Chests, Trunks, Or Bahuts

Chests, Trunks, Or Bahuts, were at this period, and in the time of the Normans, the most important articles in furniture: they were often made with inlaid wood decorations, and had strap-work of iron and ornate hinges. They were the usual repositories of the household valuables, money, and other treasures, and were carried on horses or mules when the family moved about from place to place. By degrees the chest, with the addition of a back and arms,became the settles or principal seats in the living-room; and the back developed with an added hood or projecting covering into the da*¹s, or throne-like seat, that was placed at the end of the chief room - the place of honour.

Another and later development of the chest was to raise it on legs, and to add a back arrangement to it, with shelves for the display of household plate, to which was given the name of dressoir, or dresser, the latter in time developing into the modern sideboard.

Chests were also important articles of church furniture, in which the sacred vessels, treasures, books, and priests' garments could be locked up, and a particular form of chest kept in church, vestries was the cope chest, which took the semicircular shape of the copes when laid out flat in these chests. Examples of these chests are still to be seen in some of the large cathedrals.

The Coronation Chair

The Coronation Chair (Fig. 229) gives a good idea of a state chair of the early Gothic period in England.

Carriages Of The Fourteenth Century

Carriages Of The Fourteenth Century were used for the conveyance of women and children, but were not very common. They were long-shaped covered vehicles on four wheels, with or without panelled sides, and were painted and decorated (Figs. 230, 231). Carts for carrying and for agricultural purposes were used in the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods in England, and in France at the same dates: these were two-wheeled vehicles, each wheel being usually of one solid piece of wood. The Saracens were very ingenious in the using of wood, as in carpentry, carving, and turning in the lathe. Their ingenuity and skill in carpentry and turning is seen in the Meshrebiya work and lattice, and in the carvings of the pulpit and door panels. This work has been noticed under the heading of Saracenic Architecture and Ornament in the former volume.

Regarding the furniture of the domestic dwellings of the Saracens, whether of Egypt, Arabia, or elsewhere, there was very little of a movable nature except the small tables and reading-desks. The tables of Saracenic design are usually small and of a greater height than width (Fig. 252). These tables or kursys are sometimes panelled with turned, latticed, or carved decoration, having stalactites under the top, as in the illustration, or in the kursys of a lighter construction are generally inlaid with ivory, ebony, and mother-of-pearl. Some of the richest variety are hexagonal in shape, are inlaid with brass and silver filigree ornamentation, and are of splendid workmanship. The next important article in movable furniture is the Saracen reading-desk, which is made in the form of a camp-stool, with cross legs. It is usually inlaid and decorated like the tables.

The Divans

The Divans are platforms raised slightly from the ground, and covered with cushions on the seats and backs. The carved cupboards or shelves on brackets placed behind and above the divans, on which vases and trays are kept for ornament or when not in use, complete the usual furniture of the Saracenic living-room. Seats or chairs of lattice-work (dikkas), on which the doorkeeper sits, are usually found in entrance-halls, and if we add the elaborate metal and coloured-glass lamps, the vases, the large metal salvers of trays, and the rugs and carpets, the furniture of a Saracenic house is complete.

Fig. 224. English; Fifteenth Century. (P).

Fig. 225. Dining Room; Fifteenth Century. (P).

Fig. 226. Dining Table on Trestles; Fourteenth Century. (P).

Fig. 227. Bedroom Interior; 1400. (P).

Fig. 228. Seats; Fourteenth Century. (P).

Fig. 229. The Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey. (P).

Fig. 230. Travelling. Carriage; English.; Fourteenth Century, (P).

Fig. 231. Travelling Carriage; English; Fourteenth Century. (P).

Fig. 232. Table (Kursy); Saracenic. (L. P).