ir apparel. The beds are very
magnificent; the bedsteads are made much like ours in Europe--of rosewood,
carved, or lacquered work: the curtains are of taffeta or gauze, sometimes
flowered with gold, and commonly either blue or purple. About the top a
slip of white satin, a foot in breadth, runs all round, on which are
painted, in panels, different figures--flower pieces, landscapes, and
conversation pieces, interspersed with moral sentences and fables written
in Indian ink and vermilion."

From old paintings and engravings which date from about the fourteenth or
fifteenth century one gathers an idea of such furniture as existed in
China and Japan in earlier times. In one of these, which is reproduced in
Racinet's "Le Costume Historique," there is a Chinese princess reclining
on a sofa which has a frame of black wood visible, and slightly
ornamented; it is upholstered with rich embroidery, for which these
artistic people seem to have been famous from a very early period. A
servant stands by her side to hand her the pipe of opium with which the
monotony of the day was varied--one arm rests on a small wooden table or
stand which is placed on the sofa, and which holds a flower vase and a
pipe stand.

On another old painting two figures are seated on mats playing a game
which resembles draughts, the pieces being moved about on a little table
with black and white squares like a modern chessboard, with shaped feet to
raise it a convenient height for the players: on the floor stand cups of
tea ready to hand. Such pictures are generally ascribed to the fifteenth
century, the period of the great Ming dynasty, which appears to have been
the time of an improved culture and taste in China.

From this time and a century later (the sixteenth) also date those
beautiful cabinets of lacquered wood enriched with ivory, mother of pearl,
with silver and even with gold, which have been brought to England
occasionally; but genuine specimens of this, and of the seventeenth
century, are very scarce and extremely valuable.

The older Chinese furniture which one sees generally in Europe dates from
the eighteenth century, and was made to order and imported by the Dutch;
this explains the curious combination to be found of Oriental and European
designs; thus, there are screens with views of Amsterdam and other cities
copied from paintings sent out for the purpose, while the frames of the
panels are of carved rosewood of the fretted bamboo patte