PLATE CXXY.

SIDEBOARD AND FURNITURE,

BY SNELL OF LONDON.

In all objects of furniture, excellence can only be attained by attention to three essential requisites,—the design, the workmanship, and the utility. Too frequently the first and last of these are neglected; sothat although the skill of the cabinet-maker may be attested by the strength and durability of his work, it isoften rather an encumbrance than an ornament. We are happy to see that a decided improvement is takingplace in this respect, and have great pleasure in bearing testimony to the exertions of Mr. Snell to renderfurniture more an object of arUmanufacture. From a communication, with which he has obligingly favouredus, we learn that the father of the present head of the house commenced business in 1775, and shortly afterbuilt a manufactory in Hanover Street, Long Acre, where the business was conducted until the year 1820,Mr. Snell, senior, having left the concern to his sons, who at that period removed to Albemarle Street. Asthe engagements of the house increased, they erected extensive buildings for their manufacture in the BelgraveRoad, Pimlico, in which all the modern improvements in science and machinery are brought to the assistanceof the cabinet-maker. One of the most important of these is the seasoning of the wood by a more rapidprocess than mere exposure to the influence of the atmosphere. The planks are placed for this purpose in aheated chamber, from which the vapour extracted from the wood is drawn off* through the roof. Mr. Snelldescribes his process thus:—“Where the colouring of the wood is not subject to be injured, I prefer placingthe wet wood into steam for a few hours, and, on removing the pieces, plunging them into cold water, thenexposing them in the open air for a week, and, lastly, placing them in the hot room for fourteen days.This plan is quite effective for mahogany, but it would wash out the colour of many of our most beautifulwoods; the dry process is, therefore, the best for all woods where the colour is fugitive.” Mr. Snell, however,adds, that “ the cabinet-maker still prefers the slow process of seasoning in the open air, as more to bedepended on; for it not only removes the moisture gradually without cracking the wood, but it exposes thetendency of each particular board to twist, and thus determines its fitness for any particular application.”

The sideboard and glass, which form the subject of our Plate, were designed by the Baron Marochetti ,who has thereby shown how little most eminent talent may be degraded by being employed on suchobjects. We learn also from Mr. Snell that he has at various times executed designs by numerous architectsof distinction, as well as by Sir F. Chantrey; and it is thus by endeavouring to obtain the highest artisticassistance, and by carrying out the designs in a superior style of workmanship, that this manufacturerhas so successfully advanced in the struggle of competition, in which cheapness generally forms the mostusual though often delusive attraction.

We shall now continue our historical sketch of the subject generally from the point at which we arrivedin our last notice (Plate XC.)

As little change of any importance took place in the forms of the articles of furniture in the course ofthe fifteenth century, we may now briefly describe each separately, and subsequently glean some particularsfrom the MSS. of the arrangements of the interior of the principal rooms of a large house of the period.

For the chairs, the camp-stool type still continued in use, but the legs were bent into the form of a