The Renaissance - England - Part 5

When Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, travelled to Scotland to marry James IV in 1503 she attended a prenuptial supper in the course of which she complained that the stool given to her was 'not for her ease', whereupon the king offered her his 'Chayre', clearly the only one in the great hall of the castle.
The anecdote, recorded by the herald who accompanied Margaret, is more than just a tale of royal gallantry. It tells us much about the furnishing styles of the day. While the head of the house sat in the chair (probably the only one), benches, forms and simple joined stools sufficed for the less exalted. However, during the reign of the Tudors, seat furniture, handmade furniture, was to undergo a revolution. Indeed, it was already well under way in England at the time the Scottish James was attempting to show his bride that he could keep her in the manner to which she was accustomed.

In the early years of the 16th century three types of chair were in existence. The first was a simple development of the lidded chest, which was given panelled sides and back to form seating of the settle type but which still retained its box-seat compartment for the storage of linen. A similar natural progression had been witnessed in Italy, home of the Renaissance and many fitted and non fitted furniture innovations, where the massive, elaborately carved chest known as a cassone had been given low arms and a back to become a cassapanca. It was a piece that could seat several persons and though still retaining its chest, the cassapanca now fulfilled the principal function of the settle. It is interesting to note that while sunny Italy opted for low back and arms, the English settle developed a distinctive tall style which offered more comfort and protection in the draughty halls and chambers of northern climes.

The English settle was not, of course, a child of Tudor times. Its origins dated back some two centuries or more. Indeed, the styles of this particular type of seating in the 16th century deviated from the established Gothic only in details of ornamentation. It was translated into a 16th century product through the carver's vocabulary; Tudor roses, scrolls and dolphins, zigzags and interlaced strapwork, as well as linenfold. It was a happy repository for this last style of carving, which was ideally suited to rectilinear forms of Elizabethan examples of such chairs are among the aristocrats of early oak, commanding astronomic prices when (rarely) they appear on the market today.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has an example of a type known as a 'joyned chair', high backed, but with sides at arm level. Italianate Renaissance carving decorates a head panel, but the remainder  of the chair back and the front of the seat are carved in linenfold, the two styles harmonizing perfectly.

to be continued........