The United States had a strong influence on international style, although it had not exhibited in Paris. Streamlining, developed in the United States, was a feature Art Deco. Speed was still smart, and it was evoked in Art Deco design by such devices as closely set, parallel, horizontal lines and fluid, rounded corners.

Vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and buildings were streamlined as readily as cars, trains and ships. The United States was also the Art Deco source of another powerful modern symbol: the skyscraper. Its tapering, staged silhouette was used in decorations on buildings, lighting equipment and company badges. Read the rest of this entry »

Modern design’s first public impact was made by the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Indus- Erie’s Modernes, held in Paris. Britain’s mainly Arts-and-Crafts exhibit drew little interest. People had tired of the hand-crafted look and Medieval imitation. The hit of the show was France’s exhibit in the brash new Style Modern — soon called Art Deco, from the title of the Exposition. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark of Craftsman

The style was essentially nostalgic, much of its detail and ornament inspired by the Medieval -for example, the large metal hinges fitted on the outside of cabinet doors. The products looked handmade: wood was often left unpolished; beaten metal showed hammer marks; dowels were often left conspicuously visible. Glass was simply blown - cutting was disparaged as an industrial technique - so that the natural beauty of the material itself could be seen, unobscured by ornament. Read the rest of this entry »

Love of the Artistic Life

The late loth century was a time when people were fascinated by the lives and lifestyles of artists. Many modelled their own homes on an artist’s studio and the relaxed atmosphere of an artist’s house with its comfortable chairs, collections of paintings and etchings hung in tiers from a picture rail or perhaps standing on an easel, a scattering of rugs and furs, potted plants and dried flowers, collections of interesting objects, including Oriental ceramics and furniture, and antiques. Read the rest of this entry »

While Victorian householders were still revelling in the comforts and novelties that mass production offered, designers pined for the individual craftsmanship of earlier centuries. Oddly, their yearning for the past led to progressive styles that gave a foretaste of today.

Cosily cluttered rooms with red flock wallpaper, heavy curtains and ample deep-buttoned seats draped with anti‑macassars were still at the height of their popularity during the 1870s. The love of curtaining had found yet another outlet in the massive portieres that now hung at the large, open arch between two rooms. To the majority of Victorians, this was the kind of living room to aspire to. Read the rest of this entry »

Beauty with usefulness was the aim of the Arts and Crafts movement’s followers, and their homes made a striking contrast with the crowded rooms of the same time furnished in mainstream taste. Although seen as progressive in its day, the Arts and Crafts style, developed largely by William Morris, showed a nostalgic yearning for the simple pre-industrial cottage. This living room combines dining and sitting room, echoing cottage life. Progressive people were furnishing their rooms like this as early as the 1870s but, as more designers worked in Arts and Crafts style, similar rooms were more common in the 1880s and 90s, and the momentum continued into Edwardian days. Read the rest of this entry »

Heavy handed Decor

Cosy family life remained the aim of mid- Victorians. This still demanded comfortable furnishings such as deep-buttoned chairs, ottomans and chesterfield sofas, but now everything had a heavier look, showed more wood — along the top of seat backs, for example — and bore fancy carving or fretwork. The front legs of the graceful balloon-back chairs were elaborated into carved cabrioles. Read the rest of this entry »

The enduring image of mid-Victorian style is a sombre drawing room with red flock wallpaper, heavy curtains and table covers trimmed with braids and fringes, thickly upholstered seating, and ornaments and knick-knacks jostling on the mantelpiece, on tables and on display shelves. In fact the clutter gathered gradually after 1850, but it was well established by the 1860s.

Mid-Victorian style is often dismissed as lack of style. Certainly it had no single vision, but embraced many visions with eclectic enthusiasm. Yet the numerous unrelated elements making up its cluttered effect were deliberately put together and the result was a recognisable look. It expressed what the newly rich chose to buy, and was the first style to reflect the taste of the broad middle band of society, not its small upper set. Read the rest of this entry »

Two mid-Victorian fashions rejected the smothering cosiness. One was inspired by France, where nostalgia for the furniture of Louis XVI had produced a mishmash of pre-Revolutionary styles with a sprinkling of the brass or ormolu used in the Empire style.

In Britain this vogue was imitated, and rooms decorated with white and gold paper held delicate French-style furniture decked with veneers and marquetry of woods such as satinwood, amboyna and purpleheart. Pottery manufacturers, notably Minton and Coalport, produced close copies of Sèvres, while the Worcester Royal Porcelain Company produced high-quality ‘Limoges ware’. Read the rest of this entry »

Ornaments and knick-knacks crowded on every surface. Some were homemade, the result of the family’s female members keeping themselves busy — idleness was regarded as close to moral turpitude. The ladies made arrangements of wax flowers and fruits to sit under protective glass domes. They created pictures from feathers or shells, painted vases, decorated wooden plaques with poker work, embroidered Berl in-woolwork covers for footstools and workboxes, diligently stitched together patchwork for cushion covers, and crocheted antimacassars. Read the rest of this entry »