Above, James II (1633-1701)'s Restoration-era baroque armchair and stool from Knole House in Kent, the ancestral home upon which Virginia Woolf based her novel Orlando. (As an aside: has anyone seen the movie Orlando? Evidently one was made in '92 starring Tilda Swinton. I love Tilda Swinton. And ancestral homes, for that matter.)
"The [English baroque] style bespoke drama...Contrasts between light and dark, between rich textures and colors, were stressed. To render the inanimate lifelike, to astound, to overcome the limitations of materials themselves were primary concerns..." -Henry Joyce, in "Restoration Pieces: How English furniture went baroque," Art & Antiques, May 1984.
Sounds about right.
