e good examples of their time, and are from
drawings made on the spot by Prof. Heideloff.

[Illustration: Two German Chairs (Late 15th Century). (_From Drawings made
in Old German Castles by Prof. Heideloff._)]

There are in our South Kensington Museum some full-sized plaster casts of
important specimens of woodwork of the fifteenth and two previous
centuries, and being of authenticated dates, we can compare them with the
work of the same countries after the Renaissance had been adopted and had
completely altered design. Thus in Italy there was, until the latter part
of the fifteenth century, a mixture of Byzantine and Gothic of which we
can see a capital example in the casts of the celebrated Pulpit in the
Baptistry of Pisa, the date of which is 1260. The pillars are supported by
lions, which, instead of being introduced heraldically into the design, as
would be the case some two hundred years later, are bearing the whole
weight of the pillars and an enormous superstructure on the hollow of
their backs in a most impossible manner. The spandril of each arch is
filled with a saint in a grotesque position amongst Gothic foliage, and
there is in many respects a marked contrast to the casts of examples of
the Renaissance period which are in the Museum.

[Illustration: Carved Oak Buffet in Gothic Style (Viollet le Duc).
Period: XV. Century. French.]

This transition from Mediaeval and Gothic, to Renaissance, is clearly
noticeable in the woodwork of many cathedrals and churches in England and
in continental cities. It is evident that the chairs, stalls, and pulpits
in many of these buildings have been executed at different times, and the
change from one style to another is more or less marked. The Flemish
buffet here illustrated is an example of this transition, and may be
contrasted with the French Gothic buffet referred to in the following
paragraph. There is also in the central hall of the South Kensington
Museum a plaster cast of a carved wood altar stall in the Abbey of Saint
Denis, France: the pilasters at the sides have the familiar Gothic
pinnacles, while the panels are ornamented with arabesques, scrolls, and
an interior in the Renaissance style; the date of this is late in the
fifteenth century.

The buffet on page 43 is an excellent specimen of the best fifteenth
century French Gothic oak work, and the woodcut shows the arrangement of
gold and silver plate on the white linen cloth with embroidered ends, i