The successful salesman also must be able to exploit style in the historic or period sense. The history of furniture is a selling tool of immense value, whether we are trading upon high, medium, or low levels.
The sections which discuss the more important period styles contain a mass of highly condensed information. All of this information and much more will be necessary to the man who wants to reach the higher levels of his profession, but just how much of it you will need to remember and organize for your present work is a matter to be determined by yourself. The first thing to do is to read it through carefully two or three times in order to get the broad outlines of the subject. After that study more carefully those parts of the section on "Period styles from Renaissance to early colonial," page [50], and "The American style," page [70], that can be related to your own merchandise. Make use of the suggested reading list at the end of the unit, page [79].
Glossary and reading list.—Many terms used in the section on "Period styles from Renaissance to early colonial" are uncommon and not widely understood in the furniture trade, although they are freely used in books and magazines which deal with the home furnishing art. These terms are defined in the glossary included in the appendix, pages [247] to 249.
PERIOD STYLES FROM RENAISSANCE TO EARLY COLONIAL
Furniture is and always has been a utility and an expression of human ideals. In order to understand period furniture and to talk about it with convincing enthusiasm we must be able to see beyond it to the people who created and used it.
For our purpose, we confine this summary to the historic period beginning about 500 years ago, which covers the development of furniture as we know and use it today. Speaking broadly, the social trends during this period were from insecurity to security; from despotism to political liberty; from austerity to luxury; and from simplicity and few wants to sophistication and multiplied wants.
Accompanying and expressing these social changes we find corresponding changes in architecture and decoration. The trends are from homes of fortress-like construction to homes easily accessible and amply lighted by low windows; from immense rooms with high ceilings to small rooms with low ceilings; from massive, heavy forms and thick proportions to small, light forms and slender proportions; from the austerity and virility of straight lines to the softness and femininity of curved lines; from strong dark colors to soft light colors; from vigorous, open textures to smooth, close textures; and from a few types of furniture to the extraordinary variety of today.
Most period furniture was designed for the rich and powerful.—We must remember that most of the historic styles were expressions of the life of the court and the aristocracy. Period furniture was made by great artists, and often was elaborately ornate, sumptuous, and enormously costly. The metal mounts alone on the cabinets made for the mistresses of Louis XV, for example, cost far more than the ground, building, and complete furnishings of an ordinary American home.
The essence of these styles is to be found in their line, proportion, color, and texture. We can adapt them to machine production and mass distribution. We sell these reproductions or adaptions for what they cost in a machine age. But we can add to their desirability by explaining their aristocratic ancestry. Thousands of customers enjoy the sentimental satisfaction that comes with the knowledge of style and period sources and even the anecdote plays its part in giving merchandise its full measure of value in use.
Europe before the Renaissance.—When the Roman power was broken in the fifth century of our era, Western Europe was given over to anarchy and darkness. In the beginning of the feudal period, the great barons with their families, retainers, and dogs, lived in bare fortresses or one-room castles. The floors were of dirt. The lord and his lady had a great bed, two chairs of state,[4] and a few hutches.[5] The retainers had stools on which to sit, and ate at a great table made by laying hewn planks on trestles.