Period Rooms
WE use the term "period rooms" with full knowledge of the
difficulties involved, in defining Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI,
Directoire, Jacobean, Empire, Georgian, Victorian and Colonial
decorations. Each period certainly has its distinctive earmarks in
line and typical decoration, but you must realize that a period
gradually evolves, at first exhibiting characteristics of its
ancestors, then as it matures, showing a definite new type, and,
later, when the elation of success has worn off, yielding to various
foreign influences. By way of example, note the Chinese decoration
on some of the painted furniture of the Louis XVI type, the Dutch
influence on Chippendale in line, and the Egyptian on Empire.
One fascinating way of becoming familiar with history is to delve
into the origin and development of periods in furniture. The story
of Napoleon is recorded in the unpretentious Directoire, the ornate
Empire of Fontainebleau, while the conversion of round columns into
obelisk-like pilasters surmounted by heads, the bronze and
gilded-wood ornaments in the form of the Sphynx, are frank souvenirs
of Egypt.
Every period, whether ascribed to England, France, Italy or Holland,
has found expression in all adjacent countries. An Italian Louis XVI
chair, mirror or appliqué is frequently sold in Paris or London as
French and Empire furniture was "made in Germany." Periods have no
restricted nationality; but nationality often declares itself in
periods.
That is to say, lines may be copied; but workmanship is another
thing. Apropos of this take the French Empire furniture, massive as
much of it is, built squarely and solidly to the floor, but showing
most extraordinary grace on account of the amazing delicacy of
intricate designs, done by the greatest French sculptors of the time
and worked out in metal by the trained hands of men who had a
special genius for this art. At no other time, nor in any other
country, has an equal degree of perfection in the fine chiseling of
metals so much as Approached the standard attained during the Louis
and the Empire periods.
If in your wandering, you happen upon a genuine bit of this work in
silver or ormoulu, buy it The writer once found in a New Jersey
antique shop, a rare Empire bronze vase, urn-shaped, a specimen of
the very finest kind of this metal engraving. The price asked for it
(in ignorance, of course) was $2.50! The piece would have brought
$40 in Paris. But the quest of the antique is another story.
When one realizes the eternal borrowing of one country from another,
the ever-recurring renaissance of past periods and the legitimate
and illegitimate mixing of styles, it is no wonder that the amateur
feels nervously uncertain, or frankly ignorant. Many a professional
decorator hesitates to give a final judgment.
To take one case in point, we glibly speak of "Colonial" furniture,
that term which covers such a multitude of sins, and inspiring
virtues, too! We have the Colonial, which closely resembles the
Empire, and we have what is sometimes styled the Chippendale
Colonial, following Louis XIV, XV and XVI. The Chippendale of
England. Our Colonial cabinet-makers used as models, beautiful
pieces imported from England, Holland and France by the wealthier
members of our communities.
Also a Chinese and Japanese influence crept in, on account of the
lacquer and carved teak wood, brought home by our seafaring
ancestors. It is quite possible that the carved teak wood stimulated
the clever maker of some of the most beautiful Victorian furniture
made in America, which is gradually finding its way into the hands
of collectors.
Some of these cabinet-makers glued together and put under heavy
pressure seven to nine layers of rosewood with the grain running at
every angle, so as to produce strength. When the layers had been
crushed into a solid block, they carved their open designs, using
one continuous piece of wood for the ornamental rim of even large
sofas.
The best of the Victorian period is attractive, but how can we
express our opinion of those American monstrosities of the sixties
or seventies, beds in rosewood and walnut, the head-boards covering
the side of a room, bureaus proportionately huge, following out the
idea that a piece of furniture to be beautiful must be very large
and very expensive! It is to be hoped that wary cabinet-makers are
to day rescuing the lovely rosewood and walnut wasted at that time.
The art of furniture making, like every other art, came into being
to serve a clearly defined purpose. This must not be forgotten. A
chair and a sofa are to sit on; a mirror, to reflect. Remember this
last fact when hanging one.
It is important that your mirror reflect one of the most attractive
parts of your room, and thus contributes its quota to your scheme of
decoration. It is interesting to note that chairs were made with
solid wooden seats when men wore armor, velvet cushions followed
more fragile raiment, and tapestries while always mural decorations
were first used in place of doors and partitions, in feudal castles,
before there were interior doors and partitions.
Any piece of furniture is artistically bad when it does not
satisfactorily serve its purpose. The equally fundamental law that
everything useful should at the same time be beautiful cannot be
repeated too often.
Period rooms which slavishly repeat, in every piece of furniture and
ornament, only one type, have but a museum interest If your rooms
are to serve as a home, give them a winning, human quality, keep
before your mind's eye, not royal palaces which have become museums,
but homes, built and furnished by men and women whose traditions and
associations gave them standards of beauty, so that they bought the
choicest furniture both at home and abroad.
In such a home, whether it be an intimate palace in Europe, a
Colonial mansion in New England, or a Victorian interior of the best
type, an extraneous period is often represented by some objet d'art
as a delightful, because harmonious note of contrast.
For example, in a Louis XVI salon, where the color scheme is
harmonious, one gradually realizes that one of the dominant
ornaments in the room is a rare old Chinese vase, brought back from
the Orient by one of the family and given a place of honor on
account of its uniqueness.
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