Part 8
_Spoons._ Wooden spoons are easily carved and ornamented. It is very curious, that quite apart from any modern slang attached to the words "spooney" or "to spoon," two spoons, from their fitting together exactly, are considered in many countries as a type of matrimony and perfect agreement. In Wales, as in Sweden and Algeria, it is usual to present a newly married couple with a piece of wood carved into the form of two spoons, and I myself possess specimens of such. If anyone wishes to establish the custom in England he would probably find that the present would be generally welcome. Two spoons in one cup are, it is well known, the sign of a happy marriage. I have seen large wooden spoons carved and painted and varnished, or gilt; two of these tied together with a ribbon were hung up as an amulet to secure peace.
_Bellows._ These are carved in low relief, and may be ornamented by simple indentation or outlining and stamping. It is the easiest course to get the wood and saw it out, half or one-third inch walnut or oak, and then carve it, and have the bellows made up, Figs. 74 and 75.
_Platters._ Take a piece of panel, one-third to half of an inch in thickness, and saw it out into any shape, such as that of a fish, a wild boar, a pig, a cat, a rabbit, tortoise, hare, etc., care being taken that the shape always approach that of a circle, an oval, or at least a diamond. Most animals can be drawn fitting into a circular border, as you can ascertain for yourself by putting a cat or a hare, etc., into a hoop. Indent with stamped work or carve in ribbon-work, low relief, finish and polish with care, dye black, and then oil or varnish. These are useful for interposing between cups, vases, etc., and the table-cloth. Very pretty effects may be produced by inlaying small discs of pearl or ivory to form the eyes, etc.
_Lunettes and Spaces._ It will often happen that there is over a chimney-piece or door, or under or over a window, a space like a semi-circle, or half an ellipse or oval, or square or rectangle of any kind, which might very well be filled in, and it will be found that, in most cases, there is nothing more appropriate than wood-carving. It will be an easy matter for anyone in the least familiar with drawing to adapt the designs in this work, or in the "Manual of Design," to such spaces.
_False Sofa-backs._ When a plain flat lounge or sofa is placed against a wall its appearance may be greatly improved in one of two ways. Firstly, a carpet or cloth may be hung on the wall, just matching it in size and meeting it. Secondly, and this is very effective, get boards or panels made into a piece, just as broad as the sofa is long, and from two feet to any height you please. It may reach down to the ground, or begin with the sofa. Carve it. This will seem to be the back of the sofa, or a guard for the wall; in any case it will appear very well. It may be made of separate panels, say six or eight inches by twelve or sixteen, made up into a frame. Such pieces may be placed to back any kind of furniture which rests permanently against the wall.
_Door Pieces._ Panels just as long as the door is wide, and from one to two, three, or even four feet across, when carved, form handsome decorations to place _above_ a door; they may also be used to place above windows. Inscriptions, or simple figures with ornament, look very well on them.
_Outside or Façade Pieces._ Many a house, be it mansion or cottage, which seems utterly prosaic and plain, might be greatly improved if between its windows, on the outside, there could be set ornamental panels. These may be painted, carved in stone, moulded of Portland cement or other artificial stone, and in many cases carved of wood. Ornamented inscriptions in old English, and simple figures, are suitable for these panels; in any case let those who adopt them try not to have the commonplace cupids and ornaments generally seen in mural decoration. It may not be in good form to be grotesque, but those who entirely avoid it are almost always commonplace. Fig. 76.
_Wood or Coal Boxes._ These are square boxes with lids, to be placed by the fireplace. The coal-scuttle, with the coals, may be placed in them. In carving everything of the kind it is a good idea to introduce ornamental lettering and appropriate mottoes.
_Bread Platters._ These may be seen in every fancy or furnishing shop where wooden wares are sold. They can be much improved by carving to serve as round panels.
_Chimney-pieces._ These generally consist of pilaster panels and strips, and anybody who can execute these in detail can have them made up. It is desirable for the pupil to copy a few or many chimney-pieces, great or small, from real ones, and adopt the ornaments from them. And as they are articles which receive a great deal of wear and tear and rubbing, it may be well to remember that too delicate finish is misplaced where scrubbing with soap and sand is sure to set in some day, and where, at any rate, dusting and other processes are inevitable. After a few years the foliage or flowers undercut to the last degree, begin to shed their leaves, and appear broken or ragged. Good flat-carving, which endures anything, is better than this, and the roses, even if in high relief, would look none the worse for being solidly though conventionally cut. A good chimney-piece and a handsome high-backed armchair can be very well executed by anybody who can do ordinary panel carving.
There is no fireplace in even the humblest cottage for which a chimney-piece may not be made. Its upper portion can in most cases be made to support shelves or a cabinet; when in a corner these of course are triangular. Gothic or ornamented lettering may be used in the ornament. For this, proverbs or quotations relative to the fireplace are appropriate.
_Beams._ When the beams which support the floor above are left exposed, the room is improved by being made higher. If these beams are carved, even if it be done rudely, the whole room seems to be adorned. This is strikingly the case when the beams are stained a dark brown, and then touched up a little on the prominent points with gilding. If it be too difficult to carve the beams _in situ_ or in place, it is easy to ornament them with applied carved ornaments. Pains should be taken to make these appear to be uniform with the wood.
_Racks._ These may be for umbrellas, hats, garments, pipes weapons, and other purposes. Great ingenuity and taste can be developed in designing them. Of one thing let the designer be very careful. Let him see that the pegs or hooks are strongly fixed and are not ornamented. I have seen such pieces of furniture, in which a four-cornered sharp-edged flower is placed once and even twice on a hook, while on others there is at the end a projection more than an inch in diameter, which is flat on the back or under side, with a sharp edge. The result is, that when a coat is hung by the loop on such a peg and is then turned or twisted once or twice, as often happens, it is almost impossible at times to get it off.
_The Boss_ or round central projection formed a very important part or speciality in mediæval wood-carving. It can be advantageously used as a centre, and sets off to good effect surrounding flat or plain carving. It is sometimes used as a handle for chests. It is, when a simple half-circle, very easily sketched into shape. It may be formed into the head of an animal, a flower, a single curling leaf, or several leaves. The student is specially urged to copy as many as he can from Gothic designs. A boss at the bottom of a bowl, or in a saucer or _plaque_, produces a good effect, the concave surface round it making a beautiful effect of shade, which might be more frequently employed by picture-frame makers. This ornament, which is very easily made and very striking, is thus prepared. Get a bowl or a shallow round platter; any turner will make one for you. Then carve from a hemisphere of wood a head or a boss of leaves or flowers, or a dragon. Round the bottom with a file to fit, and with glue and a screw fasten it to the bowl. The interior of the bowl may be polished, varnished, gilded, or ivoried.
_Clock Cases._ A common clock is not very expensive, and when it is properly repainted and set in a well-carved frame its value will be very much enhanced. A tower is a very good subject for a clock case.
_Vestibule._ The small ante-hall, between the first and second door, common in very many houses. This can be ornamented with a wainscot or dados in long panels. It is very often thus decorated in America. For cottages and country houses, or even for town mansions, such panels may be beautifully and fitly decorated with gouge-work in grooves, a flat pattern in simple cutting-in, such as any person may learn how to execute in a few hours. Fill in the pattern or cuts with dark paint, and if exposed to changes of temperament or rubbing, let it be oiled or varnished. The same work is of course as appropriate to halls as any other rooms, but the vestibule, being small, may serve for a beginning.
_Staircase Balusters._ These afforded inexhaustible work for the artists of the olden time, and they should be tempting to every wood-carver. It is not at all necessary that they should be strictly of open work, in lattices or rails, as beautiful objects of the kind were once often made in panels. But the carver should especially be aware of projecting leaves or crochets, as they are very apt to "catch" garments.
_Garden-work._ Much bold wood-carving may be executed for gardens in a great variety of forms. Stands or tables for potted flowers and tubs may be decorated, panels placed in walls, and summer-houses made in far greater variety than they are at present. Poetry supplies an infinite variety of inscriptions appropriate to gardens, which may be carved and ornamented. It is worth noting that statues of Flora and Pomona and Vertumnus in simple archaic forms were used to protect gardens and orchards among the Romans, and it would be an easy matter to carve these in low relief in panels.
_Gates._ The gates of country places, gardens, etc., afford a wide scope for the skill of the carver, and as they are the first objects generally seen about a house they may be most appropriately ornamented. In this, as in much other work, the art of the carpenter is combined with that of the carver. It should be, however, remembered, as regards gates, as of all decoration whatever, that anything which can ever be in any manner in the way is not beautiful, sensible, or proper. There should never be a jagged or pointed ornament wherever it can "catch" clothing.
_Bedsteads._ The bedstead was of old considered so appropriate for carving, that I find in an excellent old Italian work on furniture more illustrations of this article than any other. Even very simple and cheap ones may be redoubled in value by a little judicious carving.
_Trays._ These may be made in great variety, to contain many kinds of objects. As a rule the tray is a long shallow box, but it may be carved from one piece of wood, and is then used to carry objects in, the single piece being necessary to give it strength. If ornamented with carving the tray forms an attractive object when hung up on the wall. And it may be here remarked that one great object of all carving is, that most objects which are useful in some way shall be ornamental when not in use. We do not wish to have trays and coal-boxes in the way if they are plain, but when decorated they serve as well as pictures to ornament a room.
_Coal or Wood Boxes. See Wood or Coal Boxes._
_Salt Boxes, Collection Boxes._ These very useful articles need not be limited as regards contents, nor confined to the kitchen or to "collection." If the part of the box which goes against the wall, or its back, be lengthened, the salt box becomes a kind of bracket. _Vide Hanging Boxes._
_Shelf-boards._ It very often happens that a literary man, or draughtsman, or architect, though his work-table may be large, finds it crowded with books, etc. To find place for these the shelf-board is very convenient. It is simply a board, let us say one foot wide, placed on two supports, which lift it twelve or fifteen inches from the table. To economize room these supports may each be a square open box, in which books may be placed. The advantage of this shelf is that it may be displaced at any time when the table is cleared. A plain board in a room is not an attractive object, its edge, or even one side of it, may therefore be carved.
_Brackets and Bracket Shelves._ These useful objects may be made in a great variety of forms. The simplest is merely three pieces of board fastened together in a triangle. In the illustration, Fig. 77, there are five pieces. The centre of _b_ slopes at an angle of 45°. Bracket shelves are made by hanging two brackets and laying a board across them. A bracket may be made on a longer board, and have two or more shelves, it then becomes a hanging rack or cabinet. Or the support may be a long strip in which pegs of wood or metal are placed, on which objects are hung. A very great variety of carved or stamped ornament may be adapted to brackets.
_Violin and Guitar Cases._ In the old times these were often elaborately carved, and thus formed an ornament, instead of being, like all now used, anything but attractive.
_Handles for Drawers._ The hanging or hinge style of old-fashioned handles, now so prevalent, has the drawbacks of not being always easy to open or "find," and of frequently breaking. The knob, which was screwed on, was always wearing out and getting out of order. The best and most practical kind is made with a square shank which passes through a square hole in the drawer. It has also in itself a square hole into which a square pin is driven, which holds it fast. Carving in very low relief may be applied to ornament these handles, but it should never be such as to produce positive inequalities, such as press into, or may hurt the hand. If the pin be slightly wedge-shaped, it can never wear out, nor can the handle become loose, since when it does, all that is required is to drive it in further. A very plain chest of drawers may be made much more attractive with a handsome set of handles. Handles are another form of bosses.
_Applied Ornaments._ Old Roman bronze coins, such as may be bought for two or three pence, are often quite handsome enough to be applied with beautiful effect in caskets, tankards, or boxes. Lay the coin on the wood, draw its exact circle with a pin, and do this until the line is rather deeply scratched. Cut out the disc with great care, so that the coin may fit tightly into it. For this purpose very thick coins are preferable. Let it project a little from the surface. Fasten it in with diamond or Turkey cement. Of course, medals or coins of any kind may be used. Make a border in the wood round the coin, and if you like, apply other ornament to this border. Large nails with circular boss heads are very effective in furniture. Chests may be beautifully ornamented with them.
_Waste-Paper Box._ A carved box is much more "sightly" and solid than an ordinary waste-paper basket. The box may be carved in a basket pattern, and made rather wider at the top than the bottom.
_Borders._ Any ornament continued in a line or strip forms a border. A wave line, or one made of hemi-circles, joined or not with ornaments in every compartment, is a good plan for a border. So is a vine of any kind. When the hemi-circles are squared and joined, it becomes the basis for the Greek Meander or Wall of Troy. Angles and other forms are also used. Any diaper may be repeated so as to form a border. Borders around panels and other margins, and all along the edges of boards for shelves, brackets and most of the works mentioned in this list, may be executed in highly decorative effect, and with an ease and precision difficult to attain by carving, with the hammer and stamps mentioned in the first lesson. Lines are first drawn on the work as guides to place the punches to insure regularity.
_Pilaster._ Though this term is generally applied to what may be called a flat-sided pillar against a wall, or a flat half pillar, in wood-carving it means quite as often a perpendicular border in relief. Like borders, pilasters are used in many ways in decoration, as on walls, bureaux, cabinets, sideboards, tables, or wherever a long "strip" is to be filled.
_Base Moulding._ This is generally a border which is the lower portion of a piece of furniture, etc. Thus, if there is a panel and frame, and under this, just over the "feet," a carved strip, it is a base moulding. Narrow fillets on these may be also decorated by stamping.
_Sideboard or Buffet._ A piece of furniture eminently adapted to ornament. It may be made with a back or with shelves, niches, or a cabinet placed on it instead of a back.
_Alms Boxes, Money Boxes._ These are made up for churches, generally after Gothic designs, and afford a wide range of design.
_Lectern._ A church reading desk. This has always been a favourite subject with wood-carvers, Fig. 78.
_Ends of Pews._ A favourite subject for carvers in the days of old, _vide_ Fig. 80.
_Porte-papier._ A very useful article to carry paper, or a sketchbook, or to press leaves and flowers and convey them home. Take two pieces of board, from one-third to one-half an inch in thickness, and six inches by eight in size, more or less as may be desired. The paper is placed between these boards and the whole secured with a hand-strap. It is usual to carve a flower pattern on these.
_Ring or Circular Boxes._ Take a board, of any thickness, _e.g._ one of two inches, and make of it a disc or circle, using the steel fret saw, Fig. 16; then marking out another circle within this, saw out a ring about three-quarters of an inch in thickness. Adapt to this a bottom and lid, both, of course, also circular. It will be like what is known as a cheese box. To double the depth saw out two rings and glue them together. This will give four inches depth. Boxes may thus be made of any shape, such as a fish, and then carved.
_Photograph or Mirror Frames, or Mounts._ Take a piece of thin board, six inches by four or five, or any size required. Cut out of one corner of this as much as will be required for the photograph or mirror, leaving enough wood for a pattern. These have become very popular of late, Fig. 79.
_Triptych._ Two folding covers or boards on hinges, intended to cover a picture or carved or enamelled or inlaid work. These triptychs may be used reversed as writing desks, or else carved on both sides, and then when open hung on the wall as ornaments. When there are only two boards, as in an album, it is called a diptych.
_Encoignures._ Tables made with an angle to fit into a corner of a room.
_Shields._ Carved in wood, these form beautiful ornaments.
_Incitega._ A kind of stand or table for flowers. It was generally made of rods or strips, but it may be very easily formed like a box, that is, a truncated pyramid reversed. The sides are carved.
_Monopodium or Centre-table._ A small circular table supported on a central stem or foot, used by the ancients at social entertainments.
_Orb._ A globe covered with ornaments carved in low relief. They form very effective decorations.
_Finial._ A terminating ornament, corresponding to a flower as a crochet does to a side leaf, Fig. 80, etc.
_Coin-brackets._ Brackets made to fit into the corner of a room.
_Corner-cabinets._ Cabinets adapted to a corner of a room. There are also coin or corner objects of furniture of all kinds.
_Mouldings._ These are narrow borders or strips, and are very effective in giving relief in long spaces. A good effect for a full border, a diaper ground or a broad pattern, may often be made by doubling, trebling, etc., mouldings. By using the folding mirror a segment of any moulding or border may be converted into an ornament to fill up any given space, of any shape. There are several tools specially made for cutting figures in mouldings.
_Poppy-heads._ There are many cases where carving may be applied with good effect to relieve bareness. "Such ornaments, generally small groups of foliage" (though often figures with leaves), "were formerly placed on the summits of bench-ends desks, and other clerical wood-work" (F. W. Fairholt). Poppy-heads can be placed, however, or adapted, to all kinds of furniture, with a variation in form, Fig. 80.
_Sconce._ A wall candlestick, which usually takes the form of a projecting bracketed support in wood or metal. They originated in the fifteenth century, and were generally of enriched design. They may be sawed out of boards, or carved in many forms.
_Trellis-screens._ These are thin boards of open lattice-work, generally made by fret-sawing and subsequent carving. They are useful to place behind windows, and for many purposes.
_Tympanum._ A triangular space, which may be filled in with carved ornament.
_Verge or Barge-board._ The gable ornament of wood-work, used extensively for houses in the fifteenth century. It affords a wide field for decoration.
_Wreaths._ Carved circles or rings of wood, which form beautiful ornaments, especially when hung up at intervals. They may be used for picture-frames, Fig. 81.
_Acerra._ A square box, on legs or supports.
_Heads and Legs._ When a cylinder, or square stick, or horn, or oval box, is made to rudely resemble a figure by adding to it a head and legs, this is so called.
_Ædicula._ A small house or tower, generally used as a box. Very effective and beautiful articles are thus made.
_Ante-fix._ Ornament carved in stone or wood, or made from terra-cotta, "to give an ornamental finish or to conceal unsightly junctions in masonry" (Fairholt). There are few country houses or cottages where they cannot be applied.
_Ciborium, Synedoche._ Very richly adorned receptacles in which the Host is kept. They may be imitated for cabinets. In Spanish churches they are called _custodia_.
_Cyma._ A moulding consisting of a round and hollow conjoined, termed _cyma recta_ when hollow above, and _cyma reversa_ when the cavity is below.
_Modillons._ Brackets in Gothic architecture, the lower portion often in the form of a grotesque animal or human being.
_Hand Mirrors._ These afford an endless field for design. Fig. 82.
_Echinus._ The egg and tongue or egg and anchor moulding, much like the heart and dart ornament. It is easily made and is very effective. Faces may be cut on the "eggs."
_Outlines._ Figures of men, animals, etc., cut or sawed out of boards, and either painted or carved. They are common in Italian churches. They form very effective hanging ornaments. Birds can be adapted to beautiful outlines.
_Hammer Beam._ The projecting end of a beam, often carved.
_Hood Moulding._ The moulding which covers or surmounts a door or window on the outside, forming a sort of hood or weather-guard. It is also called a dripstone or weather moulding. It can be beautifully ornamented, and thus becomes a striking decoration.
_Impost._ The horizontal moulding on the summit of a pillar from which the arch springs.
_Console._ (French.) Brackets in furniture.
_Perfume Chests._ Boxes with perforated lids in which is kept _pot-pourri_ of rose leaves, or a mixture of powdered orris-root and spice.
_Churns._ A carved churn is a fanciful ornament, used to contain papers, etc. The handle is fixed to the cover and serves to lift it.