Institute of Carpenters

We have now reached, in our review, the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. This marks the beginning of a new type of thinking that sees the past as different from the present.

Today we take it for granted that people lived different types of lives in past times, but for years it was assumed that the past was very little different from the present. We see this in paintings of biblical scenes, especially those concerning the Holy Family, where the subjects wear medieval dress; also it is seen in the development of the Arthurian Legend where a fifth century character is seen as a medieval king with knights in full armour. Several gentlemen scholars took up this new thinking and began searching for ‘old’ things, the name antiquarian is used to describe these people. We will come across them further on.

In this period (1660 -1800) we will notice two emerging factors: first; the continuing elevation of the wood carver as a professional artist, as opposed to the nameless craftsman (1), secondly; the development of the separate trade of cabinet maker. The pattern emerging in this last is an evolution carpenter—joiner–cabinet maker, a progression moving away from the shared technology and design of the stone mason and carpenter. In Part 3 we saw how the joiner progressed away from the stopped moulding and the mason’s mitre.

In this moving away from the masonry model the work becomes less Gothic. This is not in the sense of motif but in the loss of the heavy, tectonic nature of the structural elements. In the heavy design of Gothic the structural elements are larger in section than is necessary and provide that ruggedness or savageness beloved of Ruskin. Of course monumental pieces of work were still carried out, but the tendency was to put the emphasis on decoration. The use of very strong exotic woods like ebony and rosewood assisted in this slimming down of components but the biggest difference still was in decoration. This occurred in two ways:

 

 

Firstly; in applied decoration in the form intarsia, The letting into the surface of the components contrasting exotic woods; which included bog oak, an oak that had been submerged for centuries in a bog, and ivory, bone, mother of pearl, tortoiseshell to name the most common. This is different from veneering which was also carried out. In veneering the entire surface is covered with a veneer of a more expensive wood. This could be done in sheets of a single species of wood or several species could be used together to form a picture of a pastoral landscape, architecture or floral arrangements in what is known as marquetry, or abstract geometrical patterns (parquetry) and by employing various tromphe-l’oeil effects giving the two dimensional surface the appearance of three dimensions by shadowing and clever perspective. This deception in veneering and creating optical illusions is miles away from the integrity of Gothic.

Secondly; in carvings, this was carried out naturalistically and therefore one would imagine complying to one of the Gothic mental characters approved by Ruskin. But not so! Ruskin disapproved of ‘showing off’; carving should, according to him, develop naturally from the structure and be done by a craftsman, within the skill of the mason or carpenter. The degree of naturalism used by the great Renaissance carvers like Grinling Gibbons was in a way too naturalistic, too clever, too attention seeking. The most noticeable feature of this type of carving is how it flows away from the surface has many large voids and is very thin and weak. Compare Photographs 4: 1 and 4: 2, 3, 3., a Gibbones’ style modern carving and Gothic carvings respectively.

 

 

In Nancy Catford’s carving there is a great degree of naturalism but the work is very open with areas of weakness in many places. It would have to be displayed well away from public touch, which could easily result in it breaking.

The Gothic carving although has more stylization due to the confining nature of its integral geometry can stand weekly touching and even be used to aid the elderly to get up out of the pew. They are part of the pew end and therefore part of the pews structure.

The Impact of Grinling Gibbons

No one did more to develop the naturalistic style of carving than Gibbons, yet it is possible to attribute to him directly only a handful of carvings. The vast amount that show his strong influence are ascribed to the Grinling Gibbons school of carving; and could be the work of his employees, which were established all over the country. Chippendale and the Gothic Style.

Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) was born in Otley in Yorkshire. He went on to be the most influential cabinet designer and maker. Beside the furniture he and his craftsmen made, there was his catalogue of designs The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker’s Director, first published in 1754. As the title suggests this book had a dual role. As well as being a sales catalogue it was also a pattern book for other cabinet-makers to copy. It is this second use that made this publication so influential. In the first edition he states his book contains ‘…a large collection of the most Elegant and Useful Designs of Household Furniture in the Gothic, Chinese and Modern Taste.’ [The use of capitals is Chippendales.] By Modern Taste he is referring to the then current Rococo style.

It is interesting that Chippendale, in the Rococo Age, heads his style list with ‘Gothic’. As Nathaniel Harris says:

The…….style, Gothic, was also fanciful and anti-classical, but was derived from the native tradition. Gothic was the architectural style of the High Middle Ages, most simply identified by its employment of pointed arches; in England unlike the continent it had never been entirely abandoned as a suitable style for ecclesiastical buildings, despite the denigration implied in the name. (4)

By the third edition of the Director in 1762 the list of styles was minus the ‘Gothic’.

 

 

Chippendale had never really understood Gothic and had only used a type of mannerism by applying Gothic motifs to basically Rococo furniture.

Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill

Since the end of the 15th century the effect of the Renaissance was to made classical styles predominant over the Gothic style; but an appreciation of older styles grew with the new sense of history following the Restoration of King Charles II. By the mid-years of the 18th century the antiquarians were beginning to influence style. This was the birth of the Gothic Revival which started falteringly at first. Horace Walpole (1717-1797) was a rich dilettante who bought a large ornate cottage in Twickenham, Middlesex and began to turn it into a eclectic collection of medieval and early Renaissance building ideas with an even more eclectic collection of furniture. The overall style was loosely Gothic, a Gothic so peculiar that the name of this house was given to new kind of Gothic; Strawberry Hill Gothic.

 

 

There was no unified design at Strawberry Hill; in fact Ralph Dutton quotes Walpole:
The ceiling is taken from one of the side aisles of Henry VII’s chapel. The great door is copied from the north door of St Alban’s, and the two smaller are part of the same design. The side with recesses which are finished with a gold net-work over looking glass, is taken from the tomb of Archbishop Bouchier at Canterbury. The chimney-piece was designed by Mr Chute and Mr Thomas Pitt. The room is hung with crimson Norwich damask: the chairs, settees, and long stools are of the same, mounted on black frames. The carpet made at Moorfield. (6)

Here Walpole demonstrates his very catholic taste, anything he fancied he incorporated into his Strawberry Hill fantasy (see photograph 4:5)

Should space allow we could take up the tale of the megalomaniac William Beckford and Fonthill Abbey or the more restrained Sir Walter Scott and Abbotsford to demonstrate how the Gothic Revival began to take hold.

Conclusion

We have seen how, as the Renaissance started to bite, Gothic lost favour but hung on in places; how carving changed and became too realistic and delicate to be Gothic; how wood technology developed so that the cabinet-maker could make slimmer less tectonic furniture; intarsia and veneering began to cloak the structure. But through all this some people still held on to the ruggedness of Gothic.

A new sense of history made people long for the past and antiquarians sought old things to collect. An appreciation of buildings of the past, especially the medieval Gothic led to the extended adoption of Gothic and similar forms in both buildings and furniture. By now the Gothic Revival was underway.

In Part 5 we will look at the Gothic Revival in full flow and meet again AWN Pugin and the other 19th century Gothic architects and designers.

Dr Brian Hodgson, Ph.D, LCGI, FIOC, FFB, MIMWoodT, AIMMM (MIWSc) | North West

References
1 Frederick Oughton, Grinling Gibbons; the English Woodcarving Tradition, London, Stobart & Sons, 1979, p. 84.
2 Oughton, p. 174.
3 Brian Hodgson The Structure, Technology and Geometry of British Gothic with reference to Ruskinian Principles. Ph.D Thesis, Lancaster University, 2013, p. 358.
4 Nathaniel Harris, Chippendale, New Jersey, Chartwell Books, 1989, p. 41.
5 Harris, p. 62.
6 Ralph Dutton, The English Interior, London, B T Batsford Ltd, 1948, p.148.
7 Harris, p. 40.
Diagram 4: 1 ‘Gothic’ style glass-fronted bookcase from the Director. A typical Mannerist form. 5

This article first appeared in the March 2015 issue of Cutting Edge. As part of the IOC membership, IOC members receive quarterly editions of Cutting Edge magazine and access to all back issues online.

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