Between 1710 and 1730 lacquer ware became very fashionable, and many experiments were made to imitate the beautiful Oriental articles brought home by Dutch traders.  In Holland a fair amount of success was attained and a good deal of lacquered furniture was sent from there to England where the brass and silver mounts were added.  English and French were experimenting, the French with the greatest success in their Vernis Martin, mentioned elsewhere, which really stood quite in a class by itself, but the imitations of Chinese and Japanese lacquer were inferior to the originals.  Pine, oak, lime, and many other woods, were used as a base, and the fashion was so decided that nearly all kinds of furniture were covered with it.  This lacquer ware of William and Mary’s and Queen Anne’s time must not be confounded with the Japanned furniture of Hepplewhite’s and Sheraton’s time, which was quite different and of much lower grade.

It was in the reign of Queen Anne that the sun began to rise on English cabinet work; it shone gloriously through the eighteenth century, and sank in early Victorian clouds.

[Illustration:  Two important phases of Chippendale’s work—­an elaborate ribbon-back chair, and one of the more staid Gothic type.]

[Illustration:  An elaborately carved and gilded Chippendale mantel mirror, showing French influence.]

[Illustration:  One of the most beautiful examples of Chippendale’s fretwork tea-tables in existence.]

Chippendale and the Eighteenth Century in England.

The classification of furniture in England is on a different basis from that of France, as the rulers of England were not such patrons of art as were the French kings.  Flemish, Dutch and French influences all helped to form the taste of the people.  The Jacobean period lasted from the time of James I to the time of William and Mary.  William brought with him from Holland the strong Dutch feeling that had a tremendous influence on the history of English furniture, and during Anne’s short reign the Dutch feeling still lasted.

It was not until the early years of the reign of George II that the Georgian period came into its own with Chippendale at its head.  Some authorities include William and Mary and Queen Anne in the Georgian period, but the more usual idea is to divide it into several parts, better known as the times of Chippendale, Adam, Hepplewhite and Sheraton.  French influence is marked throughout and is divided into parts.  The period of Chippendale was contemporaneous with that of Louis XV, and the second part included the other three men and corresponded with the last years of Louis XV, when the transition to Louis XVI was beginning, and the time of Louis XVI.

It was not until the latter part of Chippendale’s life that he gave up his love of rococo curves and scrolls, dripping water effects, and his Chinese and Gothic styles.  His early chairs had a Dutch feeling, and it is often only by ornamentation that one can date them.