Furnishing the Home of Good Taste

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FURNISHING THE HOME OF GOOD TASTE

A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE PERIOD STYLES IN INTERIOR DECORATION WITH SUGGESTIONS AS TO THEIR EMPLOYMENT IN THE HOMES OF TODAY

BY

LUCY ABBOT THROOP

NEW YORK ROBERT M. MCBRIDE & CO.

1920

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1910 THE CROWELL PUBLISHING CO.

1911, 1912, MCBRIDE, NAST & CO.

1920, ROBERT M. MCBRIDE & CO.

NEW AND REVISED EDITION

Published, September, 1920

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[Illustration: _Trowbridge & Livingston, architects._

A principle which can be applied to both large and small houses is shown in the beauty of the panel spacing and the adequate support of the cornice by the pilasters.]

_Contents_

PREFACE i

EGYPT AND GREECE 1

THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 7

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATION IN FRANCE 17

LOUIS XIV 29

THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV 87

LOUIS XVI 47

THE EMPIRE 58

ENGLISH FURNITURE FROM GOTHIC DAYS TO THE PERIOD OF QUEEN ANNE 59

QUEEN ANNE 78

CHIPPENDALE AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLAND 79

ROBERT ADAM 91

HEPPLEWHITE 97

SHERATON 103

A GENERAL TALK 111

GEORGIAN FURNITURE 135

FURNISHING WITH FRENCH FURNITURE 149

COUNTRY HOUSES 159

THE NURSERY AND PLAY-ROOM 169

CURTAINS 175

FLOORS AND FLOOR COVERINGS 185

THE TREATMENT OF WALLS 195

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING 209

PAINTED FURNITURE 221

SYNOPSIS OF PERIOD STYLES AS AN AID IN BUYING FURNITURE 231

_The Illustrations_

A modern dining-room _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE Italian Renaissance fireplace and overmantel, modern 8

Doorways and pilaster details, Italian Renaissance 9

Two Louis XIII chairs 22

A Gothic chair of the fifteenth century 23

A Louis XIV chair 32

Louis XIV inlaid desk-table 33

Louis XIV chair with underbracing 33

A modern French drawing-room 40

A drawing-room, old French furniture and tapestry 41

Early Louis XIV chair 44

Louis XV _bergère_ 44

Louis XVI bench 45

Louis XVI from Fontainebleau 50

American Empire bed 51

An Apostles bed of the Tudor period 60

Adaptation of the style of William and Mary to dressing table 61

Reproduction of Charles II chair 61

Living-room with reproductions of different periods 64

Original Jacobean sofa 65

Reproductions of Charles II chairs 65

Reproductions of Queen Anne period 72

Reproduction of James II chair 73

Reproduction of William and Mary chair 73

Gothic and Ribbonback types of Chippendale chairs 78

Chippendale mantel mirror showing French influence 79

Chippendale fretwork tea-table 79

Chippendale china cupboard 82

Typical chairs of the eighteenth century 83

Chippendale and Hepplewhite sofas 86

Adam mirror, block-front chest of drawers, and Hepplewhite chair 87

Two Adam mantels 92

A group of old mirrors 93

Dining-room furnished with Hepplewhite furniture 96

Old Hepplewhite sideboard 97

Reproduction of Hepplewhite settee 97

Sheraton chest of drawers 104

Sheraton desk and sewing-table 105

Dining-room in simple country house 112

Dining-room furnished with fine old furniture 113

Dorothy Quincy's bed-room 124

Two valuable old desks 125

Pembroke inlaid table 144

Sheraton sideboard 144

Four post bed 145

Doorway detail, Compiègne 152

Reproduction of a bed owned by Marie Antoinette 153

Reproduction of Louis XVI bed 153

A Georgian hallway 162

Rare block-front chest of drawers 163

A modern living-room 178

Curtain treatment for a summer home 179

Hallway showing rugs 188

Hallway showing rugs 189

Colonial bed-room 189

Dining-room with paneled walls 196

Four post bed owned by Lafayette 197

Modern dining-room 204

Four post bed 205

Reproductions of Adam painted furniture 222

Three-chair Sheraton settee 223

Reproduction of a Sheraton wing-chair 223

Slat-backed chair 223

Group of chairs and pie-crust table 232

Groups of chairs 233

Reproduction of Jacobean buffet 236

Group of mirrors 237

Reproduction of William and Mary settee 240

Adaptation of Georgian ideas to William and Mary dressing table 240

Two Adam chairs 241

Jacobean day-bed 241

Reproductions of Chippendale table and Hepplewhite desk 244

Reproduction of Sheraton chest of drawers 245

Reproduction of William and Mary chest of drawers 245

A modern sun-room 246

Sheraton sofa 247

Hepplewhite chair and nest of tables 247

Chippendale wing-chair 247

Modern paneled living-room 248

Empire bed 248

Hancock desk, and fine old highboy 249

_Preface_

To try to write a history of furniture in a fairly short space is almost as hard as the square peg and round hole problem. No matter how one tries, it will not fit. One has to leave out so much of importance, so much of historic and artistic interest, so much of the life of the people that helps to make the subject vivid, and has to take so much for granted, that the task seems almost impossible. In spite of this I shall try to give in the following pages a general but necessarily short review of the field, hoping that it may help those wishing to furnish their homes in some special period style. The average person cannot study all the subject thoroughly, but it certainly adds interest to the problems of one's own home to know something of how the great periods of decoration grew one from another, how the influence of art in one country made itself felt in the next, molding and changing taste and educating the people to a higher sense of beauty.

It is the lack of general knowledge which makes it possible for furniture built on amazingly bad lines to be sold masquerading under the name of some great period. The customer soon becomes bewildered, and, unless he has a decided taste of his own, is apt to get something which will prove a white elephant on his hands. One must have some standard of comparison, and the best and simplest way is to study the great work of the past. To study its rise and climax rather than the decline; to know the laws of its perfection so that one can recognize the exaggeration which leads to degeneracy. This ebb and flow is most interesting: the feeling the way at the beginning, ever growing surer and surer until the high level of perfection is reached; and then the desire to "gild the lily" leading to over-ornamentation, and so to decline. However, the germ of good taste and the sense of truth and beauty is never dead, and asserts itself slowly in a transition period, and then once more one of the great periods of decoration is born.

There are several ways to study the subject, one of the pleasantest naturally being travel, as the great museums, palaces, and private collections of Europe offer the widest field. In this country, also, the museums and many private collections are rich in treasures, and there are many proud possessors of beautiful isolated pieces of furniture. If one cannot see originals the libraries will come to the rescue with many books showing research and a thorough knowledge and appreciation of the beauty and importance of the subject in all its branches.

I have tried to give an outline, (which I hope the reader will care to enlarge for himself), not from a collector's standpoint, but from the standpoint of the modern home-maker, to help him furnish his house consistently,--to try to spread the good word that period furnishing does not necessitate great wealth, and that it is as easy and far more interesting to furnish a house after good models, as to have it banal and commonplace.

The first part of this little book is devoted to a short review of the great periods, and the second part is an effort to help adapt them to modern needs, with a few chapters added of general interest to the home-maker.

A short bibliography is also added, both to express my thanks and indebtedness to many learned and delightful writers on this subject of house furnishing in all its branches, and also as a help to others who may wish to go more deeply into its different divisions than is possible within the covers of a book.

I wish to thank the Editors of _House and Garden_ and _The Woman's Home Companion_ for kindly allowing me to reprint articles and portions of articles which have appeared in their magazines.

I wish also to thank the owners of the different houses illustrated, and Messrs. Trowbridge and Livingston, architects, for their kindness in allowing me to use photographs.

Thanks are also due Messrs. Bergen & Orsenigo, Nahon & Company, Tiffany Studios, Joseph Wild & Co. and the John Somma Co. for the use of photographs to illustrate the reproduction of period furniture and rugs of different types.

_Egypt and Greece_

The early history of art in all countries is naturally connected more closely with architecture than with decoration, for architecture had to be developed before the demand for decoration could come. But the two have much in common. Noble architecture calls for noble decoration. Decoration is one of the natural instincts of man, and from the earliest records of his existence we find him striving to give expression to it, we see it in the scratched pieces of bone and stone of the cave dwellers, in the designs of savage tribes, and in Druidical and Celtic remains, and in the great ruins of Yucatan. The meaning of these monuments may be lost to us, but we understand the spirit of trying to express the sense of beauty in the highest way possible, for it is the spirit which is still moving the world, and is the foundation of all worthy achievement.

Egypt and Assyria stand out against the almost impenetrable curtain of pre-historic days in all the majesty of their so-called civilization. Huge, massive, aloof from the world, their temples and tombs and ruins remain. Research has given us the key to their religion, so we understand much of the meaning of their wall-paintings and the buildings themselves. The belief of the Egyptian that life was a short passage and his house a mere stopping-place on the way to the tomb, which was to be his permanent dwelling-place, explains the great care and labor spent on the pyramids, chapels, and rock sepulchers. They embalmed the dead for all eternity and put statues and images in the tombs to keep the mummy company. Colossal figures of their gods and goddesses guarded the tombs and temples, and still remain looking out over the desert with their strange, inscrutable Egyptian eyes. The people had technical skill which has never been surpassed, but the great size of the pyramids and temples and sphinxes gives one the feeling of despotism rather than civilization; of mass and permanency and the wonder of man's achievement rather than beauty, but they personify the mystery and power of ancient Egypt.

The columns of the temples were massive, those of Karnak being seventy feet high, with capitals of lotus flowers and buds strictly conventionalized. The walls were covered with hieroglyphics and paintings. Perspective was never used, and figures were painted side view except for the eye and shoulder. In the tombs have been found many household belongings, beautiful gold and silver work, beside the offerings put there to appease the gods. Chairs have been found, which, humorous as it may sound, are certainly the ancestors of Empire chairs made thousands of years later. This is explained by the influence of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, but there is something in common between the two times so far apart, of ambition and pride, of grandeur and colossal enterprise.

Greece may well be called the Mother of Beauty, for with the Greeks came the dawn of a higher civilization, a striving for harmony of line and proportion, an ideal clear, high and persistent. When the Dorians from the northern part of Greece built their simple, beautiful temples to their gods and goddesses they gave the impetus to the movement which brought forth the highest art the world has known. Traces of Egyptian influence are to be found in the earliest temples, but the Greeks soon rose to their own great heights. The Doric column was thick, about six diameters in height, fluted, growing smaller toward the top, with a simple capital, and supported the entablature. The horizontal lines of the architrave and cornice were more marked than the vertical lines of the columns. The portico with its row of columns supported the pediment. The Parthenon is the most perfect example of the Doric order, and shattered as it is by time and man it is still one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It was built in the time of Pericles, from about 460 to 435 B.C., and the work was superintended by Phidias, who did much of the work himself and left the mark of his genius on the whole.

The Ionic order of architecture was a development of the Doric, but was lighter and more graceful. The columns were more slender and had a greater number of flutes and the capitals formed of scrolls or volutes were more ornamental.

The Corinthian order was more elaborate than the Ionic as the capitals were foliated (the acanthus being used), the columns higher, and the entablature more richly decorated. This order was copied by the Romans more than the other two as it suited their more florid taste. All the orders have the horizontal feeling in common (as Gothic architecture has the vertical), and the simple plan with its perfect harmony of proportion leaves no sense of lack of variety.

The perfection attained in architecture was also attained in sculpture, and we see the same aspiration toward the ideal, the same wonderful achievement. This purity of taste of the Greeks has formed a standard to which the world has returned again and again and whose influence will continue to be felt as long as the world lasts.

The minor arts were carried to the same state of perfection as their greater sisters, for the artists and artisans had the same noble ideal of beauty and the same unerring taste. We have carved gems and coins, and wonderful gold ornaments, painted and silver vases, and terra-cotta figurines, to show what a high point the household arts reached. No work of the great Grecian painters remains; Apelles, Zeuxis, are only names to us, but from the wall paintings at Pompeii where late Greek influence was strongly felt we can imagine how charming the decorations must have been. Egypt and Greece were the torch bearers of civilization.

_The Renaissance in Italy_

The Gothic period has been treated in later chapters on France and England, as it is its development in these countries which most affects us, but the Renaissance in Italy stands alone. So great was its strength that it could supply both inspiration and leaders to other countries, and still remain preëminent.

It was in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that this great classical revival in Italy came, this re-birth of a true sense of beauty which is called the Renaissance. It was an age of wonders, of great artistic creations, and was one of the great epochs of the world, one of the turning points of human existence. It covered so large a field and was so many-sided that only careful study can give a full realization of the giants of intellect and power who made its greatness, and who left behind them work that shows the very quintessence of genius.

Italy, stirring slightly in the fourteenth century, woke and rose to her greatest heights in the fifteenth and sixteenth. The whole people responded to the new joy of life, the love of learning, the expression of beauty in all its forms. All notes were struck,--gay, graceful, beautiful, grave, cruel, dignified, reverential, magnificent, but all with an exuberance of life and power that gave to Italian art its great place in human culture. The great names of the period speak for themselves,--Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Machiavelli, Benvenuto Cellini, and a host of others.