American Furniture Mart Photograph by GrignonFigure 7.—A directoire piece in lacquer and gold, upholstered in a rich gold and green brocade fashion, this interesting stool. An ideal hall piece, the ornate stool lends itself to an interesting setting when used with the lovely Duncan Phyfe mirror and mirrored glass wall sconces. The mirror has a dull green panel across the top—the lyre and laurel branches appearing in a deep green and gold. The arabesque Axminster rug has a tracery leaf design in sculptone effect. It is a greyed green tone.
American Furniture Mart Photograph by GrignonFigure 7.—A directoire piece in lacquer and gold, upholstered in a rich gold and green brocade fashion, this interesting stool. An ideal hall piece, the ornate stool lends itself to an interesting setting when used with the lovely Duncan Phyfe mirror and mirrored glass wall sconces. The mirror has a dull green panel across the top—the lyre and laurel branches appearing in a deep green and gold. The arabesque Axminster rug has a tracery leaf design in sculptone effect. It is a greyed green tone.
American Furniture Mart Photograph by Grignon
Figure 7.—A directoire piece in lacquer and gold, upholstered in a rich gold and green brocade fashion, this interesting stool. An ideal hall piece, the ornate stool lends itself to an interesting setting when used with the lovely Duncan Phyfe mirror and mirrored glass wall sconces. The mirror has a dull green panel across the top—the lyre and laurel branches appearing in a deep green and gold. The arabesque Axminster rug has a tracery leaf design in sculptone effect. It is a greyed green tone.
Unit IV.—STYLE AS A SELLING FACTOR
Salespersons frequently find it necessary to deepen a customer's appreciation of the fitness and beauty of a piece by the presentation of one or more additional selling features, of which the most important are construction or technical excellence, attractiveness of materials or finish, and beauty of design or style.
This should do two things:
1. Enhance the value of your merchandise.2. Enable you to reveal technical or artistic knowledge which will increase the customer's respect.
1. Enhance the value of your merchandise.
2. Enable you to reveal technical or artistic knowledge which will increase the customer's respect.
There is no fixed or logical order for the presentation of these various selling features. Many salesmen begin with construction, but this often is a mistake. There is reason to believe that more women are interested in materials than in construction, and more in style than in materials.
What style means to you.—Style is a powerful buying motive of great and growing importance in furniture. Most of us attempt to use the style appeal only in connection with period furniture. Most women, on the other hand, identify style with fashion. They think of style in decoration as substantially the same thing as style in dress; that is, as something smartly harmonious and in the accepted mode.
Unquestionably we must develop the power to capitalize on style as our customers understand it.
The successful salesman also must be able to exploit style in the historic or period sense. The history of furniture is a selling tool of immense value, whether we are trading upon high, medium, or low levels.
The sections which discuss the more important period styles contain a mass of highly condensed information. All of this information and much more will be necessary to the man who wants to reach the higher levels of his profession, but just how much of it you will need to remember and organize for your present work is a matter to be determined by yourself. The first thing to do is to read it through carefully two or three times in order to get the broad outlines of the subject. After that study more carefully those parts ofthe section on "Period styles from Renaissance to early colonial," page50, and "The American style," page70, that can be related to your own merchandise. Make use of the suggested reading list at the end of the unit, page79.
Glossary and reading list.—Many terms used in the section on "Period styles from Renaissance to early colonial" are uncommon and not widely understood in the furniture trade, although they are freely used in books and magazines which deal with the home furnishing art. These terms are defined in the glossary included in the appendix, pages247to 249.
Furniture is and always has been a utility and an expression of human ideals. In order to understand period furniture and to talk about it with convincing enthusiasm we must be able to see beyond it to the people who created and used it.
For our purpose, we confine this summary to the historic period beginning about 500 years ago, which covers the development of furniture as we know and use it today. Speaking broadly, the social trends during this period were from insecurity to security; from despotism to political liberty; from austerity to luxury; and from simplicity and few wants to sophistication and multiplied wants.
Accompanying and expressing these social changes we find corresponding changes in architecture and decoration. The trends are from homes of fortress-like construction to homes easily accessible and amply lighted by low windows; from immense rooms with high ceilings to small rooms with low ceilings; from massive, heavy forms and thick proportions to small, light forms and slender proportions; from the austerity and virility of straight lines to the softness and femininity of curved lines; from strong dark colors to soft light colors; from vigorous, open textures to smooth, close textures; and from a few types of furniture to the extraordinary variety of today.
Most period furniture was designed for the rich and powerful.—We must remember that most of the historic styles were expressions of the life of the court and the aristocracy. Period furniture was made by great artists, and often was elaborately ornate, sumptuous, and enormously costly. The metal mounts alone on the cabinets made for the mistresses of Louis XV, for example, cost far more than the ground, building, and complete furnishings of an ordinary American home.
The essence of these styles is to be found in their line, proportion, color, and texture. We can adapt them to machine production and mass distribution. We sell these reproductions or adaptions for whatthey cost in a machine age. But we can add to their desirability by explaining their aristocratic ancestry. Thousands of customers enjoy the sentimental satisfaction that comes with the knowledge of style and period sources and even the anecdote plays its part in giving merchandise its full measure of value in use.
Europe before the Renaissance.—When the Roman power was broken in the fifth century of our era, Western Europe was given over to anarchy and darkness. In the beginning of the feudal period, the great barons with their families, retainers, and dogs, lived in bare fortresses or one-room castles. The floors were of dirt. The lord and his lady had a great bed, two chairs of state,[4]and a few hutches.[5]The retainers had stools on which to sit, and ate at a great table made by laying hewn planks on trestles.
By the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 a measure of civilization had been achieved. A great love of color developed with the age of chivalry. The period of the Crusades (seven attempts during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries to recover Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the infidels) brought the knights of Western Europe into contact with the developed arts of Sicily and the far more luxurious life of their Saracen enemies, and the returning crusaders brought back great quantities of the rich and colorful fabrics of the East.
That tremendous out-flowering of the human spirit which we call the Renaissance (French for rebirth) started in Italy in the fourteenth century; it grew there in full vigor in the fifteenth, attained to its maturest powers in the sixteenth, and sank to its decline in the seventeenth. The whole era was a time of great achievement. The New World was discovered and explored, learning was revived and extended, international trade was developed, and masterpieces were created in the arts, which still stand among the greatest monuments of human genius.
The ideas and decorative practice of the Italian Renaissance quickly spread to the west, where they overcame or fused with the existing Gothic, resulted in the Renaissance styles of Spain, France, Flanders, Holland, and England, and started the long course of development which has created the immensely rich heritage possessed by lovers of furniture today. In studying the decoration of this first period,we must remember that the construction of rooms adapted to the comfort, privacy, and intimacy of modern life was an eighteenth century development. Life was lived in the public eye and in rooms of state. The apartments of the palaces were large, the ceilings high, and the furniture sparse and designed for its decorative value rather than for use and comfort.
It is customary to divide this era into three periods; the Early Renaissance, characterized by a rich simplicity and a dignity almost austere; the High Renaissance, by a showy but restrained magnificence; and the Late Renaissance, by a baroque magnificence over-ornate and unrestrained.
During the first period, walls were chiefly in rough plaster, bare save for tapestries or panels of damask or brocade, or finished with a smooth coat decorated with colored frescoes; ceilings were largely in dark woods, cross-beamed, and with the heavy beams and corbels ornamented in color; and floors were of stone, tile, and marble. There was some use of oriental rugs, and a free use of rich decorative textiles.
During the high or middle period (about 1500-1550) many of the rooms were rich with pattern and color. Walls were in colored marbles, or covered with frescoes and gilding, or with gorgeous brocades, Genoese velvets and tooled and gilded leather; ceilings frescoed and gilded; floors paved with many-colored patterns in gleaming marble.
Furniture of the period was straight-lined, rectangular, and of dark woods. Carving, in low relief and in the round, always was employed with a fine sense of the value of contrast with plain spaces. Gesso ornament, gilding, and painting were much employed, and the panels of chests and other pieces often were decorated by the greatest artists.
Chairs of the period were of(a)the rectangular type, with or without arms, with high or low back, and with or without upholstery;(b)the curule, a sort of four-legged camp stool with back, sometimes of metal and with fabric seat; and theX-type, adapted from ancient Greece and Rome, called in Italy Dante and Savonarola chairs. These chairs of wood or metal often were made to fold, and later became popular in England.
Tables included the single-slab refectory type; draw tables of the same construction used today; pedestal tables with round, square, hexagonal, and octagonal tops; and a variety of writing tables with a front box or drawer section which could be lifted for writing. The larger tables were supported by heavy turned legs with stretchers near the floor, or by trussed or columned end supports connected by a stretcher, often arcaded.
Painted Commode18th Century Venetian"Dante" ChairItalian RenaissanceArmchairItalian RenaissanceArmchairSpanish RenaissanceArmchairItalian RenaissanceVarguenoSpanish RenaissanceTableSpanish RenaissanceFigure 8.—Italian and Spanish styles (1400-1759).
Painted Commode18th Century Venetian"Dante" ChairItalian RenaissanceArmchairItalian RenaissanceArmchairSpanish RenaissanceArmchairItalian RenaissanceVarguenoSpanish RenaissanceTableSpanish RenaissanceFigure 8.—Italian and Spanish styles (1400-1759).
Figure 8.—Italian and Spanish styles (1400-1759).
Beds, which were usually set on a dais or low platform and always richly embellished, included the heavy four-poster with canopy; the four-poster with low posts and no tester, with or without footboard; and the paneled type with head and foot board and no posts.
Chests, chiefly bridal chests (Italian: Cassone or cassoni in plural), were a most conspicuous feature of Italian decoration.
Credenzas, which served either as buffet or console, were wall pieces about 4 feet high and of varying length. Other forms included the armadio (French armoire, a large cupboard or cabinet for linens), small cupboards, chests or drawers, desk, benches, and stools.
Renaissance ornament was enormously rich. The forms, taken chiefly from classical antiquity, included the acanthus leaf, human and chimerical figures, cherubs, scrolls, foliage, flowers, swags, rosettes, and drapery festoons. Velvets were used largely for upholstery, with brocades, brocatelles, damasks, needlepoint, and leather, and strong rich colors were used throughout as would be expected of so vigorous an age. Strong reds, blues, and greens, set off by gold, were the favorite hues.
Although a long period of decadence followed the High Renaissance much beautiful work was done in eighteenth century Italy. Furniture was chiefly of walnut, mahogany, and many highly figured woods, with carving, painting, bone inlay, pietra dura, marble tops and ornamental metal mounts the favorite methods of embellishment. The painted furniture, particularly that made in Venice, is of interest to us today, and is used in suites for bedroom and breakfast room, and as occasional pieces in other rooms. In using this furniture today it is unimportant to attempt to reproduce the historic backgrounds.
Spanish interiors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries differed sharply from contemporary rooms in Italy, France, and England, chiefly by reason of old Moorish art and custom, which the incoming wave of the Renaissance was not strong enough to wash away.
Old Spanish decoration is characterized by a severe dignity, relieved by concentrated masses of strong colors and by a wide variety of ornamental forms. Furniture of the period was straight-lined and rectangular and chiefly of walnut, mahogany, chestnut, oak, and pine. Carving, straight and spiral turning, inlay of ivory, bone, ebony, colored woods, tortoise shell, silver, and bronze, often with outlines in black and vermillion, and ornamental iron work were the principal means of embellishment. Elaborate and beautiful mounts of iron and brass were common.
Chairs, though not common, included both the curule and rectangular types, the latter with or without arms and with or without upholstery. Other varieties included carved and straight spiral turned legs; Spanish scroll, bell, ball and bun feet; carved, splat, and arcaded backs; and wood, flat upholstered, and squab-cushioned seats. Beds were large, and mostly of the arcaded headboard type. Tables were mostly of large size and rectangular.
French Gothic art early began to give way before the constantly widening flood of Renaissance art which flowed in from Italy. The transition was practically complete when Francis I was crowned, and less than 50 years later, under Henry II and his Italian wife Catherine de Medici, the richly ornate yet restrained style of the French Renaissance was fully formed. The style is too palatial for adaptation to American homes.
1. Louis XIV (Louis Quatorze[6]), 1643-1715.
Louis XIV surrounded himself with the airs and trappings of majesty. Furniture of the period was formal and dignified, and for the most part, massive. It retained the straight lines characteristic of the earlier styles, but with less of angular harshness.
Walnut was chiefly used for exposed parts together with oak, chestnut, ebony, pine, and sycamore. Many exotic woods were used for veneers and inlay. Caning was common for seats and backs. Every known form of embellishment was employed, including carving, chiefly in the acanthus leaf, shell, cartouche, cupid, ram's head, and other classic motives.
Chairs of the most characteristic type were rectangular, with high broad backs having a top straight or slightly rounded at the corners, back and seat solidly upholstered; legs term-shaped (term: A four-sided pillar, usually tapering toward the bottom), carved, and under-braced by Gothic or saltire cross stretchers; arms as long as seat, and usually straight and upholstered. Other seating included thesofaorcanapé,[7]thechaise longue, and thebench,tabouret, andstool.
Upholstery fabrics were exceedingly rich and gorgeous, Gobelin and Aubusson tapestries, silk velvets, damasks, and brocades being chiefly used. Furniture was upholstereden suite, a common arrangement including one sofa, two arm chairs, and nine stools ortabourets. Etiquette prescribed the use ofstoolsby most members of the court, and prudence demanded it of the ladies, who at this time wore hoop-skirts, so enormous that they couldn't sit in an arm chair. All furniture was placed against the wall, with the center of the room left clear.
The old-fashioned four-poster bed with drapery belongs here. Most fashionable was thelit d'ange(bed of the angel), canopied but without posts, which was of enormous size and always richly carved and embellished.
While tables were of many kinds and sizes, the rectangular shape with term legs was most characteristic.Screens, either one-panel or folding, were used in most rooms, andmirrors,pedestals, andtall clocksbecame common, in addition to such older forms asarmoires,commodes,cabinets, anddesks.
The colors of the period were fairly dark and strong, with crimson, green, and gold still favorites; some new and lighter colors became popular; among them aurora—the yellowish pink hue of the dawn—flame, flesh, and amaranth.
2. Louis XV (Louis Quinze)[8]1715-74.
Great-grandson of the old king, Louis XV was but 5 years old when the latter died, and for 8 years Philippe of Orleans governed as regent. Louis XV was too young to continue the constant round of formal receptions, and state functions. Court life turned from the great salons to the smaller apartment and the boudoir. Furniture became smaller and more dainty; the hard and virile straight line gave place to the soft and feminine curved line; and dark colors to light and delicate tones. Pale tints of rose, blue, green, and yellow were the favorite colors.
An extraordinary variety of cabinet woods was used—among them walnut, mahogany, oak, rosewood, cherry, violet, and tulipwood. Embellishment included carving; ornamental veneers; marquetry; plaques of porcelain; painting in ivory, soft yellow, gray, or sea green with fine lines of white, gold, or color; and lacquer, which became immensely popular.
The chairs, all curvilinear, with and without arms, upholstered or caned, include thefauteuil[9]orlarge armchair; thebergere, asmaller armchairwith solidly upholstered arms and often with loose cushions; thecauseuse(the word means talkative, chatty), an easy arm chair; the "confessional," large winged chair, often with a high seat matching a large tabouret and put together to form achaise longue, and many others.
TableFrench RenaissanceArmchairLouis XIVWriting DeskLouis XVArmchairLouis XVArmoireLouis XIVCommodeLouis XVFigure 9.—Early French styles (1500-1750).
TableFrench RenaissanceArmchairLouis XIVWriting DeskLouis XVArmchairLouis XVArmoireLouis XIVCommodeLouis XVFigure 9.—Early French styles (1500-1750).
Figure 9.—Early French styles (1500-1750).
Beds were as varied as the chairs. Alcove andsofaorboudoir bedswere favorites, the latter having headboard, footboard, and back.Four-poster canopy bedswere common, and were sometimes made of iron, draped. Another fashionable favorite was theday bed, often with a fabric-covered headboard, and placed with either head or side against the wall.
Among the multitude of tables were many of elliptical and other curvilinear shapes; thecrescentorkidney writing table; thepowder table, which we have lately revived after more than 150 years; and theladies' work table. Thechiffonier, a small piece with drawers, came into use about 1750, as did thecorner cabinetand thewall shelves, now known as hangingbook racks.
Louis XV furniture is used often in the drawing room or dining room of important American houses, where a suitable background will be ensured by the architecture.
Most of us, however, have occasion to sell it only for bedroom use.
3. Louis XVI (Louis Seize[10]) 1774-94.
Louis XVI, grandson of Louis XV, was married at 15 to Marie Antoinette of Austria. He was popular for some time, but was swept aside by the French Revolution in 1789 and was killed on the guillotine.
The style which bears his name (sometimes known as the style of Marie Antoinette) was in reality fully formed before his accession to the throne. It resulted directly from a wave of enthusiasm for the delicate type of classic ornament revealed by the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were discovered early in the eighteenth century. The Adam style in England came from the same source.
The furniture of the period returned to straight lines and rectangular shapes, with curved lines freely employed but not dominant.
A great variety of cabinet woods was used, fashionable favorites, including mahogany, walnut, sycamore, and satinwood. Carving, architectural moldings, marquetry, figured veneers, lacquer, painting, and porcelain inlays were the usual methods of embellishment. Much furniture was painted.
Bed—Louis XVIArmchairLouis XVIArmchair—EmpireArmchairFrench ProvincialBed—EmpireFigure 10.—Later French styles (1750-1815).
Bed—Louis XVIArmchairLouis XVIArmchair—EmpireArmchairFrench ProvincialBed—EmpireFigure 10.—Later French styles (1750-1815).
Figure 10.—Later French styles (1750-1815).
Among the new chairs was thevoyeuse(vwä-yûz), a lyre-back armless chair with the top rail upholstered as an elbow rest, and used by dandies who bestrode it backward in order not to crush the tails of their coats. Favorite beds included thesofa, usually upholstered with damask or brocade, and supporting at the four corners a light open frame bearing a small canopy; and theday bedwith or without back.
During the period thetea table,breakfast table, andextension dining table, with four, six, or eight legs, came into common use.
The Directoire[11](1795-1804) and Empire (1804-15) Styles.
After France had rid itself of royalty and aristocracy through the Revolution, under the direction of the painter David a new style was created; it was "made and molded of things past." Inspired by the classic Roman decoration, it was known at the time as the "antique" style and today is known as the Directoire. (See fig. 7.)
The Directorate was succeeded in 1799 by the Consulate, with Napoleon as First Consul, and the Consulate in 1804 by the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor. Style trends were continuous; for our purpose it is enough to discuss briefly the style known as the Empire(l'Empire).
It is of interest because of its influence upon American furniture of the Federal period.
Furniture was for the most part rectangular, massive, and architectural in design, but curvilinear in Roman and gondola chairs, and in many beds and sofas. Legs included the straight term form; round, either plain or carved; rectangular and turned outward at both front and back as in the chair illustrated (p.59); flat truss supports and winged chimerical figures for tables and beds. Feet included the paw, ball, scroll, often with leaf shoe.
Mahogany was the favorite wood, with some use of rosewood, walnut, oak, and yew, and with a wide variety of materials for inlay. Carving, veneer, paint, turning, and gilding on metal or carved wood were usual methods of embellishment. Tapestry, damask, satin, brocade, velvet, and worsted damask were used for upholstery, with fringes and gimps common.
"French Provincial" refers to furniture made in the French provinces, by local craftsmen and usually of local woods, in close reproduction of the styles dominant at the court. The styles which were widely copied, and which resulted in the most graceful and charming pieces, were those of Louis XV and Louis XVI. (See fig. 1.)
Because England was ruled by four dynasties—English, Scotch, Dutch, and German—English furniture reveals the effects of a series of strong foreign influences.
With the accession of Elizabeth (1558) the English Renaissance was firmly established. Rooms of the period were paneled in oak with small rectangular panels, plain or carved, and usually carried to the ceiling; ceilings in ornamental plaster (parge), or in beamed-wood or open-timber construction; and windows large, with leaded casements separated by mullion. Most important rooms had oak-plank flooring; there was considerable use of oriental rugs, then known as "Turkey carpets." Many rooms still had dirt floors strewn with rushes, which were changed but twice a year, with such results that the Englishman of the period called his floor the "marsh," and kept his feet off it when possible by use of chairs and tables with low, solid stretchers.
Oak was the dominant furniture wood, with some use of elm, beech, yew, pine, and Scotch fir, which was called "deal," and valued highly. Carving, mouldings, and paneling were used for ornament, with marquetry for panels in walnut, ebony, rosewood, pear wood, cherry, yew, and holly.
Furniture was massive, architectural in character, straight-lined, and rectangular.
The beds, which were used only by the great, were the most important article of furniture. They were of great size with a high headboard supporting a very heavy cornice, the other end of which was borne by posts set at the lower corners and often detached from the bottom of the bed.
This style evolved directly from the Elizabethan, with the development of new forms of furniture and increased use of upholstery. When, at the Restoration in 1660, Charles II returned from France, he brought back something of the French taste and the French desire for luxury.
Draw-top TableElizabethanArmchairElizabethanArmchairLate JacobeanChairLate JacobeanGate-leg TableJacobeanFigure 11.—English styles (1560-1690).
Draw-top TableElizabethanArmchairElizabethanArmchairLate JacobeanChairLate JacobeanGate-leg TableJacobeanFigure 11.—English styles (1560-1690).
Figure 11.—English styles (1560-1690).
Oak remained the principal furniture wood, with walnut fashionable after 1660. Furniture design, strongly influenced by Flemish practice, tended to increasing slenderness and grace. The melon and acorn bulb legs remained in favor for several decades; were superseded during the Commonwealth by spiral turning; and in turn gave way to the scroll, or Flemish legs characteristic of Charles II furniture. Chair backs became high and narrow, and were of the ladder type or caned, carved, or upholstered. Chair backs were raked, and later in the period the back legs of chairs—at first perpendicular to the floor as in Elizabethan practice, were bent outward to counterbalance the rake of the back. Stretchers continued to follow frame line, but were gradually made lighter, set a little higher, and turned. Toward the end of the century the front stretching was raised, widened, and carved with a cresting andC-scrolls, as were many of the chair backs.
Gate-leg tablesandday bedsappeared early in the period—the latter usually caned, and with a sloping head and without footboard or back. Thecouchtook the place of the settee, and was made first with the squab seat, and after the Restoration with the same construction and ornament as the arm chair.Sofaswere made like the high-back upholstered chairs, with arms solidly upholstered.Tall clocksandwall clocksappeared, and manysmall stands.
James II, last of the Stuart kings of England, was followed by the Dutchman William of Orange and his wife Mary. These names stand for a rich but confused style which marks the transition between Old English practice and the Dutch style, fully developed a few years later in the reign of Queen Anne. Architectural backgrounds were lighter and richer, and the walls were often covered with velvets, damasks, and brocades in large baroque patterns, or with papers in Chinese designs.
Walnut was the fashionable wood, but oak, elm, pine, chestnut, pearwood, cedar, and painted beech were used, with marquetry of many woods, plus bone and ivory. Furniture was rectangular in outline, with a free use of curves. Carving was used for the legs and backs of many chairs, but flat panels were embellished with veneers, marquetry, and lacquer. Furniture legs were mostly turned, of trumpet shape and with bun feet, though the Dutch cabriole legs, with pad feet and a single shell carved on the knees, were not uncommon.
William and Mary brought from Holland the vogue for Chinese ornament. Everyone collected porcelain and drank tea; new types of cabinets, small chairs, and occasional tables appeared in profusion.
The style of Queen Anne persisted, with unimportant changes, throughout the reign of George I. It was less magnificent and impressive than preceding styles, but lighter, more graceful, and more comfortable.
The walls were often paneled, but in deal rather than oak, either in the natural color or painted, and panels were frequently embellished with high-relief carving. For un-paneled walls, cheap printedcotton fabrics largely replaced the sumptuous materials of the previous style, while many walls were covered with wallpapers in landscape or mythological subjects, or in imitation of veined marble or wood wainscots. Ceilings were painted as in the Stuart period. Windows were increased in size, and hung with figured velvets, satins, damasks, and chintzes.
Lacquer continued to be vogue, and was used oncabinets,screens,occasional tables, andchairs. Carving and painting—in black and gold, red, blue, and green with gilding—were favorite methods of embellishment. Caning was common. For upholstery needlepoint, figured and plain velvet, and damask were chiefly employed.
In this style curved lines supplanted straight lines for the first time in England. Cabriole legs were almost universal; chair backs were high and narrow, with open framing and a fiddle splat, usually plain but sometimes simply carved or pierced. Chair-back crests and the legs of most furniture were ornamented with a carved shell which reached England from Italy by way of Holland. High curved stretchers, connecting front and back legs only and tied at the middle by a single cross stretcher, were in general use but sometimes omitted.
Thelove seatbecame an important piece of furniture at this time, and was usually made with a double chair back, six legs, and upholstered seat.Dining tableswere of thegate-legtype, usually of elliptical shape.Tallboysbecame common, and contained from six to nine drawers.
Georgian England produced the decorative style created by Robert Adam, and the individual furniture styles of Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton.
The development of English furniture between 1715 and 1727 is of little interest save to the expert. The period was a time of lowered taste. Mahogany, introduced from the West Indies as a curiosity about 1710, became within two or three decades the dominant cabinet wood.
There were three Chippendales, all cabinetmakers. The second, Thomas Chippendale (born 1710; died 1779), came to London with his father in 1727 to open a shop. By 1735 the firm was prospering, and 15 years later Thomas Chippendale was a great success. As is usual with men of genius, however, he was undervalued by his contemporaries; and it was not until a hundred years later that he came to be recognized as the greatest furniture designer of his race.
SetteeWilliam and MaryArmchairChippendaleChairLate Queen AnneArmchairChippendaleWing ChairQueen AnneArmchairChippendaleCabinetWilliam and MaryFigure 12.—English styles (1690-1760).
SetteeWilliam and MaryArmchairChippendaleChairLate Queen AnneArmchairChippendaleWing ChairQueen AnneArmchairChippendaleCabinetWilliam and MaryFigure 12.—English styles (1690-1760).
Figure 12.—English styles (1690-1760).
Chippendale served the world of fashion, observed and followed style trends closely, and successively developed the Dutch, Rococo, Chinese, and Gothic styles. He lost popular favor when the classic revival, led by Robert Adam, became the dominating influence about 1762, and much of his time thereafter was spent in executing work for Adam, who designed furniture for houses but did not make it. Taking the period from 1727 to 1765, Chippendale's career as a designer took the following course:
1725 Dutch mode, with early Georgian heaviness. The chairs had bandy legs, ball and claw feet, broad seats and fiddle backs, carved and sometimes pierced. Gradually the proportions were refined, a shorter and squarer back with rounded corners was developed, and the splat was replaced by a richly carved member.1735 Dutch influence yields and blends with the French styles of the Regency and Louis XV, resulting in more slender and graceful proportions and a free use of Rococo ornament.1745 French influence predominant, with floral and Chinese lattice detail gradually introduced and the Chinese influence growing stronger. Lightness of effect sought after, and achieved by means of pierced work.1755 Chinese influence stronger, waning after 1760. Between 1750 and 1760 he developed the Gothic style, sometimes blending it with Chinese motives.
1725 Dutch mode, with early Georgian heaviness. The chairs had bandy legs, ball and claw feet, broad seats and fiddle backs, carved and sometimes pierced. Gradually the proportions were refined, a shorter and squarer back with rounded corners was developed, and the splat was replaced by a richly carved member.
1735 Dutch influence yields and blends with the French styles of the Regency and Louis XV, resulting in more slender and graceful proportions and a free use of Rococo ornament.
1745 French influence predominant, with floral and Chinese lattice detail gradually introduced and the Chinese influence growing stronger. Lightness of effect sought after, and achieved by means of pierced work.
1755 Chinese influence stronger, waning after 1760. Between 1750 and 1760 he developed the Gothic style, sometimes blending it with Chinese motives.
For ornament Chippendale used mahogany and depended upon carving, of which he was a great master, set off by gilding, japanning, and lacquer. He made furniture for every purpose, includingmirrorandpicture frames,girandoles,pier tablesandbrackets, andchina shelvesandcabinets(see fig. 3.) Doubtless hischairsare his most significant creations. His chair backs fall into three classes:
1. "Splat" or upright center bar, passing from plaint splat to jar shape pierced and carved with scrolls and foliage, and culminating in the elaborate ribbon back.2. "All-over" patterns, covering in equal fashion the whole of the back, and characteristic of his Chinese and Gothic designs.3. Ladder-back or horizontal rails.
1. "Splat" or upright center bar, passing from plaint splat to jar shape pierced and carved with scrolls and foliage, and culminating in the elaborate ribbon back.
2. "All-over" patterns, covering in equal fashion the whole of the back, and characteristic of his Chinese and Gothic designs.
3. Ladder-back or horizontal rails.
Chippendale made a free use of colorful textiles for both squab seat and upholstered pieces, employing tapestries, worsted damask, Spanish tooled leather, and close-stitch embroidery.
The classic revival, discussed under the French style of Louis XVI, was initiated in England by the Scotch architect, Robert Adam. He was appointed architect to the King in 1762; designed many important homes for private owners; and with his brother James, under the firm name of The Adelphi (Greek for brothers), carried out an extensive program of fine residence construction in London. Robert Adam died in 1792.
Adam designed everything that went into his houses, including thefire grates,girandoles,upholstery,carpets, andfurniture.—He was not a cabinetmaker, but the furniture made to his designs by other men—including Chippendale and Hepplewhite—was called Adam furniture.
The Adam style perfectly reveals the classic qualities of fine proportions and symmetrical balance, combined with a delicacy strongly influenced by Pompeian decoration. Walls were paneled and painted, with paneling and cornice enriched by painted compo ornament. Ceilings were in relief, designed from a center to fit the room with the motives repeated in the floor coverings.
Adam furniture was in mahogany, satinwood, and painted wood. This was embellished with low relief carving, narrow moldings, inlays of exceptional delicacy and beauty, and painted decoration. Forms were basically rectangular, but softened by a free use of curves. Chair legs were straight and tapering, square or round, and plain, fluted, reeded, or carved. Chair backs were square, round, elliptical or shield-shaped, upholstered or filled with carved wheel, lyre, urn, or other ornament.Console tablesandcabinetswere often of semielliptical shape, andsideboardsfrequently were formed of two pedestal cabinets, surmounted byknife urns, and connected by ashelf table.
George Hepplewhite (or Heppelwhite—both spellings are used) was a designer and cabinetmaker whose proclaimed purpose was to unite elegance and utility in furniture. His work was in the neoclassic style; was very strongly influenced by Louis XV and Louis XVI decoration, and by the work of Robert Adam; and enjoyed a great popularity from 1785 to 1795. Hepplewhite died almost at the beginning of his vogue, and his business was carried on by his widow, Alice, under the firm name of A. Hepplewhite & Co.
Hepplewhite's furniture was distinguished by lightness, refinement, and elegance. It was chiefly in mahogany or satinwood, with cheaper woods employed as a base for painting or japanning. Carving and marquetry were employed for embellishment, with the ornament drawn from the same sources as that of Louis XVI and Adam, but with special emphasis upon wheat ear, garrya husk, and three-feather Prince of Wales' plume.
SideboardHepplewhiteSettee—SheratonArmchairHepplewhiteChair—AdamArmchairSheratonSide Table—AdamFigure 13.—English styles (1760-1800).
SideboardHepplewhiteSettee—SheratonArmchairHepplewhiteChair—AdamArmchairSheratonSide Table—AdamFigure 13.—English styles (1760-1800).
Figure 13.—English styles (1760-1800).
Except for his furniture which used the cabriole legs and Rococo ornament of Louis XV, Hepplewhite employed the straight tapering leg, square or round, and plain-fluted or reeded, with straight, collard, or spade feet. Chair backs were most characteristically of shield shape, filled with carved styling, urns, the feather back, or the interlocking heart form. These backs were supported by a construction of the back legs, and were not attached to the seats. Front legs (except in the case of the cabrioles) were perpendicular to the floor, while back legs curved outward to balance the rake of the back. Console cabinets were often semielliptical, and sideboards were rectangular except for concave curves near the ends.
For covering, Hepplewhite insisted upon silks and satins, and he was especially fond of narrow stripes. He often designed or selected the draperies used with his furniture and chose the narrow stripes of plain lines and serpentine pattern of the French styles, as well as designs of ribbons, festoons and tassels, shields, circles, and garrya husks.
Thomas Sheraton (born 1751; died 1806) was the last of the great English furniture designers. He was strongly influenced by Louis XVI and Adam designs.
Sheraton was not a money maker, although, in addition to cabinetmaking, he worked as a drawing master, preacher, author, and publisher. However, he was a great cabinetmaker and a great designer, unsurpassed and probably unequaled by any man of his race in the making ofcabinets,secretaries,sideboards,dressers, andtables. (See fig.3a, p.16.)
He used mahogany for dining-room, library, and bedroom furniture; and rosewood, satinwood, and painted furniture for the drawing room. Inlay was his favorite method of embellishment, with turning, some carving, ornamental veneering, and painting. His ornaments included swags, the star, cockleshell, fan, and disk.
Notwithstanding its apparent delicacy, Sheraton's furniture was structurally sound. The legs were very slender, usually round but sometimes square, tapered, and often reeded. Some of his later pieces have spiral-turned legs. The feet were inconspicuous, usually spade or straight and collard. Chair backs were characteristically square, with a central panel rising slightly above the top rail, and the lower rail kept the back well up from the seat.
For upholstery Sheraton used plain, striped, and flowered silks, and gold and silver brocades. He was especially fond of blue as a color, three of his favorite schemes being in blue and white, blue and black, and very pale blue and yellow.
The Hepplewhite and Sheraton styles are similar and cannot always be distinguished without careful study. Sheraton used more underbracing, and his sideboards have convex instead of concave corners. Beside the characteristic difference in chair backs, Hepplewhite pulled his seat covers well over the apron, while Sheraton permitted a part of the seat frame to show.
The early colonists came from England to Virginia, New England, and parts of Pennsylvania; from Holland to the Hudson River country and Delaware; and from Germany to parts of Pennsylvania. The little furniture brought with them, as well as the ideas upon which they proceeded to build and furnish their homes in the New World, were representative of the common houses of the small towns and countryside of their native lands. (See fig. 45, see page212.)
The interest in Early American art is now so widespread, and the sales of Colonial furniture so great, that every salesman should have sound working knowledge of the subject. Many books are available, a few of which are mentioned in the reading list. One of the most useful isA Handbook of the American Wingof the Metropolitan Museum[12]—a book every furniture store can well afford to own.
The earliest New England houses were solid but simple and primitive. Walls were of whitewashed rough plaster or of wide molded boards, which were used vertically to form partitions; ceilings of wood, with exposed joists resting upon heavy supporting beams; and floors of plank.
Furniture was of Jacobean type, some of it brought from England, but for the most part made here from oak, pine, maple, and other native woods. The forms were few and simple and includedcupboards,chests,trestle tables, andchairsof the turned or wainscot types. Most furniture was left unfinished. Later there came thechest of drawers, and chairs of the Cromwellian and Carolean types, often with spiral turned legs and scroll feet, and either caned or with seats and backs upholstered in needlework.
Near the beginning of the eighteenth century the open-construction rooms began to give way to complete interior finish, with paneled walls. The American form of theWindsor chairwhich reached its highest development at about this time, was mostly of hickory because of the adaptability of that wood for bows and spindles.