DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1399#0134
PLATE 243.
A CARVED OAK'SIDEBOARD,
BY MR. J. LAMB, MANCHESTER.
TJ^OR this very finely-designed and carved sideboard Mr. Lamb was awarded a medal for
■*■ "excellence of design and workmanship,"—a distinction which he fairly merited. It
was about 12 feet 6 inches high; all the plain surfaces were of polished English pollard
oak, relieved by mouldings of ebonized wood. The whole of the carving was executed in plain
Italian walnut-wood, left mat, in order that the light and shade might not be injured by the
refracted lights of a polished surface.
The large oval frame, part gilt, was intended to receive a painting, but for the time contained
a mirror. On the left of the frame was a figure of Harvest bearing a sickle and wheatsheaf, and on
the right a figure of Vintage holding an amphora and some grapes. These figures were the size of
life. Trophies of corn, vine, fruit, &c., were introduced; the idea being to illustrate bread and
wine as the primary aliments of mankind.
The table portion of the lower division was supported by caryatidal figures of boys, the panels
containing groups of fruit, vegetables, game, fish, and other food-products of earth, air, and
water, destined for the use of man; the two central panels being arranged so as to form one
connected group.
The pollard oak was obtained from a noble British tree felled on the estate of Earl Manvers,
near Worksop, which measured ten feet across the lower part of the trunk, — a dimension large
enough to have admitted the whole sideboard being rough-hewn out of the solid as it stood.
This magnificent specimen of British manufacture was entirely executed in Mr. Lamb's workshops,
from the design of Mr. William J. Estall, who has the charge of Mr. Lamb's drawing department;
and all the modelling was executed by Mr. Hugues Protat, sculptor, to whom, and to their
employer, Mr. Lamb, is due the credit of having produced one of the finest and most architectonic
pieces of furniture exhibited in 1862. The dining-room chairs, furnished with embossed and
gilt morocco leather, a marquetrie cabinet, and a card-table, also exhibited by Mr. Lamb, deserved
notice for the good taste and solid style of workmanship displayed in them.
Manchester abounds with men of great wealth, who are noted for their encouragement
of art in all its phases; and we sincerely hope that some of them will purchase this noble
sideboard, and also that of Mr. Ogden (Plate 146), if they are not already disposed of; for it
is only by liberal patronage that our furniture-makers would be justified in the expense and
risk of producing works of this class, which are not only creditable to our national taste, but
which tend to advance the progress of truly good art throughout the country.
We need not sound the praises of that king of the forest the British oak; its reputation
for strength and durability is of ancient date. Evelyn states that handles of knives and daggers,
tobacco-boxes, picture-panels, &c, were formerly made from its roots. It was largely used for
building purposes; and it is stated that at Ashby Canons, Northamptonshire, the seat of Sir
J. Dryden, a room 30 feet by 20 was entirely floored and wainscoted from a single oak grown
on the estate. The same is recorded of a room 42 feet by 27 in Tredegar Park, Monmouthshire.
In the hall of Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire, was formerly a beam 66 feet long and 2 feet
square throughout its whole length. Dr. Plot speaks of a table in Dudley Castle made of one
oak plank, 75 feet long and 3 feet wide throughout; and the mainmast of the Boyal Sovereign,
built in the time of Charles I., formed out of one spar of oak, was 99 feet long and 3 feet in
diameter. In Langley Wood, Hants, an oak was felled in 1758 which had 300 rings of annual
growth, and the circumference of the trunk just above the ground was 36 feet. At Fredville,
Kent, were three noble oaks in 1807, — Majesty, Beauty, and Stately; the first, at 8 feet from
the ground, being more than 28 feet in circumference; the stem of Beauty going up straight
to a height of 70 feet. Sir Philip Sydney's oak, planted at his birth in Penshurst Park, is now over
25 feet in girth. The great oak in Panshanger Park, Herts, is stated by Strutt, in his " Sylva
Britannica," A.D. 1822, to have been 19 feet in circumference at a yard from the ground.
As regards durability, the carved oak woodwork of Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall,
Gloucester Cathedral, and other ancient buildings, is as sound as when put up ; and the piles
of old London Bridge, others of the Roman period in the Thames, at Oatlands, Surrey, and a
vessel of the Anglo-Saxon period dug out of the river Bother, in Kent, have been discovered
sound as when first placed, and hard as iron.
A CARVED OAK'SIDEBOARD,
BY MR. J. LAMB, MANCHESTER.
TJ^OR this very finely-designed and carved sideboard Mr. Lamb was awarded a medal for
■*■ "excellence of design and workmanship,"—a distinction which he fairly merited. It
was about 12 feet 6 inches high; all the plain surfaces were of polished English pollard
oak, relieved by mouldings of ebonized wood. The whole of the carving was executed in plain
Italian walnut-wood, left mat, in order that the light and shade might not be injured by the
refracted lights of a polished surface.
The large oval frame, part gilt, was intended to receive a painting, but for the time contained
a mirror. On the left of the frame was a figure of Harvest bearing a sickle and wheatsheaf, and on
the right a figure of Vintage holding an amphora and some grapes. These figures were the size of
life. Trophies of corn, vine, fruit, &c., were introduced; the idea being to illustrate bread and
wine as the primary aliments of mankind.
The table portion of the lower division was supported by caryatidal figures of boys, the panels
containing groups of fruit, vegetables, game, fish, and other food-products of earth, air, and
water, destined for the use of man; the two central panels being arranged so as to form one
connected group.
The pollard oak was obtained from a noble British tree felled on the estate of Earl Manvers,
near Worksop, which measured ten feet across the lower part of the trunk, — a dimension large
enough to have admitted the whole sideboard being rough-hewn out of the solid as it stood.
This magnificent specimen of British manufacture was entirely executed in Mr. Lamb's workshops,
from the design of Mr. William J. Estall, who has the charge of Mr. Lamb's drawing department;
and all the modelling was executed by Mr. Hugues Protat, sculptor, to whom, and to their
employer, Mr. Lamb, is due the credit of having produced one of the finest and most architectonic
pieces of furniture exhibited in 1862. The dining-room chairs, furnished with embossed and
gilt morocco leather, a marquetrie cabinet, and a card-table, also exhibited by Mr. Lamb, deserved
notice for the good taste and solid style of workmanship displayed in them.
Manchester abounds with men of great wealth, who are noted for their encouragement
of art in all its phases; and we sincerely hope that some of them will purchase this noble
sideboard, and also that of Mr. Ogden (Plate 146), if they are not already disposed of; for it
is only by liberal patronage that our furniture-makers would be justified in the expense and
risk of producing works of this class, which are not only creditable to our national taste, but
which tend to advance the progress of truly good art throughout the country.
We need not sound the praises of that king of the forest the British oak; its reputation
for strength and durability is of ancient date. Evelyn states that handles of knives and daggers,
tobacco-boxes, picture-panels, &c, were formerly made from its roots. It was largely used for
building purposes; and it is stated that at Ashby Canons, Northamptonshire, the seat of Sir
J. Dryden, a room 30 feet by 20 was entirely floored and wainscoted from a single oak grown
on the estate. The same is recorded of a room 42 feet by 27 in Tredegar Park, Monmouthshire.
In the hall of Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire, was formerly a beam 66 feet long and 2 feet
square throughout its whole length. Dr. Plot speaks of a table in Dudley Castle made of one
oak plank, 75 feet long and 3 feet wide throughout; and the mainmast of the Boyal Sovereign,
built in the time of Charles I., formed out of one spar of oak, was 99 feet long and 3 feet in
diameter. In Langley Wood, Hants, an oak was felled in 1758 which had 300 rings of annual
growth, and the circumference of the trunk just above the ground was 36 feet. At Fredville,
Kent, were three noble oaks in 1807, — Majesty, Beauty, and Stately; the first, at 8 feet from
the ground, being more than 28 feet in circumference; the stem of Beauty going up straight
to a height of 70 feet. Sir Philip Sydney's oak, planted at his birth in Penshurst Park, is now over
25 feet in girth. The great oak in Panshanger Park, Herts, is stated by Strutt, in his " Sylva
Britannica," A.D. 1822, to have been 19 feet in circumference at a yard from the ground.
As regards durability, the carved oak woodwork of Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall,
Gloucester Cathedral, and other ancient buildings, is as sound as when put up ; and the piles
of old London Bridge, others of the Roman period in the Thames, at Oatlands, Surrey, and a
vessel of the Anglo-Saxon period dug out of the river Bother, in Kent, have been discovered
sound as when first placed, and hard as iron.