the Dominion Magazine Page

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 817, 14 May 1910, Page 11

the Dominion Magazine Page

A Chat oa the History of Ftsmttwe.

I( By .N, W. Thorns, of Scoollat's. ||

Trwi -p r'v -j ~a »™ 0- the English mind, and by bo speaking we refer to the mind of the inhabitanta of these islands, who inherit to so marked a degree the innem to so mars™ a atgree characteristics of their brethren in the Old Land, the word "Furniture conjures up memories and ideals which are good to dwell upon. Memories of the old homo and asso- ■ ~.,.,•,, , ciataons which cluster round, everything connected with it become mora hallowed as years pass—and ideals— to those of us who are making new homes and who realise to what an , , . , ~, c. extent environment and the fatness of things will influence our life and sphere of usefulness. '•■•■■•. : ■ * The History of Furniture. , wrapped up with toe history of the world and is.full of real interest. As tihe artistic sense of nations has , advanced and receded, bo may he found a like rise and decline in the craft of furniture-making. Indeed a. people's character may be traced by its cabinet-makers as by its laws,

Eastern Influences. Eastern innuences. it is to tno.&ast tnat.one nas to look- for the germ from which has sprung most of the delicacy of the early cabinet-makers, and by caref „i „™ti„ti™ o M mv taco Emful investigation one may trace l,as tern influence in the craftsmanship of the times of the Medicis of Florence, whilst in the furniture of the palaces of Venice may be found r , , ■ , _ ~ • „ specimens token from designs brought by that intrepid travellor Marcus Polo who was the first to bring news of that mysterious and wonderful thousand-year-old mother civilisation of China/ Yet it was tm tho seventeenth - mlAaT y that Chinese craft : became known in Europe to any extent, and the French cabinet-makers seized upon it, and whilst retaining the graceful curves, behoH the style of Louis XIV. And - om csa mark the increase of extravagance and detail and unnecessary ornament which charactorised the successive French styles hXateady commencX the reign of Louis XVI in which the trend was for a soupcon of severity,

his contemporaries established a style suited to English requirements of the age—tho homes of the prosperous merchant and wealthy port wine-loving squiro, as well as the mansions of the aristocracy bore witness of the indefatigable labours of these masteivcraftsmen. Their designs to tho average New Zealander will, perhaps, appear too liighly decorative and out of keeping with this age of strict utility, and as wo have remarked that the furniture of a country is a sure indicator of its. possessors' qualities, so wo must come to the conclusion that by taking, wliat is best of our forefathers' work, and whilst keeping to the truly artistic, we must eschew, the useless, and worthless, and so form a school of taste worthy of onr proud position in the world to-day. A Period of Decadence. Now to digress somewhat. Having briefly followed the cause of the development during the last two centuries, we cannot help noticing how that, in the slavish following of classic stylo and one-ness of idea of the cabinetmakers and decorators during the !sixty years of the reign of our' late Queen, a decadence had crept in which it is not difficult to trace to our •in-

ferent manners in which other nations are answering to the awakening. In America, after years of abominable copying of French ideas, and making of vulgar and ostentatious travesties of the European .styles, manufacturers are gradually turning the übiquitous machine to the making of furniture—whose lines of simple beauty are revelations of the charm of unprctentiousness. Our cousins havo discovered that tho old Spanish missionaries, who doubtless in 1 their lonely lives gavo much time to making the simple furniture for their own requirements, had brought ideas from their Eastern home, and in the simplest form had reproduced the furnishing of many a Castilian palace—and it is to the discovery of the work of these old monks in the Southern State that _wo are indebted to the "Mission" furniture of which we> speak so glibly. Turning from our American to our German cousins, we find thai, eschewing all preconceived notions, they havo struck out on entirely novel linfes, and tho German school of decoration is a particularly interesting one. In the first conceptions . of the Teutonic architects, designers, and cabinet-makers, most weird effects may be found, and, to the English eye, somo of the earlier

Witness the delicate and elaborate craftsmanship as evidenced by the contents of le Louvre and les Tuileries in Paris, and he who seeks can find in them illustrations to many chapters of French history. Perhaps it is well for these blest isles that our; national character does not' demand the gorgeous, albeit delicate, fripperies of the Court of Louis XV which tell of a love of ease and artificiality,- and yet it is interesting to note the source of the inspiration of the cabinet-makers of Le Grande Monarch, Louis XIV, whose, reign baa been termed the "Augustan ago.of JVonch art," and to see the trend of taste in the period of bis successors '. in which tho very taste for useless ornament helped to pave the way for the horrors of the Revolution equally interesting and to trace the contemporary tastes in Great Britain at this period, and to see the ■ sources from which the men who wroto their nations' history in • their chairs and cabinets gathered thoir idea 6.,

sular prosperity and self-satisfaction, which happily the increasing facilities of travel and of artistic training wero to do much to break down; and during the last fifteen years a new Renaissance has taken place, almost as far-reaching as . the Renaissance of the 15th century, when the revival of arts blossomd forth; marking tho transition from the Dark Ages to the modern world. Architects, ■ taking as their modela the old country homes of England, and with a spirit of true artistic reverence have of late years given us a true beauty of simplicity which '• has made the work of the cabinet-maker, whose business it is to make the house the architect has created into a Home. Worthy of a better title than that of tradesman—his is a arafi, a distinction intended by the writer to imply . that his genius must olosely resemble that of the artist who conceives what bis humbler brother creates. ■ To-day. The new Renaissance of which we have spoken is no spasmodic growth, and it' is curious to watoh' tho dif-

Awakening in England. Whilst tho ill-fated Louis was idyllising at St. Cloud. In England there was an awakening as to the want of fitness. in the decoration of the home, and our fair ancestresses were not contcnt with tho furniture they could ■ obtain. England was at that time commencing an era of prosperity. The power of steam was just discovered' and manufactures advancing, whilst an ago of wealth, hither-' to undreamed of had commenced, which whatever pessimists may Bay is still waxing to-day. As is always the case tho time bred tho man, and Thomas Chippendale, a native of Worcester, cam© to London, and ea.rly in life gained a renown as a designer. It , is to Thomas Chippendale to whom may be ascribed the honour of giving the undoubted lead which England holds in ' the making of furniture the world over to-day. Chippendale was quick to recognise what his French brethren had done, tho possibilities of Chinese art as applied to European requirements, and working entirely in mahogany his earlier designs are masterpieces of true olegance. As will be-seen, Chippendale and

Gorman styles are veritable nightmares, but the old motto: Time tryeth truth, has proved itself, and by the illustration we are publishing we can see that although distinctly original German designers are feeling , that there is no real beauty which ' has not, as its base, rep,! utility; and hero a final word of.warning may not bo amiss, and as an appeal to tho reason of all who are interested in the modern Renaissance of furniture design we would suggest that as a general standard by which to judge the merit of the words "quaint" and "artistic," which an assiduous salesman will use in tones of laudation in.. bis effort to sell a sideboard or wooden bedstead of disproportionate design and bedaubed with so-called . "copper" panels (which in reality are coppered tin), they set before themselves this axiom: That "Beauty is a combination of desirable qualities, and that every' ornament must have a use, and unnecessary embellishments must be Bccepted'very warily, keeping in mind , that, however great a charm novelty may present, one is apt to tire of unnatural and unnecessary ornament."