Coordinated Decor

One feature of the bed, its curtaining, was put to new use — at the windows. Used at first to keep out sunlight, curtains were soon recognised as valuable pieces of decoration.

Increasingly, designers tried to harmonise the elements in a room, especially the textiles. The growing awareness of overall room decoration was stimulated by the French-born designer (and later architect) Daniel Marot, who worked for William of Orange in Holland and came to work for him in England. Published collections of Marot’s designs (Oeuvres) appeared in 1702 and 1712, and enabled the middle and upper classes to apply his coordinated French-style schemes for furniture and hangings in their homes.

People were quick to glean furnishing ideas from publications. When John Stalker and George Parker produced a Treatise on Japanning and Varnishing in 1688, for example, they started a vogue that had amateurs up and down the country — especially the ladies of the house — japanning pieces of furniture. They and manufacturers too, produced some passable imitations with paint and varnish of the coveted Oriental lacquerware, without either the gum of the lac tree or the great cost of the real thing.

Antique Collector Magazine

Two Styles for Houses

Patrons who bought the increasingly elegant and comfortable furniture put it in houses that were now Classical in inspiration as the seed sown by Inigo Jones germinated. The most celebrated architects of the day were Sir Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawks- moor and Sir John Vanbrugh. All worked in the Baroque style, which bent the Classical conventions to create dramatic effects. Their buildings combined massive stonework, giant double columns, bold juttings and deep recesses, curved walls, oval windows, and a skyline punctuated by domed lanterns, campaniles, balustrades, urns and statues. It was a style chiefly for public buildings and palatial ceremonial houses — for St Paul’s Cathedral, Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard.

Inside these lavish buildings, the rooms were often ornately decorated. Plasterers created ceilings divided into sections by high-relief mouldings that often served as frames for ceiling paintings in rich colours. In some houses, such paintings spread down the walls. Generally, though, walls were panelled, but now the panels were often painted with plain colours or with marbled effects. Expensive cloth was also stretched on panels, trimmed with braids and fitted on the walls.

Block-printed wallpaper was used occasionally; tapestry, however, was still widely used – and the workshop established in 1691 in Soho, London, produced hangings to compete with French and Flemish imports. Wooden bands carved with fine detail in high relief also decorated the walls. Most in tune with Baroque taste were the carvings of Grinling Gibbons – extravaganzas of flowers, fruit, birds, fish, musical instruments and quivers of arrows.

For less grand, but still substantial, homes a simpler style of architecture had developed by 168o and continued in the early 18th century – the style known as Queen Anne. Its compact box shape had a symmetrical redbrick facade with stone dressings, a central pediment, sash windows, a pediment or shell canopy over the door, and an emphatic cornice or eaves under a steep roof broken by dormer windows and thick chimneys.

 

Personal Images in Tune with the Times

The appearance of society folk had its own Baroque extravagance. Restoration men and women alike needed to spend an age at the cheval glass applying their personal veneer. The most favoured visitors would be received while the lady or gentleman of the house was

Being arrayed for public view. Men wore coats that flared out into full skirts over their breeches but fitted closely above the waist. Ruffled shirts peeped Out and the tying of the lacy cravat showed fine degrees of taste. Only a tricorn hat could sit amid the massive curled and powdered wig rising from a central parting. The face was a white and red contrast of powder and rouge, set off by a little patch or two that imitated beauty spots but were often hiding scars left by smallpox.

The ladies too were rouged, powdered and patched. Masses of ringlets framed faces plumped with cheek pads. Paint enhanced the eyebrows, lips and fingernails. Curves made ample by a tight-laced bodice spilled over the low neckline, and off-the-shoulder sleeves ended in ruffles. A full skirt was open at the front to show a trimmed underskirt. Gradually a less extrovert style began to curb

Restoration excesses and by Queen Anne’s day a decent, flowing elegance was in vogue. Such stylish dressers were not the people to be tearing food apart with their hands.

 

Advances in Silverand Science

From the late 17th century, diners in polite society had forks to match their silver spoons and silver-handled knives. Other new silver tableware included centrepieces, sauceboats and soup tureens, breadbaskets, teapots, coffee pots and chocolate pots, kettles and stands for the tea table, and little trays for spoons. Many pieces bore embossed and repoussé work or engraved floral decoration.

Aristocrats whose possessions had been sold during the Civil War or seized during the Commonwealth needed to set themselves up in style, as did loyal men.

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Extravagance gives way to Elegance (Coordinated Décor, Silver and Science)