TWO CLASSES OF EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMERS
In making a style appeal based upon period decoration you will occasionally encounter customers who belong to either of two classes, both small, but important enough to merit brief mention—
1. Those who express contempt for modern machine-made furniture.
2. Those who have no use for period design and often for the whole matter of style.
Nothing will be accomplished by argument. But the one who scorns style probably does not carry that idea over into his purchase of clothing for himself or of the automobile he drives. In dealing with this type of customer it may be worth while to point out that the machine at least has enabled us to reproduce the truly beautiful pieces of the old masters with their full beauty preserved and to make them available to people of ordinary means. Certainly society could not support the immense number of craftsmen that would be necessary to make good furniture by hand.
Nor is it a question of paying more for style. When one chooses well-styled furniture it is true that he pays for materials and labor, but he gets in addition the distinction that comes from rich historical associations, and aristocratic lineage.
QUESTIONS
1. How would you make a style appeal based upon period decoration to a customer who professed contempt for modern machine-made furniture?
2. What steps would you take in selling a reproduction of the Chippendale splat-back chair?
3. What are the characteristics of the four outstanding furniture periods known as the French, Early English, Georgian, and American? (Consider each period from the viewpoint of historic date, lines, proportions, woods, upholstering fabrics, and modern use).