The Age Of Rococo - England - Part 6

When one considers some of William Kent's experiments with his favoured Italian style - particularly in the use of Italian X-frame construction - one is tempted to agree with some of the more caustic of Horace Walpole's criticisms. Between 1730 and 1750, the old medieval X form experienced some revival, and not always happily. It was sometimes used for the forelegs of a chair, where of course it was the vehicle for heavy carving, and was combined with cabriole legs at the rear. The hybrid result is not to everyone's taste, and certainly far from the harmonious discipline of Palladian symmetry.

French Rococo began to show its influence in chairs (and in other handmade furniture) from around 1745. The style gained its name from the French word rocaille, rockwork, which was a common motif used in carving in conjunction with shells and leafy C-scrolls. It was a lighter, and more fanciful style, infinitely more feminine than the overbearing mood of Baroque. It led to less full-blooded low relief carving and to more graceful curves. The splats between the uprights on the backs of chairs showed a tendency to open in strapwork and tracery. Vase and hoop shaped backs were gradually giving way to more upright and square shaped backs, or outlines formed by uprights curving gently outwards to meet the top rail, foreshadowing shapes of the latter half of the 18th century.

Among tables, the console above all others epitomized the aims and inspirations of the architect-decorators of the second quarter of the 18th century. This is a side table introduced as a permanent fixture projecting from the wall. The back is fixed to the wall, needing in some circumstances no legs, and the result is a sturdy and exceptionally rigid table surface, an ideal piece of fitted furniture for displaying a treasured ornament or vast flower arrangement. The bracket supports of such tables offered ample opportunity for the talents of the Baroque designers. A variation was the console table standing squarely on four legs, but which nevertheless was intended to be placed in a permanent position against the wall.

The console table often stood against the pier between two windows of a room or saloon, and was topped by a mirror in matching style, the whole ensemble being embellished by the addition of candle brackets. The terms pier table and pier glass are frequently used in this context in furniture and in reproduction furniture books for the period, such as the Gentleman's or Builder's Companion of William Jones.