. The book of decorative furniture, its form, colour and history . LOUR - LOVING ANCESTORS Judging from contemporary writings, and from the colour usuallyshown upon the furniture in manuscript drawings of the fourteenthand fifteenth centuries, the English were so passionately attached tocolour, and cared so little for the naturalwood, as to give ground for the state-ment, that they painted everything theycould afford, and whitewashed the , one of the main objections of thecitizens of London to the introduction ofcoal was that its smoke impau*ed thewhiteness of their houses. Traces s
. The book of decorative furniture, its form, colour and history . LOUR - LOVING ANCESTORS Judging from contemporary writings, and from the colour usuallyshown upon the furniture in manuscript drawings of the fourteenthand fifteenth centuries, the English were so passionately attached tocolour, and cared so little for the naturalwood, as to give ground for the state-ment, that they painted everything theycould afford, and whitewashed the , one of the main objections of thecitizens of London to the introduction ofcoal was that its smoke impau*ed thewhiteness of their houses. Traces stillexist upon some few old examples, suchas the Faversham Coffer (Plate II.), show-ing that the work was usually painted, andthat gilding was also resorted to at times,as in the case of the Coronation Chair. Until nearly the close of the Gothic period the woodwork branchesof the applied arts were so subject to ecclesiasticism that it is littleexaggeration to regard them as by the Church, of the Church, andfor the Church. They are therefore outside our CARVED CHESTNUT CENTURY. CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES Towards the end of the fifteenth-century, clerical dominance wasdeclining. Feudalism was upon its last legs, internal dissensionsassisting its fall. By the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in1453 the long-tottering and shrunken remnant of the once all-powerfulRoman Empire received its death-blow. In the East the Crescenthad triumphed over the Cross. 38 DECORATmE FUE^^TURE The Middle Ages, with all their romantic vicissitudes and vividcontrasts, were coming to an end. It had been a period when the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade191, booksubjectdecorationandornament
