mes gilded and painted,
oblong tables with elaborately carved supports at each end, usually with
a connecting shelf on which were smaller carved supports. The chairs
were high backed with much carving and gilding, and there were others of
simpler form with leather or tapestry or damask seats and backs. The
Savanarola chair was in the form of a curved X with seat and back of
velvet or leather or sometimes wood on which a cushion was used. Mirror
frames were magnificently carved and gilded and picked out with color.
The rooms were a fitting background for all this splendor, for the
woodwork and walls were paneled and carved and painted, the work often
being done by the greatest painters of the day.

The French Renaissance followed the general line of the Italian but was
lighter and less architectural in its furniture designs and ornament.
Chairs were slowly becoming more common, and rooms began to be more
livable.

[Illustration: This Jacobean buffet is finely reproduced with the
exception of the spiral carving of the legs, which is too sharp and
thin, and gives the appearance of inadequate support. The split spindle
ornament was much used on furniture of the period.]

The English Renaissance was of slow growth and was always marked by a
certain English sturdiness, which is one of the reasons why it is more
easily used in our modern houses. It began in the time of Henry VIII
and lasted through the Tudor and Jacobean periods.

[Illustration: A style that harmonizes with Chippendale furniture.]

[Illustration: This style of mirror was popular in the early nineteenth
century.]

[Illustration: The painted scene is often an important feature.]

[Illustration: The Empire style has columns at the sides and gilt
ornaments.]

The best modern copies of Renaissance furniture are not to be found in
every shop and are usually in the special order class. There are some
makers in America, however, who make extraordinarily fine copies, and
there is the supply from Europe of fine copies and "faked" originals--a
guaranteed original is a very rare and expensive thing.

The period of Louis XIV in France was another "magnificent" period and
should not be used in small or simple houses. Louis XIV furniture was
large and massive, lavish in gilding and carving and ornament, but had
dignity as well as splendor. The Gobelin and Beauvais Tapestry Works
produced their wonderful series of tapestries, and Boulle inlay of brass
and tortoise