JACOBEAN CARVED OAK CHEST, WITH CHARACTERISTIC INTERLACE LUNETTE MOTIF, AND STRAPWORK. carving, turning, inlay, painting and gilding. "Carving was the traditional favorite and hence the most common method of decorative expression" and the sundry types practiced were "capable of yielding considerable variety of effect in the hands of a skillful craftsman." Tasteful moderation and a sense of decorative restraint apparently did not exist and the carved furniture exhibited a riotous exuberance of fancy and an unparalleled ingenuity in multiplying ornament rather than any conception of artistic fitness. The usual methods of carving employed were "modelled," "flat" and "scratch." In the matter of turning a good dea! of taste and appreciation of form and line were shown, and not a little variety was achieved. To relieve the monotony of oak walls and oak furniture color was introduced oftener, perhaps, than most people imagine. From mediaeval times in England, as on the Continent, paint had been used for the embellishment of panelling and furniture. The paint was applied both to flat surfaces and to carvings. Armorial bearings were blazoned in their proper tinctures on the panels of bedsteads or chests. Other subjects of freer design were occasionally depicted in similar places. Sometimes arabesques in two or three colors were painted on a solid ground of another hue. Cornices also were sometimes picked out in two or three colors. Frames of chairs and other pieces of furniture, too, made of cheaper woods, were not infrequently painted black or some dark hue and enriched by gilding. An excellent example of this rich polychrome work is afforded in the mantel taken from "Rotherwas House," near Hereford, shown in one of the accompanying cuts. The whole interior of the banqueting hall of this ancient mansion, which was about to be dismantled, was removed and brought in sections to America, where it was exhibited before its final installation in the house of a purchaser. The mantel details and some of the carving on the panelling, also shown, exhibit the marked characteristics of the carving that enjoyed such high favor at this period. "Great importance attaches to the types of decorative design as well as to the sundry sorts of decorative processes employed. It is by carefully heeding just such small details that we shall learn most about furniture and become able to establish relationships and approximate dates. In carving whether 'modelled,' 'flat' or 'scratch,' the most favorite and frequently recurring types of design were as follows: Guilloche, an ornamental pattern of enrichment in the form of two or more interlacing bands or ribbons so braided or intertwined as to repeat the same figure in a continued series of circles; diaperwork, strapwork, cabochon and cartouche motifs; lunettes or half-circle patterns more or less elaborate and foliated; tulips, hearts, roses, acanthus leaves, foliated and floriated scrolls, channelling, reeding, fluting, grapevines, gadroons nulling, human figures to some extent, lozenges, and laurelling." Besides these that have been named as being of usual occurrence in the carving of the period, "there were others frequently met with, such as the palmated chain pattern, the pomegranate, the sunflower, in Welsh carving the dragon, and in both English and Welsh work sundry other devices too numerous to be rehearsed." As to the structure of early Jacobean furniture, it was extremely simple and straightforward and "however much types and processes of decoration may have been affected by Continental influences, the subtleties of foreign joiners did not gain an appreciable hold in England till a later date." "Strength and staunchness of carcases were the objects aimed at rather than grace of contour." During the early Jacobean period chairs were not nearly so numerous as in the Commonwealth times and subsequently. Stools or backless forms and settles afforded most of the seating accommodation, while chairs were regarded as seats of special dignity and were oftentimes accorded to only the master and mistress of the household. Like the rest of the furniture, they were cumbersome in pattern, distinguished by strength and elaborate ornament rather than by any grace. scot" or panelled backs, were provided with substantial arms and their prototypes probably owed their inspiration in the first instance to choir stalls. The seats were nearly square and uncushioned, the backs nearly perpendicular and the stout legs joined by equally stout stretchers. Elaborate carving, particularly at the cresting, and sometimes intricate inlay were lavished on these chairs. Occasionally X-shaped chairs covered with rich upholstery were to be met with in the houses of the wealthiest nobility and gentry. A little before the Commonwealth we find the Yorkshire and Derbyshire type of chair with no arms and open backs. The uprights ended in finials and there were usually two or three carved and hooped crosspieces which were often further ornamented by acorn pendants. Sometimes, instead of the hooped crosspieces, there were several horizontal bars, the spaces between which were filled with arcades of slender spindles and carved rounded arches. Another type of chair of about the same or slightly later date had a spindle back and afterwards became highly popular among the humbler classes in both England and America. retaining its popularity till well into the Eighteenth Century. Joint or "joyned" stools were used everywhere and made up for the scarcity of chairs. Both they and the forms or benches were heavily underbraced with stretchers which were frequently adorned with elaborate carving. The legs often had an outward spread. Settles with high panelled and carved backs and sometimes with panelled carving below the seat, followed the same general lines as the wainscot chairs and were quite common. The early Jacobean day-beds, prototypes of the modern lounge, fared so ill at the hands of the Roundhead soldiery that few remained after the war and the Carolean day-bed, which will be treated later, is perhaps our best representative of this type of furniture. Bedsteads have already been alluded to. In addition to the long, narrow "refectory" tables with fixed tops we have. The characteristic chairs had "wain- the ingeniously contrived "drawing TYPICAL JACOBEAN "COURT CUPBOARD." CARVED AND INLAID. tables," whose length and seating capacity could be doubled. This was accomplished "by means of two shelves, sliding under the central top, but so arranged that upon their being drawn out, the upper top falls into their place, thus forming a level surface." The smaller flap tables and the gate tables have also been previously mentioned. Chests, coffers, caskets and hutches, which were chests with fixed tops and door in front, were all decorated with the wonted rich carving and panelling. Cupboards of many forms occur, but the chief representatives of the cupboard family next to court cupboards were the "hanging cupboards," prototypes of the wardrobe, livery cupboards, which were hung on walls or set on tables, "bread and cheese cupboards," bulky affairs to hold larder supplies, and "almeries," small affairs closely resembling livery cupboards. "Court" cupboards were really "short" cupboards and were originally small cupboards set on sidetables. "Afterwards the two were combined into one piece and the lower part, originally but a table, was fitted sometimes with shelves, sometimes with doors, making a lower cupboard. The upper part was bedecked with pillars supporting an ornate corniced top." "But little removed from the court cupboard in type was the buffet, meant for the display of plate and also for convenience in serving." It was in reality a heavy table set against the wall having a superstructure on pillars but no cupboard. Nearly related to the buffet was the dresser, having a cupboard in the lower part and a high back with open shelves. Very similar to some of our modern sideboards was a piece of furniture like a long narrow sidetable with deep drawers. It was not often met with, however, till Cromwellian times. Owing to the ponderous character of early Jacobean furniture any room, how ever large, where much of it is gathered together must necessarily take on an exceedingly substantial or even an oppressively heavy appearance. The age was heavy in outward manifestation and if at room is carried out correctly in this period style it is apt to assume the same heaviness which can only be avoided by most skillful management and by keeping down the number of large pieces used. Old oak furniture is now and has been for several years past enjoying a great vogue and many people are either carrying out their whole houses or several rooms at any rate in this style. In the majority of cases, however, it will probably be found more feasible, both from financial and aesthetic reasons, to use early Jacobean furniture in combination with fittings of a later date. Judiciously placed in a "no-period" room a fine old piece or two of Jacobean carved oak, especially if supplied with a rich-colored background, will often impart a note of combined richness and balance. Indeed, one might say that early Jacobean furniture is to interior decoration as plum pudding is to a dinner. It is very rich and a little goes a great way, but too much is apt to cloy. The subjects of finish and mounts are so closely connected with later developments that they will be reserved for a subsequent paper. Warren & Wetmore, Architects. THE HOTEL BILTMORE THE NEWEST ADDITION TO NEW YORK'S PALATIAL HOTELS WARREN & WETMORE, ARCHITECTS BY WALTER S. SCHNEIDER MONG the notable hotels in a city noted for the number, sumptuousness and magnificence of its hotels, is the new Biltmorethe terminal hotel of the Grand Central Railroad in New York City. And the Biltmore, following the Belmont, the RitzCarlton and the Vanderbilt, makes the fourth great New York hotel to bear the name of Warren & Wetmore, architects. The plan of this latest and most complete of hotels is unusual in many of its features. Rising to a height of twentysix stories, the the Vanderbilt Avenue façade is recessed twenty-one feet above the sixth floor, in order to preserve a relationship to the height of the Terminal Station across the avenue. Moreover, the same façade above the sixth story is broken by a light court seventy feet wide and one hundred and thirty-six feet deep, dividing the upper two-thirds of the Vanderbilt Avenue façade into a semblance of twin towers. It is through I. such considerations in planning and the general quietness and refinement of the exterior design, that the Biltmore Hotel is kept in an harmonious relationship with the other buildings of the "Terminal City." Many of the departments of the hotel have been arranged in locations unusual in hotel planning, due to the fact that the hotel stands, to a great extent, over the Incoming Station, which eliminated the use of subsurface stories. This condition fortunately obviated all possibility of using any of the ground-floor space for commercial purposes, which has always seemed an architectural detriment to the Hotel McAlpin. The Biltmore occupies the block 200 x 215 feet bounded by Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues, and Forty-third and Forty-fourth Streets. Part of the Terminal Station extends under Vanderbilt Avenue and the Biltmore, and is known as the Incoming Station. This Incoming Station is on two underground levels and is an extension of the Main Station. It has, however, its own station facilities, including waiting-rooms, train-platforms, concourse, and subway ramps to |