the sake of economy, as was the case
with the houses of the middle classes, this elaborate and laboured
enrichment was executed in the fashionable stucco of the day.

Large mirrors, with gilt frames of this material, held the places of
honour on the marble chimney piece, and on the console, or pier table,
which was also of gilt stucco, with a marble slab. The cheffonier, with
its shelves having scroll supports like an elaborate S, and a mirror at
the back, with a scrolled frame, was a favourite article of furniture.

Carpets were badly designed, and loud and vulgar in colouring; chairs, on
account of the shape and ornament in vogue, were unfitted for their
purpose, on account of the wood being cut across the grain; the
fire-screen, in a carved rosewood frame, contained the caricature, in
needlework, of a spaniel, or a family group of the time, ugly enough to be
in keeping with its surroundings.

The dining room was sombre and heavy. The pedestal sideboard, with a large
mirror in a scrolled frame at the back, had come in; the chairs were
massive and ugly survivals of the earlier reproductions of the Greek
patterns, and, though solid and substantial, the effect was neither
cheering nor refining.

In the bedrooms were winged wardrobes and chests of drawers; dressing
tables and washstands, with scrolled legs, nearly always in mahogany; the
old four-poster had given way to the Arabian or French bedstead, and this
was being gradually replaced by the iron or brass bedsteads, which came in
after the Exhibition had shewn people the advantages of the lightness and
cleanliness of these materials.

In a word, from the early part of the present century, until the impetus
given to Art by the great Exhibition had had time to take effect, the
general taste in furnishing houses of all but a very few persons, was at
about its worst.

In other countries the rococo taste had also taken hold. France sustained
a higher standard than England, and such figure work as was introduced
into furniture was better executed, though her joinery was inferior. In
Italy old models of the Renaissance still served as examples for
reproduction, but the ornament became more carelessly carved and the
decoration less considered. Ivory inlaying was largely executed in Milan
and Venice; mosaics of marble were specialites of Rome and of Florence,
and were much applied to the decoration of cabinets; Venice was busy
manufacturing carved walnutwood furniture in