This contemporary furniture also achieves a sincerity which marks a new high. Without ornamental features which characterize the classic-modern development it is impossible to hide flaws in workmanship. Construction accordingly is emphasized rather than concealed. There are no "fake antique" effects about this functional furniture. No one is trying to make these materials look like something else. Metal is called metal; maple is maple; and neither, sparkling under a brown graining, pretends to be walnut. Finishing processes continue to be used but they aim at developing the individual grain, color, and texture of each species. The following statement quoted from the April 1940, Bulletin of the National Retail Dry Goods Association, is a forcible expression of this viewpoint:
The majority of consumers interpret such expressions as "all mahogany" or "genuine Honduras mahogany" or "all maple" or "all walnut" literally, i. e., that furniture so described is made wholly of mahogany or maple or walnut according to the wood named. The National Better Business Bureau recommends that such terms be applied only to those articles of furniture in which all the exposed parts are made wholly of the wood named. If the exposed parts are composed of more than one kind of wood such article should be described by the names of the principal woods used, viz, "mahogany and gumwood," "walnut and gumwood," not by such description as "combination mahogany," and "combination walnut." Also it is recommended that furniture employing veneered construction be frankly described in advertising as "veneered."
To achieve the finish and structural beauty of functional furniture the modern craftsman works with various materials. The whole world is bringing to the markets choice cabinet woods to be used in producing hitherto undreamed-of effects. Magnolia, amboyna, bubinga, macassar, satinwood, narra, makore, padouk, and thuya—these are familiar names. Glass—clear, white, and colored—has won acceptance as a structural material. Aluminum, stainless steel, and chromium plate are popular. Cork veneer with its velvety texture and warm coloring is excellent surface finish for wood furniture. Metal frames with veneer tops often are shown in designs suitable for use as kitchen, sunroom, porch, and even living-room furniture. Linoleum tops for tables and desks afford variety in color. Various synthetic products are converted into tops which have been proofed against heat and liquid stains, thus popularizing them for cocktail and coffee tables. Colored lacquers reminiscent of the orient have been appropriately used. Textile designs which are largely depended upon to supply the necessary ornament for rooms, employ the straight lines, acute angles, and whirling curves of the futurists as well as natural forms drawn with little or no attempt to representation. The end is not yet predictable, but there is much to be learned now.
USING STYLE APPEAL IN SELLING
We may use style appeal in selling furniture of any quality except the poorest to customers of any level of taste except the lowest. The salesperson should have some appreciation of the importance and dignity of furniture, and a fair working knowledge of the forms, materials, and ornament of the several period styles.
HOW FURNITURE KNOWLEDGE IS SPREADING
We must remember three things:
1. All furniture is derived, however remotely, from earlier forms and therefore can be identified with a style appeal.
2. American women have become style-conscious in matters of decoration.
3. The home-furnishing art is studied in colleges and secondary schools; books dealing with it are widely read; at least 25 million persons read national magazines which devote space to it; hundreds of newspapers publicize it; powerful agencies are actively engaged in widening popular knowledge of it.