when his mother's relations, having been warned by
the Oracle of Delphi, that her son would prove formidable to the ruling
party, sought to murder him, his life was saved by his concealment in this
chest, and he became Ruler of Corinth for some 30 years (B.C. 655-625). It
is said to have been made of cedar, carved and decorated with figures and
bas reliefs, some in ivory, some in gold or ivory part gilt, and inlaid on
all four sides and on the top.
The peculiar laws and customs of the Greeks
at the time of their greatest prosperity were not calculated to encourage
display or luxury in private life, or the collection of sumptuous furniture.
Their manners were simple and their discipline was very severe. Statuary,
sculpture of the best kind, painting of the highest merit—in a word, the
best that art could produce—were all dedicated to the national service in
the enrichment of Temples and other public buildings, the State having
indefinite and almost unlimited power over the property of all wealthy
citizens. The public surroundings of an influential Athenian were therefore
in direct contrast to the simplicity of his home, which contained the most
meagre supply of chairs and tables, while the chef d'oeuvres of
Phidias adorned the Senate House, the Theatre, and the Temple.
There were some exceptions to this rule, and
we have records that during the later years of Greek prosperity such
simplicity was not observed. Alcibiades is said to have been the first to
have his house painted and decorated, and Plutarch tells us that he kept the
painter Agatharcus a prisoner until his task was done, and then dismissed
him with an appropriate reward. Another ancient writer relates that "the
guest of a private house was enjoined to praise the decorations of the
ceilings and the beauty of the curtains suspended from between the columns."
This occurs, according to Mr. Perkins, the American translator of Dr.
Falke's German book "Kunst im Hause," in the "Wasps of Aristophanes,"
written B.C. 422.
The illustrations, taken from the best
authorities in the British Museum, the National Library of Paris, and other
sources, shew the severe style adopted by the Greeks in their furniture.
Roman Furniture
As we are accustomed to look to Greek Art of
the time of Pericles for purity of style and perfection of taste, so do we
naturally expect the gradual demoralisation of art in its transfer to the
great Roman Empire. From that little village on the Palatine Hill, founded
some 750 years B.C., Rome had spread and conquered in every direction, until
in the time of Augustus she was mistress of the whole civilised world,
herself the centre of wealth, civilisation, luxury, and power. Antioch in
the East and Alexandria in the South ranked next to her as great cities of
the world.
From the excavations of Herculaneum and
Pompeii we have learned enough to conceive some general idea of the social
life of a wealthy Roman in the time of Rome's prosperity. The houses had no
upper story, but were formed by the enclosure of two or more quadrangles,
each surrounded by courts opening into rooms, and receiving air and
ventilation from the centre open square or court. The illustration will give
an idea of this arrangement.
In Mr. Hungerford Pollen's useful handbook
there is a description of each room in a Roman house, with its proper Latin
title and purpose; and we know from other descriptions of Ancient Rome that
the residences in the Imperial City were divided into two distinct
classes—that of domus and insula, the former being the
dwellings of the Roman nobles, and corresponding to the modern Palazzi,
while the latter were the habitations of the middle and lower classes. Each
insula consisted of several sets of apartments, generally let out to
different families, and was frequently surrounded by shops. The houses
described by Mr. Pollen appear to have had no upper story, but as ground
became more valuable in Rome, houses were built to such a height as to be a
source of danger, and in the time of Augustus there were not only strict
regulations as to building, but the height was limited to 70 feet. The Roman
furniture of the time was of the most costly kind.
Tables were made of marble, gold, silver, and
bronze, and were engraved, damascened, plated, and enriched with precious
stones. The chief woods used were cedar, pine, elm, olive, ash, ilex, beech,
and maple. Ivory was much used, and not only were the arms and legs of
couches and chairs carved to represent the limbs of animals, as has been
noted in the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek designs, but other parts of
furniture were ornamented by carvings in bas relief of subjects taken from
Greek mythology and legend. Veneers were cut and applied, not as some have
supposed for the purpose of economy, but because by this means the most
beautifully marked or figured specimens of the woods could be chosen, and a
much richer and more decorative effect produced than would be possible when
only solid timber was used. As a prominent instance of the extent to which
the Romans carried the costliness of some special pieces of furniture, we
have it recorded on good authority (Mr. Pollen) that the table made for
Cicero cost a million sesterces, a sum equal to about £9,000, and that one
belonging to King Juba was sold by auction for the equivalent of £10,000.
Cicero's table was made of a wood called
Thyine—wood which was brought from Africa and held in the highest esteem. It
was valued not only on account of its beauty but also from superstitious or
religious reasons. The possession of thyine wood was supposed to bring good
luck, and its sacredness arose from the fact that from it was produced the
incense used by the priests. Dr. Edward Clapton, of St. Thomas' Hospital,
who has made a collection of woods named in the Scriptures, has managed to
secure a specimen of thyine, which a friend of his obtained on the Atlas
Mountains. It resembles the woods which we know as tuyere and amboyna.2
Roman, like Greek houses, were divided into
two portions—the front for reception of guests and the duties of society,
with the back for household purposes, and the occupation of the wife and
family; for although the position of the Roman wife was superior to that of
her Greek contemporary, which was little better than that of a slave, still
it was very different to its later development.
The illustration given here of a repast in
the house of Sallust, represents the host and his eight male guests
reclining on the seats of the period, each of which held three persons, and
was called a triclinium, making up the favorite number of a Roman dinner
party, and possibly giving us the proverbial saying—"Not less than the
Graces nor more than the Muses"—which is still held to be a popular
regulation for a dinner party.
From discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii a
great deal of information has been gained of the domestic life of the
wealthier Roman citizens, and there is a useful illustration at the end of
this chapter of the furniture of a library or study in which the designs are
very similar to the Greek ones we have noticed; it is not improbable they
were made and executed by Greek workmen.
It will be seen that the books such as were
then used, instead of being placed on shelves or in a bookcase, were kept in
round boxes called Scrinia, which were generally of beech wood, and
could be locked or sealed when required. The books in rolls or sewn together
were thus easily carried about by the owner on his journeys.
Mr. Hungerford Pollen mentions that wearing
apparel was kept in vestiaria, or wardrobe rooms, and he quotes
Plutarch's anecdote of the purple cloaks of Lucullus, which were so numerous
that they must have been stored in capacious hanging closets rather than in
chests.
In the atrium, or public reception
room, was probably the best furniture in the house. According to Moule's
"Essay on Roman Villas," "it was here that numbers assembled daily to pay
their respects to their patron, to consult the legislator, to attract the
notice of the statesman, or to derive importance in the eyes of the public
from an apparent intimacy with a man in power."
The growth of the Roman Empire eastward, the
colonisation of Oriental countries, and subsequently the establishment of an
Eastern Empire, produced gradually an alteration in Greek design, and
though, if we were discussing the merits of design and the canons of taste,
this might be considered a decline, still its influence on furniture was
doubtless to produce more ease and luxury, more warmth and comfort, than
would be possible if the outline of every article of useful furniture were
decided by a rigid adherence to classical principles. We have seen that this
was more consonant with the public life of an Athenian; but the Romans, in
the later period of the Empire, with their wealth, their extravagance, their
slaves, their immorality and gross sensuality, lived in a splendour and with
a prodigality that well accorded with the gorgeous colouring of Eastern
hangings and embroideries, of rich carpets and comfortable cushions, of the
lavish use of gold and silver, and meritricious and redundant ornament.
This slight sketch, brief and inadequate as
it is, of a history of furniture from the earliest time of which we have any
record, until from the extraordinary growth of the vast Roman Empire, the
arts and manufactures of every country became as it were centralised and
focussed in the palaces of the wealthy Romans, brings us down to the
commencement of what has been deservedly called "the greatest event in
history"—the decline and fall of this enormous empire. For fifteen
generations, for some five hundred years, did this decay, this vast
revolution, proceed to its conclusion. Barbarian hosts settled down in
provinces they had overrun and conquered, the old Pagan world died as it
were, and the new Christian era dawned. From the latter end of the second
century until the last of the Western Caesars, in A.D. 476, it is, with the
exception of a short interval when the strong hand of the great Theodosius
stayed the avalanche of Rome's invaders, one long story of the defeat and
humiliation of the citizens of the greatest power the world has ever known.
It is a vast drama that the genius and patience of a Gibbon has alone been
able to deal with, defying almost by its gigantic catastrophes and ever
raging turbulence the pen of history to chronicle and arrange. When the
curtain rises on a new order of things, the age of Paganism has passed away,
and the period of the Middle Ages will have commenced.
Bedroom Furniture
|