nd fables in a
wonderfully realistic way. There seems to be no end to the variety of
wooden ornament. The carver has found a place in architectural design,
too, many old houses being enriched with his handiwork. In the days when
walls were panelled with oak, the carver and the wood worker delighted
in cutting deep and intricate mouldings and in giving that delightful
linen fold to the panels which would otherwise have been plain. That was
the ambition of the household decorator of Elizabethan days. Tudor beams
were cut and carved and quaint mottoes engraved upon them. The old oak
settles--sometimes portable, at others fixtures--were carved all over,
and the fronts of oak chests were often made into pictures of wood. They
told the tale of the family tree by the coats of arms and the shields
emblazoned by the cutter of wood, sometimes being enriched with colour;
at others the picture forms were created by inlaying and superadding
fretwork. There were intricate carvings of the Sheraton and Chippendale
periods, and there were the wonderful floral sprays, cherubs, and other
ornaments so cunningly wrought by Grinling Gibbons and his followers.
Wooden ornament in those days took the form of over-doors, and wreaths
running down the lintels; and massive mantelpieces of oak were carved
deeply. There were vases of wood full of flowers cut from the same
material standing on wooden pedestals. The floral sprays, it is said,
were in some cases so delicately cut that they shook like natural
flowers when any one crossed a room or a post-chaise rumbled along the
street. Some remarkable picture frames were cut and carved by amateurs,
corresponding well with the handiwork of the needlewoman they
enshrined. The cutting and carving of banner screens was a work of art,
and many times a labour of love.

[Illustration: FIG. 57.--CARVED PLAQUE STAND.]

There are quaint relics of other countries in wood carving among the
curios of the home. Some remarkable pieces of carved cherry-trees have
been brought over from Japan, the black trunk or root of the tree being
turned into a grinning demon, similar to the one illustrated in Fig. 56,
which resembles the "temple guardian." Others have been fashioned like
ancient idols or apes, many being an intermixture of different-coloured
woods, varying from almost red-brown to black, throwing up the carving
in relief. The Oriental was a clever wood carver, and with his primitive
tools he cut and fashioned a pi