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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

Rococo STY LE was the height of fashion in the 1740s and 50s, but few purely Rococo rooms have survived in Britain. Perhaps it was too difficult to make a pleasing scheme of such profuse ornament with its swirling flowers and scrolls, asymmetric forms and figures caught in the instant of movement. Nevertheless, householders — especially in London — eager to be in tune with the latest trends, included Rococo features in some of their rooms. (more…)

Adam, Wedgwood and Sheraton are names that conjure up the delicate Neoclassical style of the late 18th century. It was a style ideal for the factory methods that were starting to nudge at the craftsman’s pre-eminence.

A marked Change in decorative style coincided with the start of George III’s reign in 1760 — not that the devout, industrious 22-year-old king had much to do with the change. He became a cultured and devoted family man with an interest in science, but he was no society leader. (more…)

Although hand skills continued, science and technology were advancing on all fronts. Pottery and porcelain were soon to prove a field for industrialisation. While British factories could not yet match Meissen and Sevres, attractive and popular pieces were made. Highly decorated soft-paste porcelain figures were still made by Chelsea (for tables, mantelshelves and cabinets), now with coloured and gilded scrolls instead of the earlier mounds forming the base. Tiny figures known as ‘toys’ were made to hold scent, needles and bonbons. Earthenware figures and Toby jugs were made in the Staffordshire potteries to appeal to a mass market. (more…)

Willing to accept the newly rich as well as new designs, the gentry in early Georgian Britain swelled in numbers and indulged their spending urge — often to excess. This led many to ruin, but it also allowed craftsmen, designers and artists to make great reputations for themselves.

Merit, good fortune, education and patronage, corruption and service to the nation were among the varied means of advancement in mid- 1 8th century Britain. (more…)

Silver, Ceramics and Glass

The Palladian, Rococo, Chinoiserie and Gothic styles inspired other craftsmen besides furniture-makers. The best silversmiths of the age, such as Paul de Lamerie, worked in all these styles. A salver might have restrained, Classical-style borders and a candlestick might represent a Classical column, while a basin and ewer might bear the shells and garlands of the Rococo. One dish might be engraved with Oriental figures and another be heavily chased with Gothic traceries. (more…)

While their homeland was Oliver Crom well’s Commonwealth, Royalists who had taken refuge in France experienced the French style of life. One of its features, which they copied on returning home after 166o, was the arrangement of rooms. The public, formal core of a house was the hall or vestibule and the main reception room, often called the salon (saloon) or great parlour. The private suite of rooms had its own slightly less formal reception room — the withdrawing room — which was an antechamber to the bedrooms. (more…)

Although a private room in the main, and a retreat from the bustle of the great chamber, this bedchamber of about 1600 still had a public to impress. A lady might work at her embroidery here, pursue religious studies, learn to play a musical instrument and talk with her closest friends. A gentleman would take guests to his bedchamber to talk business, play chess or backgammon, or have a meal.

This bedchamber is comfortable and yet grand, with an elaborate plasterwork ceiling and an ornate frieze above the panelled walls. A striking tapestry also enriches the room. The imposing bed is heavily carved on the oak headboard and on the posts that carry the tester or canopy. Ropes hold the mattress filled with rushes, wool, or feather and down. (more…)