white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and
purple, to silver rings and pillars of marble; the beds were of gold and
silver, upon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble."
(Esther i. 6.)

There are, unfortunately, no trustworthy descriptions of ancient Hebrew
furniture. The illustrations in Kitto's Bible. Mr. Henry Soltan's "The
Tabernacle, the Priesthood, and the Offerings," and other similar books,
are apparently drawn from imagination, founded on descriptions in the Old
Testament. In these, the "table for shew-bread" is generally represented
as having legs partly turned, with the upper portions square, to which
rings were attached for the poles by which it was carried. As a nomadic
people, their furniture would be but primitive, and we may take it that as
the Jews and Assyrians came from the same stock, and spoke the same
language, such ornamental furniture as there was would, with the exception
of the representations of figures of men or animals, be of a similar
character.

Assyrian Furniture.

[Illustration: Part of Assyrian Bronze Throne and Footstool, about B.C.
880, Reign of Asshurnazirpat. (_From a photo by Mansell & Co. of the
original in the British Museum._)]

The discoveries which have been made in the oldest seat of monarchical
government in the world, by such enterprising travellers as Sir Austin
Layard, Mr. George Smith, and others, who have thrown so much light upon
domestic life in Nineveh, are full of interest in connection with this
branch of the subject. We learn from these authorities that the furniture
was ornamented with the heads of lions, bulls, and rams; tables, thrones,
and couches were made of metal and wood, and probably inlaid with ivory;
the earliest chair, according to Sir Austin Layard, having been made
without a back, and the legs terminating in lion's feet or bull's hoofs.
Some were of gold, others of silver and bronze. On the monuments of
Khorsabad, representations have been discovered of chairs supported by
animals, and by human figures, probably those of prisoners. In the
British Museum is a bronze throne found by Sir A. Layard amidst the rains
of Nirnrod's palace, which shews ability of high order for skilled metal
work.

Mr. Smith, the famous Assyrian excavator and translator of cuneiform
inscriptions, has told us in his "Assyrian Antiquities" of his finding
close to the site of Nineveh portions of a crystal throne somewhat sim