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

Lucy Abbot Throop

Informations

• Publié par: zaem
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 51
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Project Gutenberg's Furnishing the Home of Good Taste, by Lucy Abbot Throop This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: 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 Author: Lucy Abbot Throop Release Date: January 28, 2005 [EBook #14824] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FURNISHING THE HOME OF GOOD TASTE *** Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Susan Skinner and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. 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 1910, THE CROWELL PUBLISHING CO. 1911, 1912, MCBRIDE, NAST & CO. 1920, ROBERT M. MCBRIDE & CO. NEW AND REVISED EDITION Published, September, 1920 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 EGYPT AND GREECE THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY THE DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATION IN FRANCE LOUIS XIV THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV LOUIS XVI THE EMPIRE ENGLISH FURNITURE FROM GOTHIC DAYS TO THE PERIOD OF QUEEN ANNE QUEEN ANNE CHIPPENDALE AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLAND ROBERT ADAM i 1 7 17 29 37 47 58 59 78 79 91 HEPPLEWHITE SHERATON A GENERAL TALK GEORGIAN FURNITURE FURNISHING WITH FRENCH FURNITURE COUNTRY HOUSES THE NURSERY AND PLAY-ROOM CURTAINS FLOORS AND FLOOR COVERINGS THE TREATMENT OF WALLS ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING PAINTED FURNITURE 97 103 111 135 149 159 169 175 185 195 209 221 SYNOPSIS OF PERIOD STYLES AS AN AID IN BUYING FURNITURE 231 The Illustrations A modern dining-room Italian Renaissance fireplace and overmantel, modern Doorways and pilaster details, Italian Renaissance Two Louis XIII chairs A Gothic chair of the fifteenth century A Louis XIV chair Louis XIV inlaid desk-table Louis XIV chair with underbracing A modern French drawing-room A drawing-room, old French furniture and tapestry Early Louis XIV chair Louis XV bergère Louis XVI bench Louis XVI from Fontainebleau American Empire bed An Apostles bed of the Tudor period Adaptation of the style of William and Mary to dressing table Reproduction of Charles II chair Living-room with reproductions of different periods Frontispiece FACING PAGE 8 9 22 23 32 33 33 40 41 44 44 45 50 51 60 61 61 64 Original Jacobean sofa Reproductions of Charles II chairs Reproductions of Queen Anne period Reproduction of James II chair Reproduction of William and Mary chair Gothic and Ribbonback types of Chippendale chairs Chippendale mantel mirror showing French influence Chippendale fretwork tea-table Chippendale china cupboard Typical chairs of the eighteenth century Chippendale and Hepplewhite sofas Adam mirror, block-front chest of drawers, and Hepplewhite chair Two Adam mantels A group of old mirrors Dining-room furnished with Hepplewhite furniture Old Hepplewhite sideboard Reproduction of Hepplewhite settee Sheraton chest of drawers Sheraton desk and sewing-table Dining-room in simple country house Dining-room furnished with fine old furniture Dorothy Quincy's bed-room Two valuable old desks Pembroke inlaid table Sheraton sideboard Four post bed Doorway detail, Compiègne Reproduction of a bed owned by Marie Antoinette Reproduction of Louis XVI bed A Georgian hallway Rare block-front chest of drawers A modern living-room Curtain treatment for a summer home Hallway showing rugs Hallway showing rugs Colonial bed-room 65 65 72 73 73 78 79 79 82 83 86 87 92 93 96 97 97 104 105 112 113 124 125 144 144 145 152 153 153 162 163 178 179 188 189 189 Dining-room with paneled walls Four post bed owned by Lafayette Modern dining-room Four post bed Reproductions of Adam painted furniture Three-chair Sheraton settee Reproduction of a Sheraton wing-chair Slat-backed chair Group of chairs and pie-crust table Groups of chairs Reproduction of Jacobean buffet Group of mirrors Reproduction of William and Mary settee Two Adam chairs Jacobean day-bed Reproductions of Chippendale table and Hepplewhite desk Reproduction of Sheraton chest of drawers Reproduction of William and Mary chest of drawers A modern sun-room Sheraton sofa Hepplewhite chair and nest of tables Chippendale wing-chair Modern paneled living-room Empire bed Hancock desk, and fine old highboy 196 197 204 205 222 223 223 223 232 233 236 237 240 241 241 244 245 245 246 247 247 247 248 248 249 Adaptation of Georgian ideas to William and Mary dressing table 240 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 pr