The earliest representations of Greek furniture are to be found in the Syrian Room at the British Museum. These are the chairs dated about 6 B.C., in which the antique figures are seated. The backs are perpendicular, and the frame pieces of the seats are mortised into the legs.
[Illustration: No. 23. Greek Corinthian, Choragic Monument, Athens.]
The Greek couch was not unlike the modern sofa. It was used for sleeping and resting. Chairs and stools were sometimes made of metal, and were often of a folding type.
Tables were constructed in various shapes--sometimes the supports were fashioned as heads and legs of lions and leopards, and sometimes as sphinxes with lifted wings. In common with other pieces of furniture, they were made in wood, metal and marble.
A. Couch or bed, Archaic Etruscan. B. “ “ Vase painting. C. Archaic chair, 580-520 B.C. D. Chair from Hydria. E. } F. } Archaic chairs, Harpy Tomb, 500 B.C. ]
The vase rooms of the British Museum provide considerable matter for study with regard to the details of Greek furniture, couches especially are frequently depicted.
The Greeks were expert workers in cast bronze, as is evidenced, not only by their statuary, but in many utensils of domestic life, notably the oil lamps, which were also in many instances modelled in terra cotta.
A. Kelebe (mixing bowl), 6th century B.C. B. Lekythos (oil bottle), Athenian (about) 450 B.C. C. Mastos, coloured black, red and white. D. Hydria (pitcher), 350-250 B.C. E. Kylix (goblet), 520 B.C. ]
Soon after the sack of Corinth in 140 B.C., Greece became a Roman province, and the Greek art workers eventually found more encouragement from Roman patronage than in local requirement.
They therefore went where their work was appreciated and rewarded, thereby effecting a potential influence in the art and work of their conquerors.
Originally there were no special native characteristics by which Roman work could be distinguished, as the Romans absorbed various influences from the races that they conquered. Their conquests extended East and West, and from these widely differing outside influences the Roman style developed.
The Romans, who by temperament, were great soldiers, organisers and engineers, rather than artistic, in their early essays in architecture were influenced by Etruscan work.