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

This chair with its silk damask covering edged with gimp, the shape of the underframing and arms, and the dull gold carved ornaments, shows many characteristics of the Italian Renaissance.	An elaborately carved Chippendale chair, with late Queen Anne influence in the shape of the back. Petit point covering which was so popular in her day is now wonderfully reproduced.
This Chippendale pie crust tip table shows the tripod base with claw feet and the carved edge which gives it its name, and which was carved down to the level, never applied. A genuine antique pie crust table is very valuable.	This fine example of a Queen Anne lacquered chair shows the characteristic splat and top curve, the slip seat narrower at the back than front with rounded corners, and cabriole legs.

Beside this practical knowledge one should have a general idea of the artistic side or the appearance of the different period styles and the manner in which they were used. To achieve this, one must study the best examples it is possible to find in originals, pictures, and properly made reproductions. Many of the plates in this book are from extremely valuable originals and should be studied carefully as they give a fine idea of some of the chief points in the different styles. One should also go to libraries and Art Museums whenever possible and study their collections. The more knowledge gained the more ease one will have in furnishing one's home whether there is everything to buy, or one is planning to add a few articles to complete a charming interior, or, with an eye to a future plan, is buying good things piece by piece and slowly eliminating the bad. It is this knowledge which will help you to study your own possessions and decide what is needed and what will be correct to buy. That, is one of the most important points, to have a well thought out plan, and never to be haphazard in your purchases. Very few of us have houses completely furnished in one period, but we do try to have a certain unity of spirit kept throughout the whole, whether it be French, Italian, English, or our own charming Colonial. There can be a great variety in any one of these divisions, and suitable furniture can be found for all rooms, from the simplest kind to the most elaborate. It is easier to find good reproductions in the English periods of Jacobean, Charles II, William and Mary, Queen Anne, and the Georgian time, and the French periods of Louis XV and Louis XVI.

The upholstery or this Sheraton chair is fastened on with brass-headed tacks placed in festoons.	Notice the curved seat of this Hepplewhite chair.
The wheel back design was often used by Adam. The arms, the curve of the seat and carving, the tapering reeded legs, and the angle of the back legs should all be noticed.	As Chippendale did not use this style of leg they show that the chair was probably reconstructed from two old chairs.

If one wishes a house furnished in the Gothic period it will be necessary to have nearly all the different pieces made to order, as there are few reproductions made. As our modern necessities of furniture were not known in those days, the designs would have to be carried out more in the spirit of the style than the letter, and one must be certain to have advice and designs from some person who thoroughly understands the period and who will see that the whole is properly carried out. Gothic days were rough and strenuous, and the furniture was strong and heavy and was made chiefly of oak with no varnish of any kind. The characteristic lines of the furniture and the designs for carving were architectural, and a careful study of the Gothic cathedrals of France, Belgium, and England will give a very satisfactory idea of this wonderful time. The idea of the pointed arch, rose window, trefoil, quatrefoil, animal grotesques, and geometric designs, as well as the beautiful linen-fold design, were all adapted for use as carving in the panels of the furniture of the day, which consisted of chests that served as seats, buffets, armoires, screens, trestle tables, as well as the choir stalls of churches.

This style is appropriate to large and dignified country houses. The architect must see that the background is correct.

The Renaissance period should not be attempted as a style to furnish one's house unless it can be carried out properly. The house should be large and architecturally correct, and there should be at least a near relation of a Fortunatus purse to draw upon. It is one of the magnificent and dignified periods, and makeshifts and poor copies have a pitiful appearance and are really time and money wasted.

Much of the furniture of the Renaissance was architectural in design, many chests and cupboards and cabinets having the appearance of temple façades. The carving was in both low and high relief and was extremely beautiful, but in the later part of the period became too ornate. Walnut and chestnut were the chief woods used, and there was much inlay of tortoise shell, ivory, brass, mother-of-pearl, lapis-lazuli, and fine woods. There was much gilding, and paint was also used, and the metal mounts were of the finest workmanship. The bronze andirons, knockers, candlesticks, of this time have never been equalled. There was a strong feeling of balance in the decorations, and the chief motifs were the acanthus beautifully carved, conventionalized flowers and fruit, horns of plenty, swags and wreaths of fruit and flowers, the scroll, dolphin, human figure, and half figure ending in fanciful designs of foliage. Beautiful and fascinating arabesques were carved and painted on the walls and pilasters. The chief pieces of furniture were magnificently carved chests and coffers which were also sometimes gilded and painted, oblong tables with elaborately carved supports at each end, usually with a connecting shelf on which were smaller carved supports. The chairs were high backed with much carving and gilding, and there were others of simpler form with leather or tapestry or damask seats and backs. The Savanarola chair was in the form of a curved X with seat and back of velvet or leather or sometimes wood on which a cushion was used. Mirror frames were magnificently carved and gilded and picked out with color. The rooms were a fitting background for all this splendor, for the woodwork and walls were paneled and carved and painted, the work often being done by the greatest painters of the day.

The French Renaissance followed the general line of the Italian but was lighter and less architectural in its furniture designs and ornament. Chairs were slowly becoming more common, and rooms began to be more livable.

This Jacobean buffet is finely reproduced with the exception of the spiral carving of the legs, which is too sharp and thin, and gives the appearance of inadequate support. The split spindle ornament was much used on furniture of the period.