pyramid. The octavos were bounded by tea-dishes of all shapes, colors,
and sizes, which were so disposed on a wooden frame that they looked
like one continued pillar indented with the finest strokes of sculpture
and stained with the greatest variety of dyes. Part of the library was
enclosed in a kind of square, consisting of one of the prettiest
grotesque works that ever I saw, and made up of scaramouches, lions,
monkeys, mandarins, trees, shells, and a thousand other odd figures in
china ware. In the midst of the room was a little Japan table."

Between 1710 and 1730 lacquer ware became very fashionable, and many
experiments were made to imitate the beautiful Oriental articles brought
home by Dutch traders. In Holland a fair amount of success was attained
and a good deal of lacquered furniture was sent from there to England
where the brass and silver mounts were added. English and French were
experimenting, the French with the greatest success in their Vernis
Martin, mentioned elsewhere, which really stood quite in a class by
itself, but the imitations of Chinese and Japanese lacquer were inferior
to the originals. Pine, oak, lime, and many other woods, were used as a
base, and the fashion was so decided that nearly all kinds of furniture
were covered with it. This lacquer ware of William and Mary's and Queen
Anne's time must not be confounded with the Japanned furniture of
Hepplewhite's and Sheraton's time, which was quite different and of much
lower grade.

It was in the reign of Queen Anne that the sun began to rise on English
cabinet work; it shone gloriously through the eighteenth century, and
sank in early Victorian clouds.

[Illustration: Two important phases of Chippendale's work--an elaborate
ribbon-back chair, and one of the more staid Gothic type.]