gain more than they lose by suppressing the name of manufacturer.
[3] This summary prepared with permission of Delmar Kroehler, president
of the Kroehler Manufacturing Co., Naperville, Ill., and Henri, Hurst,
and McDonald. Inc., 520 North Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. (1939).
Unit IV
STYLE AS A SELLING FACTOR
Significance of Style
Period Styles from Renaissance to Early Colonial
American Styles
Using Style Appeal in Selling
[Illustration:
American Furniture Mart Photograph by Grignon
Figure 7.--A directoire piece in lacquer and gold, upholstered in a
rich gold and green brocade fashion, this interesting stool. An ideal
hall piece, the ornate stool lends itself to an interesting setting
when used with the lovely Duncan Phyfe mirror and mirrored glass wall
sconces. The mirror has a dull green panel across the top--the lyre
and laurel branches appearing in a deep green and gold. The arabesque
Axminster rug has a tracery leaf design in sculptone effect. It is a
greyed green tone.]
Unit IV.--STYLE AS A SELLING FACTOR
SIGNIFICANCE OF STYLE
Salespersons frequently find it necessary to deepen a customer's
appreciation of the fitness and beauty of a piece by the presentation
of one or more additional selling features, of which the most important
are construction or technical excellence, attractiveness of materials
or finish, and beauty of design or style.
This should do two things:
1. Enhance the value of your merchandise.
2. Enable you to reveal technical or artistic knowledge which will
increase the customer's respect.
There is no fixed or logical order for the presentation of these
various selling features. Many salesmen begin with construction, but
this often is a mistake. There is reason to believe that more women are
interested in materials than in construction, and more in style than in
materials.
_What style means to you._--Style is a powerful buying motive of great
and growing importance in furniture. Most of us attempt to use the
style appeal only in connection with period furniture. Most women, on
the other hand, identify style with fashion. They think of style in
decoration as substantially the same thing as style in dress; that is,
as something smartly harmonious and in the accepted mode.
Unquestionably we must develop the power to capitalize on style as our
customers understand it.
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.
By the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 a measure of
civilization had been achieved. A great love of color developed with
the age of chivalry. The period of the Crusades (seven attempts during
the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries to recover Jerusalem
and the Holy Land from the infidels) brought the knights of Western
Europe into contact with the developed arts of Sicily and the far more
luxurious life of their Saracen enemies, and the returning crusaders
brought back great quantities of the rich and colorful fabrics of the
East.
That tremendous out-flowering of the human spirit which we call the
Renaissance (French for rebirth) started in Italy in the fourteenth
century; it grew there in full vigor in the fifteenth, attained to
its maturest powers in the sixteenth, and sank to its decline in the
seventeenth. The whole era was a time of great achievement. The New
World was discovered and explored, learning was revived and extended,
international trade was developed, and masterpieces were created in the
arts, which still stand among the greatest monuments of human genius.
The ideas and decorative practice of the Italian Renaissance quickly
spread to the west, where they overcame or fused with the existing
Gothic, resulted in the Renaissance styles of Spain, France, Flanders,
Holland, and England, and started the long course of development
which has created the immensely rich heritage possessed by lovers of
furniture today. In studying the decoration of this first period, we
must remember that the construction of rooms adapted to the comfort,
privacy, and intimacy of modern life was an eighteenth century
development. Life was lived in the public eye and in rooms of state.
The apartments of the palaces were large, the ceilings high, and the
furniture sparse and designed for its decorative value rather than for
use and comfort.
THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
It is customary to divide this era into three periods; the Early
Renaissance, characterized by a rich simplicity and a dignity almost
austere; the High Renaissance, by a showy but restrained magnificence;
and the Late Renaissance, by a baroque magnificence over-ornate and
unrestrained.
During the first period, walls were chiefly in rough plaster, bare
save for tapestries or panels of damask or brocade, or finished with
a smooth coat decorated with colored frescoes; ceilings were largely
in dark woods, cross-beamed, and with the heavy beams and corbels
ornamented in color; and floors were of stone, tile, and marble. There
was some use of oriental rugs, and a free use of rich decorative
textiles.
During the high or middle period (about 1500-1550) many of the rooms
were rich with pattern and color. Walls were in colored marbles, or
covered with frescoes and gilding, or with gorgeous brocades, Genoese
velvets and tooled and gilded leather; ceilings frescoed and gilded;
floors paved with many-colored patterns in gleaming marble.
Furniture of the period was straight-lined, rectangular, and of dark
woods. Carving, in low relief and in the round, always was employed
with a fine sense of the value of contrast with plain spaces. Gesso
ornament, gilding, and painting were much employed, and the panels of
chests and other pieces often were decorated by the greatest artists.
Chairs of the period were of _(a)_ the rectangular type, with or
without arms, with high or low back, and with or without upholstery;
_(b)_ the curule, a sort of four-legged camp stool with back, sometimes
of metal and with fabric seat; and the ~X~-type, adapted from ancient
Greece and Rome, called in Italy Dante and Savonarola chairs. These
chairs of wood or metal often were made to fold, and later became
popular in England.
Tables included the single-slab refectory type; draw tables of the same
construction used today; pedestal tables with round, square, hexagonal,
and octagonal tops; and a variety of writing tables with a front box
or drawer section which could be lifted for writing. The larger tables
were supported by heavy turned legs with stretchers near the floor, or
by trussed or columned end supports connected by a stretcher, often
arcaded.
[Illustration:
_Painted Commode_
18th Century Venetian
_"Dante" Chair_
Italian Renaissance
_Armchair_
Italian Renaissance
_Armchair_
Spanish Renaissance
_Armchair_
Italian Renaissance
_Vargueno_
Spanish Renaissance
_Table_
Spanish Renaissance
Figure 8.--Italian and Spanish styles (1400-1759).]
Beds, which were usually set on a dais or low platform and always
richly embellished, included the heavy four-poster with canopy; the
four-poster with low posts and no tester, with or without footboard;
and the paneled type with head and foot board and no posts.
Chests, chiefly bridal chests (Italian: Cassone or cassoni in plural),
were a most conspicuous feature of Italian decoration.
Credenzas, which served either as buffet or console, were wall pieces
about 4 feet high and of varying length. Other forms included the
armadio (French armoire, a large cupboard or cabinet for linens), small
cupboards, chests or drawers, desk, benches, and stools.
Renaissance ornament was enormously rich. The forms, taken chiefly from
classical antiquity, included the acanthus leaf, human and chimerical
figures, cherubs, scrolls, foliage, flowers, swags, rosettes, and
drapery festoons. Velvets were used largely for upholstery, with
brocades, brocatelles, damasks, needlepoint, and leather, and strong
rich colors were used throughout as would be expected of so vigorous an
age. Strong reds, blues, and greens, set off by gold, were the favorite
hues.
Although a long period of decadence followed the High Renaissance
much beautiful work was done in eighteenth century Italy. Furniture
was chiefly of walnut, mahogany, and many highly figured woods, with
carving, painting, bone inlay, pietra dura, marble tops and ornamental
metal mounts the favorite methods of embellishment. The painted
furniture, particularly that made in Venice, is of interest to us
today, and is used in suites for bedroom and breakfast room, and as
occasional pieces in other rooms. In using this furniture today it is
unimportant to attempt to reproduce the historic backgrounds.
THE SPANISH RENAISSANCE
Spanish interiors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries differed
sharply from contemporary rooms in Italy, France, and England, chiefly
by reason of old Moorish art and custom, which the incoming wave of the
Renaissance was not strong enough to wash away.
Old Spanish decoration is characterized by a severe dignity, relieved
by concentrated masses of strong colors and by a wide variety of
ornamental forms. Furniture of the period was straight-lined and
rectangular and chiefly of walnut, mahogany, chestnut, oak, and pine.
Carving, straight and spiral turning, inlay of ivory, bone, ebony,
colored woods, tortoise shell, silver, and bronze, often with outlines
in black and vermillion, and ornamental iron work were the principal
means of embellishment. Elaborate and beautiful mounts of iron and
brass were common.
Chairs, though not common, included both the curule and rectangular
types, the latter with or without arms and with or without upholstery.
Other varieties included carved and straight spiral turned legs;
Spanish scroll, bell, ball and bun feet; carved, splat, and arcaded
backs; and wood, flat upholstered, and squab-cushioned seats. Beds were
large, and mostly of the arcaded headboard type. Tables were mostly of
large size and rectangular.
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE (FRANCIS I, 1515-47; HENRY II, 1547-59)
French Gothic art early began to give way before the constantly
widening flood of Renaissance art which flowed in from Italy. The
transition was practically complete when Francis I was crowned, and
less than 50 years later, under Henry II and his Italian wife Catherine
de Medici, the richly ornate yet restrained style of the French
Renaissance was fully formed. The style is too palatial for adaptation
to American homes.
The French Styles.
_1. Louis XIV (Louis Quatorze[6]), 1643-1715._
Louis XIV surrounded himself with the airs and trappings of majesty.
Furniture of the period was formal and dignified, and for the most
part, massive. It retained the straight lines characteristic of the
earlier styles, but with less of angular harshness.
Walnut was chiefly used for exposed parts together with oak, chestnut,
ebony, pine, and sycamore. Many exotic woods were used for veneers
and inlay. Caning was common for seats and backs. Every known form of
embellishment was employed, including carving, chiefly in the acanthus
leaf, shell, cartouche, cupid, ram's head, and other classic motives.
Louis XIV Furniture.
Chairs of the most characteristic type were rectangular, with high
broad backs having a top straight or slightly rounded at the corners,
back and seat solidly upholstered; legs term-shaped (term: A four-sided
pillar, usually tapering toward the bottom), carved, and under-braced
by Gothic or saltire cross stretchers; arms as long as seat, and
usually straight and upholstered. Other seating included the _sofa_
or _canapé_,[7] the _chaise longue_, and the _bench_, _tabouret_, and
_stool_.
Upholstery fabrics were exceedingly rich and gorgeous, Gobelin and
Aubusson tapestries, silk velvets, damasks, and brocades being chiefly
used. Furniture was upholstered _en suite_, a common arrangement
including one sofa, two arm chairs, and nine stools or _tabourets_.
Etiquette prescribed the use of _stools_ by most members of the
court, and prudence demanded it of the ladies, who at this time wore
hoop-skirts, so enormous that they couldn't sit in an arm chair. All
furniture was placed against the wall, with the center of the room left
clear.
The old-fashioned four-poster bed with drapery belongs here. Most
fashionable was the _lit d'ange_ (bed of the angel), canopied but
without posts, which was of enormous size and always richly carved and
embellished.
While tables were of many kinds and sizes, the rectangular shape with
term legs was most characteristic. _Screens_, either one-panel or
folding, were used in most rooms, and _mirrors_, _pedestals_, and _tall
clocks_ became common, in addition to such older forms as _armoires_,
_commodes_, _cabinets_, and _desks_.
The colors of the period were fairly dark and strong, with crimson,
green, and gold still favorites; some new and lighter colors became
popular; among them aurora--the yellowish pink hue of the dawn--flame,
flesh, and amaranth.
_2. Louis XV (Louis Quinze)[8] 1715-74._
Great-grandson of the old king, Louis XV was but 5 years old when the
latter died, and for 8 years Philippe of Orleans governed as regent.
Louis XV was too young to continue the constant round of formal
receptions, and state functions. Court life turned from the great
salons to the smaller apartment and the boudoir. Furniture became
smaller and more dainty; the hard and virile straight line gave place
to the soft and feminine curved line; and dark colors to light and
delicate tones. Pale tints of rose, blue, green, and yellow were the
favorite colors.
An extraordinary variety of cabinet woods was used--among them walnut,
mahogany, oak, rosewood, cherry, violet, and tulipwood. Embellishment
included carving; ornamental veneers; marquetry; plaques of porcelain;
painting in ivory, soft yellow, gray, or sea green with fine lines of
white, gold, or color; and lacquer, which became immensely popular.
Louis XV Furniture.
The chairs, all curvilinear, with and without arms, upholstered or
caned, include the _fauteuil_[9] or _large armchair_; the _bergere_, a
_smaller armchair_ with solidly upholstered arms and often with loose
cushions; the _causeuse_ (the word means talkative, chatty), an easy
arm chair; the "_confessional_," large winged chair, often with a high
seat matching a large tabouret and put together to form a _chaise
longue_, and many others.
[Illustration:
_Table_
French Renaissance
_Armchair_
Louis XIV
_Writing Desk_
Louis XV
_Armchair_
Louis XV
_Armoire_
Louis XIV
_Commode_
Louis XV
Figure 9.--Early French styles (1500-1750).]
Beds were as varied as the chairs. Alcove and _sofa_ or _boudoir beds_
were favorites, the latter having headboard, footboard, and back.
_Four-poster canopy beds_ were common, and were sometimes made of iron,
draped. Another fashionable favorite was the _day bed_, often with a
fabric-covered headboard, and placed with either head or side against
the wall.
Among the multitude of tables were many of elliptical and other
curvilinear shapes; the _crescent_ or _kidney writing table_; the
_powder table_, which we have lately revived after more than 150 years;
and the _ladies' work table_. The _chiffonier_, a small piece with
drawers, came into use about 1750, as did the _corner cabinet_ and the
_wall shelves_, now known as hanging _book racks_.
Present-Day Practice.
Louis XV furniture is used often in the drawing room or dining room of
important American houses, where a suitable background will be ensured
by the architecture.
Most of us, however, have occasion to sell it only for bedroom use.
_3. Louis XVI (Louis Seize[10]) 1774-94._
Louis XVI, grandson of Louis XV, was married at 15 to Marie Antoinette
of Austria. He was popular for some time, but was swept aside by the
French Revolution in 1789 and was killed on the guillotine.
The style which bears his name (sometimes known as the style of Marie
Antoinette) was in reality fully formed before his accession to the
throne. It resulted directly from a wave of enthusiasm for the delicate
type of classic ornament revealed by the excavations at Pompeii and
Herculaneum, which were discovered early in the eighteenth century. The
Adam style in England came from the same source.
The furniture of the period returned to straight lines and rectangular
shapes, with curved lines freely employed but not dominant.
A great variety of cabinet woods was used, fashionable favorites,
including mahogany, walnut, sycamore, and satinwood. Carving,
architectural moldings, marquetry, figured veneers, lacquer, painting,
and porcelain inlays were the usual methods of embellishment. Much
furniture was painted.
[Illustration:
_Bed_--Louis XVI
_Armchair_
Louis XVI
_Armchair_--Empire
_Armchair_
French Provincial
_Bed_--Empire
Figure 10.--Later French styles (1750-1815).]
New Types of Furniture.
Among the new chairs was the _voyeuse_ (vwä-yûz), a lyre-back armless
chair with the top rail upholstered as an elbow rest, and used by
dandies who bestrode it backward in order not to crush the tails of
their coats. Favorite beds included the _sofa_, usually upholstered
with damask or brocade, and supporting at the four corners a light open
frame bearing a small canopy; and the _day bed_ with or without back.
During the period the _tea table_, _breakfast table_, and _extension
dining table_, with four, six, or eight legs, came into common use.
The Directoire[11] (1795-1804) and Empire (1804-15) Styles.
After France had rid itself of royalty and aristocracy through the
Revolution, under the direction of the painter David a new style was
created; it was "made and molded of things past." Inspired by the
classic Roman decoration, it was known at the time as the "antique"
style and today is known as the Directoire. (See fig. 7.)
The Directorate was succeeded in 1799 by the Consulate, with Napoleon
as First Consul, and the Consulate in 1804 by the coronation of
Napoleon as Emperor. Style trends were continuous; for our purpose it
is enough to discuss briefly the style known as the Empire _(l'Empire)_.
It is of interest because of its influence upon American furniture of
the Federal period.
Furniture was for the most part rectangular, massive, and architectural
in design, but curvilinear in Roman and gondola chairs, and in many
beds and sofas. Legs included the straight term form; round, either
plain or carved; rectangular and turned outward at both front and back
as in the chair illustrated (p. 59); flat truss supports and winged
chimerical figures for tables and beds. Feet included the paw, ball,
scroll, often with leaf shoe.
Mahogany was the favorite wood, with some use of rosewood, walnut,
oak, and yew, and with a wide variety of materials for inlay. Carving,
veneer, paint, turning, and gilding on metal or carved wood were usual
methods of embellishment. Tapestry, damask, satin, brocade, velvet, and
worsted damask were used for upholstery, with fringes and gimps common.
The French Provincial Styles.
"French Provincial" refers to furniture made in the French provinces,
by local craftsmen and usually of local woods, in close reproduction of
the styles dominant at the court. The styles which were widely copied,
and which resulted in the most graceful and charming pieces, were those
of Louis XV and Louis XVI. (See fig. 1.)
THE ENGLISH STYLES
Because England was ruled by four dynasties--English, Scotch, Dutch,
and German--English furniture reveals the effects of a series of strong
foreign influences.
The Elizabethan Style.