place to carving, and the cabriole leg, one of the chief marks of Dutch
influence, became a firmly fixed style. The carving was put on the knees
and the legs ended in claw and ball and pad feet. Some chairs were
simply carved with a shell or leaf or scroll on top rail and knees of
the legs. In the more elaborately carved chairs the arms, legs, splat,
and top rail were all carved with acanthus leaves, or designs from
Gibbons's decoration. Chairs were broad in the seat and high of back
with wide splats, often decorated with inlay, in the early part of the
period. The top rail curved into the side uprights, and the seat was set
into a rebate or box-seat. The chair backs slowly changed in shape,
becoming broader and lower, the splat ceased to be inlaid and was
pierced and carved, and the whole chair assumed the shape made so
familiar to us by Chippendale.

Tables usually had cabriole legs, although there were some gate-or
thousand-legged, tables, and card tables, writing-tables, and
flap-tables, were all used. It was in the Queen Anne period that
highboys and lowboys made their first appearance.

In the short reign of Anne it also became the fashion to have great
displays of Chinese porcelain, and over-mantels, cupboards, shelves and
tables were covered with wonderful pieces of it. Addison, in Sir Roger
de Coverley, humorously describes a lady's library of the time.

"... And as it was some time before the lady came to me I had an
opportunity of turning over a great many of her books, which were ranged
in a very beautiful order. At the end of the folios (which were finely
bound and gilt) were great jars of china placed one above another in a
very noble piece of architecture. The quartos were separated from the
octavos by a pile of smaller vessels, which rose in a delightful