Furniture of To-Day

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 303, 14 March 1928, Page 7

Furniture of To-Day

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Work Of New Designers

THE lament is often raised that designers of furniture and other household necessaries are too content nowadays to copy the beautiful things left by earlier generations instead of trying to establish a type which shall be characteristic of our own century and make this a “period” which shall he referred to with respect by future generations. It was only natural, of course, that when a revival of taste came about after the hideous and tasteless Victorian period, men should look back to the beauties of the preceding age and use and adapt the lovely designs they had before them.

THE early efforts to depart from the old established lines were not very successful, and produced some dreadful “arty” designs which were hardly better, if not frankly worse, in their self-conscientiousness than the earlier Victorian efforts. To-day, however, new designers are striving with far greater success to make really good furniture which in its simplicity shall reflect the sense of a generation which has passed through difficult days and is trying to adapt itself to new ideas and new outlooks. Among the new designers one of the most successful is a woman. Her designs are very simple for the most part. Occasionally there is a line which rather tiresomely seems to run in a particular direction just for novelty’s sake. But this only rarely happens and for the most part her designs are characterised by an extreme simplicity. It is always the drawback of extreme simplicity that there should be a certain monotony, and to some tastes the solid heaviness of design makes little appeal, particularly those who love the grace of eighteenth century furniture, but after a period of ugly ornaments, merely for ornament’s sake, there is a restfulness in its mere plainness. It is characteristic of the commonsense in housekeeping forced on us by the domestic difficulties of the day that no brass or other metal fittings are used, and shaped wooden fittings—not knobs —should take the Place of brass draw handles. Beautiful woods are used and whatever criticism future generations may pass on our designs, it is pleasant to feel that they can make no such reproach against the craftsmanship which is excellent. The Goldsmith’s Company are making similar efforts to induce young generations of silversmiths to produce designs which shall be characteristic of this “period,” and to this end they hold competitions and offer substantial

prizes for beautiful and original designs and every encouragement is given to the artists of the day to strive to emulate the great achievements of the famous gold and silversmiths of the great periods. Many furniture makers are, of course, still drawing inspiration from earlier designs. They are not “fakers” who are busily making genuine antiques, but are adapting older designs to modern needs. With the disappearance of the dreadful Victorian “brass bedstead” and its cheaper black lacquer and brass brother there has come the demand for something to take its place and older designs have been largely drawn on. Among these the bed with a high curved back is a good deal used, carried out in fine wood. A variant of this is the same design with the back covered in chintz to match the curtains and chair covers. Such a set was recently displayed. The back rose in graceful curves to some height and was covered with a very pretty cretonne printed in soft tones on a light blue ground. The edge was finished with a wood moulding stained to the same shade of greeny blue. There was no foot to the bed, which was entirely covered with a very carefully fitted “cap” cover. This cover, which reached to the ground, was made of the same cretonne, combined with furnishing silk in the greeny blue tone shot with rose. The cretonne formed the greater part of the cover with panels of the silk let in at the sides and end. All joins were covered with galon. No pillows were left on the bed to spoil the lines of the fitted cap cover, but a long bolster covered with the cretonne was placed against the head of the bed, and against it lay a big round cushion covered in the silk, closely rucked. The effect was extremely neat and charming, and solved very satisfactorily that most difficult problem in a bedroom—the quilt question. An addition which was unnecessary, pleasing to some tastes and abhorrent to others, was a draping of the silk hanging French fashion behind the bed, and falling from a circular wooden arrangement which hung from the ceiling and repeated the wooden moulding which finishes the bed head.

The chairs in the room were upholstered in the cretonne with cushions of shot silk, and the curtains were of either cretonne or silk, as fancy dictated.