FOR MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS OF FURNITURE
[Sidenote: Art and Industry]
When you think of your home, making a picture in your mind of the
familiar surroundings associated in your memory with your greatest
pleasures, you are really thinking of furniture. Tradition makes the
dwelling itself the tangible symbol of home, because when a primitive
tribe ceased to be wanderers, the walls that excluded wild beasts and
inclement weather and gave privacy were conspicuous evidences of a
change for the better. But in our higher civilization our way of
thinking has changed. Nothing seems to us more desolate than the bleak
surfaces and harsh angles of an unfurnished house. Colour and softness
and the curved lines which we instinctively love because they suggest
softness come into the dwelling with furniture, and culture has
progressed so far that the chair or bed must be a delight to the eye as
well as to the weary limbs, that the dinner table and the bookcase must
be so designed as to enhance the satisfaction we find in refreshing body
and mind. You would not get so much pleasure as you do from your
Encyclopaedia Britannica if its paper and print and pictures and the
colour and texture of the bindings did not make it one of the chief
adornments of your home; the volumes might be just as useful in a less
pleasing guise, but you would not feel the same affection for the book.
[Sidenote: Form and Embellishment]
To satisfy the spirit of home-love and house-pride in the making of
furniture is an art, and the idea that furniture can only be artistic
when it is made by hand, from a design that is to be used but once, is
as nonsensical as it would be to say that a beautiful etching is not
true art because a press produces it and others like it. “Fine art is
everything which man does or makes _in one way rather than another_ ...
in order to express and arouse emotion ... with results independent of
direct utility.” These words from Sir Sidney Colvin’s delightful
Britannica article FINE ARTS (Vol. 10, p. 361), and another passage (p.
370), in which he speaks of “the artificers who produce wares primarily
for use, in a form, or with embellishments, that have the _secondary
virtue of giving pleasure_,” might well be quoted to the supercilious
and superficial critic who condemns every product which machinery has
brought within the reach of the less fortunately situated. Furniture,
made in one form rather than another, because that one form gives
greater pleasure, is artistic furniture whether it is made of machined
pine chemically stained or of handworked and hand-polished rosewood. The
manufacturer and dealer who ingeniously minimize the cost of production
and distribution are benefiting the public just as truly as did Thomas
Chippendale, “at once an artist and a prosperous man of business,” or
Thomas Sheraton, “the great artistic genius who lived in chronic
poverty.” The adaptation and variation of their ideas, under modern
conditions of manufacture, have given pleasure to tens of thousands for
every one whose home was enriched by the original products.
[Sidenote: Related Subjects]
We have, then, in the furniture business, the combination of an art with
an industry of the most practical and useful kind, and this art is one
which does more than any other to “express and arouse” the
home-cherishing emotions which solidify family life. The principles
which underlie architecture, sculpture, painting, metal work, embroidery
and the weaving of patterns all affect the design of furniture, since
its contours and surfaces are obtained by the application of the
structural and decorative laws of all of them, and it might therefore be
said that the only course of reading in the Britannica which could fully
justify the title of this chapter would be one which covered all these
diverse fields. The reader can, however, with the assistance of other
chapters of this Guide, easily find his way to the Britannica’s articles
on each of these allied subjects, and an indication of the articles
dealing specifically with furniture will at any rate serve his primary
purpose.
[Sidenote: “Art Nouveau” School]
The keystone article FURNITURE (Vol. 11, p. 363) is by James
Penderel-Brodhurst, one of the greatest of living authorities, to whom
many of the subsidiary articles are also due. The 37 illustrations on
plate paper include two large views of the most famous and resplendent
piece of furniture ever constructed, the cylinder desk, now in the
Louvre Museum in Paris, made for Louis XV by a number of
“artist-artificers,” the chief among them Oeben and Riesener, with
bronze mounts by Duplessis, Winant and Hervieux. The article explains
the scanty attention paid to furniture in ancient Egypt, Rome and
Greece, and throughout the Middle Ages in Western Europe, as due to the
routine of life in centuries during which people spent their days in the
open air, and went to bed as soon as it was dark, therefore needing but
few household appliances. The Renaissance was the first era of sumptuous
and elaborately varied furniture; and it was not until the 18th century
that the art of the cabinet-maker was fully developed. The English
periods of Queen Anne and early Georgian craftsmanship and the reigns of
Louis XV and Louis XVI brought the development to its high-water-mark.
Since then, there has been no really new departure except the “art
nouveau” school, which professed to be free from all traditions and to
seek inspiration from nature alone. The revolution which was thus
attempted was not successful, and the permanent influence of the
movement will, in all probability, be less notable for its effect upon
style than for the very great service it rendered in reviving the use of
oak. Lightly polished, fumed or waxed, this wood, which was so long
neglected, is the most effective that can be employed at moderate cost.
[Sidenote: Beds]
The oldest and most indispensable of all furnishings is treated in the
article BED (Vol. 3, p. 612). The Egyptians had high bedsteads to which
they ascended by steps, and the Assyrians, Medes and Persians followed
the same custom. The Greek bed had a wooden frame, with a board at the
head, and bands of hide laced across, upon which skins were laid. At a
later period, as vase-paintings show, the Greeks used folding beds.
Another ancient application of an idea commonly supposed to be of modern
origin is found in the Roman use of bronze beds, and metal is so much
more sanitary than wood for this purpose that it seems strange it was
afterwards discarded for many centuries. The bed of the Emperor
Eliogabalus was of solid silver, with counterpane and hangings of purple
embroidered in gold. In Pompeii wall-niches for beds, like those still
used in Holland, are found, and were apparently closed by sliding
partitions as well as by curtains. To our modern ideas, this arrangement
seems to have been disgustingly devoid of ventilation, but the
four-poster, with its “tester” roof and its curtains, which was widely
used until the middle of the 19th century, was not much better.
Mattresses developed very slowly, for in the 18th century pea-shucks and
straw were the stuffing materials employed in houses of prosperous
people, and hair had not come into use. The article gives a full and
interesting account of the quaint custom, instituted by Louis XI of
France, and followed by many of his royal successors, of a sovereign
remaining in bed while he received the visits of his ministers and
courtiers.
[Sidenote: Chests and Chairs]
The chair, to us the commonest of objects, did not come into general use
until, as the articles BENCH (Vol. 3, p. 715) and STOOL (Vol. 25, p.
967) indicate, these two had long been the usual seats. The CHEST (Vol.
6, p. 106) was also used as a seat, and was the original form of
wardrobe before hanging space and drawers were provided. The
ecclesiastical chests, of great length in order that they might contain,
without folding, church vestments stiff with embroidery, are the most
ornate of all the models of furniture which have been preserved from the
13th and 14th centuries. The article CHAIR (Vol. 5, p. 801) shows that
chairs were everywhere uncommon until the middle of the 16th century;
and it was not until the 17th was well advanced that upholstery began to
be employed for them. The typical Louis XVI chair, with its oval back
and ample seat, descending arms, round-reeded legs and gay tapestry was
the most beautiful and elaborate model that has ever been devised. But
it was the original Chippendale design and the still lighter patterns of
Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Adam that gave us the slender, compact and
easily moved chairs which will always be the more numerous. It is
interesting to observe that the revolving chair, commonly regarded as an
office convenience of modern origin, has a pedigree of no less than four
centuries.
[Sidenote: Bookcases and Desks]
It would seem that the old English makers of furniture went somewhat
astray when they gave themselves the general designation, still
surviving, of “cabinet-makers”; for we learn from the article CABINET
(Vol. 4, p. 918) that the elaborate cabinets which have come down to us
from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries are almost invariably of Italian,
Dutch and French origin, and it was in other branches of work that the
English were most successful. THE CUPBOARD (Vol. 7, p. 634) was used to
contain books long before the BOOKCASE (Vol. 4, p. 221) had assumed a
distinct form, and in the earlier bookcases the volumes were either
placed on their sides, or, if upright, were ranged with their backs to
the wall and their edges outwards. Until printing had cheapened books,
it was not the custom to mark the title on the back, and the band of
leather which closed the volume, like the strap on an old-fashioned
wallet, bore the inscription. Sheraton’s satinwood bookcases were among
the most elegant of all his pieces. The DESK (Vol. 8, p. 95) about the
year 1750 had assumed the form which is now described as a library
table—a flat top with a set of drawers on each side of the writer’s
knees, when its vogue was interrupted by the invention of the
cylinder-top desk. At first the cover was a solid piece of curved wood,
but the “tambour,” or series of slats mounted on canvas proved more
serviceable; and the American roll-top desk is now exported to all parts
of the world. Other articles dealing with individual pieces of furniture
are WARDROBE (Vol. 28, p. 323), SIDEBOARD (Vol. 25, p. 38), DRESSER
(Vol. 8, p. 577), CHEFFONIER (Vol. 6, p. 22), CRADLE (Vol. 7, p. 360),
BUFFET (Vol. 4, p. 757), and MIRROR (Vol. 18, p. 575).
[Sidenote: Technical Articles]
Of the more technical articles TIMBER (Vol. 26, p. 978) shows the
comparative advantages of all the varieties of wood used for furniture;
and, as the list at the end of this chapter shows, there is a separate
article on each kind. TOOL (Vol. 27, p. 14), by J. G. Horner, is of
great importance. It would fill 75 pages of this Guide, and contains 79
illustrations. The furniture maker will find in it complete information
about all the hand tools and machine tools used in the industry. JOINERY
(Vol. 15, p. 476), by James Bartlett, describes, with practical
diagrams, every variety of joint and dovetail. Sound guidance for the
workshop will be found in GLUE (Vol. 12, p. 143), PAINTER-WORK (Vol. 20,
p. 457), LAC (Vol. 16, p. 35), LACQUER (Vol. 16, p. 53), in regard to
which there is also information in the article JAPAN (Vol. 15, p. 188),
FRENCH POLISH (Vol. 11, p. 154), WEAVING, _Industrial Technology_ (Vol.
28, p. 440), DYEING (Vol. 8, p. 744), by Profs. J. J. Hummel and Edmund
Knecht; REP (Vol. 23, p. 105), TAPESTRY (Vol. 26, p. 403), with numerous
illustrations, by A. S. Cole; SILK, _Manufacture_ (Vol. 25, p. 102);
PLUSH (Vol. 21, p. 857), VELVET (Vol. 27, p. 979), MARBLE (Vol. 17, p.
676), by J. S. Flett; ONYX (Vol. 20, p. 118); and ALABASTER (Vol. 1, p.
466).
[Sidenote: Decoration and Ornament]
[Sidenote: Biographical Articles]
Although wood, ivory, precious stones, bronze, silver and gold have been
used from antiquity for the decorations of furniture, the modern maker
will be more concerned with WOOD-CARVING (Vol. 28, p. 791), illustrated,
by F. A. Crallan, author of _Gothic Wood-carving_. In this article
materials and methods are described, and there is much information as to
the domestic use of wood-carving. The article will be most valuable to
manufacturers and dealers who have to do with church fittings. GILDING
(Vol. 12, p. 13) and CARVING AND GILDING (Vol. 5, p. 438) impart
knowledge of a practical nature as to these processes. The art of
inlaying is described in MARQUETRY (Vol. 17, p. 751) and BOMBAY
FURNITURE (Vol. 4, p. 185); see also VENEER (Vol. 27, p. 982). Materials
other than wood used for inlaying are described, as, for example, PEARL
(Vol. 21, p. 25) for pearl and mother of pearl; IVORY (Vol. 15, p. 92),
LAPIS LAZULI (Vol. 16, p. 199), TORTOISESHELL (Vol. 27, p. 71), BRASS
(Vol. 4, p. 433), etc. The mention of the last two materials naturally
suggests the name of BOULLE and the Britannica’s biography of that
artist. Such biographies, as anyone interested in the subject knows, are
most difficult to find, and they are included in much detail in the new
Britannica. BOULLE (Vol. 4, p. 321) was the most distinguished of modern
cabinet-makers before the middle of the 18th century; and, beginning
with that date, both France and England produced a number of men whose
renown is scarcely less than that of the great painters, sculptors,
architects or musicians of the period. The Britannica’s accounts of
their lives, ideas and work will be of much value and interest to those
who make or deal in furniture. For the French schools we get the
essential facts about, for example, OEBEN (Vol. 20, p. 11), to whom
Louis XV’s famous desk owes its general plan; RIESENER (Vol. 23, p.
324), his more celebrated pupil, who completed the desk; RÖNTGEN, DAVID
(Vol. 23, p. 693), the maker of “harlequin furniture,” several of whose
ingenious mechanical devices are described; and GOUTHIÈRE (Vol. 12, p.
291), the metal-worker whose furniture mounts are among the most noted
art products of the Louis XV and XVI periods. CHIPPENDALE (Vol. 6, p.
237), with whom arose the marvellously brilliant school of English
cabinet-makers, is the subject of a biography describing fully the
characteristics of his designs; and the history of this school is
continued under such headings as HEPPLEWHITE (Vol. 13, p. 305), whose
taste at its best “was so fine and so full of distinction, so simple,
modest and sufficient that it amounted to genius”; ADAM, ROBERT (Vol. 1,
p. 172), who left so deep and enduring a mark upon English furniture,
and SHERATON (Vol. 24, p. 841), “the most remarkable man in the history
of English furniture,” whose extravagant creations marked the end of the
great school. Many other biographies are included in the list appended.
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ARTICLES, INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES, IN THE
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA WHICH ARE OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO FURNITURE
MANUFACTURERS AND DEALERS
Acacia
Adam, Robert
Agate
Ailanthus
Alabaster
Alder
Algum
Arabesque
Arbor Vitae
Armoire
Arts and Crafts
Ash
Bahut
Bamboo
Baroque
Barry, Sir Charles
Basin-stand
Basket
Bed
Beech
Bérain, Jean
Birch
Bombay Furniture
Bonheur du Jour
Bookcase
Boulle, André Charles
Box
Boxwood
Brass
Brocade
Buffet
Carving and Gilding
Casket
Cassone
Casuarina
Cedar
Chair
Cheffonier
Chenille
Cherry
Chest
Chestnut
Chintz
Chippendale, Thomas
Coco-nut Palm
Coffer
Console
Copal
Copeland, Henry
Corduroy
Cradle
Crash
Cressent, Charles
Cretonne
Crunden, John
Cryptomeria
Cupboard
Curtain
Cushion
Cypress
Damask
Dammar
Date Palm
Design
Desk
Divan
Dresser
Dumb-Waiter
Duramen
Dyeing
Ebony
Electroplating
Elm
Embossing
Encoignure
Etagère
Fir
Footman
Frame
French Polish
Furniture
Gilding
Gillow, Robert
Glue
Gouthière, Pierre
Halfpenny, William
Hazel
Hepplewhite, George
Hickory
Holly
Huon Pine
Ince, William
Ingle-nook
Inlaying
Iron
Ivory
Japan, _Art_
Japanning
Jarrah Wood
Johnson, Thomas
Juniper
Kauri Pine
Lac
Lacquer
Lampstand
Lapis Lazuli
Larch
Leather
Leather, Artificial
Le Pautre, Jean
Lime, or Linden
Linen-press
Liquidambar
Lock
Lock, Matthias
Lowboy
Mahogany
Mammee Apple
Manwaring, Robert
Maple
Maple, Sir John B.
Marble
Marot, Daniel
Marquetry
Mastic, or Mastich
Mayhew, Thomas
Meissonier, J. A.
Mirror
Moreton Bay Chestnut
Morris, William
Nettle Tree
Oak
Oeben, J. F.
Olive
Onyx
Ormolu
Ornament
Osier
Ottoman
Overmantel
Painter-work
Pearl
Pergolesi, M. A.
Pigments
Pine
Plane
Plush
Prie-dieu
Rep
Resin
Riesener, J. H.
Rococo
Röntgen, David
Rosewood
Rousseau de la Rottière, J. S.
Sabicu Wood
Satin Wood
Screen
Sequoia
Settee
Settle
Shearer, Thomas
Sheraton, Thomas
Sideboard
Silk
Sofa
Spruce
Stall
Stool
Table
Tallboy
Tapestry
Tea-caddy
Teak
Tea-poy
Textile Printing
Throne
Ticking
Timber
Tortoiseshell
Tray
Triclinium
Tripod
Turpentine
Upholsterer
Varnish
Velvet
Velveteen
Vernis Martin
Walnut
Wardrobe
Washstand
Weaving
What-not
Willow
Window-cornice
Window-seat
Wine Table
Wood-carving