In the time of Charles the First the width was increased, and a contrivance was introduced for doubling the area of the top when required, by two flaps which drew out from either end, and, by means of a wedge-shaped arrangement, the centre or main table top was lowered, and the whole table, thus increased, became level.  Illustrations taken from Mr. G.T.  Robinson’s article on furniture in the “Art Journal” of 1881, represent a “Drawinge table,” which was the name by which these “latest improvements” were known; the black lines were of stained pear tree, let into the oak, and the acorn shaped member of the leg is an imported Dutch design, which became very common about this time, and was applied to the supports of cabinets, sometimes as in the illustration, plainly turned, but frequently carved.  Another table of this period was the “folding table,” which was made with twelve, sixteen, or with twenty legs, as shewn in the illustration of this example, and which, as its name implies, would shut up into about one third its extended size.  There is one of these tables in the Stationers’ Hall.

[Illustration:  Couch, Arm Chair and Single Chair.  Carved and Gilt.  Upholstered in rich Silk Velvet.  Part of Suite at Penshurst Place.  Also an Italian Cabinet.  Period:  Charles II.]

[Illustration:  Folding Table at Penshurst Place.  Period:  Charles II. to James II.]

[Illustration:  “Drawing” Table with Black Lines Inlaid.  Period:  Charles II.]

It was probably in the early part of the seventeenth century that the Couch became known in England.  It was not common, nor quite in the form in which we now recognize that luxurious article of furniture, but was probably a carved oak settle, with cushions so arranged as to form a resting lounge by day, Shakespeare speaks of the “branch’d velvet gown” of Malvolio having come from a “day bed,” and there is also an allusion to one in Richard III.[10]

In a volume of “Notes and Queries” there is a note which would show that the lady’s wardrobe of this time (1622) was a very primitive article of furniture.  Mention is made there of a list of articles of wearing apparel belonging to a certain Lady Elizabeth Morgan, sister to Sir Nathaniel Rich, which, according to the old document there quoted, dated the 13th day of November, 1622, “are to be found in a great bar’d chest in my Ladie’s Bedchamber.”  To judge from this list, Lady Morgan was a person of fashion in those days.  We may also take it for granted that beyond the bedstead, a prie dieu chair, a bench, some chests, and the indispensable mirror, there was not much else to furnish a lady’s bedroom in the reign of James I. or of his successor.

[Illustration:  Theodore Hook’s Chair.]

[Illustration:  Scrowled Chair in Carved Oak.]