M. JACQUEMART ON FURNITURE.*

OLD furniture has an interest for everybody, though everybody -cannot be a collector of "fine art" specimens of antiquity, or a -connoisseur in " bijouterie and virtu." We can all look with covetous eyes at the contents of the glass-cases of museums, and -sigh over our modem " philistine " household goods, or treasure .up any piece of old china or cabinet-making that we may possess. As soon as man ceases to wander over the world and live in tents, as soon as he has a fixed habitation, he will collect around him -various objects for convenience and comfort,—i.e., furniture or -" movables " ; simple and rough in construction as they -are at first, it will not be long before he takes to decor- ...sting them more or less effectively, and will soon consider At a matter of pride to have as many and as grand-looking movables in his house as he can get together, by conquest or -otherwise, to impress his friends and enemies withal. Very -often the household ornaments derived half their value from being trophies of some well-fought field, such as the arms and -vessels in the tents of the Homeric heroes, and the rich store- .room and chest always shown to their guests by Scandinavian kings and chiefs. Pride and comfort very soon meet and go on hand-in-hand, the consequence being ornamental, as distinct from merely useful furniture. Of this mobilier de luxe M. Jacquemart gives us a history, to serve as a guide for collectors -and curieux. It is compiled from the notes of his researches, which spread over many years, and during the course of which he had felt the want of such a guide to the collector, not only as a .key to the principal features of a style or an epoch, but to enable .him by small indications, " un mot, tine figure, nn nom cl'artiste," to distinguish doubtful specimens of transitional periods, which he might otherwise have relinquished from -want of the means to establish their genuineness. For this purpose of reference the book is well arranged, a table -at the beginning giving at a glance the contents, divided into four books, " Mobilier," " Tentures," "Objets d'Art De- 'rives de la Statuaire," "Objets d'Art Ornamental," each -of which is subdivided into chapters on the different kinds

of objects included in the general title. There is a copious index, and the book is illustrated throughout with excellent plates -by M. Jules Jacquemart, who has worthily completed his father's work. The sole defect of arrangement is that these plates are only paged, not having numbers of their own, either in the list, or by reference in the text.

The historical collector, that is, one who seeks to reconstruct a certain period with perfect correctness, has many difficulties to -encounter, even in recent times ; many more, if he fishes in the troubled waters of the middle-ages, the struggles and social .changea of which have destroyed and altered so much that might have been characteristic. Beds, chests, and hangings seem -the chief household goods of early days. "Ii eat donc bien

• Histoire de Mobifier. Par Albert Jacquemart. Paris: Hachette et Ole.

difficile aujourd'hui de composer un mobilier vraiment historique,

memo en cherchant sea elements dans lea époques voisines de nons. Les mceure et lea besoins out change ; lee pieces anciennes oni ete detruites en grand nombre, et lorsqu'on lee trouve, elles n'offrent qu'un appropriation incomplet an confortable inven- tion moderne, main qui s'impose absolument dans toute habitation luxueuse." Nothing is more objectionable than the adaptation of ancient pieces of furniture to modern convenience. "C'est lk tine barbaric, contra laquelle protesterons tons lea hommes de seas." Not more admissible is the compromise of imitation- pieces introduced for the sake of completeness, which, if dis- covered, cast a doubt on the genuineness of the whole. M. Jules Jacquemart gives us two specimens of the "historic" interior, one of the Renaissance, chez M. Edmond Bonnaffe", the other of the eighteenth century, chez M. L. Double, neither of which, though charming to look at, strikes one as exactly confortabk.

The "eclectic" collector, on the other hand, who wishes only to form a "cabinet" of beautiful and rare objects, or to furnish his rooms with favourite relics of past times, has all ages and all countries, "the world is all before him where to choose ;" guided solely by taste in choice and harmony in arrangement, he can produce the most delightful effects by well-assorted differences and resemblances. " Mettre en valeur une tapisserie d'Arras on de Flandre, faire ressortir convenablement un cabinet de laque, un piqué de l'Inde, on un ebene incruste divoire, trouver la place des armes, des porcelaines, des bronzes, montrer une terre cuite de Clodion, un ivoire de Duquesnoy, une orfevrerie de Baslin, sus- pendre a sa vraie place une broderie persane, une soie de l'Inde, un rouleau japonais, ne saurait etre neuvre du premier venn.

L'anachronisme pent-etre aussi choquant entre deux pieces mal assorties qu'entre lea membre.s epars d'un mobilier complet ; lea plus belles armures prendront un air de fermille, snivant le fond qui leur servira de repoussoir." Taste, therefore, is the guardian angel of the eclectic collector.

Perhaps the oldest of all pieces of furniture, beds excepted, is the coffer or chest (coffre, huche, bahut , cassone, &c.), that compre- hensive article which formed the wardrobe, chest of drawers, table,

seat, travelling-trunk, and packing-case of early times. M. Jacquemart traces its growth in all stages and forms, and the

various styles of decoration applied to it, from the iron-bound chest to contain frailer valuables in the hard vicissitudes of medival life, to the painted, carved, or inlaid Italian cassone or wedding-chest ; of all which M. Jules Jacquemart gives us

examples, copied from public and private collections. From these we pass to the various kinds of cabinets and cupboards, with minute accounts of all the different styles of make and deco- ration, how they arose, when and where practised, with the names of the most celebrated artists or inventors, including the inlaying, carving, and lacquer works of the East, both for their own sake, and as regards their effect on Western taste. M. Jacquemart does full justice to Oriental skill and genius, and every division of the subject has its Oriental section. We are not told much about chairs, except in connection with wood-carving and stamped leather.

The book entitled Tentures is one of the most interesting, con- taining accounts of all kinds of tapestry, embroidery, and woven stuffs of an ornamental character. The importance of the tapestry works is sufficiently illustrated by the curious laws and regula- tions made by Governments and municipalities for the protection of the great manufactories and the prevention of imitations. A propos of the celebrity of English embroidery (opus anglicune, as it was called) before as well as after the Norman Conquest, after mentioning the noble and royal ladies celebrated for their skill in the art, M. Jacquemart quotes an amusing passage from Matthew of Westminster, designed to illustrate the rapacity of the Popes :— " Vera le memo temps (1246), le Seigneur Pape, aVtant apercu quo les ornements ecelesiastiques de quelques Anglais—par exempla, lee cbapes de el:recur et lee mitres-6taient brod6es en fil d'or d'une maniere desirable, demande cli ces ouvrages avaient ete faits. 'En Angleterre; lui r6pondit-on. Mors le Pape, L'Angleterre est vraiment pour none nn jardin de deuces. C'est vraiment un pulls intarrissable; etili, oil beau- coup de choses abondent, on pout extorquer beanconp, ii beancoup.' Aussi le memo Seigneur Pape, alleche par la concupiscence des yeux, envoya des lettres, scell6es et sacrdas, t presque tons lee Abb6s de l'Ordra de Citeaux &Alia en Angleterre, aux prteres desquels ii s'6tait re- command6 dons le Cbapitre des Citeaux pour qu'ils lei fitment passer sans Mai ces broderies en or qu'il preferait to toutee, et dont il voulait orner ass chasubles at see chapes de chosnr, comma si ces acquisitions no devaient rim Jour csilter. Cette domande du Pape no d6plut pas aux marcbauds de Londres, qui faisaient commerce do ces broderies, et qui lee vendirent le prix qu'ils voulnrent."

In woven stuffs the influence of -the East is very prominent, notably in certain Saracenic manufactories in Sicily, of which we have a specimen,—an old coronation-robe of the Holy Roman

Empire, ornamented with symbolic animals and an inscription in Arabic, now preserved in the Treasury of Vienna. In this and in all other divisions of the book we have long lists of individual workmen and artists from the earliest times, collected from all authentic documents, records of guilds, memoirs, &c., in which the nationalities brought together show the French and Italians to be foremost in most things. Next to them come the Germans, including the Flemings; England does not come very high, except in the embroidery section. The greatest number of English names occur in the list of goldsmiths, which is also the longest of any ; but we should like to know whether a fair examination of our museums and private collections would not place us rather higher in other branches, or if our best things were done by foreign work- men or copied from foreign styles. There is no unfair partiality about M. Jacquemart's work, but he naturally quotes chiefly from French collections, and it is not likely that much of our art (if we had any) should have reached the Continent. In almost every section the products of the East stand very high, and especially in purely ornamental objects, lacquers, bronzes, porcelain, carved ivory, precious stones, &c. There are minute descriptions of all the most important species of decoration, inlaying of all kinds, mar- queterie, enamels, mosaics, &c., probably invaluable to the collector for identifying work, and not uninteresting to the general reader. Amongst the immense range of objects described, we cannot help regretting that something is not told us of musical instruments, some of which are well fitted for rich decoration, are certainly ornamental objects, and ought to have an interesting history. We cannot but suppose that so learned a collector and so able a writer must know best, however, and we accept with gratitude this comprehensive result of the life-long care and re- search of the author of L'llistoire de la Porcelaine and Les Merveilles de la Cirtunique.

M. Barbet de Jouy tells us in his preface that M. Albert Jacquemart was born in Faris in 1808, at a time when an " anti- quary " was an object of ridicule, and devoting his life to the col- lection and study of the relics of the past, especially of Oriental pottery, "il a vu renaitre et se developper le gofit, devenu la passion de is generation que suceede It in sienne." We cannot but regret that this work is the last legacy from the brain of M. Jacquemart,—" 11 a cease d'ecrire et de vivre le 14 Octobre, 1875."