Neoclassicism - England - Part 3

Chairs in the Guide are notably lighter in style than those of 30 years before. Their backs are vase-shaped, shield-shaped or squared, with decorated splats in Neoclassical mood, or Prince of Wales feathers. They have stuffed seats (and sometimes stuffed backs) with close nailing along the front edge, and legs are generally square or round and tapered. Although mahogany was still used a good deal for chairs and other handmade furniture Hepplewhite mentions the 'new and very elegant fashion... of finishing them with painted or japanned work, which gives a rich and splendid appearance to the minuter parts of the ornaments, which are generally thrown in by the painter'. Indeed all kinds of furniture was by this time being decorated with painting. The backs of chairs, the friezes of tables, and the doors of round-fronted commodes were frequently embellished with flowers, arabesques, shells, Neoclassical motifs, or with figure subjects in the manner of Angelica Kauffmann.

Marquetry decoration was also used extensively, especially for furniture such as card and pier tables which had the minimum of wear and tear. Tea chests and caddies, dressing glasses and tea trays are among the smaller objects which were especially well suited to inlaid or painted decoration, and of tea trays Hepplewhite affirms 'this is an article where much taste and fancy may be shewn'. The gracefully curving serpentine form, for all its Rococo associations, was at its most popular at this time, and appears in a number of Hepplewhite's designs.

Many of the tried and trusted forms of earlier decades are shown in the Guide but there are new developments too. Among the sofas, the confidante and the duchesse make their appearance; the sideboard with a central drawer flanked by deep drawers has developed from the much simpler sideboard table; the secretary or secretaire bookcase and the tambour writing table and bookcase are shown with the old favourite the bureau bookcase; dressing tables and shaving tables have acquired complicated arrangements of partitions and cubby holes 'for combs, powders essences, pin-cushions, and other necessary equipage', but even these are overshadowed by 'Rudd's table, or Reflecting Dressing Table... the most complete dressing table made , possessing every convenience which can be wanted, or mechanism and ingenuity supply'. Margaret Caroline Rudd (1745 - 1799) was a courtesan with wealthy protectors, one of whom may have commissioned such a dressing table for her.

A good deal of fitted and non fitted furniture in Hepplewhite's Guide - desks, bookcases, library tables, chests of drawers, dressing tables, shaving tables, night tables, wardrobes and so on - is extremely plain and obviously intended for usefulness rather than show. Yet the elegant proportions and the judicious use of veneers and accessories like brass handles  give furniture in this style a most pleasing effect. Much has survived, and it is clear that Hepplewhite's Guide does indeed convey 'a knowledge of English taste in the various articles of household furniture'.

...to be coninued.