8 irt. PLATE 1 THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF INTERIOR DECORATION BY HAROLD DONALDSON EBERLEIN ABBOT McCLURE AND EDWARD STRATTON HOLLOWAY WITH 7 PLATES IN COLOUR, 283 IN DOUBLETONE, AND A CHART PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY E.5.H COPYRIGHT, 1919. BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 3144 PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. , FOREWORD IT is hard to understand why someone has not writ- ten such a book as this before, a book covering the three great needs of anyone approaching in any capacity the matter of household decoration. History is a treasure house of the crystallised expe- rience that has slowly evolved in past ages, a treasure house ready for us to draw upon as we will. The limit of our taking from its stores is marked only by our capacity to receive. This is especially true in the case of so concrete a subject as interior decoration where many enduring examples of the best achievements of former generations in that field have been preserved for us practically intact. The truest and sanest originality is the product of a gradual evolution and rational adaptation to present needs of the most obvious and applicable precedents established by our predecessors and tried by the search- ing test of time. Such originality, too, is largely an unconscious product. The agent is scarcely conscious that he is aiming to be original. Deliberately self-con- scious originality that casts aside and contemns all precedent and strives, above all else, to create some- thing the like of which has never been done before, may indeed be original to the extent of being unique, but the chances are ninety-nine out of an hundred that it will also be gauche and crude and without any merit to entitle it to permanence. It wins notice only because it is a curiosity and a freak. If there were no guiding principles and traditions, if Interior Decoration were to begin to-day, it is prob- able that furnishing even of the simplest cottage would be a chaotic thing. Successful decoration and vi FOREWORD home-making is a matter not merely of "feeling" or even of taste, if these necessary qualities be without knowledge. Decoration is both an art and a science; it is the result of long centuries of loving thought and high craftsmanship based upon unalterable principles of beauty and of use. What wonder is it that the usual brisk and light-hearted "jumping into" the furnishing of the home is productive of a result causing the judicious to grieve ! Notwithstanding an improvement in recent years, the utter waste of money and of effort, the absence of any praiseworthy result in thousands of modern homes is still appalling. Knowledge therefore must come first, and nothing can be more absorbing than to see the beauty and the fitness evolved, both from elaborate and from simple materials, through the various periods of Decoration and to apply them to our own needs. It would, then, certainly seem wise to provide the professional decora^ tor, the home-furnisher and the allied professions and trades with a convenient, thorough-going and well illus- trated account and description of the work of the great decorative periods, since their beginnings, and of the principles which informed them. In the first part of this volume the authors have endeavoured to give a consecutive and synoptic picture of the art of interior decoration as it has been practised in England, in France, in Italy, and in Spain since the beginning of the sixteenth century, adding thereto such comment as seemed necessary upon American modifica- tions of British usage during the Colonial and early republican periods. This includes the decorative prac- tice of the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and Neo- Classic systems, and it may be added that in no other one volume can such a fully described, illustrated and digested account be found. FOREWORD vii In the second part of the volume is made the direct application to modern requirements of the lessons to be drawn from the historical exposition in Part I. As it is manifestly impossible, even were it desirable, to give specific and categorical directions for decorative procedure to suit every case, it has been the policy to set forth principles as well as to explain practice, and to leave considerable discretionary latitude in which the reader may exercise his or her choice of action. In this way it is believed the utility of the book will prove flexible enough to meet all sorts of needs, both simple and elaborate. Each age has its own conditions, requirements and developments, and any volume on Modern Decoration that did not take these fully into account would be imperfect. The treatment of the Practical side of Deco- ration, in Part II, will be found so simple and straight- forward as to be readily understood by any intelligent furnisher of his own home, and, while this Part is primarily addressed to him, it is felt that a fresh view of the subject from a point other than the traditions of trade may be of distinct interest to the professional decorator and dealer as well. The plates constitute a most vital feature of the book and the reader is urged to study carefully the illustra- tions in connexion with the text in the manner indicated by the text references. Without such comparison and cross reference the purpose of the volume will be in great measure defeated. It will be seen that instant reference may thus be made to any particular feature of the work. We are living in an age of catholic appreciation which we are optimistic enough to believe is increasing. We believe, also, that with this catholic tendency to appreciate and to lay hold of whatever is intrinsically viii FOREWORD good in the work of any period, there is rapidly growing an healthy constructive ability on the part of the house- holder which prompts the individual to beautify his or her home, either through the offices of a decorator or through personal effort. Our twofold purpose is, in the first place, to stimu- late intelligent cooperation with the decorator, to encourage appreciation of what the decorator does, and to afford a sound basis of discriminating criticism and judgment; in the second place, to aid the householder who may elect to achieve either a limited decorative improvement or the execution of an whole constructive scheme. It is also felt that the decorator and the dealer will find in this volume much information compactly arranged for instant reference. Whether or not the services of a decorator be re- tained, may we urge the wisdom of not trying to hasten unduly the completion of a scheme. It is infinitely better to proceed deliberately, to accomplish at one time what is unquestionably sound and then to wait for a while, if it be necessary, to secure exactly what is needed, rather than to push for immediate completion at the risk of incorporating features that afterwards prove undesirable and make us rue our impatience. "We have reminded the reader that this is an age of catholic appreciation of whatever was worth while in the practice of the past. In this connexion, it should be pointed out that while it is perfectly permissible, if the householder so chooses, and may at times be thor- oughly desirable, to decorate and furnish a room in strict accord with some particular period style, we do not urge such a course. Meticulous reproduction of this sort is apt to savour too much of decorative arche- ology and to result in a stilted, artificial effect, quite incompatible with a desirable expression of the owner's FOREWORD ix individuality or with the exercise of rational originality. The outcome is likely to be dead and "correct" instead of being instinct with vital quality as it ought. It is better to think, to consult principles, which we believe the reader will find lucidly enough set forth, and to employ a rational liberty of selection when attacking a problem of rearrangement or of new composition. The room will then reflect the occupant's personality, a condition that will afford vastly more interest and lively charm than any amount of simian exactitude in reproduction. No one questions the value of period furnishing, but the question as to how it is to be used in our modern days has been the subject of much discussion indeed. On the one hand we find, in practice, the narrow adher- ence to one period and one country; on the other, a jumble of everything under the sun from the fifteenth century to the twentieth and from China to Portugal. In Part III of this book is for the first time formulated a logical system of decoration which avoids both the narrow limitations of the one-period method and the pitfalls of eclectic furnishing. Without wishing to claim undue credit, the writers are under the impression that this volume is the first \ of the kind to formulate a definite body of decorative principles that are applicable under any conditions likely to arise. Scattered precepts and general obser- vations upon the effects attained in individual instances are agreeable and helpful, so far as they go. It is more serviceable, however, to have a digest of principles explaining the "how" and "why", principles simple and flexible enough in their working to be readily applied to meet the varying requirements that may from time to time confront the reader. It will be seen upon perusal that a great deal of x FOREWORD space and attention have been devoted, both in the his- torical section and in the sections upon application, to the architectural background and the fixed decorations. The vital importance of this part of interior decoration cannot be overestimated. Without it all efforts in other directions will be robbed of their legitimate result and the expense bestowed will not count for its full value. The architectural background and the fixed decora- tions really supply the foundation for which all else is the superstructure. When building an house, no sane person would dream of constructing an elaborate and costly superstructure upon insufficient or poor founda- tions. It is quite as fatuous to expect a room to look well and to do justice to the pains spent upon it without adequate preparation of the background, or, in other words, the foundation for the subsequent movable decoration. If it be necessary to economise anywhere in the erection of a structure, the economising is not done at the foundation, which cannot be changed later, but above ground in the matter of details that can be subse- quently added. In precisely the same way, if there be any limitation in carrying out a decorative scheme, d6 not stint the background, which has a strongly perma- nent quality, but postpone completing a part of the movable equipment, which can be added at any time. The work of interior decoration is not a task that can be undertaken in a haphazard manner and accom- plished with creditable results. Nor can it be achieved by the whimsical following of fads. It requires thought, judgment, calm planning and sanity. In the past it has always been a dignified occupation in which the greatest architects and artists have not hesitated to labour assid- uously. Its ultimate object, to enrich and beautify the home which is the nucleus of social life and the corner- stone of the state, is a service in which architect and FOREWORD xi artist, decorator and householder alike may engage with justifiable pride. In conclusion, the authors wish sincerely to thank all the many who have materially assisted in the prepa- ration of this work, and for numerous courtesies ex- tended to acknowledge their indebtedness, especially to the following : the editors of House and Garden, of Good Furniture Magazine and of House Beautiful in arranging for the use of material that has appeared in substance in their pages ; to Messrs. Wilson Eyre and Mcllvaine, Edmund B. Gilchrist, Willing and Sims, Mellor, Meigs and Howe, Sir Ernest Newton, Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, George Leland Hunter, William Lawrence Bottomley, the Misses Hewitt, the Misses Owen, Mrs. Abbot Thorndike and Mrs. William Thorndike, the Honourable Jefferson M. Levy, Wolstan Herbert Dixie, Durr Friedley, E. S. Dodge, and Henry Chapman Mercer; to W. H. Ward's " Architecture of the French Renaissance" and George P. Bankart's "Art of the Plasterer"; to the C. M. Traver Co., Wil- liam Helburn, Inc., B. T. Batsf ord, Ltd., Messrs. L. Ala- voine & Co., Carvalho Brothers, Nicholas Martin, Mon- tillor Brothers, Messrs. Litchfield & Co., Radillo & Pelliti Co., Woodville & Co., the Chapman Decorative Co., Messrs. Robinson and Farr, R. W. Lehiie, Vogue, the Architectural Record, the International Studio, Waring & Gillow, Ltd., Edwards & Sons, Bartholomew & Fletcher, Speelman Brothers, Story & Triggs, C. J. Charles, the Aschermann Studio, Newcomb-MacklinCo., A. H. Notman & Co., Edward I. Farmer, Ramsey, Lyon & Humphreys, Inc., Alfred Villoresi, Karl Freund, Mrs. M. Orme Wilson, John Wanamaker; American Art Galleries, Anderson Art Galleries.; the Pennsyl- vania Museum and School of Industrial Arts, the Met- ropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and the xii FOREWORD Museum of the Cooper Institute for supplying many illustrations and for permission to reproduce others; to the officers and staffs of the Library Company of Philadelphia and of the Philadelphia Free Library; and last, but by no means least, to Mr. Philip B. Wallace for his unfailing help with many of the photographs used. HABOLD DONALDSON EBEKLEIN ABBOT McCLUBE EDWABD STBATTON HOLLOWAY PHILADELPHIA, July, 1919 PART I HISTORIC PERIOD DECORATION IN ENGLAND, ITALY, SPAIN AND FRANCE CHAPTER PAGE I. INTERIOR DECORATION IN ENGLAND PRIOR TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 3 II. INTERIOR DECORATION IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 25 III. INTERIOR DECORATION IN ITALY PRIOR TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 63 IV. INTERIOR DECORATION IN ITALY DURING THE EIGH- TEENTH CENTURY. 79 V. INTERIOR DECORATION IN SPAIN PRIOR TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 96 VI. INTERIOR DECORATION IN SPAIN DURING THE EIGH- TEENTH CENTURY 104 VII. INTERIOR DECORATION IN FRANCE PRIOR TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 108 VIII. INTERIOR DECORATION IN FRANCE DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AND THE FIRST DECADES OF THE NINETEENTH 130 IX. NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES AND AFTER 167 PART II PRACTICAL DECORATION AND FURNISHING I. THE BASIS OF SUCCESSFUL DECORATION 185 II. COLOUR AND COLOUR SCHEMES 191 III. WALLS, AS DECORATION AND AS BACKGROUND 233 IV. FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS 258 xiii xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE V. WINDOWS AND THEIR TREATMENT 269 VI. THE ARRANGEMENT AND BALANCE OF FURNITURE . . 282 VII. FURNITURE AND ITS CHOOSING 297 VIII. DECORATIVE TEXTILES 312 IX. ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING 324 X. MANTEL DECORATION AND GARNITURE 343 XI. PICTURES AND THEIR FRAMING 350 XII. DECORATIVE ACCESSORIES 364 PART III INTERNATIONAL-INTER PERIOD DECORATION AND FURNISHING INTRODUCTION: THE ASSEMBLING OF STYLES 371 I. THE RENAISSANCE 377 II. THE BAROQUE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 392 III. THE Rococo 410 IV. THE NEO-CLASSIC , . 426 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE 1. A Casement Bow-window with William and Mary and Queen Anne Furniture. (Colour-plate.) Frontispiece 2. The Hall, Franks, Kent. English Renaissance 8 3. Dining Room in English Renaissance Style (Early Stuart Phase) . 8 4. Living Room of Stuart Type 9 5. Living Room of Stuart Type 9 6. Drawing Room Panelled in Oak, William and Mary Period 12 7. Early Georgian Room with Panelled and Painted Walls 26 8. Bed Chamber in Queen Anne Mode with Panelled Painted Walls 30 9. Dining Room of Georgian Type 30 10. The Banquetting Room, Croome Court, Worcestershire, by Robert Adam 31 11. Adam Door and Over Door Decoration 31 12. The Dining Room at "Mt. Airy" 48 13. Chamber, Palazzo Davanzati, Firenze, 15th Century 64 14. Italian Renaissance Details 64 15A. Salon, First Floor, Palazzo Davanzati, Firenze, 15th Century.. . 65 15B. Bed Chamber, Palazzo Davanzati 65 16. Chamber in Palazzo Vecchio, Firenze, 16th Century 65 17. Throne Room Palazzo Quirinale, Roma 66 18. The Hall of Hercules, Palazzo Farnese, Caprarola 66 19. Palazzo Farnese, Caprarola 66 20A. Hall, Villa Curonia, Florence 80 205. Room, Villa Curonia, Florence 80 2L4. Detail of Mirror Gallery, Palazzo Doria, Roma 80 21J5. Bed Chamber, Castello Vincigliata 80 22A. Bed Chamber, Villa Curonia, Florence 80 22B. Antechamber, Villa Fabbricotti, Late 18th Century 80 23A. Spanish Renaissance Interior: Plain Walls 98 23B. Walls Partially Encrusted with Tiles in Spanish Manner 98 24. Spanish Renaissance Room with Plain Plaster Walls 99 25. Spanish Interior with Baroque and Rococo Furniture 104 26. Woodwork and Plasterwork. Gallery, Fontainebleau. Style Francis 1 114 27. Long Gallery, Fontainebleau. Style Francis I 114 '28. Fireplace and Chimney Piece, Fontainebleau. Style Henri II. .. 115 29. Hall of St. Louis, Fontainebleau. Style Henri IV-Louis XIII . . 115 30A. Vestibule d'Honneur, Fontainebleau. Style Louis XIII, Extreme Baroque 120 305. Salle des Gardes, Fontainebleau. Style Louis XIII, Transition. 120 XV xvi ILLUSTRATIONS 31A. Salon Marie de M&lecis, Luxembourg Palace. Style Louis XIII 120 31B. Salon, Fontainebleau. Style Louis XIII 120 32. Throne Room, Luxembourg Palace. Style Louis XIV 121 33. Characteristic Baroque Decorative Motifs 121 34. Bed Chamber of Louis XIV, Versailles. Style Louis XIV 122 35. Hall of Hercules, Versailles. Style Louis XIV 122 36.A. Doorway, Luxembourg Palace . Style Louis XIV 122 36B. Throne Room, Luxembourg Palace. Style Louis XIV 122 37. Re*gence Panelling in Carved Oak, Parcel Gilt 132 38A. Louis XV (Rococo) Overmantel Mirror 133 38J?. Painted Panel by Lancret, Rococo 133 39A. Salon, H6tel de Breteuil, Paris. Style Louis XV, Simple Rococo 148 39.B. Salon, H6tel Delisle-Mansart, Paris. Style Louis XV, Simple Rococo 148 40. Chimney-piece, H6tel de Matignon, Paris. Style Louis XV, Ex- treme Rococo 148 41. Bed Chamber, Decorated by Boffrand, Hotel de Soubise, Paris. Extreme Rococo 149 42. Ape Room, Decorated by Huet, H6tel de Rohan, Paris. Extreme Rococo 149 43. Characteristic Rococo Decorative Motifs from Panelling 150 44. Characteristic Rococo and Neo-Classic Panel Motifs . . . . 150 45. Characteristic Neo-Classic Panelling Motifs 151 46. Boudoir, H6tel de LaFayette,' Paris. Style Louis XVI . . . . 151 474. Salon, H6tel Gouffier de Thoix, Paris. Style Louis XV, Rococo 152 475. Salon, H6tel Baudart de St. James, Paris. Style Louis XVI ... 152 48A. Salon, H6tel du Chatelet, Paris. Style Louis XVI 152 48. Salon, H6tel du Chatelet, Paris. Style Louis XVI 152 49. Salon, H6tel de LaFayette, Paris. Style Louis XVI 152 50. Dining Room, H6tel Chanac de Pompadour, Paris. Directoire- Empire 158 51A. Salon, H6tel de Grammont, Paris. Style Louis XVI-Directoire. Furniture Empire 158 SIB. Salon, H6tel de Mailly, Paris. Style Empire 158 52A. Office and Reception Room in "Modern" Style 176 52. Scheme for a Dining Room in "Modern" Style 176 53. Modern British Cottage with Built-in Furniture 176 54. Panel Inserts of Japanese Paper, Lamp and Table, "Modern" Style , 176 55. One-Period Decoration. A Louis XV Drawing Room 188 56. International-Interperiod Decoration in a Modern Apartment. . 188 57. "Modern" Decoration. Hotel Traymore, Atlantic City, N. J. . 188 58. A Study in Values 208 59. The Quiet Room. Rose Dominant over Green (Colour Plate) . . 218 60. Reception-room. Rose Dominant. (Colour Plate) 220 ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 61. Second Bedroom. Rose Dominant over Blue. (Colour Plate) . 220 62. Sitting or Sewing Room. Rose Dominant over Tan. (Colour Plate) 221 63. Colour Scheme, Based on Yellows, for Two Rooms. (Colour Plate) 221 64. An Excellent Example of Modern Panelling, for a Bedroom. (Colour Plate) 234 65A. A Nobly Proportioned Dining Room Panelled in Georgian Style 236 655. Walls Covered with Filled Canvas and Applied Moulding 236 664. Plaster Walls in Combination with Extensive Woodwork 238 665. A Combination of Many Materials in a Modern English Dining Room 238 67A. Wall of Concrete Blocks: Cross-beamed Ceiling 238 675. Stone Walls and Flagging 238 68. Sand-finished Walls Forming an Admirable Background 239 69. Plaster Walls with Adam Mantel, Ceiling, Etc 239 70A. A Simply Painted Grey Wall 240 705. Wall of Italian Inspiration 240 71. Composite Room, Landscape Wall Decoration 240 72. A Hall with Paper of Two-tone Stripe 241 73A. Wall Covered with Damask 241 735. Foliage Paper as Panel Inserts 241 74. Walls with Panels of Late 18th Century Architectural Wall Paper 246 75. Black Ground, Flowered, Cretonne Paper 247 76. Narrow, Conventional Border and Set-down Picture-rail 250 77A. A "Modern" Treatment of Wall and Piano 256 77B. Scheme for a Billiard Room in " Modern" Style 256 78A. Reposeful Hall Relieved by Decoration of Upper Wall-space. . . 257 785. Modern British Plain-wall Cottage Living-room 257 7QA. Large Rug Formed of Strips of Carpet Sewed Together 260 795. Plain-centre Rug with Border of Oriental Character 260 80A. Oriental Rugs as Relief to Plain Walls 260 805. Plain-centre Rug with Border in Accord with Interior 260 81 A. Cement Floor with Inserted Design in Coloured Tile 260 815. Tiled Floor and Base with Plaster Wall 260 82A. Two Tiers of Sash-curtains 272 825. Short Sash-curtains and Long Side-curtains 272 83A. Simple Curtains of Figured Net with Shades 272 835. Three Sets of Curtains Sash, Draw and Ornamental 272 MA. Curtains of Striped Silk 273 845. Casement Bow-window with Valance Following the Windows. . . 273 85. Shaped Valance and Curtains Contained within Architectural Setting 273 86. Cornices in the Neo-Classic Mode 278 87.4. Ornamental Valance with Plain Curtains 279 875. Valance and Curtains with Contrasting Bands 279 xviii ILLUSTRATIONS ~88A. An English Bedroom with Appropriate Seat at Foot of Bed. . . 282 8&B. An English Bedroom 282 89A. The Corner of a Man's Living-room 282 895. Italian Renaissance Furniture in Formal Balance 282 90A. Faulty Balance Between the Two Sides of a Room 283 905. Balance Accomplished by Change of Pictures 283 91. Disorganisation and Barrenness in a Generally Good Interior . . 283 92A. Built-up Effect of Console-cabinet, Mirror and Accessories . . . 288 92B. Built-up Effect of Couch, Backing and Panel of Prints 288 93A. English Cottage Furniture 298 93.B. English Cottage Living-room with Furniture Designed by the Architects 298 94A. Attractive Forms of Reed Furniture 299 94B. Modern Painted Furniture in a Seaside Cottage 299 95A. An Old Cottage at Weston-Patrick, Hampshire 310 95B. Painted Furniture well Adapted to the "Newer" Decoration. . 310 9&A. William and Mary Room Panelled in Oak, Upholstered Settee. 314 96B. Bad Scale in Textiles 314 97A. Armchair Covered with Petit Point Needlework, Tapestry Curtain 314 97.B. Chippendale Long Stool Covered with Gros Point Needlework. 314 98. The Charm of Chintz in an "Old-time" Interior 315 99. A Fine Use of Wall Hangings 315 100A. Early 18th Century Chandelier Lighting a Stair-well 330 100B. Hanging Lanthorn and Venetian Processional Lamp 330 101. Carved Wood and Gilt Side-light 330 102A. Adam Glass Candelabrum 330 1025. Empire and Italian Candlesticks 330 102C. Empire and Tall Italian Candlesticks 330 103. Attractive Lamps in Attractive Environments 336 104A. Lamp of Pauleo Ware in Old Rose 336 104J5. Lamp of Peacock -feather Design in Blue and Grey 336 104C. Chinese Porcelain Lamp and Shade in Light Blue 336 105. Two Vase Lamps of Excellent Contour 337 106A. Chinese Egg-shell Lantern Mounted as a Lamp 337 106B. Old Ming Figure Mounted as a Lamp 337 107. Three Chinese Lamps with Specially Adapted Shades 338 108A. Oriental Vase Lamp with Silk Shade 338 108.B. Oriental Vase Lamp with Designed Paper Shade 338 108C. Bronze Reproduction of an Antique Japanese Vase 338 109A Italian Renaissance Pedestal Lamp 339 109B. Pedestal Lamp Suited to Any Dignified Environment 339 109C. Pedestal Lamps of Carved Wood 339 1KU. 1105 '|Two Attractive Lamps for the Boudoir 339 ILLUSTRATIONS xix HOC. A Colonial Lamp 339 HOD. Mahogany Standard Lamp 339 1114. Fireplace in a Modern Apartment 344 1115. Chimney-piece by Robert Adam 344 111C. Italian Renaissance Fireplace, Palazzo Ruccelai 344 112. Chimney-piece in Wood; Empanelled Portrait 346 113. Armorial Bearings and Plan of Estate as Chimney-piece Decora- tion 347 114. Excellent Framing of a Picture of Decorative, Period Character. 350 115. Gold Frames of Stanford White and Whistler Design 354 110. French Period Frames 354 117. An Unusually Beautiful Setting for an Architectural Painting . 355 118. Ornamental Mouldings for Water-colours, etc 355 1194. Photograph-frame for the Reproduction of a Portrait 356 1195. Arrangement of Pictures Illustrating the Principles of Balance 356 120. Stuart Bed Chamber with Accessories 364 121. Porcelains as Accessories in a Fine English Hall 364 1224. A Screen Both Useful and Decorative 364 1225. Hanging, Screen and Panels Used with Good Effect 364 123. Reception-room with Chippendale, Hepplewhite and American Empire Furniture 372 124. A Louis Seize Drawing-room in a New York Apartment 372 125. Dining-room in "Modern" Style in a New York Apartment . . 373 126. Man's Room with Simple Period and Wicker Furniture 373 127. Room in Palazzo Davanzati: Plain Walls 378 128. An International Renaissance Interior in a Remodelled Farm- house 379 129. Italian Renaissance Wall Furniture 386 130. Italian Renaissance Chairs and Tables 386 1314. French 16th Century Cabinet on Stand 387 1315. French Cabinet a Deux Carps 387 1324. French Renaissance Walnut Chairs 387 1325. An Elizabethan Coffer English Renaissance 387 133. Spanish Renaissance Wall Furniture 388 134. Spanish and Portuguese Renaissance Furniture 388 135. A Spacious Modern Hall in Italian Renaissance Style 388 1364. Diminutive Spanish Chair: Extreme Baroque 394 1365. English Renaissance Interior Persisting to Baroque Times. . . . 394 137. Early Georgian Room with Painted and Panelled Walls 394 138. Salon of Diana, Versailles, Style Louis XIV 395 139. Sala dei Angeli, Palazzo Farnese, Caprarola 395 140. An 18th Century Bedroom, Casa de Alta-Vila, Agueda, Portugal 402 1414. French Armoire by Boulle, 17th Century 404 1415. Italian Carved Walnut Armoire, 17th Century 404 1424. French Baroque Marqueterie Cabinet 404 xx ILLUSTRATIONS 1425. Italian Baroque, Red Lacquer and Polychrome Armoire 404 143. French and English Furniture, Baroque Epoch 405 144. Italian Renaissance Credenza with Baroque Chairs 405 talian Baroque Chairs 406 145ZX Ornate but Dignified English Baroque Chairs 406 146A. 18th Century French Lacquered Escritoire 406 1465. 18th Century Venetian Lacquered Escritoire 406 147. Italian Baroque Tables and Chests of Drawers 407 148. Spanish Baroque Chairs 407 149. Portuguese Baroque Seating Furniture 408 150. Dining-room with 18th Century Italian and Spanish Furniture . 409 151. Portuguese Rococo Furniture 420 152A. Spanish Transition Baroque-Rococo Chest of Drawers 420 1525. French Regence Chairs 1 420 152C. French Rococo Console 420 153A. Louis XV Cabinet in Chinese Taste 421 1535. Louis XV Marqueterie Commode with Bronze Ornaments 421 154A. Chippendale French Mirror 421 1545. Chippendale French Console Cabinet with Rococo Motifs 421 155. Venetian Rococo Furniture 422 156. An Italian Rococo Painted Set 422 157. Italian Rococo Furniture 423 158. Spanish Rococo Furniture 423 159. Adam Drawing-room with Wedgewood Plaques in Walls 430 160. Salon, H6tel d'Orsay, Paris. Style Louis XVI 431 161. Louis XVI Commode by Martin Carlin 436 162A. Louis Seize Settee and Chairs in Old Needlework 436 1625. Chairs Designed by Robert Adam for Harewood House 436 163. Italian Neo Classic Cha irs and Settee 437 164. Italian Neo Classic Wall Furniture 437 165A. Venetian Neo Classic Walnut Table 438 1655. Spanish Neo Classic Painted Slant-top Desk 438 166. Spanish Neo Classic Bedstead and Chairs 438 167. A Combination of Neo Classic and Chippendale Furniture . . . 439 168. The Classic Revival Salon of Thomas Jefferson; Louis Seize Furniture 439 169. Louis Seize French Panelling: British and American Furniture 440 170. 18th Century Italian and French Furniture 441 171. Directoire Seating Furniture 444 172. Directoire Settee with Fluted Legs 444 173. Living Room with Furniture of Prevailing Empire Type 444 Chart: The Four Great Decorative Influences 447 PART I HISTORIC PERIOD DECORATION IN ENGLAND, ITALY, SPAIN AND FRANCE Finally, there should grow the most austere of all mental qualities; I mean the sense for style. It is an aesthetic sense, based on admiration for the direct attain- ment of a foreseen end, simply and without waste. Style in art, style in literature, style in science, style in logic, style in practical execution, have fundamentally the same aesthetic qualities, namely, attainment and restraint. The love of a subject in itself and for itself, where it is not the sleepy pleasure of pacing a mental quarter-deck, is the love of style as manifested in that study. Here we are brought back to the position from which we started, the utility of education. Style, in its finest sense, is the last acquirement of the educated mind ; it is also the most useful. It pervades the whole being. The administrator with a sense for style, hates waste; the engineer with a sense for style, economises his material ; the artisan with a sense for style, prefers good work. Style is the ultimate morality of the mind. But, above style and above knowledge, there is some- thing, a vague shape like fate above the Greek gods. The something is Power. Style is the fashioning of power, the restraining of power. But, after all, the power of attainment of the desired end is fundamental. The first thing is to get there. Do not bother about your style, but solve your problem, justify the ways of God to man, administer your province or do whatever else is set before you. Where, then, does style help ? In this, with style the end is attained without side issues, without raising un- desirable inflammations. With style, you attain your end and nothing but your end. With style, the effect of your activity is calculable, and foresight is the last gift of gods to men. With style, your power is increased, for your mind is not distracted with irrelevancies, and you are more likely to attain your object. Now style is the ex- clusive privilege of the expert. Who ever heard of the style of an amateur painter, of the style of an amateur poet? Style is always the product of specialist study, the peculiar contribution of specialism to culture. "THE ORGANISATION OP THOUGHT " By A. N. Whitehead, Sc.D., F.R.S. London : Williams & Norgate Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF INTERIOR DECORATION PART I HISTORIC PERIOD DECORATION IN ENGLAND, ITALY, SPAIN AND FRANCE CHAPTER I INTERIOR DECORATION IN ENGLAND PRIOR TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY /NTRODUCTION. Sixteenth century England will ever be endued with a glamour all its own in the eyes of those over whom history exerts a fas- cinating hold or in whose mental background a strong sense of love and reverence for our Mother Country and a just pride in our great heritage of English blood and traditions count as potent factors. The vigour, freshness and naivete of the period, added to the full- blooded stability of English characteristics and tradi- tions, combine to cast a subtle spell over the imagina- tion. Even the misdoings of that old reprobate and rapacious spendthrift, Henry VIII, seem to fade into a half-pardoned state of unreality and grow less repre- hensible in the enshrouding haze of glowing splendour that radiates from the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and when we think of the marvellous delights of Nonesuch or of the 2600 tapestries that adorned the walls of his palaces we are all too apt to forget whence came the 3 4 . INTERIOR DECORATION funds to compass the building of the former and that many of the latter he either stole from the monasteries he so ruthlessly pillaged or niched from the possessions of Cardinal Wolsey. Notwithstanding all this bravery of gorgeous dis- play, there was comparatively little upon which, for our present purpose, we may profitably centre our atten- tion until we come to the days of Queen Elizabeth. Dur- ing her reign the building of country houses advanced by strides and gave scope for the art of furnishing to develop to a truly national extent. In all this work, which progressed continuously during the rule of Elizabeth and her Stuart successors, the spirit of the Renaissance was the controlling influence, but that influ- ence arrived in England through various channels and manifested itself under varying forms, as we shall presently see, so that it is necessary to divide the epoch embracing the last half of the sixteenth century and the whole of the seventeenth into three phases the first covering decoration in the time of Queen Elizabeth and during the reigns of King James and King Charles I, a period of consistent, logical and uninterrupted devel- opment; the second covering the 8our years of the Commonwealth; the third covering the Restoration period, with all its influx of fresh and divers tendencies, and terminating in the medley of Baroque and Oriental fashions that flourished vigorously all through the reign of William and Mary. In the Elizabethan period the chiefest part of the architectural and mobiliary Renaissance inspiration came into England through Flemish channels. While a powerful Renaissance influence had taken deep root in Flanders and wrought abundant results, neverthe- less the Flemings, like the French, had retained a large ENGLAND 5 measure of late Gothic tradition and their interpreta- tion of Renaissance principles was strongly tinged and modified by this residuary leaven of an earlier mode so that the composite result was unmistakably local and individual in character. This body of Flemish forms, upon its transition to England, was grafted upon a stock of British growth and precedent and the pure Italian Renaissance element in it was still further diluted by British conceptions and methods of execu- tion on the part of craftsmen who, then as now, were conservative and retentive of the manner of technique and forms of decorative expression instilled by early training. In spite, however, of the dominating Flem- ish bias imparted to the Renaissance mode in England, distinct traces of a subsidiary but unadulterated source of Italian inspiration recur again and again in the work of the period, showing that the direct connexion with Italian cultural influence was far stronger and more intimate than is generally supposed. We may the more readily credit the existence and potency of this bond when we look into the literary history of the age and find that between the accession and death of the Virgin Queen there were published in England no fewer than 394 translations from the Italian into English and 72 texts in Italian and Latin. When Italian literature found such a receptive audience as these figures prove, when we remember how closely the arts were inter- related in England, when we study the evidence of trade and imports, and when we consider the presence of not a few able Italian craftsmen, whose continued residence and activity in England are matters of his- torical record, we may be very sure that Englishmen were not insensible to the enlivening impetus of direct contact with Latin sources in matters of d-ecoration. 6 INTERIOR DECORATION We also see in this condition a further link in the pow- erful chain of evidence showing a wide international- ism in art, an internationalism that we are altogether too prone to ignore in the past and assume as a develop- ment of modern times. Under the Commonwealth we find a period of com- parative stagnation and arrested growth in matters of English decoration. Certain Baroque tendencies, it is true, came more into evidence than at an earlier date, but, for the most part, it was an era of drab monotony ; the minority who still cherished taste and refinement were in too great trouble or weighed down by disabil- ities too heavy to permit them to give much encourage- ment to any form of art, and the greater part of the nation, under the impulse of that strange mania that impelled the rue-faced Roundhead ranters and gloomy Puritan religionists to contemplate in fascinated dread the flaming terrors of hell and to prophesy with savage satisfaction the unalterable damnation of all their kin and neighbours, was much too engrossed in the orgy of morbid introspection to pay much heed to the ameni- ties of architecture or decoration. A few wealthy " worldlings " did indulge in " wicked and unedifying extravagances," but their example did not produce an appreciable effect. At the Restoration, the pendulum swung to the other extremity of its arc and the arts of architecture and interior decoration gained all the impetus that usually attends long pent up energy suddenly let loose in a congenial and hitherto forbidden field of activity. The impetus was further intensified in London by the necessity of replacing the ruin wrought by the Great Fire. The large numbers of refugees returning from exile on the Continent in the train of the King brought with them not only a fresh set of polite tastes, require- ENGLAND 7 ments and broadened conceptions but also a very con- siderable quantity of household furnishings and lux- urious garniture. Court circles and the people of the country at large alike welcomed all the new and newly invigorated influences French, Italian, Flemish, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Oriental that suc- cessively made their way into England as a result partly of political alliances, partly of expanded trade relations, partly through the immigration of foreign artificers, and partly, though by no means in the least measure, through a new cosmopolitanism that was gradually spreading throughout the country and sup- planting the old insularity that had received a mortal wound when King Charles the Martyr was beheaded and got its coup de grace when King Charles the Scape- grace, as the Merry Monarch might well have been called, came back from overseas to ''enjoy his own again. ' ' The architecture of this complex Restoration period was catholic enough to employ inspiration derived from French, Flemish and Italian interpretations of the Renaissance spirit and also to incorporate Baroque elements when there was occasion. In the field of inte- rior decoration we find an opulent medley of Renais- sance, Flemish, Baroque, East Indian and Chinese influences that combined to diversify the mobiliary manifestations of the period to an hitherto unwonted degree. Architectural Background and Methods of Fixed Decoration. Allusion has already been made to the domestic architecture of the age of Elizabeth, which was largely a composite of Flemish Renaissance forms grafted upon an English stock of late Gothic proven- ance. One might characterise the style as a Gothic bodv with Flemish Renaissance features and clothes. 8 INTERIOR DECORATION The rooms and galleries were large, or at the very least commodious, and the ceilings were frequently though not invariably low in comparison to the other dimensions, unless there was an open timbered roof. The window openings were large and might consist of a range of three or more leaded casements separated by upright posts or mullions of wood or stone, or might rise to a great height, filled with tiers of leaded case- ments (Plate 5) separated both horizontally and verti- cally by mullions. Again, the whole end of a room might be filled by one great bow window with the mul- lion divisions, as in the previously noted cases. In any event, the mullions were an invariable as well as a dis- tinctly characteristic and decorative feature. The case- ments were glazed with small quarries or with little lozenge-shaped panes leaded together. While the lead- ing alone served as an agreeable decoration, heraldic blasonings and other devices in colour, in the centre of a casement, were often employed to lend additional glow and interest. The walls were panelled with small oaken panels (Plates 3, 4 and 5), separated by broad stiles and rails, for either their whole height or else for the greater part of it, and when any part of the upper wall was left uncoated with wainscot it was plastered. At the top of the panelling was often a carved and moulded frieze. Projections from the panelling, such as door frames and pilasters, were carved in low relief. The fireplace and its superstructure always formed an highly significant and much decorated feature of the room. The opening of the fireplace was of generous size and the surround was of carved stone (Plate 4), while the massive superstructure or chimney piece might be either of richly carved stone or of wood (Plate 3) carved with an equal degree of elaboration. PLATE 2 PLATE 3 DINING ROOM IN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE STYLE (EARLY STUART PHASE) Note Oak Wainscot in Small Panels, Carved Chimney Piece and Moulded Parge Ceiling Table Jacobean: Chairs Baroque Courtesy of Mrs. Lyman Kendall, New York City PLATE 4 LIVING ROOM OF STUART TYPE Wainscotted Walla in Small Oak Panels, Moulded Parge Ceiling and Stone Fireplace Trim Courtesy of Wilson Eyre and Mcllvaine, Architects PLATE 5 LIVING ROOM OF STUART TYPE Wainscotted Walls in Small Oak Panels and Moulded Parge Ceiling Courtesy of Wilson Eyre and Mcllvaine, Architects ENGLAND 9 Whether of wood or of stone, the further enrichment of colour and gilding was often added. Equally sig- nificant with the fireplace as a conspicuous Item in the Elizabethan and Stuart interiors was the staircase, the newel post and the side railing beautifully carved and fretted, which rose by broken flights and landings to the upper floor, sometimes ascending directly from one of the larger rooms, sometimes from a hall or gallery. Doorways, too, were objects of rich ornamentation (Plate 2), both at the sides, in the shape of either carved pilasters or semi-engaged pillars, and at the top with elaborate carving and moulding, often in the form of armorial bearings with casque, mantlings and sup- porters. In not a few instances, the actual entrance was surrounded by an elaborately carved and panelled screen extending from the floor part way to the ceiling. The door itself not infrequently bore the adornment of wrought-iron hinges and bands with scrolls. The floors were of stone, of tiles and of wood, the latter being most used. Occasionally simple decorative devices were essayed with stone or tile paving, but as a rule the pav- ing was without any pretense at ornamentation. The ceilings were of beamed wood or of plaster or else there were open timbered roofs. The beamed ceil- ings commonly displayed the amenity of chamfering and moulding on the beams and frequently the addition of carving. Colour, too, was apt to play a part in the decorative scheme. Open timbered roofs might or might not be plastered between the timbers and char- acteristic ornamentation of carving and colour some- times adorned the woodwork, while decoration was also extended to the plaster surfaces. The plastered ceilings were either flat or barrel vaulted or coved. In some cases stucco-duro or parge (Plates 3 and 4) ornamentation was used for the ceiling 10 INTERIOR DECORATION and consistent decoration in the same media extended to a portion or to the whole of the wall surface above the oak panelling. The over-mantel decoration, too, often consisted of a stucco-duro or a parge composition instead of carvings in stone or wood. The art of work- ing in stucco-duro was introduced into England in the time of Henry VIII and was executed by Italian work- men who continued to ply their craft during a great part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and they taught some of the more capable English artificers to work after the same fashion. For various reasons, however, the art decayed and was eventually supplanted by the simpler substitute of parge work which, while it res- quired less skill of execution, was also limited in the scope of delicacy and the range of motifs which might be executed therein. The stucco-duro ceilings were beautifully decorated with moulded ribs and panels, floriations and other devices, while the plaster portions of walls above the panelling often bore most intricately and deftly wrought friezes of hunting scenes, mytho- logical or historical subjects. The same style of device was likewise used for an over-mantel embellishment and well-moulded strapwork was employed freely. It was not at all unusual further to augment the decora- tive effect of this carefully wrought stucco-duro work by polychrome treatment in tempera colours. After the hand of the average English plasterer had somewhat lost its cunning and it became necessary to descend to the cruder parge work, the modelled dec- oration continued to be applied in the same places as previously noted, but the motifs were necessarily simpler and the execution far less delicate. For a full explication of stucco-duro and parge work, for the methods and motifs employed, and for numerous excel- lent illustrations, the reader is referred to George P. ENGLAND 11 Bankart's admirable book, "The Art of the Plasterer." When all the resources of fixed decoration just enumerated were fully utilised, the interior of many an Elizabethan or Stuart room was so replete with decorative variety and interest that it gave the impres- sion of being furnished, even before a stick of movable furniture was put in place. This fact deserves close attention for the emphasis it lends to the reasonable contention that interior decoration is not alone a mat- ter of selecting and arranging an aggregation of mov- able pieces, but comprehends the creation of an whole and complete composition, a conception of the art that too many are unfortunately disposed to ignore. The interiors during early Stuart or Jacobean times were substantially the same in their principal features as the Elizabethan rooms already described. Certain motifs of carved decoration, such as Romayne work or heads carved on roundels or medallions, fell out of fashion while other motifs came into vogue. The differ- ences, however, were not sufficient to require minute elucidation here and may be satisfactorily explained in a subsequent paragraph. During the Commonwealth there was little architectural or decorative activity and it is not until we come to the Eestoration that we find another fully distinct interior type of a widely increas- ing prevalence. Beginning with the immediate Restoration period and thence onward to the end of the century, two sep- arate and well-defined types of interiors must be taken into consideration. The one was the type with which we are already familiar, substantially the same as the Elizabethan or Stuart interior, which came down as an heritage from the past with only a few minor evolu- tionary modifications ; the other was a type for which we are indebted to the agency of Inigo Jones, followed, 12 INTERIOR DECORATION after the Eestoration, by the work of Sir Christopher Wren and .his contemporaries, who designed in a vein of much purer Renaissance inspiration than was appar- ent in the Elizabethan houses, the creations of Wren, however, being perceptibly tinged by a strong French influence, while the earlier designs by Jones were based directly upon Italian precedents. An infusion of Baroque interpretation entered into the composition of this style as well as the basis of Renaissance precedent. The most signal points of difference between the old Elizabethan and early Stuart type of interior and that of the newer mode were that in the houses of more recent fashion the ceilings were higher: there was a more general regard for symmetry in the dimensions of rooms which, as a rule, were now broader in proportion to their length than formerly and designed to be approximately square rather than oblong : the window openings were taller and not so wide, double hung sashes instead of leaded casements appeared, and panes of glass considerably larger than the old quarries and lozenges, that had been held in place by strips of lead, were now set in substantial wooden muntins : the panelling of the walls and this was one of the most momentous changes was made with far larger divi- sions (Plate 6) and the mouldings surrounding the panels were of wholly different contour and far bolder : finally, in the treatment of both the plaster ceilings and the wooden floors, the spaces involved were regarded as opportunities for coherent and finished composition in decorative design rather than as bare surfaces to be covered with a relieving pattern. While oak was still used extensively for panelling, pine, deal or Scottish fir, and even cedar were coming rapidly into fashion for the same purpose. This was the age of Grinling Gibbon, when the art of decorative PLATE 6 DRAWING ROOM PANELLED IN OAK, WILLIAM AND MARY PERIOD Note Large Panels Defined by Raised Mouldings, Carved Door Trims (Showing Baroque Influence), Carved Cornice and Decorated Plaster Ceiling Courtesy of Mrs. Lyman Kendall, New York City ENGLAND 13 wood carving reached the acme of perfection. For the new style of carving with all its realism, delicacy and undercutting, oak was too hard and open-grained a medium to be worked with the same ease or with the same dexterity of finish as the other woods just men- tioned. Delicate carving in low relief was often em- ployed freely on the mouldings of cornices and the surrounds of panels (Plate 6), while for overdoor ornamentation and still more for the enrichment of the chimney piece swags and drops of flowers, fruit and foliage, with human figures, amorini, baskets, urns, birds and other devices in a free and flowing style, with high relief and much undercutting, all together consti- tuted one of the most characteristic aspects of the new mode. These finely wrought carvings were often exe- cuted in lime or basswood, which admitted of even more ingenious manipulation than pine, deal or cedar. While the beauty of the woods just mentioned, in their natural state, was fully appreciated, it was also a com- mon practice to paint all the woodwork, carving and all, white or some colour such as grey, greenish grey or blue green and occasionally to apply gilding to mould- ings and portions of carving. This practice was espe- cially common towards the end of the century. Doorways, and very often window casings, were made the objects of decorative wood carving: fluted pilasters with carved capitals, heavy cornices with carved mouldings, overdoor embellishments of an archi- tectural character or panels with carved drops and swags were much used. The overmantel or chimney piece was even to a greater degree the object of care- ful decorative elaboration. The fireplace surround, with bold bolection mouldings, was sometimes of wood, sometimes of stone or marble. There was no mantel shelf and the chimney piece, reaching all the way to the 14 INTERIOR DECORATION ceiling, consisted either of a distinctly architectural treatment in classic and Renaissance motifs, sometimes with Baroque features also, or else of a large panel sur- rounded with heavy mouldings and flanked and sur- mounted with carved flower, fruit and foliage swags and drops in the characteristic Grinling Gibbon manner. In many instances -either a portrait or else a decorative still life painting would be framed in the panel. This empanelling of portraits was not confined to the chim- ney piece, but was likewise practised to some extent for the walls. Toward the end of the century painted panels for overdoor adornment, too, came into favour and now and again decorative niches with coved or shell tops, for urns, vases or sculpture, were introduced into the panelled walls when there was a good opportunity for such symmetrical composition. Another feature of fixed wall decoration also frequently resorted to towards the end of the century was the setting of mir- rors into wall and door panels, a device now made readily possible in England, as well as the employment of larger panes for glazing windows, by the establish- ment of glass works at Lambeth under the patronage of the Duke of Buckingham. Just as the panelling of the walls had been propor- tioned and varied in size, according to the space to be filled (Plates 6, 7 and 8), so also was the ceiling space treated with one consistent and sufficient design (Plates 6 and 137) calculated to satisfy the whole area. Cor- nice, corner and centre ornaments were conceived in one mode and proportioned to the scale of the room. The devices used were ropes and garlands of laurel, flowers and fruit in bold relief cast in plaster as dis- tinguished from the old siucco-duro work and the parge work that succeeded it, in which latter the relief or rib- bing and flower pats were comparatively low (Plate 3), ENGLAND 15 the designs being worked in the raw parge or plaster in situ. Colour and gilding were in many instances added to this cast plaster decoration. Decorative paint- ings also often occurred in the flat surfaces. While most of the floors were of well-joined boards without ornamental device, the practice was not un- common, in the more elegant houses, of inlaying or parquetting the floors in patterns wrought in different coloured woods. In her diary, Celia Fiennes alludes to the floor in a cedar room, of the Restoration period, " inlay ed with cyphers and the coronet." Geometrical patterns in divers coloured woods were likewise used, " often radiating from a star in the centre of the room." To some such design Evelyn evidently refers in his Diary in an entry anent the Duke of Norfolk's "new palace at Weybridge" when he notes that "the roomes were wainscotted and some of them parquetted with cedar, yew, cypresse, etc." He also notes of another house that "one of the closets is parquetted with plain deal set in diamond exceeding staunch and pretty." Furniture and Decoration. During the sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth the arti- cles of furniture in common use were somewhat re- stricted in number. Chests of all sizes and of all de- grees of ornamentation were to be found everywhere and may be regarded as the standard mobiliary unit of the period. It was not until the early days of the Stuarts that tables became really common; prior to that time long boards on trestles often served in lieu of the long, narrow refectory tables with heavy legs, underframing and stretchers close to the ground. The wall furniture comprised hanging cupboards, credences or buffets (Plate 136) and hutches in the earlier days and, in the greater houses, there were often cabinets 16 INTERIOR DECORATION of more or less elaboration in the matter of carving. Bedsteads with heavy carved posts supporting cum- brous panelled and carved tops were the most imposing items of mobiliary equipment. The seating furniture consisted mainly of backless benches or forms and joint stools. Chairs, most commonly with arms, panelled backs and carved cresting, were few in number and usu- ally reserved for the heads of families or for guests of honour. It was not until the fore part of the seven- teenth century, during the reigns of James I and Charles I, that there was much variety in the kinds of pieces in general use or that houses were furnished in at all an adequate manner according to our notions. Both in the time of Queen Elizabeth and also through the reigns of the first two Stuarts and the Common- wealth period the furniture, almost without exception, was heavy in structure, robust in its proportions and rectilinear in contour, in all of these respects coincid- ing very fully with the architectural background (Plate 136). So universally was this the case that the mobili- ary creations of the period have been not inappropri- ately referred to as being, for the most part, a kind of movable architecture. While the paragraphs immedi- ately following are to be understood as applying mainly to the furniture of the first sixty years of the seven- teenth century, they may be taken as applying also to the furniture of the sixteenth century so far as the pieces therein discussed existed during the earlier period. It is, however, necessary to remember that certain items of decorative detail and ornamentation that had been characteristic in the time of Queen Eliza- beth either almost or entirely disappeared very early in the reign of King James. Such an item of differ- ence, for example, was the "Romayne work." This consisted of human heads carved in relief on roundels ENGLAND 17 or medallions and was popular in the sixteenth cen- tury but virtually disappeared at the beginning of the seventeenth. Human figures in ornamentation also dropped almost completely out of fashion. The pieces of furniture in common use during the reigns of James I and Charles I and the period of the Commonwealth were cupboards of various sorts, cab- inets, buffets and dressers, chests, hutches, bedsteads, day-beds, tables of many varieties the most character- istic of which, perhaps, were the long narrow refectory tables, settles and settees, chairs both with and with- out arms, forms or backless benches, joint stools and footstools. The wood of which these pieces were made was almost invariably oak, although other less durable woods were occasionally used for furniture in humbler houses. The decoration consisted of carving, panel- ling, inlay or marqueterie, painting and, towards the middle of the century, the application of turned orna- ments such as oval bosses, lozenges, split balusters and maces, and the formation of intricate geometrical panels by means of applied mouldings. Carving of several sorts was used (v. pp. 55 and 5$, " Practical Book of Period Furniture": Eberlein & McClure), but the most usual kind was in low but strong relief, often on a sunk ground. The motifs in- cluded strapwork, diaperwork, guilloche patterns, lunettes, tulips, hearts, roses and rosettes, acanthus leaves, foliated and floriated scrolls, grapevines with fruit and leaves, gadrooning, channelling, reeding, fluting, nulling, lozenges, laurelling, palmated chains, pomegranates, notching, "jewelling," geometrical de- signs and similar devices, all of which were practically echoes of the motifs employed in connexion with the panelling or in the embellishment of one or another part of the fixed woodwork. 2 18 INTERIOR DECORATION The inlay or marqueterie of divers coloured woods and bone was of simple but effective execution and generally showed an adaptation of some of the motifs already mentioned. The aid of colour was more fre- quently resorted to than many imagine. The carved headboards and panelled canopies of the bedsteads were often enriched with heraldic blasonings and the same form of ornamentation was also applied in other places. There was comparatively little upholstered furniture and such as there was in the early part of the century may usually be traced to a Continental origin ; after the principles of the Commonwealth had swept aside tradition regarding the use of chairs and they had become plentiful, we find both seats and backs fre- quently covered with either leather or ' * Turkey work. ' ' For a full discussion of all the furniture during the first sixty years of the seventeenth century, the reader is referred to Chapter II, "Practical Book of Period Furniture": Eberlein & McClure. With the access of new and varied influences attend- ing the Restoration and profoundly affecting cultural conditions during the rest of the century, there was not only a vast growth in the taste for luxurious and ample household furnishings but also a perceptible increase in the kinds of articles that came into com- mon use. While the furniture of former days con- tinued in use along with the newer types in a majority of the houses, and while the former styles continued to be copied in country districts, the new modes exercised a far-reaching and modifying effect, completely trans- formed and enriched the average interior where they had been adopted along with the substantial residuum of earlier equipment, and in houses where only le der- nier crl of fashion was heeded to the exclusion of all previous vogue as in the establishments of some of ENGLAND 19 the king's mistresses produced a revolution in the art of interior decoration. In addition to the tale of articles previously set forth as usual items of equipment, we must now men- tion chests of drawers on stands, highboys and low- boys, cabinets with doors on high stands, Chinese lac- quered cabinets, with or without doors, on carved stands, chests of drawers without stands, desks or bureaux, bureau bookcases, presses, bookcases, mirrors, tall case clocks and a great assortment of small tables for one special purpose or another. In the matter of contour, we may note that while the old rectilinear prin- ciple continued to be strongly felt, the curvilinear in- fluence made its appearance and rapidly gained favour. This curvilinear influence manifested itself plainly in Baroque tendencies and we have such plentiful ex- amples as scrolled legs, hooded tops to cabinet work, curved contours of chair backs in the Portuguese fashion and the beginnings of cabriole leg dominance. The decorative processes employed included carv- ing, painting and gilding or parcel gilding, veneering, inlay and marqueterie and lacquering. The vogue for lacquered furniture became a positive passion and not only did the importation of numerous Oriental pieces indicate a potent infusion of "the Chinese taste" in interior decoration, but the rage for this species of poly- chrome embellishment led amateurs to engage exten- sively in the process and the results of their endeav- ours often achieved an high degree of excellence. The style of carving that now came into fashion was real- istic and wholly different from the methods that had previously prevailed. Much elaborately carved or turned furniture was made of pine, lime, beech, birch and other soft woods and then painted and parcel gilt or wholly gilded. The art of veneering was developed 20 INTERIOR DECORATION to an extent hitherto unknown and produced admirable results in whose composition were considered not only the pleasing effects to be gained from the contrasting colours of different woods but also the divers agreeable effects of grain and the pattern, employed. Akin to veneering, but involving greater scope for the exercise of decorative design and the properties of multi-col- oured woods, was the process of marqueterie which, in England, reached the high-water mark of its most skill- ful expression towards the end of the century. The value of upholstery as a decorative accessory was now fully understood and a great many chairs, settees and stools were covered with needlework of gros point and petit point, with velvets and brocades, with silks and even with printed linens and chintzes. Other Decorative Accessories and Movable Decora- tions. In no country has skillful needlework ever com- manded more sincere admiration or counted a greater number of proficient devotees than in England. It is not surprising, therefore, during the sixteenth and sev- enteenth centuries to learn of the high esteem in which the decorative products of the loom and of the em- broidery frame were held and of the extent to which they were utilised in the adornment of houses. Allusion has already been made to the 2600 tapestries which Henry VIII had in his possession. Nor was he by any means alone as a collector. England was always re- garded, as a good market for Continental tapestries and an enormous number crossed the Channel to be hung up in English halls and bring brilliant colour into sombre oak-panelled rooms. During the reign of James I the Mortlake looms were set up and the expor- tation of English-made tapestries from the island was several times forbidden. Besides numerous tapestries a great many other ENGLAND 21 hangings were used to liven the walls; velvets with applique devices, embroideries, and large pieces of the curious multi-coloured zig-zag needle\vork which we are accutsomed to associate with upholstered seats and chair backs rather than with the adornment of walls. When we remember that needlework was one of the principal occupations of ladies of position and quality, we can more readily understand the abundance of this sort of decoration. Besides the hangings for doors and windows, which were often enriched with embroidery, there were the bed hangings and bedspreads by which so much store was set that they wiere specifically be- queathed by will as important items of inheritance. These hangings and spreads were not only made of costly material, but were enriched with the most lavish and exquisite needlework as well. In the simpler rooms window hangings and bed hangings were occasionally of printed linen with striking patterns and brilliant colouring. In addition to the woven and embroidered hangings that decked the walls of oak-panelled rooms, another resource for polychrome decoration was to be found in the stamped, tooled, coloured and sometimes gilded leather that was hung or else fastened tight upon the wall surface. Other wall adornments no less effective were portraits and occasionally other paintings. When neither paintings nor hangings graced the wall, the sur- face was oftentimes relieved by antlers, heads, fox masques and other trophies of the chase. Of course, there were numerous small accessories such as candlesticks, sconces, candelabra, and fire dogs, the last named of which were often large and of im- posing design. Besides these, such objects as silver and pewter tankards, bowls and platters, pieces of brass and copper, the small brass fireside ornaments and 22 INTERIOR DECORATION fittings and brass bracket clocks lent welcome spots of interest and lustre. While many of the floors were strewn with rushes, especially in the fore part of the period under con- sideration, it was not at all unusual to have rugs made of rushes woven by hand. In the wealthier houses Oriental rugs were by no means unknown. After the Restoration curtains and draperies as- sumed an importance in the scheme of furnishing (Plate 1) previously unknown in England. The most splendid fabrics imported from Venice and Genoa, and afterwards made in England, were used for this pur- pose. Curiously enough, although the Mortlake looms continued in operation during the Restoration period and tapestries were still imported from the Continent, the vogue for this particular sort of wall decoration somewhat languished and abated in use and manu- facture, in large measure, no doubt, owing to the new styles of decoration by means of more pretentious pan- elling, the use of niches, and the inserting of decorative paintings as panels and overdoor embellishments a change for which Wren and his school were to a great extent responsible. Bed hangings and bedspreads maintained their wonted hold on public taste. Linens and calicoes printed in gay colours and fascinating de- signs, many of them of Oriental origin, took the place of the more expensive fabrics for draperies and hang- ings in rooms of simpler equipment. Mention has already been made of the use of mir- rors set in the panelling as a means of wall decoration. Mirrors in wonderfully wrought frames were no less esteemed as an effective factor in furnishing elegantly. Since the establishment of glass works at Lambeth and Greenwich it had become possible to obtain the best glass and of a much larger size than formerly and Eng- lish decorators were not slow to avail themselves of ENGLAND 23 this new resource. Some of the mirror frames were made of coloured, bevelled and engraved glass and were exceedingly rich in appearance. This glass of excellent quality was also turned to account in making large, cut lustres or crystals for the admirably designed chandeliers and sconces that now became common. Other chandeliers were made of brass, of iron embel- lished with colour and gilding and of wood painted and parcel gilt. Paintings, both portraits and pictures of a decora- tive character, afforded a constantly used resource. And to all this rich array, we must add the colour and grace of form conveyed by the Oriental porcelains the collection of which had become not only a fashionable hobby but an absolute passion among the people at large. Here, again, the power of Chinoiserie showed itself plainly in the history of decoration. The Dutch were not slow to emulate the Chinese and their Delft soon came to hold nearly as high a place in the esteem of English people. What with porcelains, lacquer and other odds and ends of Eastern luxuries that constantly found their way into England, Oriental influence made a deep impression on the modes of the period. Materials and Colour. Up to the end of the Com- monwealth period oak had been the staple wood of Eng- land for all purposes architectural and mobiliary, although, of course, there were plenty of occasional de- partures from this precedent and exceptions to the rule. Nevertheless, the period mentioned must be considered par excellence the 1 1 age of oak. ' ' About the time of the Restoration walnut came into popular use, being partly imported and partly derived from native sources whir 1 became plentifully available at this time. In addition to walnut, which may be considered the staple wood f o fine furniture after the Restoration, other woods wer< employed for inlay and marqueterie purposes and o.- 24 INTERIOR DECORATION continued to have an accepted position, especially in country districts. Owing to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and, to some extent, to a certain tide of immigration into England before that event, great numbers of silk work- ers came over from France and began to ply their craft in England. They soon made brocades and velvets the equals in gorgeous colour, graceful pattern and excel- lent texture of the fabrics that had previously been imported in vast quantities from Venice and Genoa. Throughout the whole of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries the English colour sense was fresh and vigorous (Plate 1) and, despite the somewhat sombre hue of oak panelled walls, English interiors did not lack for colour and plenty of it. This passion for colour reached its culmination in the latter part of the seventeenth century, so that by 1700 the country was in a very riot of rich, virile, scintillating colour, a con- dition that was perfectly compatible with good taste because the massive, strong, and rather dark back- grounds of the architectural setting made such treat- ment not only permissible but absolutely necessary. Arrangement. During the earlier part of this period the architectural arrangement was rather fortu- itous than formal, and the arrangement of the furniture units was much the same. The units themselves were not overly numerous, so that it was not difficult to place the important pieces in the broad spaces where they would be most effective. The fireplace, of course, was always a centre about which a number of movables would naturally be grouped. In the latter part of the seventeenth century furni- ture items were far more numerous and notions of sym- metrical arrangement, brought back by the refugees, imparted to the rooms an aspect of orderly and bal- anced composition. CHAPTER II INTERIOR DECORATION IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CEN- TURY AND THE FIRST THREE DECADES OF THE NINETEENTH /NTRODUCTION.In England and America, the eighteenth century and the first three decades of the nineteenth, which really belong to the pre- ceding century through stylistic affinities and as a directly logical outcome of influences well under way before the year 1800, constitute a period of the greatest complexity as well as of the greatest interest. It will be understood that what is said in this chapter applies to the American Colonies and the infant republic, after its severance from the Mother Country, as well as to England. But it must also be distinctly understood that all the evolutions of the styles considered reached their full and richest fruition only in England and that they were reflected in America in less elaborate render- ings. This statement does not mean to asperse in the slightest degree the culture or taste on our own side of the Atlantic, but the estates that were able to support the expense of the highest decorative achievements of the age were comparatively few in number, and although there were not wanting instances of the greatest ele- gance and most lavish expenditure in furnishing of various town houses in Philadelphia, in Boston, in Charleston and New York, and of some country houses in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and South Caro- lina, the majority of people, from force of circum- stances, were obliged to be content with the simpler 25 26 INTERIOR DECORATION though not less admirable interpretation of modes that attained an hitherto unparallelled development in the British Isles. At the very beginning of the eighteenth century we have the heritage of Baroque inspiration remaining over from the seventeenth century. Following close upon it came the severe and somewhat heavy classicism of which Kent was the chief est and most able exponent. With the middle of the century we find an utterly new in- fluence that was expressed in England by the Brothers Adam and those that followed in their wake, and in France, a little later, by the architects and designers who imparted to the style we know familiarly as " Louis Seize" its peculiar grace and refinement. The Adam influence was of classic derivation as was also the heavier scheme of interpretation practised by the Kentian school, but it expressed classicism in its more attenuated and refined forms and laid emphasis, as a rule, rather upon the elegancies of decoration than upon the bold masses and the marshalling of vigorous structural or semi-structural members by way of em- bellishment. Adam delicacy, in turn, was in course of time supplanted by the robust and often severe forms of the Classic Eevival, in which the sterner Greek modes and the more heroic Eoman phases that at times sav- oured of bombast were stressed with insistence. Besides all these well-defined influences, there was "the Chinese taste," which recurred again and again in one form or another throughout the century, adding its charm to the manifold factors that contributed to make the eighteenth century one of the most opulent as well as varied decorative epochs in English history. Architectural Background and Methods of Fixed Decoration. One fact of tremendous importance in the art of interior decoration has already been noted in o w o 1 ? ,3 > '5 Z & S* 3 5 ra o O 33 O .S.' 2 . --5 ti 3 H W d 3 > f S ENGLAND AND AMERICA 27 the Foreword, but too much stress cauuot be laid upon it, and we therefore repeat it here. That fact is that interior decoration does not consist merely of selection and arrangement of movable furniture and garnishings; the architectural background and the fixed decorations are every whit as vitally essential to a suc- cessful and complete composition, and it is impossible to attach too much emphasis to this truth, a truth that some professional decorators too often minimise while not a few amateurs are even more prone to ignore it. In Part III special attention is paid to the treatment of plain walls where the occupancy of rented quarters, apartments and the like makes it impracticable to eff ect far-reaching structural changes in the background. In the paragraphs that follow, special attention will be devoted to an analysis of backgrounds and fixed decorations. The opening years of the eighteenth century wit- nessed virtually the same features of interior architec- ture as were in vogue during the last years of the seven- teenth century, features of which, however, we shall now give a somewhat more detailed description. There were spacious, high-ceilinged rooms, symmetrically de- signed with window and door openings so disposed as to contribute to the air of regularity. The window open- ings were large and high, while their trims were often made the objects of formal ornamentation. Doorways also shared a distinctly decorative and usually archi- tectural treatment, traces of Baroque influence being more or less discernible in such features as continuous segmental pediments or interrupted pediments with urns. (Plate?.) The panels of the walls were large (Plates 7 and 8) and were often bounded by boldly profiled (Plate 138) bolection mouldings. In size the panels were graduated 28 INTERIOR DECORATION according to the parts of the room ; shallow and broad panels would be placed between door or window heads and the cornice, tall and narrow panels between win- dows, a single panel for the chimney piece (Plate 137), whatever its dimensions and shape might be, while the ordinary wall panels were of generous proportions. Elaborate naturalistic carving of foliage, fruits, flowers and figures in swags and drops (Plate 137), wrought in high relief or undercut in the manner of Grinling Gibbon, were still used and were supplemented in many instances by sundry supporting architectural scrolls and by conventional motifs in low relief, such as acan- thus foliage on a cyma moulding (Plate 6), classic laur- elling, and all their well-known affinities. Very fully developed and elaborate cornices adorned such rooms, and the plaster coves and ceilings, wrought with the utmost dexterity of the plasterer's art, echoed the flowers, fruit, foliage (Plate 137) and figures to be seen in the decorative wood carving. The floors, while usually of plain boards, not infrequently exhibited par- quetted patterns, in the manner already mentioned in the preceding chapter, or else a device in chequered tiles of stone or marble. It is safe to say that there was never a time when interior architectural woodwork was carried to an higher point of development or displayed more admir- able characteristics. Even in the simpler houses, where three of the walls of a room would ordinarily be plas- tered, there was almost invariably some well-propor- tioned panelling above the fireplace or even covering a greater part of the whole of the wall on that side of the room. For many of the elaborately carved and pan- elled interiors, the wood used was oak, cedar, deal or pine. The oak and cedar were left unpainted ; deal was sometimes merely waxed, or slightly stained and waxed, ENGLAND AND AMERICA 29 and sometimes painted; while pine was ordinarily painted, although not invariably, and, when left in its natural state, assumed a mellow golden brown tone from the action of the atmosphere. In at least one in- stance known to the authors, the panelling of a late seventeenth century house in Pennsylvania, belonging architecturally, however, to the category under discus- sion, consisted of pine and poplar together. Neither paint nor stain of any kind were ever used upon it and all of the wood took on a rich ginger brown hue of great beauty. When the panelling was painted, white, which was much favoured in Holland at the time, was sometimes used, but by no means so universally as many people seem to imagine. Grey, grey green, buff, brown, pale yellow, blue, green and green blues of great beauty were in common use and imparted a richness and warmth that strongly commend a wider employment of similar treatments at the present day. These painted interiors were very commonly further embellished with gilding applied to mouldings and carving.* In the latter part of the seventeenth century, as pre- viously stated, the taste for lacquer became a positive passion. Much lacquer was imported from the East, but the importations could not begin to supply the de- mand ; much furniture was lacquered both by artisans and by amateurs, who regarded skill in this direction * At Graeme Park, Horsham, Pennsylvania, for instance, the home of Sir William Keith, the first coat of paint given the woodwork was a greenish grey, and no other colour has ever since adorned the panelling and the door and window trims. At Stenton, Northern Liberties, in Philadelphia, the home of James Logan, on the other hand, " the taste of the occupants dictated a change of colour from time to time and we find a good deal of variety in the successive coats " of paint. For these instances and other observations anent the practice in America v. " The Architecture of Colonial America," p. 149: Harold Donaldson Eber- lein; Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1915. See also "Architectural Record," passim. 30 INTERIOR DECORATION as an eligible and polite accomplishment. The vogue for lacquer endured throughout the reign of Queen Anne and even lasted for some time afterwards. What with the universal admiration for lacquer in an espe- cially colour-loving epoch, and the very considerable proficiency in lacquer processes attained by British craftsmen, it is not surprising to find lacquered decora- tion occasionally extended to the fixed woodwork in rooms and not reserved solely as a method of mobiliary embellishment. It is worth noting that this architec- tural employment of lacquer has been revived in a few instances and on a limited scale in our own time, with admirable results. In the more sumptuous interiors of this type, the fireplace surrounds and facings were of carefully chosen marble or stone, while in the simpler interiors the surrounds were of wood and the facings frequently of glazed tiles, sometimes plain, but more usually of Delft make with monochrome blue or rose devices or else with polychrome decorations. The surround com- monly consisted of a bold bolection moulding and there was generally no mantel shelf or else only a very nar- row one. The fixed decorations were rich and adequate. There were mirrors empanelled in the walls or set in the doors, decorative paintings set in panels over doorways, in chimney pieces and in central positions on the sides of walls. There were cupboards (Plate 7) built into the woodwork, usually in corners, with coved tops care- fully scalloped and enriched with carving and some- times parcel gilt, or with smooth surfaces in the coving covered with decorative painting. Coves and the flat surfaces of ceilings, likewise, in addition to the rich cast plaster reliefs, were often adorned with paintings. When the walls were not fully panelled, they were PLATE 8 PLATE 9 DINING ROOM OF GEORGIAN TYPE WITH HEPPLEWHITE FURNITURE AND ADAM SIDEBOARD Panelled Walls Painted a Grey Green Courtesy of Edward Browning, Esq. PLATE 10 PLATE 11 ADAM DOOR AND OVER DOOR DECORATION Courtesy of Mr. Karl Freund ENGLAND AND AMERICA 31 sometimes* painted, sometimes covered with wall paper in highly decorative and bright-coloured patterns, and sometimes hung with rich fabrics tacked tightly in place. Occasionally the panels of the doors themselves were embellished with mirrors or with decorative paintings. Sconces, lanthorns and chandeliers of varied forms in plain brass, in wrought-iron painted and parcel gilt, in wood richly carved and gilt or painted and parcel gilt, and in brass or cut glass profusely hung with crystals added greatly to the rich effect of the per- manent background. Such were the possibilities and characteristics of the fixed architectural interior settings during the reign of Queen Anne and in the years immediately following her demise. Early in the Georgian period, under the influence of such men as James Gibbs, Sir John Vanbrugh, Sir Wil- liam Chambers and, above all, Sir William Kent, there was a clearly marked departure from the freedom and flexibility of architectural and decorative interpreta- tion, as practised by Sir Christopher Wren and his immediate school, and a reversion to what was fancied to be a purer and more scholarly presentation of classic principles as set forth by the great architectural expon- ents of the Italian Renaissance. For this reason the work of Inigo Jones evoked a renewed measure of praise and admiration but, quite apart from any enthu- siasm for the achievements of earlier Engish archi- tects, the men of the day, one and all, placed themselves at the feet of Vitruvius, Vignola and Palladio and fol- lowed the precepts of these great men of the past with the most meticulous and sometimes simian precision. To the votaries of the new school Palladio was espe- cially dear and they so generally accepted him as their standard and so glorified his work and precepts that 32 INTERIOR DECORATION they " raised him in their time almost to the position of a demigod." Actuated as they were by this narrow and almost fanatical admiration for merely one individ- ual 's explication of classicism, it is scarcely to be won- dered at that they were "unreasonably prejudiced against the work of the Wren period by the discovery that, although classic in principle, the rules laidf down by the great architects of the Italian Renaissance had by no means been strictly adhered to. ' ' This attitude, quite apart from any other agency, explains in large measure * ' the prejudice that existed against Sir Chris- topher at the close of his brilliant career and the exal- tation of the earlier work of Inigo Jones. ' ' Wren had both displayed a perceptible tinge of French influence and also shown not a little personal independence in his interpretations, and this damned him in the eyes of the early Georgian purists who "accepted so fervently the principles of Italian classicism as the only form of true culture that all buildings which exhibited varia- tions were regarded by them as beneath notice or con- sideration. " In their zeal of archaBlogical solicitude to quote Sir Horace Walpole, architecture had "re- sumed all her rights" and buildings were designed "in the purest style of antique composition" they, of ten produced work that savoured of pedantry and missed the spontaneous inspiration and elastic quality neces- sary to give it the vital significance of an understanding contemporary expression. At the same time, while the spirit of classic purism was dominant, there were numerous successful and acceptable adventures into the realm of Baroque design, as witnessed, for instance, by some of the creations of James Gibbs, but it was restrained and chastened Ba- roque, conceived and executed in the light of classic severity. Notwithstanding the rigidity of ideals and ENGLAND AND AMERICA 33 the conscientious exactitude with which the foremost architects held themselves to precedent, a great propor- tion of the early Georgian work possessed merit of an high order and exhibited both dignity and charm. It is an enduring memorial to the skill and good taste of the designers and also equally a striking testimony to the intelligence and appreciation of a clientele that made possible the realisation of such designs. It was, indeed, a golden age of appreciative interest and liberal pa- tronage on the part of wealthy laymen in the persons of the great nobles and landed gentry, who found that the " court of the first two Georges offered" them few attractions and that there was little * ' scope for compe- tion in politics during the long and all-powerful sway of Walpole." Furthermore, in the entire absence of foreign hostilities, there were no openings for gaining distinction in military or naval careers and, conse- quently, "it would seem that numbers of these great nobles and men of leisure embraced the study of art as the principal occupation of their lives. The par- ticular branch of art which interested them most keenly was the pure classic architecture of Ancient Rome," and their extensive diversions in this field of research rendered them both capable critics and en- thusiastic patrons. The interiors of the great houses then erected dis- played a sense of architectural composition that has never been surpassed in English domestic building and even the less pretentious dwellings of the period clearly reflected the prevailing sense of symmetry and archi- tectural amenity that had permeated all ranks of so- ciety. So thoroughly had Palladianism and a feeling for elegant proportions taken hold of the popular imagina- tion that they may truly be said to have become endemic among 1 English-speaking people of that day. 3 34 INTERIOR DECORATION Both inside and out, houses were planned to convey the impression of symmetrical balance and the same care for symmetrical composition was observed in the treatment of the individual rooms, which were, as a rule, approximately square and high-ceiled. Structural feat- ures, that is to say, doorways, windows and fireplaces, were symmetrically placed so as to emphasise the effect of balance (Plate 9) and were given such architectural adornment that they constituted an important item in the decoration of the room and to a great extent domi- nated the placing of the movable furnishings and deter- mined their character. The details were vigorous in line and classic in fash- ion fluted pilasters with appropriate capitals, correct architectural entablatures, pediments of several types, accurately designed friezes and cornices and bold, well- considered mouldings. Doorways frequently were graced with superimposed pediments (Plate 7), either straight, or interrupted with a central urn or bust, and the same motif was apt to be echoed in the chimney piece which extended all the way or almost all the way to the ceiling. When there was no pediment above the doorway, the note of decorous architectural formality was often sustained by a fitly conceived panel with suit- able embellishments. The overmantel panel with its imposing architectural setting was made a central feat- ure for the reception of a portrait (Plate 7) or a decor- ative painting or, when the chimney piece was less structurally elaborate, a mirror in a frame of strongly architectural design, perhaps with the additional dec- oration of a painting in the head or in side panels, might be placed directly above the mantel shelf. The mantel-piece itself was of wood or of marble (Plates 7 and 137), often elaborately carved with devices inspired by designs of classic provenance pourtrayed in the ENGLAND AND AMERICA 35 works of the Renaissance exponents of Greek and Ro- man antiquity. About the middle of the century, under the influence of Sir William Chambers, the elaborate chimney piece, reaching nearly to the ceiling, which had received the sanction and best efforts of previous architects, gradu- ally fell into disfavour and gave place to a newer mode of Continental fashion (Plate 9). "When he [Sir William Chambers] returned to England in 1755 [from the Continent], he was accom- panied by Wilton and Cipriani, afterwards so well known as an artist and decorator. He also brought Italian sculptors to carve the marble mantel-pieces he introduced into English houses. These were made from his own designs, and the ornament of figures, scrolls and foliage was free in character. Strange to say, these mantel-pieces, de- signed and made by an architect, were yet the means of taking away this important part of interior decoration from the hands of the architect altogether and causing it to become quite a separate production, made and sold along with the grates. In former times it had been an integrant portion of the room, reaching from floor to ceiling, balanced and made part of the wall by having its main lines carried round in panelling and enriched friezes. It was the keynote of decoration, and the master builder of the times grew fanciful and exerted his utmost skill upon its carving and quaint imagery, centralising the whole ornament of the room around the household shrine. Mantel-pieces had gradually come down in height, though still retaining much of their finer proportions and classic design. Many causes had contributed to this, the chief being the disuse of wood panelling and the preference given to hangings of damask, foreign leather and wall-paper. In the reigns of Queen Anne and the Little Dutchman the custom of panelling was partially kept up. ... At this time the upper half of the chimney piece was still retained, but only reached 36 INTERIOR DECORATION about half way up the wall [in many instances]. Gibbs, Kent, and Ware kept the superstructure as much as they could, but Sir William Chambers dealt it the most crushing blow it had yet received by copying the later French and Italian styles and giving minute detail more consideration than fine proportion. He discarded the upper part altogether and helped to make * continued chimney pieces' things of the past." (Warren Clous- ton's "Treatise on Chippendale.") Window trims, while vigorously designed, were comparatively plain and nearly all of the carved and moulded architectural enrichment was bestowed upon the overdoor decorations, cornices and friezes and, up to the time of Chambers, the chimney piece. The win- dow openings were tall and sufficiently wide and were often somewhat recessed with carefully panelled jambs and soffits. The sashes themselves had heavy muntins and the rectangular panes were the same size or slightly larger than those in use during the Queen Anne period. During much of the early Georgian era the walls continued to be fully panelled with large panels (Plate 9) , frequently of the bevel flush type (Plate 7) , separated by broad stiles and rails with thumbnail mouldings. Very often a moulded chair rail separated the base pan- elling from the upper panels. The panels were gen- erally of a uniform size, but were graduated to the exi- gencies of space when there was occasion. Cupboards and buffets, and occasionally niches with coved and scalloped tops, continued in many instances to be built into the panelling at appropriate places and were gen- erally given an additional enrichment of intricately wrought mouldings and other carving of a character to correspond with the ornate cornices that not infre- quently exhibited a wealth of carved foliation, egg and dart motifs or similar devices. It will thus be seen that the carved and panelled woodwork was an highly im- ENGLAND AND AMERICA 37 portant item in the decoration of an early Georgian room (Plates 7 and 137). The ceilings, though sometimes comparatively plain, were also occasionally embellished with lavish foliated and floriated bands and mouldings and other designs, wrought with all the dexterity of which the highly skilled plaster craftsmen were capable. On such ceil- ings colour and gilding were likewise wont to play an important part. When the walls were not fully pan- elled the abandonment of full panelling, as already noted, became more common as the century advanced they were apt to be covered with rich fabrics, wall- paper or, sometimes, with fine leather appropriately decorated. It is most important, in our process of visualising the panelled rooms of the early Georgian period, to bear in mind that the use of unpainted woodwork was abandoned comparatively early in the century. "We have seen that the earlier architects and decorators, when they did use paint as a variant to the deal, pine, cedar, oak or walnut panelling, did not confine them- selves to white or cream white, as people sometimes fancy, but resorted very frequently to colours such as those already mentioned. In the early Georgian epoch, while not eschewing white white, it is true, was more commonly used in the American Colonies than colours they quite as often or oftener employed full-bodied tones of cream, cream yellow, green, blue green, drab and brown and these tones contributed materially' to give the appearance of richness and "comfort for which the rooms of the period are noted. Frequently addi- tional grandeur was obtained by gilding or partly gild- ing some of the carving." In addition to the fixed decoration supplied by the rich woodwork, the stately chimney pieces and the plas- 4^ 7 38 INTERIOR DECORATION ter adornment of the ceilings, decorative paintings were often incorporated in the scheme where a suitable over- door or other similar space invited their employment, mirrors were permanently affixed in suitable positions and choice specimens of sculpture were placed in niches especially provided for them or upon pedestals where their presence would contribute to the general aspect of balanced dignity and elegance. While surveying this particular period of eighteenth century decoration, we must not fail to take due note of two influences that marked a wide and striking depar- ture from the prevailing Palladianism the " Chinese Taste, ' ' fostered by Sir William Chambers, and a fanci- ful pseudo-Gothic manifestation largely abetted by Sir Horace Walpole. The former movement coincided with and gave especial emphasis to one of the periodic recru- descences of unusual interest in things Oriental whose recurrence in the history of English and Continental decoration afforded an agreeable and inspiring note of variety and gave rise to many features of permanent worth ; the latter movement was not happy in its con- ception, was taken up as a fad by dilettanti who were not in sympathy with the Gothic spirit and did not really understand it, and produced no results of lasting importance. The Chinese work of Sir William Cham- bers, and of those who imitated or emulated his endeav- ours, was in the main performed in an honest and legiti- mate manner, created an interesting and not unwelcome relief to the predominant classicism of the period, and extended its application to movable equipment as well as to fixed decoration. The Gothic work of the day was palpably a piece of affectation and even, at times, gro- tesque in its forms and we may be thankful that its ephemeral course left no momentous traces behind it. Shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century, ENGLAND AND AMERICA 39 an entirely new architectural influence became para- mount and as the introduction of this influence was due almost wholly to the Brothers Adam, and as they and their contemporaries and imitators were its accredited exponents, we shall be justified in calling the second half of the century, and, indeed, the first decade of the nineteenth, the Adam Age. Impelled by their extended studies of classic art and architecture at fountain head, and realising clearly what their architectural predeces- sors in England had completely failed to realise that classic precedents were susceptible of a far wider and more elastic interpretation than had hitherto been given them, that architecture and the decorative arts in the golden ages of Greek and Roman development had not been straitly confined by an unalterably rigid set of rules and interpretative conventions whose authorita- tive exposition was to be found only in the works of Vitruvius, Vignola and the other dogmatists to whom Kent and his school had tightly pinned their faith, and that classicism, without being adulterated or distorted and robbed of its fundamental genius, was susceptible of a previously undreamed of urbanity, refinement and even playful exuberance of expression the Adelphi proceeded to refine, enrich, revivify and even revolu- tionise the architectural and decorative conceptions of their day and generation. They not only introduced the epoch-marking notes of attenuation and slender grace, along with a more exuberant, lively, diversified and elegant system of decorative motifs, all derived, however, from classic precedent, but, at the same time, they also showed how classic architectural interpreta- tion could be thoroughly domestic, intimate and lively in tone as well as ponderous and monumental. When they began to practise, domestic architecture in Eng- land had fallen somewhat into a groove and was in 40 INTERIOR DECORATION danger of becoming narrow, rigid and pedantic. "With- out sacrificing any principles of classicism, they ren- dered it human, infinitely more interesting, and elastic in scope. The Adelphi were no less formal in their modes of expression than their predecessors, but their formality was vastly more varied, richer and intensely genial. There was a finesse and a polish about their concep- tions that fully accorded with the spirit of the day, a period which someone has aptly termed the ' ' age of the drawing-room." Indeed, they may be regarded as in no small degree responsible for the creation of that spirit. One of the eminently pleasing forms in which their humanised formality found a fresh outlet was in the varied shapes of the rooms frequently introduced into their compositions. Hitherto, although rooms were designed with a due regard for satisfying symmetry in their proportions, they were habitually rectangular in shape. Not content with confining themselves to the monotonous convention of rectangularity, the Brothers Adam made the very shapes of their rooms fulfill a dec- orative purpose and frequently designed circular, semi- circular, octagonal, oval and elliptical apartments or rooms with semi-circular, arc-shaped, tribune or ar- caded ends when they deemed that, by so doing, they could enhance the elegance, vivacity or interest of their creations. At the same time they made the ceilings (Plates 10 and 159) and floors enter into a comprehen- sive and inter-related scheme of decorative unity that had rarely before been equalled. To a greater extent, perhaps, than had ever been done previously, they treated the walls of their more important rooms as architectural compositions (Plate 10), distinct and complete in themselves, with a due and ordered disposition of panels (Plate 10), pilasters, cap- ENGLAND AND AMERICA 41 itals, pediments, friezes and cornices. All of these features were usually in low and rather flat projection so as to emphasise the sense of space and prevent them from seeming unduly obtrusive, unless the apartment was so large that it could easily stand a succession of bold projections without their becoming oppressive or destroying the aspect of spacious freedom. The dec- orative details, both upon these architectural members and upon the panelled or other intervening flat sur- faces, were refined and delicate in scale and in low relief. Pilasters, pediments and other dominant projections were sometimes fashioned in carved wood, but more frequently were executed in plaster; the low relief wall panels and other ornamental details were almost invari- ably done in plaster or compo. Never before had the art of the plasterer or of the worker in compo been given so ample an opportunity to display its manifold possibilities and charms. The panels, or successions of panels, were often cov- ered with a complete and sufficient decorative design of airy arabesques, urns, patera? and other motifs in low relief and the effect of this rich mural adornment was generally further enhanced by the use of a pale-col- oured background in order to throw the raised work into sharp contrast. At other times the wall panels exhibited no plaster or compo relief but were painted, upon a solid body colour, with devices similar to those employed in the reliefs just mentioned. Even with their plainer and less pretentious walls, on which there was no display of architectural features, decorative panels, either in relief or painted, were used to good effect and constituted a valuable item of fixed embellishment. On walls of a still less elaborate type walls in the Adam mode varied from the utmost exuber- ance of detail to the opposite extreme of classic auster- 42 INTERIOR DECORATION ity countersunk panels and niches were introduced, either in conjunction or separately, and were so dis- posed that the most striking results were obtained from the agreeable alternation of light and shadow, for the Adelphi were masters in the management of this simple but often neglected and misapplied resource, as they also were in their handling of low relief. On the plainest walls, whose surfaces were unbroken by either projections or depressions, the rich and delicate detail of the cornice (Plate 69), along with the decoration of door and window trims, was skillfully manipulated to present an elegant contrast between concentrated orna- ment and foil. Wooden panelling entered little if at all into the interior decorative schemes of the Brothers Adam for they were too deeply imbued with the ideals they had formed during their travels and researches in classic lands to be much enamoured of this method of wall treatment, notwithstanding the great body of pre- vious English precedent and the materials at their dis- posal. Instead of wooden panelling, they occasionally employed marble, but their methods of treating plaster were capable of such agreeable variety that there was little need to resort to other means of interior finish. In a great number of cases, especially with the plainer walls, a chair rail or moulding was carried around the room, thus creating the appearance of a base for the treatment above. In some instances, also, fabrics and wall-paper were used, but painted walls seem to have accorded more nearly with the spirit of Adam interior backgrounds. The system of colouring commonly em- ployed will be more fully discussed in a subsequent sec- tion, but it seems advisable at this point to call attention to what an extent the ensemble of Adam interiors was dependent upon the light, delicate and often pale tones of the flat wall surfaces. ENGLAND AND AMERICA 43 Decorative paintings of landscapes (Plate 159) and architectural subjects, in the Italian manner worthily represented in England by Cipriani and others of his fellow-countrymen who had heeded the invitation of the Adelphi, were plentifully used and were set either in countersunk panels or in flush panels surrounded with plaster or compo mouldings in the fashion of a frame. These panels were introduced with great frequency and in various shapes over (Plate 11) doorways, above fire- places and wherever else decorative expediency dic- tated. Wedgwood plaques (Plate 159), with designs by Flaxman or Lady Templetown, were often made the central features of arabesque panels, and large plaster or Wedgwood medallions, with heads or with classic figures in low relief, frequently occurred either with an accompaniment of flowing arabesques to enrich a large wall or overmantel panel, or else in a severely chaste composition as the sole enrichment of one of the smaller countersunk panels already mentioned. Busts or other pieces of sculpture (Plate 10) were sometimes strikingly used for wall decoration and so placed that the shadow of a niche behind them supplied a most impressive background against which they were silhouetted. Mirrors fulfilled an important function in the fixed decoration of many Adam rooms and were set above mantels, over consoles in symmetrical placings or some- times in the panelling of doors, the gilded frames being designed to accord with the light and airy interpreta- tions of classicism elsewhere in evidence. Not a few door heads contained semi-elliptical fan lights, filled with clear glass or with mirrors, and traversed with delicately moulded leaden tracery. The effect of these door heads was singularly rich and beautiful. Mantel pieces, as might be expected, were the objects 44 INTERIOR DECORATION of no less solicitous care (Plates 10 and 69) than was lavished upon all the other permanent accessories. They were of the finest white marble carved in the char- acteristic Adam motifs, consisting of urns, swags, drops, flutings and the like, sometimes with a central panel above the fireplace opening exhibiting a Flaxman or a Templetown design in low relief, and frequently yellow (Plate 69), buff, black or green Italian marbles were so combined as to throw the carved devices into conspicuous relief, or else the whole mantel structure was of wood carved in the same refined and delicate fashion or with the more intricate detail modelled in compo and applied to the wooden ground before paint- ing. There were few architectural superstructures or attached and " continued " chimney pieces, as in the days of Kent, and the chimney breast above the mantel shelf was adorned with a mirror or in some one of the other ways previously indicated. For many of the fireplaces, grates of burnished steel or of brass were designed in a fashion to coincide with the rest of the decoration. The woodwork of doors and of door and window trims (Plate 69) displayed refined mouldings of rather low relief and the same chaste and delicate decorative detail, sometimes elaborate, sometimes simple, as al- ready noted in the wooden mantels and other per- manent features. Straight door heads often carried a considerable degree of elaboration and occasionally cen- tral panels in the manner shown in Plate 69. The refin- ing effect of flutings and of other close parallel lines was especially well exemplified in Adam woodwork. As the century advanced the size of window panes gradu- ally increased and, although there was no approxima- tion to the horrors of large sheets of glass with which we are now sometimes afflicted and which utterly de- ENGLAND AND AMERICA 45 stroy the character of a window, the lights were per- ceptibly larger than they were during the first half of the century. The muntins, also, were appreciably pared down in dimensions. Wrought ironwork, while used chiefly in exterior embellishment, also often made its appearance in the composition of stair rails and balustrades and was fashioned in graceful, light and frequently attenuated devices to correspond with the interior ensemble. The ceilings (Plates 10, 69 and 159), designed by the Brothers Adam were among the most beautiful and finished of all their exquisite compositions. The Adelphi not only had a goodly heritage of plaster tradition behind them in the work of English designers and artificers, but they also had constantly in their mind's eye the wonderful ceiling enrichments of the classic precedents upon which they drew so freely for inspira- tion. In the matter of physical execution they were able to avail themselves of the services of skilled plas- terers, adepts in every minute detail of their craft, and also, in addition to this, they made extensive use of a newly perfected process of applying compo ornament in large moulded sections. The low reliefs, which the Adelphi knew how to employ with such marvellous eff ect upon walls, they used to no less advantage in the decoration of their ceilings. Motifs of the same descrip- tion as those already noted were, of course, employed in ceiling treatment. Sometimes the ceilings were un- coloured, sometimes there was a pale ground colour to throw the low reliefs into sharp contrast, and some- times whole surfaces were covered with painted panels or frescoes, polychrome enrichment and gilding. A great many of the ceilings were flat, but it was not un- common to find them coved and still others domed and vaulted. Some of these vaulted and domed ceilings 46 INTERIOR DECORATION were quite plain except for the ornamentation around the cornice and, we may add, were exceedingly beautiful and effective, one of their great merits being the per- fection of their proportions. There was the same rela- tive gradation between the elaboration of ceilings and the elaboration of walls, some of them being exceed- ingly ornate while others were quite simple, but even where the walls were almost devoid of ornamentation there was usually some attempt at more decorative amenity on the ceiling, especially if it was a flat ceiling and had not the interest of curving lines to fascinate the eye. Floors were made of both wood and marble and a certain degree of restrained decoration was sometimes employed, but in most cases the floor was either re- garded as a plain foundation for the rest of the com- position or else intended to be carpeted so that a fixed decoration thereon would have been lost. The increas- ing vogue of full-sized carpets or rugs, both of which were often especially designed and woven for the rooms in which they were to be used, discouraged the elaborate ornamental parquetting of floors, a fashion that had obtained at an earlier date when large floor coverings were not so numerous. A survey of the elements entering into the fixed decoration of Adam rooms, as indicated in the fore- going paragraphs, shows that a hitherto unprecedented degree of refinement and completeness had been at- tained indeed, we may say that it has never since been excelled and that punctilious care was bestowed upon the least as well as upon the greatest factors compre- hended in a decorative scheme. That this thorough and painstaking care was contributory in a great degree to the success of the Brothers Adam in their domestic work we need hardly emphasise. ENGLAND AND AMERICA 47 In the early years of the nineteenth century, al- though the architectural and decorative influence of the Adelphi was still strong and far-reaching and consti- tuted a force to be reckoned with, other influences were beginning to creep in from France as a reflection of the Empire mode, a mode altogether heavier and less in- spired than the creations of the Adam Brothers. Archi- tecturally it may be termed the style of the " Greek Revival"; in mobiliary and decorative parlance we know it as the Empire mode. In England the process of architectural change at this time was not so clearly marked as in America. Architectural traditions were, perhaps, more firmly established or, at least, more widely established ; and, in the second place, there was not the widespread building activity that occurred at the very end of the eighteenth century and in the first three decades of the nineteenth in the recently estab- lished republic, where population was rapidly increas- ing and where a great many men, rejoicing in a fresh burst of prosperity and new-found wealth, were erect- ing for themselves homes commensurate with their af- fluence. We might, indeed, say that in England the architectural change was chiefly to be observed in a gradual falling away from those vital and blithesome qualities that had distinguished the work of earlier days and a slipping into a more sombre, stolid and inelastic form of expression. It was as though both architecture and interior decoration were suffering from an incipient hardening of the arteries. Details grew heavier and more pompous, there was less variety in the forms em- ployed, and the numerous enlivening devices of fixed decoration, that had so glorified and characterised the hey-day of Adam influence, one by one dropped out of fashion until we come to a full realisation of the archi- 48 INTERIOR DECORATION tectural and decorative bathos in the prevailing vision of great rectangular rooms wth plain plaster walls, whose monotony was now and then relieved by a niche ; door and window trims heavily detailed in severe and rather monumental Greek and Roman motifs, among which the key fret and the anthemion were conspicuous ; plaster cornices echoing the same inspiration, heavy plaster ornaments to match around the edges and in the centres of ceilings ; and plain, vigorously moulded black marble mantels without any fixed architectural adornment above them on the chimney breast, a place that seemed now to have become saored either to a family portrait or else to a large mirror set in a heavy gilt frame. Altogether, it will be observed, the ground had become well prepared for the final plunge and slump into Victorian desolation, dullness and material- istic commercialism without a ray of imagination to lighten and redeem the benighted epoch. In America, the Adam influence had borne ripe fruit and continued to make itself felt in a somewhat modi- fied, but nevertheless beautiful, form through the work of such men as Samuel Mclntire of Salem. Adam ex- pression, however, had never attained the far-reaching spread that it had in England and in the very late eigh- teenth century and the early years of the nineteenth, when there w r as so much building to be done along the whole Atlantic seaboard, building both public and do- mestic, in order to keep pace with the access of a newly stimulated national expansion, and when, moreover, there was the greatest enthusiasm everywhere through- out the country for all things French, it is not surpris- ing that the style which we know as the "Classic" or "Greek Revival," echoing the current phase of French architectural sentiment should have taken deep root and achieved a wide development, modified, it is true, PLATE 12 ENGLAND AND AMERICA 49 by local conditions and necessities, but unmistakable in its parentage. The interiors in this new evolution of domestic archi- tecture were commonly characterised by a great deal of solid dignity and decorum, an impression materially assisted by the customarily spacious dimensions of the rooms, without much enlivening imagination or decora- tive resourcefulness to give to the ensemble that vital- ity that had always radiated from the background of a room conceived by the Brothers Adam or by the men who professedly followed their lead. The walls were plain, unrelieved expanses of smooth plaster (Plate 12) extending from baseboard to cornice and were either painted or tinted some pale, cool colour grey, pearl, drab, buff, and a light green inherited from Adam usage, were in high favour or else they were covered with wall-paper, usually of a very excellent quality and meant to last. About the end of the eighteenth century and in the very beginning of the nineteenth, the landscape papers were extensively used alike in rooms and in halls and many of them, both polychrome and monochrome, were both beautiful and dignified and lent a peculiar charm and breadth to the rooms in which they were hung, a charm that nothing else has ever quite taken the place of. In addition to these landscape papers, papers with striking Chinese motifs of figures, animals, pagodas, bridges, birds and flowers, frequently in vital colour- ing, enjoyed some vogue. There were, also, the mono- chrome French papers printed with carefully cut wood blocks from cartoons by David * and other equally noted contemporary French artists. These papers pourtrayed scenes from classic mythology and were de- signed as panels to be hung in a sequence. Of all the * These papers are now being reproduced from the original blocks. 4 50 INTERIOR DECORATION early wall-papers, they were, perhaps, the finest in both conception and execution. A little later on in the nineteenth century, when these beautiful wall coverings had either passed out of fashion or were no longer obtainable, their place was taken by papers designed to represent moulded panels, or by paper marbled, mottled and veined and laid off in vertical and horizontal lines to simulate the joints of masonry. The best of these masonry papers and some of them were by no means bad contained cartouches in the centre of each oblong block and within the car- touches were small monochrome scenes of classic or historical provenance. Some tone of grey was usually chosen for the execution of such papers and, it may be added, the masonry papers were as a rule hung in halls where their pattern did not conflict with the movable decorations and where their pictorial note lent a touch of interest in default of other features to arrest or amuse the eye. Door and window trims were bold and heavy in de- tail and, when any attempt was made at ornamentation beyond flat, rectangular mouldings, Greek key fret and anthemion motifs generally appeared and also square thistle or acanthus leaf paterae at the angles. The pan- els of doors and shutters were small, with the occa- sional exception of large panels in the lower halves of doors, and were defined by a number of small, flat mouldings which often gave them a complex appear- ance. The woodwork was usually painted white, al- though such pale colours as pearl or light grey were now and then used by way of variety. Green, or some- times white, Venetian blinds were much in fashion at this period and added a touch of decorative interest to the windows which otherwise they would not have possessed. Floors were of plain boards without any ENGLAND AND AMERICA 51 essay at adornment. In hallways marble tiles were sometimes used, either solid white or black and white chequered. Plaster decoration consisted of moulded cornices and of ceiling borders and central ornaments that echoed the motifs of the woodwork in the manner al- ready mentioned as occurring in contemporary houses in England. Ceiling borders were not invariably used, but the central ornaments in the larger and more im- portant rooms were rarely omitted as they formed a point of departure from the ceiling for the imposing chandelier which had by now come to be regarded as an almost indispensable adjunct. Mantel-pieces of black or dark grey veined marble, oftentimes with two plain pillars supporting the shelf, were in common use. White marble and wood painted white, and fashioned in the same pattern, were also much used. In some of the more elegantly equipped rooms the low mantels of white marble were elaborately carved in the current French style and in some in- stances displayed griffin or caryatid side supports in- stead of the pillars just alluded to. These latter pieces of sculpture were really very beautiful and imparted an air of elegance and distinction to any room in which they were placed, quite sufficient to redeem any im- pression of heaviness conveyed by the other items of fixed equipment. The architectural and decorative mode that fol- lowed the Classic Revival, which, indeed, grew from it and into which the Classic Revival gradually declined when its period of decadence set in, is discussed in Chapter IX. Furniture and Decoration. In the early part of the eighteenth century the last years of the reign of "Wil- liam and Mary and the reign of Queen Anne every 52 INTERIOR DECORATION article of furniture that we now have was in use and, besides this, there were some things that we have since allowed to fall more or less into oblivion to our own great decorative loss. While many of the mobiliary fashions of an earlier date persisted to some extent the panelled oak pieces and the more elaborate walnut creations of late Stuart times and the walnut, mar- queterie and lacquer achievements of the William and Mary era and especially in the provincial towns and country districts, a new and powerful influence in furni- ture design was everywhere apparent. This new ele- ment has been called the curvilinear influence and was particularly manifest in the prevalence of cabriole legs for seating furniture, tables and cabinet work, shaped aprons for tables and wall furniture, shaped and curv- ing tops or cresting for bureau bookcases, cupboards, cabinets, highboys and other pieces of wall furniture, shaped heads with cyma curves for panelling and mir- ror tops, and even the introduction of curved lines into structural features such as the fronts of bombe or "ket- tle-front" cabinets and chests of drawers. This influ- ence came into England directly through Dutch chan- nels, but was only one instance of similar concurrent influences prevailing throughout Europe which may be attributed to a complex and mixed Baroque and Ori- ental parentage. Although oak continued to be used to some extent for furniture making, the favourite and fashionable, and we (may also say the standard, wood was walnut, either solid or as a figured veneer laid on over a base of oak or of some other wood. The cabinet makers of the period, however, did not restrict themselves in their finer work to the expression of their talents in walnut alone. They made considerable use of other woods which increasing commercial facilities were placing ENGLAND AND AMERICA 53 within their grasp ; they freely employed marqueterie in the more refined "sea weed" patterns which had superseded the larger multi-colored floral and foliated motifs; they continued to produce many pieces of lac- quer, admirable in colour red, green, cream, yellow, blue, brown, silver and black and in decoration; they decorated not a few pieces with paint and parcel gild- ing; they strained various fabrics over carved and moulded wood bases ; and last, but not least in signifi- cance, under the impetus of designs furnished by such men as Kent and his school, who required pieces of a certain scale and pomp to accord with the stately in- teriors then being created, they executed massive and heavily carved tables and consoles, coated with gesso richly gilt and topped with slabs of marble or vari-col- oured scagliola, as well as other pieces in a similar monumental vein to match. About 1720 mahogany began to be used and the ad- vent of this wood as a material for furniture construc- tion opened the way for developments in both structure and ornamentation that would not have been possible in any of the previous media. Before speaking more explicitly, however, of the changes induced by the popu- larisation of mahogany as a cabinet wood, attention should be called to what has aptly been termed "Archi- tects' Furniture," a species of mobiliary equipment that exercised a profound effect upon the appearance of a great many interiors during the first half of the eighteenth century. Architects were designing stately rooms with lofty ceilings and broad wall spaces on a scale and in a style hitherto unknown in England. For these spacious interiors the "small calibre" furniture of the familiar "Queen Anne" pattern was totally in- adequate in scale and often unsatisfactory in the minu- tiae of style. The want of something more imposing was 54 INTERIOR DECORATION partially filled by the heavy carved and gilded pieces * of which mention has already been made, but there was still an obvious need for something further in the way of large case work. And this further need was met by the architects who proceeded to design large book- cases, cupboards, presses and cabinets in a scale com- mensurate with the positions they were to occupy and in a style that was distinctly architectural in concep- tion, even to the details of ornamentation, free use being made of pillars, pilasters, entablatures, pedi- ments of various types, urns and cornices whose every feature was transferred from architectural to mobili- ary usage. This was one step farther than, and a logi- cal development from, the built-in cupboards and buffets previously discussed. This "architects' furni- ture" was constructed either in the natural cabinet woods current at the time, chiefly walnut and mahog- any, or else was made of pine or deal and painted to accord with the fixed woodwork of the room in which it was placed. During the early Georgian period, and synchron- ously with the carved and gilt Kentian pieces and the "architects' furniture," a great deal of the other furni- ture underwent a process of elaboration that was more observable in decorative details and the amount of decoration applied than in structural forms. It began with what is known as the "Decorated Queen Anne" type and progressed through the heavily, and often overly, embellished creations of chair and cabinet makers up to the rise of Thomas Chippendale into prominence as the arbiter of furniture fashions. About the middle of the century there had been a recru- * These imposing carved and gilt tables, consoles and the like began to be popular in the latter part of the 17th century, thanks to the in- fluence of Marot, whom William of Orange brought to England. ENGLAND AND AMERICA 55 deseence of the " Chinese taste" in the Oriental and pseudo-Oriental forms inspired by the designs of Sir William Chambers. It was left for Chippendale to tem- per and correct the excesses of design that had pre- vailed prior to his regime, to adapt and improve upon the precedents that he found previously established, and to introduce new elements by which he sought to elevate mobiliary taste of his day and, needless to say, this he succeeded in doing. The heritage of English precedent that Chippendale found ready to his hand, he refined and, in many cases, elaborated with the utmost skill, displaying his genius and originality, not in the futile effort to create some- thing utterly different from all preexistent fashions, but through a sane and reasonable adaptation to contem- porary requirements as he conceived them and as the means at his disposal prompted him. The " Chinese taste ' ' he interpreted in a manner perfectly consistent with the needs and environment for which he was work- ing; the "Gothic style" in its undiluted form, though obviously an anachronism and a piece of affectation, altogether out of keeping with the architectural set- tings then being created, he handled with tactful ad- dress and contrived to keep it from being aggressively offensive ; the Rococo inspiration, derived from current French models, he translated successfully into an Eng- lish body and, although there was nothing in any of the phases of British architectural and decorative backgrounds to which it in any way corresponded, man- aged so to express the style that it did not conflict with its environment. But it was in what might be called his 4 'composite" work, in the expression of which he freely drew from various sources and commingled elements Chinese, Gothic and Rococo in the same piece along with traditions of earlier English derivation, that he 56 INTERIOR DECORATION achieved his most signal successes as a great master of style. Whatever diversities of origin such pieces might reveal upon close and searching scrutiny, there can be no question that their ensemble was in full and har- monious accord with the architectural environment of the day. Early in the second half of the eighteenth century, under the revived classic impulse imparted by the Brothers Adam, the whole spirit of furniture design underwent a radical change and the mobiliary equip- ment of the period was created with the avowed and patent intent of close coincidence with the newer phase of architectural expression. Emphasis was laid upon straight structural lines and the decorative details were of obviously architectural provenance. The attenua- tion and restraint discernible in architectural forms were communicated to the structure of the furniture and also visibly affected not only the forms of the orna- ment employed but also the amount of ornament and the manner of its distribution. While Chippendale, so long as he followed the bent of his own inspiration, worked almost exclusively in mahogany and carried the manipulation of his chosen medium to the highest de- velopment of which even so facile and accommodating a material was susceptible, the access of Adam influ- ence popularised a great diversity of materials which, while they did not displace mahogany as a cabinet wood, were freely used concurrently with it and vastly added to the resources of colour possibility and contrib- uted to the general lightening effect of contemporary interior decoration. Satinwood especially came into high favour. At the same time painting and inlay were exploited to the full extent of their capabilities as dec- orative factors. Hepplewhite, Shearer, Sheraton, and also the lesser lights who wrought at the same time and ENGLAND AND AMERICA 57 followed in their wake, were all profoundly influenced by the new ideals of which the Adelphi were successful protagonists and the work of all these cabinet makers and designers exhibited a kindred regard for and ob- servance of the reversion to purer classic principles with the attendant attenuation of proportions and dominance of straight lines as well as the use of motifs of more or less immediate classical provenance. At the very end of the century we discover the classic forms merging gradually into the * ' Directoire ' ' phase of expression, while early in the nineteenth century a period synchronous with the very apparent decadence of Sheraton design we find the more bombastic mani- festations corresponding to the Empire fashion in France for, notwithstanding the abhorrence of France and of French politics, French styles were as potent and pervasive as ever. For a detailed discussion of Empire forms, as well as for the minute particulars of all the furniture variations during the period included in this chapter, the reader is referred to the ''Practical Book of Period Furniture," Eberlein and McClure. Other Decorative Accessories and Movable Decora- tions. During the early part of the eighteenth cen- tury, the tapestries which had played so important a part in the decorative composition of former times, retained somewhat of their pristine popularity and remained to a certain extent in evidence, although they did not constitute one of the distinctively characteristic features of the time. Hangings for windows consisted of either brocades, damasks or velvets in bright colours and strong pat- terns, much like the fabrics used for covering uphol- stered furniture, or else of printed linens and chintzes of agreeably bright colouring and in designs similar to those shown in the illustration. Both kinds of hang- 58 INTERIOR DECORATION ings were used either with or without valances and were often hung from box heads which were covered with the same material strained over the wood. In large rooms chandeliers were often used ; some- times they were made of carved wood, painted and par- cel gilt, sometimes of brass, sometimes of wrought iron which was occasionally embellished by colour and gild- ing, and sometimes of glass with large crystal pen- dants. Sconces, too, were conspicuous items of decor- ative 'equipment and were made in the manner just noted in the description of chandeliers as well as with various other devices of embellishment. In addition to the mirrors employed in fixed decor- ative treatments, great numbers of mirrors, both large and small, were in common use. Some were tall and narrow, others were long and low, while others still were quite small. It was quite a usual thing for a mirror to be made in several divisions. The edges were often bevelled, even where the head of the mirror was elab- orately shaped, and it was not an uncommon thing for the surface of the glass to be adorned with shallow cut- ting where such decoration would not interfere with practical utility. Then again, side panels in large tri- partite mirrors were frequently adorned with poly- chrome paintings in reverse, in the Chinese manner, which added greatly to their decorative value. A num- ber of the early mirrors were framed with bevelled glass of a different colour, very often a rich deep blue, although other colours were used. Most of the mirror frames, however, were of walnut and were either adorned with marqueterie or were carved and parcel gilt; or they were of pine or some other soft wood, carved and coated with gesso and wholly gilt ; or else they were of lacquer with gilt, and also sometimes with polychrome decorations. Sconces, when not of metal ENGLAND AND AMERICA 59 or of carved wood, painted and parcel gilt, were often made in combination with small mirrors and were framed in the manner just indicated. A number of mirrors, especially those intended for overmantel decoration, were framed in combination with decorative paintings, the mirror forming the lower part of the composition and the painting the upper portion. Pictures portraits, landscapes and decorative paintings of fruits and flowers or of combined architec- tural and landscape subjects constituted another valu- able and much used decorative resource, and likewise framed prints, both plain and coloured, were exten- sively employed. Sculptures, especially in marble but to some extent also in bronze, were much in vogue and were placed either on pedestals or in niches designed to receive them. These marbles and bronzes were often in the form of urns and vases as well as busts, figures and groups. Porcelains, in the shape of urns, vases, jars and other articles, both large and small, especially dur- ing the China-mad days in the early part of the century, were freely employed as decorative adjuncts. From the middle of the century onward, when the Adam influence had become dominant, the same dec- orative accessories as just enumerated continued to be used, but their forms naturally underwent such modifi- cations as rendered them in keeping with the altered conceptions of elegant design. With the ornate wall surfaces of many of the Adam rooms, there was less opportunity to use the tapestries which earlier in the centuiy had continued to enjoy at least a certain cur- tailed degree of favour. The method of draping win- dow hangings was often more involved and the cornices surmounting them frequently assumed more preten- 60 INTERIOR DECORATION tious forms than had hitherto been common. Chande- liers were lighter in line and more intricate in design and there was a preference for metal with numerous pendent glass prisms rather than for wood painted and gilt or for brass alone in its more robust but graceful designs. Sconces, too, reflected the same trend toward attenuation and were quite generally adorned with cut glass drops and pendent prisms which greatly added to the brilliance and lustre of the illumination when the candles were lighted. The sconces, also, not uncom- monly displayed, along with mirror frames, the airy surmounting or surrounding ornaments wrought in gilt compo supported on wires. In the heads of mirrors were often inserted paintings with classic motifs or de- signs in gilt relief on a ground of plain colour or else devices painted in reverse on the under side of the glass. Materials and Colour. In the early part of the cen- tury the woods chiefly used were oak, walnut and, for panelling, deal and pine and fir also. About 1720 ma- hogany, while not wholly displacing the others, came into use for cabinet purposes and grew more and more popular. Gesso laid over a pine foundation and gilt was also an important source of decoration. The fabrics were brocades, velvets, plain and with cut pile figures, brocatelles, damasks and silks. The simpler fabrics were printed linens, muslins and chintzes. In both cases the colours were strong and vigorous and the designs usually bold and often large in detail. As the century wore on the diversity and brilliance of colouring became less pronounced. Pale alid delicate pastel colours were freely employed and stripes had a tremendous vogue. The patterns on the brocades were refined in scale and often attenuated in ENGLAND AND AMERICA 61 accord with the prevalent trend of contemporary style. Even when the colours used were fairly vigorous, they were so disposed in quantity that their emphasis was appreciably modified. Needlework in petit point and gros point also played a prominent part for the cov- ering of furniture. After the middle of the century and all through the period of Adam ascendency, while mahogany retained a place of honour, satinwood and other light coloured woods, such as sycamore or harewood, maple and simi- lar light toned materials enjoyed huge popularity, for the whole tendency of the time was toward a lighter and more cheerful and blithesome colour scheme. Not only was furniture very commonly made of light coloured wood or painted some light tone, but the fixed wood- work also was painted in various pale hues, as were the walls and ceilings. The scale of the earlier work, both in architectural usage and in furniture contours and decorative motifs was heavier and required heavier colours ; the lighter scale and refined, attenuated motifs of the Adam period demanded lighter colours and would have looked utterly out of place with the full- bodied tones of an earlier era. The same thing was true of fabrics. The silks, damasks, brocades, velvets and other stuffs used for hangings and upholstery were light in colour and re- fined in the details of their pattern. At this time also Aubusson tapestry, by the nature of its colour, design and texture, came into vogue for furniture covering and also for rugs and carpets. Arrangement. During the earlier part of the cen- tury, while symmetry and formality of arrangement were duly considered in the disposition of the movable furnishings, there was still a certain amount of the cas- 62 INTERIOR DECORATION ual latitude of earlier days to be seen in the placement of the principal articles that entered into the composi- tion of a room. Under the Adam regime, however, the principles of formality and balanced symmetry were caried to their fullest limit. It was the period of the dominance of pairs. It might be pairs of consoles, or pairs of sconces, or pairs of sofas, or pairs of candel- abra but wherever there was an opportunity to intro- duce the element of balance by the use of duplicates, the opportunity was seized and made the most of. CHAPTER III INTERIOR DECORATION IN ITALY PRIOR TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY /NTRODUCTION.The golden age of Italian wall decoration, furniture making and furnishing began about the middle of the fifteenth century and continued through the sixteenth and seventeenth. It was veritably a golden age in point of virility, freshness and fertility of conception and the national genius was manifested in the vigorous design of the furniture, in the way in which it was disposed and in the preparation of the background as well as in other important branches of art. Added to the native well springs from which flowed a copious stream of Renaissance inspira- tion was the powerful impetus derived from the dias- pora of Byzantine culture resulting from the fall of Byzantium before the Ottoman onslaught in 1453. Prior to the period at which we begin our considera- tion of interior decoration in Italy, wars and rumours of wars, petty though they were compared with the magnitude of modern military operations, chiefly occu- pied the minds and energies of the princes and the rulers of the small republics and there was almost in- cessant strife between two or more of the various in- dependent states or civil jurisdictions among which the Italian peninsula was parcelled. Under the unstable conditions consequent upon the chronically disturbed state of society there was comparatively little oppor- tunity for either the accumulation or spending of pri- vate wealth and it is scarcely to be wondered at that a native taste for household luxury and refinement found 63 64 INTERIOR DECORATION scant scope for gratification when the development of the arts of domestic embellishment was so seriously retarded. In the majority of cases men's minds were either almost wholly centred upon political and mili- tary affairs or else their mental and physical activities were directed into ecclesiastical channels. Cultural de- velopment in the secular world was badly handicapped. With the advent of an era of greater political sta- bility, however, commerce revived and flourished apace, personal and civic wealth accumulated, the resources of the municipalities were less constantly drained by the heavy exactions of internecine warfare, and the spirit of creative art, never wholly dormant even dur- ing the times of greatest strife and turmoil, came quickly into its own again, drawing renewed inspira- tion from the abundant treasures of Italian antiquity and deriving likewise a quickening impulse from the culture of Byzantium, the remnants of whose rich heri- tage were brought to Italy by the numerous refugees from the fallen capital of the Eastern Empire. The re- birth of art, in all its phases, experienced the strong impetus of natural reaction after a period of repres- sion. Domestic and industrial arts blossomed and throve in new-found security. Private wealth fostered the efforts of artists and craftsmen while princes and potentates vied with each other in liberal patronage of the arts both fine and applied. The story of the Medici in Florence affords an illuminating commentary on this phase of Italian cultural history and the story of many other great contemporary families might likewise be appropriately cited to the same end. Architectural Background and Methods of Fiaed Decoration. In this golden age of restored tranquillity, stately villas, that often rivalled the splendours of their ancient Eoman prototypes, rapidly succeeded to grim PLATE 13 PLATE 14 w ; iiif i Q..V y . .' -wf.lt. J V_^Y . --j^y. , H ' / 5S I ?u fr (v>~ PLATE 15 A SALON ON FIRST FLOOR. PALAZZO DAVANZATI, FIREXZE, FIFTEENTH CENTURY Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. BED CHAMBER, PALAZZO DAVANZATI. FIRENZE. FIFTEENTH CENTURY Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. PLATE 16 ITALY 65 castles and fortified houses. Nobles and wealthy mer- chants and landowners felt free to forsake the crowded restraint of urban life for the larger liberty of resi- dence among the groves and gardens of their estates. The abodes they built, with the aid of the best archi- tects of the day, were broad and lofty and fully ex- pressive of the urbane, though withal vigorous, ele- gance of the age. The rooms were commonly of great dimensions and their height is one of the most impres- sive features of their proportions. It was, indeed, the era of the great hall (Plate 13) and princely salon. Such were the habits of domestic life that the small drawing-room and intimate boudoir had little place in the household scheme and the personal require- ments of the immediate members of the family were easily satisfied with the simplest of provisions. Clas- sic conceptions of design were everywhere asserting themselves and we find a strong rectilinear emphasis (Plate 13) predominant in nearly all of these imposing apartments. There were, of course, plenty of round vaulted ceilings (Plate 20 A and B ; Plate 18) and round arched windows or doorheads enriched by a counter- sunk semi-circular tympanum (Plate 15 A) above them. But, notwithstanding all this and the occasional pres- ence of round-arched arcades, the dominant emphasis was rectilinear and this same quality was reflected in the contour of the furniture that was designed to equip these spacious interiors. In the matter of fixed decoration and interior en- richment, Italian interiors of the period under consid- eration may be divided into two classes. The first class is composed of the interiors where all or a great por- tion of the background walls, ceiling and floor was highly decorated and rich in colour (Plates 15 B, 16, 18, 19 and 139). The second class is composed of interiors 5 66 INTERIOR DECORATION where only a minor portion (Plates 13, 15 A, 20 A and B, and 127) or none of the background is decorated and where the physical setting presents an aspect of severe restraint and, sometimes, even of austerity. In the first class belong the rooms whose walls and ceilings are gorgeous with frescoes and gilding (Plates 16, 18 and 19), the encrustation of coloured marbles or the poly- chrome and parcel gilt enrichment of diaper work (Plate 15 B) and heraldic blasoning, while the floors accord with the rest of the scheme in their display of multi-coloured marbles (Plates 18, 19 and 139) or mo- saic. In the second class belong the rooms whose walls and vaulted ceilings are severely plain and whose floors are of plain stone, tiles (Plates 13, 15 A and B and 16) or boards. The points of architectural embellishment are the carved fireplace (Plates 15 A and 20 A and 111 C) and its hood or chimney piece, the doorways (Plate 14, 1; 15 A, 18 and 19) and, if there be a flat wooden ceiling instead of vaulting, the beams and cor- bels (Plates 13, 15 A and B and 127). Occasionally, also, a niche (Plate 127) with doors to enclose a shrine might be given architectural emphasis. In such in- teriors colour was frequently introduced on the doors themselves (Plate 14, 2), in a countersunk tympanum above the doorway, if perchance this bit of diversity were added, on the beams and boards of the ceiling (Plates 13 ; 143, 4 and 5 ; 15 A and B) and on the in- side shutters of the windows. It need scarcely be pointed out that such an interior provided an admirable foil for the advantageous display of hangings and fur- niture (Plates 13 and 15 A and B). No matter, how- ever, whether an interior was elaborately ornate or severely simple, the Italian furniture of the period pos- sessed such flexibility of character that it looked equally well against either background and to this peculiar PLATE 17 PLATE 18 PLATE 19 ITALY 67 quality we shall have occasion to refer more at length in a subsequent division. Furniture and Its Decoration. From the middle or latter part of the fifteenth century onward, the display of movable furniture in the regal rooms of Italian pal- aces and villas, and in the scarcely less regal rooms of the lesser country houses and town dwellings of the well-to-do citizens, was scanty when judged by modern standards. "When the walls of the galleries and sa- loons were covered with frescoes (Plates 16, 18 and 19), or hung with arras, tapestry, brocades (Plate 17), rich velvet from Genoa, or with stamped and gilt leather; when the ceilings were painted (Plates 16, 18 and 19) or heavily carved and gilded ; when the floors were inlaid with the choicest marbles and mosaics, many objects about would detract from the magnificence of the whole and leave a confused impression on the mind. This the unerring taste of the sixteenth century decorators fully realised. The few pieces of furniture that were admit- ted, however, were in keeping with their surroundings, and are marvels of workmanship. Every kind of splen- did material was employed in their manufacture and adornment." The chests or cassoni, which from the earliest times were conspicuous and highly significant pieces of furniture in Italian furnishing schemes, placed in the halls and corridors or salons, "were used to pre- serve tapestries, clothes, plate and most of the valu- ables used by wealthy Italians. ' ' Carved with scrolls, foliage and figures in high relief or richly embellished on the front and cover with paintings, " either illustra- tive of the lives of saints, scenes taken from classical mythology or historical incidents" and blasoned in the proper tinctures with family armorial bearings, the cassoni were indeed impressive pieces of furniture and well calculated to compel and centre attention. They 68 INTERIOR DECORATION were often lined inside with linen or even with gorgeous silks and brocades strained tightly over the wood. The cassone was one of the most valuable presents given to a bride, and when it fulfilled the role of a dower chest it was generally adorned by picturing some incident taken from one of the well-known love tales. To some, indeed, it may seem that these cassoni and, for the matter of that, not a few of the other articles of Italian Renais- sance furniture were "almost overpoweringly decor- ated ' ' without ever giving the eye a single spot on which to stop and rest. Many such profusely ornamented pieces placed in the same room, it is true, would have been unbearable. But the Italians did not so use them. The cassone was designed and decorated with a clear perception of the principle, so characteristic of much of the best Italian and Spanish work, whether architec- tural or mobiliary, of concentrating enrichment in one spot and isolating it against a background either simple, at times to the extent of austerity, or else so fully cov- ered with elaborate repeats (Plate 15 B) that it as- sumed the quality of a richly coloured texture of vir- tually neutral action in affording the necessary contrast to whatever clearly denned object, whether simple or elaborately adorned, might be placed against it. There was wealth in the golden age of the Italian Renaissance to devote to a liberal patronage of the decorative arts and the patronage bestowed encouraged the develop- ment of furniture design and execution by the most emi- nent craftsmen and artists of the period. They deemed it worthy of their best efforts to design a single piece of furniture and execute it with the utmost study and care as an independent and complete work of art. Under such circumstances the making of a cassone was a fin- ished and marvellous achievement in itself. Among the painters of panels for cassoni may be mentioned such ITALY 69 masters as Botticelli, Andrea del Sarto, Pesellino, Pietro di Cosimo and the most capable of their pupils while, for the carvers of these same amazing chests, Jacquemart reminds us that we must seek among the foremost sculptors of the day Donatello, Bernardino, Ferrante, Canozzo and others of equal renown. So far as furniture was concerned, they were the Adams, the Chippendales, the Hepplewhites, the Angelica Kauff- manns and the Cipriani of their era, but far greater; only, unlike the Adelphi, they did not merely draw de- signs for others to work from but they worked at the furniture with their own hands and thought no shame of the task. They esteemed the making of a ohest or cabinet an honourable and legitimate work of art and that is why so many of the pieces from their hands are surpassingly beautiful and full of finished grace. Be- fore passing on, it will be as well to note that there was not a little variety in the forms of the cassoni so that their decorative furnishing potentiality was increased thereby : some of them were merely rectangular chests, with or without feet, and being flat-topped served for seats as well as receptacles; some were shaped like a sarcophagus and had either flat or rising tops; some were low enough to sit upon comfortably ; some were as high as consoles, and some were raised on stands. While cassoni (Plate 13) were undoubtedly the most omnipresent, the most conspicuous and the most lav- ishly decorated pieces of cabinet work, there was be- sides a wide variety of wall furniture that went to make up the mobiliary equipment of sixteenth and seven- teenth century Italian rooms. There was the madia, a hutch-like cupboard with doors, and perhaps several shallow drawers above them, the whole structure sup- ported by trusses at each end. This piece of furniture was often used for the stowage of food in much the same 70 INTERIOR DECORATION way as the dole cupboards and kindred articles in Eng- land. There was the credenza (Plates 20 B and 15 A and 89 B), an imposing and much used article about four feet high and of varying length, with doors in front and with or without shallow drawers above the doors. In composition and decoration it was an object of dis- tinctly architectonic value. It served the purpose of a sideboard or buffet or, in apartments not used for din- ing, it answered equally well the office of a console. Occasionally a superstructure was added -at the back with one or more shelves and in this form it was really the historical precursor of the very ugly nineteenth cen- tury sideboard. In this connexion it is worth noting that the furniture designers of the nineteenth cen- tury, who perpetrated so many of the painful monstros- ities of the Victorian era in black walnut, were not an ignorant set of men unacquainted with historical pre- cedents. They did know somewhat of furniture his- tory, but with their knowledge they combined an amaz- ing degree of colossal bad taste which impelled them to choose the least-inspired models of sixteenth, seven- teenth and eighteenth century Italian, French and Spanish provenance and add thereto their own fantas- tic aberrations of contour and embellishment. Illustra- tions of some of the Victorian "chefs dceuvre" parallel with other illustrations of their Continental prototypes would constitute a body of the most damning evidence. Akin to the credenza in its general scheme of struc- ture was the small console or cabinet with doors, about three or three and a half feet high by two feet or a lit- tle more in width. It served as a stand on which to place a casket or some other article of decorative sig- nificance. The exact reverse of this was a similar piece of cabinet work, with a small drawer beneath the doors instead of above them, and this was set upon a table ITALY 71 or stand ; in other words, it was the forerunner of the larger cabinet, with doors and drawers, upon a stand which figured so prominently in furnishing schemes of a much later date. A combination of these two pieces sometimes occurred in a two-storey structure with doors in both the lower and upper parts. This double cabinet was somewhat wider than the console first mentioned and the upper part was not quite so broad as the lower. Altogether it was a dignified and desirable article in any well-appointed room. Not dissimilar to it in general appearance was the writing cabinet, of which examples occurred at an early date, with doors in the lower part and a falling front in the upper which, when let down, provided a place to write. A related piece of writing furniture was the cabinet with falling front which stood upon a table or stand. There were also various wider and larger oab- inets and presses, either divided in two by lower and upper sections or with full length doors, in the latter case being virtually wardrobes, as we understand the term. Chests of drawers, very like in disposition to the analogous article of the eighteenth century, were by no means unknown. Bedsteads, as was the wont of the period, were often- times ponderous affairs; others, again, were not of cumbrous proportions. The larger bedsteads were fre- quently raised a pace or two above the floor on a dais (Plate 15 B) and were both of the post and canopy (Plate 21 B) or tester type and also of the sort that had headboard and lower footboard but no canopy. Another piece of wall furniture that was not seldom elevated on a dais to give it greater state was the cassa panca, a kind of ceremonial bench (Plate 15 B) that was in- variably given a position of prominence and seems to have been the forerunner of the drawing-room sofa of 72 INTERIOR DECORATION a later date as regarded certain points of etiquette in seating honoured guests. The cassa panca was really a long chest with high, solid, massive arms and back, the seat, which was hinged at the back, being the lid. Occasionally there was an high, throne-like back and sometimes the arms were wanting. The former type, however, was the more usual. A specimen in the Metro- politan Museum is eight feet, ten inches in length, twenty-one inches in depth, has a back and arms rising nineteen inches from the seat and stands on a dais nine and a half feet long and five inches high. From both their structure and design it is quite obvious that not a few of the banconi or tables with drawers were intended to stand against the wall and many of the long tables, analogous to the English re- fectory tables, were likewise so placed and are, there- fore, under sundry circumstances to be reckoned as wall furniture. Clothes hangers and mirror frames were objects of careful design and workmanship and are not to be overlooked in an enumeration of wall pieces. The mirror frames were small as only small mirrors were available at all and these were scarce. Great care, nevertheless, was bestowed upon the frames and they possessed considerable decorative importance. Besides the long tables, already alluded to, and the smaller wall or writing tables with drawers in them, there was the greatest variety in shapes and sizes, as might be expected in an age of exuberant invention, and all the occasional requirements in the matter of tables were well supplied. (For a detailed discussion of the sundry varieties of sixteenth and seventeenth century Italian tables and other pieces of furniture v. "The Practical Book of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Furniture," Eberlein and McClure; now in prepara- tion.) Chairs, settees, stools and benches were of nil- ITALY 73 inerous types, but all were dignified and impressive and well calculated to furnishing ideals in which dignity, as well as grace, was an indispensable requirement. Other Decorative Accessories and Movable Decora- tions. The actual movable furniture in a sixteenth or seventeenth century Italian salon did not by any means comprise all the furnishing of the apartment. The walls and ceilings, as mentioned before, might be gloriously chromatic with frescoes or mosaic and, in addition to many-hued and rich-toned pigments, there would be the glow of gilding bestowed in appropriate places. In case the walls and ceilings were not so adorned with fixed decorations on the surface, there was the uni- versal delight in tapestries (Plate 13) and other large hangings of needlework which were prized doubly on account of the pleasure and satisfaction to be derived from the devices thereon depicted and likewise because of their wealth of mellow colour. Besides tapestries as suitable enrichments for plain walls, there was always the resource of pictures. Then, furthermore, there were the polychrome maiolica mural ornaments and mural ornaments consisting of wood carvings (Plate 15 A) painted and gilt. This wooden mural sculpture was an highly developed art and justly prized. Another dec- orative resource lay in the pieces of marble sculpture, always dear to the heart of an Italian, and in various pieces of pottery of agreeable shape and colour. Nor must we forget the carved, painted and gilt wooden candlesticks (Plate 19) and candelabra, some of them of great height; nor the iron candelabra (Plate 15 A), gracefully wrought and likewise coloured and gilt in their embellishment. Equally effective in the matter of lending interest to the composition were the fixed decorative accessories such as the paintings upon the doors themselves, paint- U INTERIOR DECORATION ings in the tympana above doorways, paintings upon the wooden inside shutters or paintings upon the beams of the ceilings and the corbels that supported those beams. On the doors and shutters the painting and gilding might be only partial, to enhance the tone of the wood, or it might be in a continuous diaper pattern or, again, some mythological, historical or religious subject might be fully depicted. The painting of the ceiling beams was done in a purely conventional man- ner and was meant merely to give the relief and warmth of colour and gilding. Oftentimes, when not much colour appeared on doors or shutters, interest was centred there by devices executed either in studding of iron nails (Plate 13) or by wrought iron, sometimes parcel coloured and gilt, applied in a rich and delicate decorative pattern. The sixteenth and seventeenth century Italian smiths were masters in their craft and their decorative creations are among some of the most treasured relics they have left us. Last, but by no means least, as an item in the com- position of the sixteenth and seventeenth century Ital- ian interior was the carved mantel and likewise the carved chimney piece that so often accompanied it. These were wrought in stone and in marble with the utmost finesse and displayed all the characteristic dec- orative motifs of the period, including foliage, fruits, flowers, arabesques, grotesques, masques, amorini and the human figure. The carving was usually in high and bold relief. Materials and Colour. For the fixed architectural background, the materials most commonly used were stone, inlaid and multi-coloured marbles, tiles or wood for the floors. For the walls they employed plaster, either rough or smooth, or else encrustations of marble ITALY 75 or mosaic. When the walls were to be painted they were coated with a smooth, hard plaster; hard plaster was likewise used when moulded decorations in relief entered into the decorative scheme. These moulded decorations in plaster were often further enriched by the addition of colour. When sgraffito decorations were desired several successive coats of different-coloured plasters were laid on. For the ceilings either plaster or wooden beams, frequently carved and painted, were the usual materials. Cypress, oak, pine and walnut afforded the chief wood resources, although other kinds were occasionally put to use. For polychrome decor- ated doors it was customary to use pine, cypress or some similar soft and easily worked wood as a foundation. The surface was then carefully coated with gesso to give an absolutely smooth and suitable ground for the application of the pigment and gold. For furniture, walnut was the staple wood just as oak was in England. For cassoni and other pieces, however, that were to be embellished with paint, poly- chrome decoration and parcel gilding it was customary to use pine or cypress and cover it with a preparatory coat of gesso before the paint and gilt were put on. If there was any carved relief, the carving was apt to be crudely done and the fine modelling was left for manipulation in the gesso. For furniture that was not to be adorned with gold and colour, oak, chestnut, acacia and other suitable woods from time to time made their appearance with the occasional introduction of syca- more, pear, rosewood and sundry other materials for purposes of inlay or marqueterie. For upholstery, velvet of a full, rich red was per- haps the most favoured material. Besides this we find cut pile velvets, brocades, brocatelle and damasks of various colours as well as gros point and petit point 76 INTERIOR DECORATION needlework. Leather, both plain and decorated, was also used for the backs and seats of chairs. Much atten- tion, too, was paid to fringes and gold galons which were freely employed. For the lining of cassoni and caskets it was not uncommon to use silks and brocades of divers colours strained upon the wood. Nothing contributes more to the enrichment of an apartment than the use of hangings on the walls. In old Italian interiors hangings were freely used and these hangings consisted of tapestries, brocades (Plate 17) or damasks with embroidered orphreys or bor- ders at the sides, velvets enriched with gold embroidery and needlework designs in bold motifs applique, and large pieces of multi-coloured needlework in floss or silk thread on background of silk, satin, damask or vel- vet. Cloth of gold and silver were also employed. From a purely practical point of view, with refer- ence to modern practice, it is to be noted that the old Italians fully realised they had doubtless found out by trial and experience that when hangings were used on the walls back of large pieces of furniture, whether those pieces were of carved or plain panelled walnut, or of a gorgeous polychrome and gilt exterior, the very nature of the furniture in design and material de- manded the association of a fabric of full colour and depth, of texture, such as tapestry or heavy red or purple velvet, and that thinner or flatter textures looked jejune and unsuitable. These pieces might, with per- fect propriety of effect, stand against an austere and bare wall, but if fabric was added it had to be of warm hue and full texture. In the choice of colours for interior decoration there was universal employment of strong, full-bodied tones and vigorous contrasts. While the reds were very red ITALY 77 and the blues very blue, the combinations and grada- tions were blended into a most agreeably mellow en- semble. An examination of old Italian interiors and a close scrutiny of the methods the sixteenth and sev- enteenth century decorators used makes it quite evident that it was the practice to concentrate enrichment whether of objects or of colour at strategic points. It is also to be noted, with reference to their lavish use of gold, that they well understood that a great mass of gold is quiet and neutral, that a little gold at carefully selected places is quiet, refined and enriching, but that small amounts of gold distributed here, there and everywhere produce a flashy, cheap and noisy effect. Arrangement. One of the most striking things about fine old Italian interiors is the absence of crowd- ing and fussiness. The decorators of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seem fully to have realised that a few important pieces, well and logically placed, are all that are needed to make a room. If there are too many large pieces the effect of all is spoiled and the eye is apt to ignore the individual excellences of every object in the cluttered hodge-podge. Accordingly, a comparatively few pieces, properly distributed, were relied upon to produce the desired result. Unless a room was exceptionally large, and oftentimes even then (Plate 17), it was the custom to keep the centre of the floor clear of all obstructions. In some instances a long table (Plates 13, 15 A, 18 and 19) would be placed down the middle of a very long room or, instead of this, the length might be broken by several smaller tables placed equidistant from the ends of the room, with their ap- propriate accompaniment of chairs or stools in close proximity. The arrangements almost invariably dis- played a due regard for principles of symmetry and 78 INTERIOR DECORATION yet, at the same time, there was a great deal of elastic- ity and very little inclination to methods of stiff and oppressive formality. The inborn habit of symmetrical placement might be seen in such a grouping, for in- stance, as a long wall table flanked at each side by two tall-backed chairs. This was a very common arrange- ment but very typical and serves well enough as an example. The brummagem ideal of stuffy and clut- tered " cosiness" did not appeal to them and would have been utterly abhorrent to their conceptions of dignity and elegance. CHAPTER IV /NTRODUCTION.As the period before the eighteenth century had been an era of spacious di- mensions, of great and lofty rooms, of dignified splendour and splendid dignity, of intense virility and vigour however rich and exuberant in the manifold mani- festations of architectural setting and mobiliary equip- ment, of unmistakably masculine interpretation in all the phases of decorative art, so the eighteenth century was essentially a period of femininity in decorative con- ceptions, of intimate boudoirs and highly elaborated drawing-rooms punctiliously appointed with all the polished refinements of which fecund invention bent upon achieving an almost sybaritic degree of luxury was capable, of minute elegancy, of graceful pliability, of sunny, blithesome polychrome merriment. If the im- posing amplitude and sweep of a former generation were absent, and if the foundations of decorative con- ception were less serious, the happy domesticity and facile playfulness of the prevalent genius, amounting at times to pure inconsequent frivolity, were very human and very fascinating and, withal, sincere, in that they faithfully mirrored the spirit of the age. The genius of the preceding age, notwithstanding all the gorgeousness of colouring and wealth of inventive in- genuity, was a trifle sombre; the genius of the eigh- teenth century, not less opulent in its own fashion, was fundamentally gay and debonair. Potency of colour and subtlety of form were no less keenly felt and no 79 80 INTERIOR DECORATION less assiduously courted than in former years, but their application was in a lighter vein. In a measure, the eighteenth century was a decadent period, for the quality of sturdy creative originality, which had so strongly characterised the work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was almost wholly dormant. Italy was borrowing back again the inspira- tion she had so lavishly poured forth in earlier cen- turies for the benefit of other countries and the inspiration thus borrowed back was become, in the course of transition, an indubitably second-hand com- modity, bereft of fertility and verve so far as creative vigour and the divine spark of originality were con- cerned, like an outworn garment that has grown thread- bare through the usage of its temporary possessor. And yet, despite this promiscuous borrowing back, the eighteenth century Italian decorators, designers and craftsmen succeeded in imparting an abundant measure of national individuality to their interpretations so that their work stands quite apart from the perform- ances of their contemporaries in other lands and is easily recognisable by its qualities of charm which the local genius rarely failed successfully to impart. While it is undeniably true that greatness of conception, archi- tectonic dignity of contour and strong originality of design were usually wanting, the native fertility of the Italian craftsman temperament was constantly in evi- dence through the wealth of decorative motifs and the multiplicity of decorative processes lavished on sur- face embellishment, a wealth that asserted itself on every hand with an indomitable persistence comparable to that of tropical vegetation. These characteristics were equally to be seen in the fixed architectural dec- orative background and also in the execution of the movable furnishings. PLATE 20 .4. HALL, VILLA CURONIA, FLORENCE Showing Vaulted Ceiling, Plain Walls and Decorated Corbels Courtesy of E. S. Dodge, Esq. D. ROOM, VILLA CUROXIA, FLORENCE Tiled Floor, Plain Walls, Vaulted Ceiling. Note Treatment of Doors and Arrangement of Furniture Courtesy of E. S. Dodge, Esq. PLATE 21 A. DETAIL OF MIRROR GALLERY, PALAZZO DORIA, ROMA Eighteenth Century. Baroque Transition to Rococo Courtesy of Radillo-Pelitti Co. B. BED CHAMBER, CASTELLO VINCIGLIATA Courtesy of Radillo-Pelitti Co PLATE 22 A. BEDCHAMBER, VILLA CURONIA. FLORENCE Showing Fabric-Covered Walls Courtesy of E. S. Dodge, Esq. B. ANTECHAMBER, VILLA FABBRICOTTI, LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY The Heavy Baroque Furniture is out of place with this Classical Background Courtesy of Radillo-Pelitti Co. ITALY 81 Architectural Background and Methods of Fixed Decoration. The diluted Baroque manifestations that had been observable in the latter part of the seventeenth century continued into the early part of the eighteenth (Plate 21 A), to be succeeded, in due season, and in cir- cles likely to be affected by new f ashions, by the lighter, more playful and more involved Rococo influences pat- terned after the modes current in France, though slightly modified in the course of transition by the action of local traditions and local preferences of interpretation, traditions and preferences that were exceedingly subtle and difficult of definition but never- theless very real and, in the aggregate, very percep- tible. In its own time, virtually synchronous with a like prevalence in other countries, came the absorbing vogue for "the Chinese taste," and it left a strong impress of Orientalism on the work done in the immediate period of its duration, while agreeable traces of its quondam ascendency and its enduring appeal could be detected here and there long afterward. In sharp contrast to all this stylistic medley, the middle of the century witnessed a vigorous revival of classic feeling (Plate 22 B) the swing of the pendulum to the opposite extremity of the arc in precisely the same way that we see the rise of the Adam influence in England and the transition to the Louis Seize mode in France. The Italian reversion to classic forms and precedents was not less vigorous in its expression than the contemporaiy comparable movements elsewhere, but again, as on former occasions, the local exhibition was tinged by local conception and local methods of adaptation. The close correspondence of these successive phases of design in the several countries, and their almost exactly contemporaneous procession, reveal to us, in 6 82 INTERIOR DECORATION a particularly striking manner, the internationalism of decorative art. In the eighteenth century the Italian salons and gal- leries were not less splendid and .stately than they had been during the preceding era, but there was far more ample provision for* the smaller and more intimate bou- doirs and drawing-rooms as well. And whether we are called upon to consider the great salon, the smaller drawing-room, the boudoir or the sumptuously ap- pointed and dainty bedroom of the eighteenth century grandame or beauty, we encounter the same general method of decorative treatment. The more permanent features, such as frescoes and encrustations of mosaic and inlay (Plate 21 A), and also the more enduring movables of the background such as tapestries and other gorgeous hangings of large extent, remained, but there was an added sumptuousness and fullness of appointments that had not hitherto existed. It is true that the earlier classification of fixed architectural backgrounds richly ornate on one hand, and austere on the other still held good, but the severely simple backgrounds were very apt to be much enhanced by the addition of numerous movables. In not a few instances walls were covered with fabrics (Plate 22 A) frequently held in place by mouldings fastened on so as to form panels. Then, again, there was to be seen an extensive introduction of boiserie, analogous to French and Eng- lish practice, with the panelling (Plate 21 B) embel- lished with carving and appropriately painted and parcel gilt. In many instances, large painted panels, sometimes on canvas, sometimes on wooden grounds overlaid with a smooth coating of gesso according to traditional Italian practice, were set into the walls and surrounded with mouldings. The subjects were warm- toned landscapes with prominent architectural features ITALY 83 in the manner of Piranesi, pastoral scenes in emulation of the French creations of Watteau, episodes or scenes from classic mythology, fruit and flower devices or gaily coloured and sometimes gilt Chinese motifs. Not seldom, also, were mirrors introduced into the panel- ling as an highly effective decorative device. In the tale of mural resources must likewise be reckoned wall- paper, printed from wood blocks, with landscape, architectural and classic subjects executed in either polychrome or monotone effects. Nor should we for- get another expedient sometimes resorted to, especially for the embellishment of loggie or partially open-air apartments the use of canvas hanging friezes and panels painted with classic motifs, fruits, flowers and landscapes. By every available means the sumptuous- ness and multi-colored gaiety of the background were ensured. The tall and elaborately ornamented chimney piece, reaching from the mantel to the ceiling or nearly to the ceiling, gradually disappeared as an inseparable struc- turally incorporated factor of the permanent back- ground and was succeeded by lower mantels and fire- place surrounds reflecting in their decoration the suc- cessive Baroque, Rococo and Classic modes of the period that held sway in the procession of fashions al- ready enumerated. These mantels were made of carved stone, carved wood and carved and inlaid marble, the latter sometimes displaying an exquisite combination of colours in conjunction with the most delicate intaglio work. Above the mantels were set carved wooden panelling, paintings, hangings or elaborately framed mirrors. Carved, panelled or inlaid doors still formed im- portant parts of the fixed decorative background, but the methods of carving, panelling and inlaying all re- 84 . INTERIOR DECORATION fleeted the successively prevailing stylistic phases of the age. The doors were often divided into many pan- els of different sizes and each panel contained a differ- ent subject. Sometimes the doors were wholly without panels on one side and painted with a continuous poly- chrome landscape, while the obverse displayed numer- ous panels each one of which exhibited a landscape with an architectural feature or else, in the very small panels, a decorative repeat. The obverse of these interesting and characteristic doors is also a valuable study in mouldings. Again, there might be several large panels of Eococo outline enclosing polychrome and gilt decora- tive motifs. Doors of this description often bear elo- quent evidence to the all-prevalent popularity of Chinoiserie during a certain epoch of Italian interior decoration. On the gold background are painted Chi- nese figures and sundry other Oriental motifs, but, curiously enough, the connecting arabesques are of unmistakably Renaissance provenance and betray the peculiarly local Italian touch of interpretation. No matter what method of ornamentation might be em- ployed for the embellishment of doors, the Italian decorators were fully alive to the importance of the door as an effective means of enrichment and they failed not to make the most of their opportunities in this direction, a practice that we in our day are only begin- ning to appreciate. Along with the decoration of the door, and closely related to it, was the use of the overdoor panel wrought with some painted motif or else the employment of some sculptured overdoor embellishment in wood or stone or marble. The painted overdoor panels showed much the same kind of treatment as was to be seen on the painted doors themselves or on the painted panels inserted in the walls and surrounded with mouldings. ITALY 85 During the eighteenth century vastly more atten- tion was paid to carefully draped and hung door and window hangings than had formerly been the case. As a suitable capping to these hangings, carefully designed lambrequins and valances were often used and lent an additional touch of elegance. Furniture and Decoration. As furniture design is always more sensitive to stylistic changes than is archi- tecture, and registers them much more promptly, we are prepared to find the eighteenth century Italian mo- biliary record showing all the characteristic indications of the age (v . illustrations in Part III), which have al- ready been noted in the introductory section at the be- ginning of the chapter. The femininity of the period manifested in a variety of forms that were obviously designed to win the approval of feminine patronage; the urbanity, subtlety and opulence of contour as con- trasted with the strength of line, boldness and dignity of aspect, proceeding from vigorous conception, observ- able in the former centuries of heroic ability and origi- nality; the plenitude of decoration and the diversity of decorative processes utilised all these peculiarities figured prominently in the mobiliary ensemble of the era. While furniture proportions ranged all the way from studied elegance to downright dumpy stodginess reminiscent of the physique of some of the contadini, it must be conceded that even the frequent stoutness of dimensions was generally coupled with great suavity, grace and subtlety of line. In almost all cases, the fur- niture of the day possessed the admirable quality of domesticity alongwiththe amiable, sunny urbanity of its genial makers. And just because of its pliability of character and its easy domesticity it lends itself with peculiar readiness to modern uses in manifold environ- 86 INTERIOR DECORATION ments where the architectural background is not in- sistently rigid in its emphasis. If we miss the well-nigh heroic qualities and vigour of so much of the earlier work, yet we are to some degree compensated by an ingenuous and companion- able informality, a measure of adaptability not there before, a frequent dash of refreshing playfulness and a facile decorative value. Whether eighteenth century Italian furniture was daintily elegant or most inform- ally domestic, it was always polite. The table manners of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were vig- orous and effective, but not pretty nor pleasant ; lack- ing what we nowadays consider the indispensables of table appointment, people fell back upon first princi- ples, used their fingers freely, got greasy chins and even picked their teeth at the table. In the eighteenth century table refinements had very appreciably ad- vanced and, though folk somewhat came short of the straightforward creative virility of an earlier day, their manners were vastly more elegant and agreeable. Furniture has always faithfully reflected the social life of the period. Eighteenth century Italian furniture was no exception to the rule and, though it may be ac- cused of occasional artificiality and the lack of marked originality of design, it invariably exhibited that ur- banity of aspect that was suited to the politer habits of the generation that used it. At the very beginning of the eighteenth century, the last traces of old Italian vigour and individuality were observable in the lines of furniture that closely corre- sponded with a well-known contemporary William and Mary type in England the type presenting straight, tapered legs, square, octagonal or round, and shaped stretchers an heritage from the Baroque school of influence. This type was soon succeeded by forms of ITALY & Conspicuously curvilinear dominance (Plate 22 A) cor- responding pretty closely with, the Queen Anne and early Georgian manifestations in England. The mel- lowness of contour in much of this furniture is singu- larly commendable and engaging. As to the great variety of contours to be met with throughout the century, it is well for the reader to remember that analogies in form between Italian furni- ture and contemporary types in England and France were sufficiently close to enable anyone with a fair knowledge of French and English mobiliary develop- ments to classify Italian pieces chronologically and to understand their affinities and concomitant decorative phenomena. Whatever we find in English and French furniture Queen Anne forms, evidences of "the Chin- ese taste," Chippendale elaborations, Adam, Hepple- white and Sheraton refinements, Louis Quinze frivoli- ties, Louis Seize classicism, the pedantic literalness of the Directoire or the pomp and occasional bombast of the Empire that we are almost certain to find echoed also in the Italian furniture of the same date. The least happy and prepossessing of all the eigh- teenth century Italian furniture manifestations were the adaptations of the Louis Quinze Rococo extravagances and exaggerations. The French prototypes, when once they escaped from the discreet and cunning hands of master designers, might descend a fact we have all too often been obliged to witness to shallow weakness, flippancy, or even positive imbecility. The Italian emu- lators of tlie less inspired Louis Quinze models might arrive at any of the faults just mentioned and, in addi- tion, complete the debacle by achieving a result either grotesque or simperingly flaccid. The foregoing stric- tures, of course, do not apply to well-executed pieces patterned after worthy Louis Quinze models and 88 INTERIOR DECORATION there were such, endowed with real beauty. Unfortu- nately, however, the ill-favoured kind were in the majority. Of altogether different calibre was the type of fur- niture that succeeded when the revival of Classicism made itself felt about the middle of the century. Thence onward there was genuine and almost universal artistic merit in the handiwork of the Italian chair and cabinet makers. The square-backed seating furniture is worthy of special praise and either originals dating from this time or reproductions are among some of the best dec- orative assets to which the present generation has fallen heir. A great proportion of the contemporary cabinet work was not less lovely both in point of refined contour and in the matter of the decoration bestowed. The later Directoire and Empire manifestations like- wise were dignified in contour and highly agreeable in their decoration. It must be remembered that the eighteenth century Italians were an highly polished and cultured people, habitually accustomed to all the elegancies and refine- ments of life. In this respect they were second to none. It was at this period that the sons of the English gentry and nobility were customarily sent to take the " grand tour," after they had completed their course at the uni- versities, as an indispensable crowning touch to their education. Their stay in Italy was regarded as pecu- liarly conducive to a humanising result and their inter- course with educated Italians was deemed a sine qua non to the broadening of their intellectual outlook. Under such conditions, then, it would be folly to imagine that the Italians should in any wise fall short of the most punctiliously complete sumptuary equipment. The eighteenth century, so often referred to in English history as the very heyday of fine furniture making ITALY 89 and refinements of domestic art, was an age indeed when everything in the realm of furniture was highly specialised and when every requirement was satisfied by a piece of furniture especially designed to meet it. This condition, with which we are all more or less fa- miliar in its English aspect, was quite as prevalent elsewhere and a fully itemised tale of all the furnish- ing accessories commonly made use of in the equipment of a well-appointed Italian household of the period would make a list far too long to give in this place. Nor is there any real need to do so. (For detailed in- formation on this subject the reader is referred to ' ' The Practical Book of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Furniture," Eberlein and McClure, now in prepara- tion.) It will suffice if we direct attention to some of the most characteristic pieces. Under the general classification of wall furniture, besides the standard complement of bedsteads, wardrobes, secretaries, bur- eau-bookcases, bookcases, chests of drawers, dressing stands, chests, cabinets and cupboards to be found in use in every country, especial heed should be paid to the numerous forms of corner cabinets, to the sundry types of bedside tables, to the credenze, console cab- inets and consoles, to the prie-dieus, to the writing tables and to the spinet cases. Under the head of seating furniture and tables we meet with an uncom- monly rich diversity of chairs, sofas, window seats, stools, benches and a great variety of tables, many of them of exceedingly ingenious contrivance for occa- sional or special uses. The quarter circle corner cabinets or cupboards, hanging or standing upon legs ; the bombe front corner cabinet ; the shaped front full length corner cupboards ; the highly decorated wardrobes; the Venetian cre- denze; the large and small consoles and sets of consoles ; 90 INTERIOR DECORATION the bedside tables and manifold other special small tables all of these are fascinating in themselves and should be especially investigated because they impart a distinctly characteristic local note to eighteenth cen- tury Italian interior decoration and also because they will prove fruitful sources of inspiration by which we may profit in our own present-day decorative ventures. The decorative processes commonly employed to enrich the furniture of the eighteenth century were in- lay of woods in contrasting colours, inlay with mosaics and marbles, inlay of engraved bone an heritage from Spanish precedents and also from Venetian practice based upon examples imported from the East mar- queterie, lacquer, polychrome painting, gilding both in combination with the natural wood and in conjunction with painting, inlay in conjunction with traced and painted devices, sgraffito painting with gilding a prac- tice, which, however, had become almost obsolete the application of printed and coloured paper devices upon a painted or lacquered ground, the application of pan- els painted on canvas to a painted ground and, finally, carving, the latter being one of the most important deo- orative resources, as was universally the case in all European countries. Nearly all of these processes were conducive to the production of brilliant chromatic ef- fects arid we are quite justified in regarding Italian fur- niture of the eighteenth century as one of the strongest and most facile exponents of the intense national sense and love of colour. In considering the mobiliary pro- ductions of the period a convenient division may be made of those pieces in which the natural colour and grain of the wood appear; and, secondly, of those in which the whole body is covered with an applied ground of colour. (Full details of all the aforementioned processes are contained in "The Practical Book of ITALY 91 Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Furniture," already mentioned.) The decorative devices used as motifs in the appli- cation of the foregoing decorative processes were numerous and widely varied but seemed to enjoy peri- ods of special favour and follow each other in cycles of fashion. Very early in the century we find a predi- lection for the fine-leaved foliated scroll inlay, some- what analogous to the seaweed marqueterie of the late William and Mary epoch in England, but derived from precedents of Venetian provenance. There were also Baroque scrolls, cockleshells and cartouches which afforded fruitful opportunities for adaptation. Early in the century, also, about the time when "the Chinese taste ' ' was exerting a powerful influence upon popular fancy, we find the decorators having recourse to tea houses, bridges, pagodas, mandarins, coolies and ladies of Cathay adopted bodily without other alteration than was inevitable from an Occidental touch in the process of execution, and, still more did the Italian decorators levy upon the motifs taken from Chinese vases in the shape of light panels, reserved on a deeper ground of another colour, and an infinity of small polychrome flowers. These small flowers of obviously Chinese in- spiration were also plentifully supplemented by small flowers and leaves of a more naturalistic European source in drawing and colour. Many of these floral decorations were minute in scale and, abundantly spread over the surface to be decorated, gave the ef- fect of a powdered design. The Venetians, even late in the century, manifested a marked fondness for this type of embellishment. The Italians have always evinced an attachment to stripes and chequerings, and stripes and chequerings, ingeniously and effectively disposed and often with 92 INTERIOR DECORATION the greatest delicacy, recur again and again, very fre- quently along with herring bone borders of alternating colours, throughout the period. Foliations of various sorts, guilloche bands, rosettes and sundry forms of acanthus had an almost uninterrupted vogue, especially in carved work. With the return of a strong Classic impetus about the middle of the century there was naturally a rever- sion to Classic motifs. From this time onward we find concurrently employed not only the devices drawn di- rectly from the pure well-spring of Greek and Eoman antiquity but also the more mixed devices of the Ee- naissance arabesques, grotesques, masques, amorini, chimseras and the like along with acanthus and other foliated forms. Late in the century we come to the vogue for griffin and military attributes that marked the Directoire and Empire phases. During the whole period landscapes of one sort or another were in con- tinuous use, from the pastoral subjects of the mid cen- tury, in emulation of Watteau, to the strangely diversi- fied paper applique creations that remind one of decalcomanias. Decorative Accessories and Movable Decorations In this fully furnished century, so amply provided with all other items of movable equipment, the sundry ac- cessories of furnishing are correspondingly numerous and divers. In their tale are to be reckoned carpets and rugs, pictures, the most elaborate and varied sconces, mirrors and girandoles, hangings not only such as tap- estries, embroideries and decorative applique on fabrics of rich colour and texture but also the hangings of silks, brocades and velvets along with embroidered and ap- plique valances, all of which belonged more definitely in the realm of upholstery; sculptures in the shape of statuary and beautifully modelled urns and vases, ITALY 93 Chinese porcelain jars and vases, multi-coloured mai- olica plaques and bright-hued jars of large size, candel- abra, standards and other objects of deftly wrought ironwork enriched with parcel colouring and gilt, and ornate chandeliers which in the eighteenth century had begun to assume an importance and popularity in dec- orative schemes far beyond the w r ont of earlier periods. Surely a goodly array of resources to aid the interior decorator ! Materials and Colour. The materials called into service for furnishings included woods of many vari- eties and colours along with bone, mosaic and marbles for inlay and the metal mounts employed ; ironwork in sundry f onns ; marble for the stately benches and other monumental and exceedingly formal articles of furni- ture used in halls and also the marble used in sculpture and for table and console tops ; the costly textures for tapestries, hangings and carpets; and an almost end- less list of silks, velvets, brocades, satins, brocatelles and other fabrics used for upholstery and hangings. Among the woods walnut seems always to have re- tained its ascendency, although mahogany enjoyed a vogue by no means inconsiderable. In addition to these we find a frequent recourse to sycamore, rosewood, lemon wood and a long list of other woods of more or less rarity which were in demand for their striking colour or beautiful grain. For the painted furniture, cypress, pine and similar so-called "meaner woods" were used, although it is by no means an uncommon thing to find decorations painted over a ground of wal- nut or mahogany. Among the textures in use, apart from the tapes- tries, probably the most striking and the most indica- tive of the spirit of the century were the Aubusson oar- pets, while the fabrics for upholstery from the looms 94, INTERIOR DECORATION of Genoa, Milan and Venice ranged through every pos- sibility of colour and pattern which one could imagine. In the matter of the use and distribution of colour, it is to be noted that while full, rich and vivid colouring was in favour at the beginning of the century, a taste for lighter, paler, more subdued colours and less vig- orous contrasts became apparent as the century pro- gressed, although the Italian colour taste, even at its most restrained period, cannot be said to have been at all anaemic. The same phenomenon was to be witnessed in the decoration of painted furniture, much of which at an early date exhibited a body colour of vigorous tone, while the later pieces almost invariably displayed a ground of lighter hue, there being observable a marked preference for pale greens, lavender, whitish yellow, pale blue or bluish white against which the designs stood out in strong relief. It may be noted also that the Venetians showed a partiality for the lighter toned furniture, while painted furniture of Eoman or Tuscan origin often showed an heavier and deeper ground colour. Arrangement. Considering all the wealth of re- sources at hand, the temptation to forsake early prin- ciples and the practice of restraint can at least be un- derstood if not sympathised with. Though over,dress- ing was not an invariable fault of the eighteenth century, and especially late eighteenth century, Italian rooms, it must be admitted that they often contained an unfortunate surplus of fitments and that popular taste too often seemed to revel in the satisfactions afforded by individual pieces rather than in the qualities of the composition as an whole. The foregoing criticism is not to be taken as an unqualified condemnation of all the methods of the period or even of a majority of the ITALY 95 decorative practice. There was frequently exhibited a genuine sense of restraint, a distinct appreciation of simplicity and a due reverence for symmetrical ar- rangements and there were many admirable examples of good taste and judgment furnished, but it is unfor- tunately necessary to admit that the eighteenth cen- tury, despite all its marvellous excellence, saw the beginning of the inclination to condone tawdriness which has spoiled so many really admirable Italian things of subsequent date. CHAPTER V INTERIOR decoration in Spain prior to the eigh- teenth century presents a curious combination of Moorish characteristics, on the one hand, and of Renaissance and Baroque features on the other. In considering this subject, one must bear in mind the peculiarly conservative character of the Spanish people, their almost religious attachment to time-hon- oured usage and precedent, and their fixed aversion from change, especially when the change has no stronger sanction than the mere compliance with a newly-set fashion. The wherewithal to have what other nations of the period would have deemed fully furnished and even sumptuous interiors was not lacking. The inclination, however, was towards a paucity of movables. For generations, people had been wont to sit upon cushions on the floor. This was a Moorish custom, to be sure, but Moorish customs had permeated Christian Spain and Christians held to the custom with the same te- nacity as the Moors themselves, among whom the usage had more or less religious obligation. Therefore chairs and seating furniture in general were not so commonly used as in other places. Conse- quently, there was one factor accounted for that con- tributed to the comparative austerity and bareness of the Spanish interior. It was a matter of principle with the Moors not to cumber their apartments with arti- cles they did not definitely need. And they were simple 96 SPAIN 97 in their habits and did not need much. Here, again, was another cause for the characteristic austerity and restraint of the Spanish interior. Let the reader not imagine, however, that a six- teenth or seventeenth century interior in Spain lacked either richness or interest. Both characteristics were present in a pronounced degree. Concentrated enrich- ment, and the interest attaching thereto, gathered intensity by contrast with an austere environment which acted as a foil. In studying Spanish exterior architecture of the early Renaissance, one cannot fail to be deeply im- pressed by the wonderfully rich effect of the intricate, lace-like carving of a doorway set in a severely plain wall without a trace of other decoration to break its expanse. Much the same phenomenon of sharp con- trast was repeated inside the houses where the mar- vellous cabinets, for which Spain was deservedly famous, had their sumptuous splendour accented by the complete absence of all elements that could in any way detract from their preeminence. The eye was involun- tarily focussed there and compelled to take in what was presented to it. Another factor contributory to interest and enrich- ment was the frequent use of expanses of gorgeously polychrome tiling (Plate 23 B), at times almost bar- baric in its bewildering splendour of colour and pat- tern. This heritage of Moorish civilisation was in- corporated with the Renaissance forms that prevailed in the sixteenth century. Architectural Background and Fixed Decoration. If the sixteenth and seventeenth century Spaniards had not the frescoed or marble-encrusted walls of the Italians of the same period, nor the wood-panelled walls of the French and English, and had instead plain plas- 7 98 INTERIOR DECORATION ter walls (Plates 23 A and 24), or walls relieved for a portion of their height by multi-coloured tiling or by dados of painted canvas or cloth, their rooms, never- theless, were by no means lacking in mural interest. Love of strong colour and of vivid contrast and trenchant design is deeply implanted in the Spanish disposition and this chromatic taste was amply satis- fied by the variety of hangings with which they adorned the walls of their apartments in lieu of embellishment incorporated in the actual wall structure. No nation, perhaps, was ever more addicted to the profuse dis- play of wall hangings. There were, to begin with, tapestries, for tapestries were the common possession of all civilised countries and were esteemed alike in all. There were "fine Ital- ian hangings," which meant brocades, damasks and velvet, the last named of which materials, when hung as a wall embellishment, was usually enriched with em- broidery in the form of applique medallions, car- touches and the like, with an appropriate accompani- ment of scrolls, tendrils and arabesques of gold thread or gold galons. When the ground was a rich crimson or a full, brilliant green velvet, this form of wall dec- oration, often enlivened with armorial bearings as a part of the applique needlework, was both dignified and effective. There were painted canvas hangings which pre- sented both vivid colour and emphatic design. There were painted and scalloped canvas friezes or scalloped velvet frieze hangings rich with gold braid and fringe. There was and this was peculiarly distinctive of Spain, although the fashion afterwards spread to other countries the gorgeous stamped and engraved leather, polychromed and, later on, polychromed and gilt. The skins were either sewed together to make hangings or PLATE 23 A. SPANISH RENAISSANCE INTERIOR Plain Plaster Walls with Moulded and Panelled Door Trims. Baroque Influence Showing in Door at Left Courtesy of " Vogue" B. WALLS PARTIALLY ENCRUSTED IN SPANISH MANNER WITH POLY- CHROME GLAZED TILES MADE AT TALAVERA 1600-1700 Courtesy of Henry Chapman Mercer, Esq., Font Hill, Doylestown, Bucks, Pennsylvania PLATE 24 *g I W * HS ? sl g' SPAIN 99 else the pieces of leather were applied directly to- the wall. Add to these, ' ' India fabrics, ' ' doubtless brought in from Portugal, "delicate summer hangings, " Toledo cloths, red and yellow and Eoman linens, and it becomes quite plain that the Spanish interior, although it might display certain evidences of austerity, at times, and a sparseness of movables as compared with the fashions of other countries, was by no means void of interest. In the seventeenth century, the Italian "domino" paper, in small sections, was sometimes applied to the walls, as it was also in Italy and France, its mottled or marbleised pattern and colouring having always found favour in the Iberian peninsula. Fireplaces showed practically the same lines of structure and ornamentation as were to be noted in Italy and France during the same period, there being, of course, some evidences of national interpretation in the matter of details. In this connexion it should be noted that the brasier was so essential an item of equip- ment that it may almost be regarded as a part of the fixed outfit. The brasier was generally an ornate speci- men of brass craftsmanship, chased, engraved and em- bossed, supported either on an high stand, so that the hands might conveniently be warmed at its rim, or on a low stand where feet could be toasted. The stands were of wrought iron or of turned and carved walnut. The beams of the ceilings and the panels of doors Plate 23 A) were especially favourite objects of dec- orative enrichment and were often intricately carved or inlaid. The facility for working in small panel divi- sions, with telling decorative effect, was an accomplish- ment learned from the Moors, and the practice was re- tained and elaborated with happy results. The carving on doors and on ceiling beams was not seldom enhanced by the application of colour and gilding as well. The 100 INTERIOR DECORATION floors were of tiles, stone and wood. During the seven- teenth century some gorgeously coloured hard woods were brought from the Spanish colonies and incorpo- rated in the parquetted floorings. Wrought ironwork, in the form of grilles for win- dows and openings and as handrails, frequently added a decorative emphasis of strong character. The design and workmanship of these bits of ironwork were ad- mirable. Colour and gilding were generally added to them. Furniture and Decoration. The two most signifi- cant and characteristic items of Spanish Kenaissance furniture were the chest and the vargueno cabinet (v. illustration in Part III). There were chests of all varieties and shapes and contrived for all purposes. There were no less than seven distinct classifications into which they could be divided. Of these, the bride's chest was deemed an absolutely indispensable piece of household equipment very much like a marriage cer- tificate, in fact whatever other chests might or might not be represented in an inventory of possessions. In addition to the chests, which usually manifested conspicuous marks of national taste, there were the vargueno cabinets and the papeleras, both of which were set on stands. The vargueno cabinet had a drop front, hinged at the bottom, which could be used to write upon, and the inside contained tiers of small drawers. It Was, in a word, the direct ancestor of the later drop front secretary. The inside of the vargueno was generally a splendid blaze of bone inlay, brilliant colour and gold. The papelera (Plate 140) was a cab- inet of small drawers but had no drop front. It, like- wise, was often decorated in a gorgeous and colourful manner. SPAIN 101 Besides these, there were hanging cabinets or cup- boards, massive walnut tables (Plate 24) of many vari- eties, settles, benches, stools and chairs. Some of the chests were covered with velvet strained tightly over the wood bright green was a favourite colour with gilded iron mounts and ornamental bands or studding. The characteristic contours and motifs of decora- tion indicated the gradual transition from Renaissance, or Renaissance mingled with Moorish, forms to Ba- roque conceptions. The dimensions and structure of the period were bold and substantial. Walnut was the staple and favourite material, although oak and chest- nut were used also in cabinetwork and occasionally pine likewise. The mounts and studdings, both of brass and of wrought iron, gilt or plain, were especially indicative of sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish form conception and added a very appreciable share to the rich and striking effect of the interiors of the period. Other Decorative Accessories and Movable Dec- orations. Tapestries and other hangings were dis- cussed in the section dealing with fixed decoration because their function was permanent rather than otherwise. It is only necessary to add, with respect to hangings, that canopies of green or crimson velvet or brocade, fringed with gold, often played a conspicuous role when they were hung over seats or tables of state. Damask, velvet and lace for table covers, embroideries, Cuenca green cloth, Spanish carpets and Turkey car- pets, as items in the inventory of fabrics afforded con- siderable resources of vivid colour. Large pictures, both portraits and religious paint- ings, occupied a prominent place in decorative schemes. Porcelains came in through Portuguese trade with the 102 INTERIOR DECORATION Orient and were highly prized ; maiolica pottery of ad- mirable colour, design and shape, was made in consid- erable quantity in Spain as well as the glazed tiles; glass vessels of large size and good shape, cut, en- graved and sometimes gilded, were also made in Spain and had distinct decorative value ; finally, the Spanish smiths were unsurpassed in their manipulation of brass and iron, from which they fashioned candlesticks, can- delabra, sconces, chandeliers (Plate 24), brasiers and a host of lesser accessories for various purposes, all of which, in both metals, were wrought with a fascinating invention. Materials and Colour. The texture of materials, their contrast with their structural background, and the emphasis of their colour, were such essential parts of the ensemble in the composition of a sixteenth or seventeenth century Spanish interior that one can scarcely dissociate them from the actual architectural structure. The velvets, plain and figured, the brocades and damasks, and the linens, imported from Italy were sup- plemented by Oriental fabrics brought by Portuguese traders from India and China, and by the gay-coloured cloths and carpets woven at Toledo, Cuenca or Alcaroz. The colours were vivid and rich to the fullest degree. This applied to the leathers as well as to textiles. As to pattern, it should be noted that while the vigorous and somewhat large figures, so generally to be found in Italy, in France and in England, and which were quite consistent in scale with the colouring in which they were interpreted, were also approved in Spain, at the same time, the Moorish tradition for fine inter- lacing pattern and compact distribution and the Indian tendency toward attenuation with a certain openness SPAIN 103 of design, both disposed the Spaniard to an apprecia- tion of refinement as well as vigour in pattern. Arrangement. The one important lesson in ar- rangement to be learned from Spanish interiors is that their restraint in the number of objects employed, and the consequent necessity of wide open spaces for pieces to stand alone, contributed to dignity and served also to enhance the decorative balance of each object when there was nothing to detract from its individual effect. CHAPTER VI INTERIOR DECORATION IN SPAIN DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THE eighteenth century so far as Spanish in- vention in architecture or decorative art was concerned was a singularly barren period. Spain had nothing to contribute beyond a few evidences of national interpretation of styles she had borrowed, mainly from France, but to some extent from England and Italy also. It is scarcely too much to say that the well of Span- ish invention, which had contributed so handsomely and so generously to the common international sum of dec- orative art in former centuries, was now pumped dry and that a period of creative stagnation followed. The Rococo and Neo-Classic phases of Spanish decoration were but reflections of what was going on in France, in Italy and in England. Style development simply followed the procession and added only a few local touches in the matter of un- important details. In the east of Spain and in the Balearic Islands, regions most in contact with active trade relations, the craftsmen added certain delicate elaborations to patterns that came from other sources, but, considered by and large, Spain had nothing new of great consequence to give. Architectural Background and Fixed Decoration. Spanish conservatism held on to precedents that had prevailed in former centuries and the architectural backgrounds, influenced by this tenacity of usage, pre- sented much the same features as mentioned in the previous chapter. Tastes remained the same ; the mode 104 PLATE 25 SPAIN 105 of expression only was modified to meet the sway of current fashion. Plain walls (Plate 25) with their applied fabric dec- orations or hangings continued. The love of vivid colour was unchanged and the facility for compounding striking contrasts, without falling into the snare of garishness, was little abated. Stamped and poly- chromed leather for wall embellishment passed out of use and this was a loss to be deplored. Fireplaces and chimney-pieces suffered the same subduing process they underwent in other countries. During the Rococo period, mirrors as a factor in wall decoration came into play for panelling and for incor- poration as overmantel features. Doors were still decorated in a somewhat distinc- tive manner and the plastered ceilings were painted and gilt without the same success of restraint as similar decorations usually exhibited in France. In many of these exotic features, which the Spaniards had bor- rowed, they showed an unfortunate tendency to exag- geration. They were not dealing with things akin to their genius and they made frequent mistakes in consequence. The flooring materials were the same as in the fore- going centuries, except that the various-coloured woods from the Spanish colonies came more and more into use and that wood was preferred to the sterner materials for flooring purposes. Furniture and Decorations. Practically every phase of furniture known in England, France or Italy during the eighteenth century was represented by an analogous Spanish type (Plate 25 and illustrations in Part III). The items in use and the amount of equip- ment employed virtually corresponded to what would 106 INTERIOR DECORATION be found in any well-appointed establishment in other countries. The general design of the individual pieces of fur- niture was the same as elsewhere, but there was a distinct tendency to enlarge the proportions and make the structure heavier and even, at times, a bit stodgy. Bulk, therefore, did create a minor point of difference. Also, the fashion happily persisted ' of covering chests and other similar receptacles with strained fab- ric and using thereon somewhat ample and elaborated mounts. The elaboration and diversity of mounts, however, never equalled the mark set by Spanish cab- inet-makers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries nor the performance of contemporary French de- signers. Other Decorative Accessories and Movable Dec- orations. An inventory of these items would tally almost precisely with the items of a similar inventory prepared in France, England or Italy, and as most of the articles of vertu were now imported, or if made by native craftsmen, were copied from foreign models, there is little that was distinctive to point to, with a few trifling exceptions, such as the Bilboa mirrors with the marbleised gesso frames. Materials and Colours. Precisely similar condi- tions of decorative stagnation obtained with reference to materials and colours, except that Spanish colonial possessions supplied the mother country with some exceptionally fine decorative woods, which the cabinet- makers fortunately availed themselves of now and again. As to all else, the Spanish taste of the time is to be gauged merely by what it selected; and as, in many cases, the Spaniard was working with materials and colours not germane to his peculiar national genius, he SPAIN 107 often failed to make the happiest choice or effect the most felicitous combinations. Arrangement. Spanish decoration of the earlier period was distinguished for its wholesome reticence in the number of articles used and by the really stra- tegic manner in which they were disposed to compass the greatest effect. Eighteenth century ideals of arrangement, being borrowed along with all the material properties, failed to exhibit that erstwhile happy trait and Spanish rooms unfortunately often fell into an unedifying con- dition of tawdry formality. CHAPTER VII /NTRODUCTION.The story of interior decora- tion in France prior to the eighteenth century begins with a phase in which the body was Gothic and the clothes Renaissance ; it ends with the full de- velopment of Baroque grandiosity and elaboration in what was known as the " Grand Manner" under the lavish patronage and control of Louis XIV, who evinced an extraordinary interest in decoration and regarded decorative pomp and magnificence as indispensable adjuncts of his court. The military farings of Charles VIII into Italy, at the end of the fifteenth century, opened the door to a great influx of Italian Renaissance influences into France and fostered an appetite for the refinements of Classicism in decoration and architecture, a vivid recol- lection of which the returning expeditionaries brought back with them. The motives of the expedition were military; the chief results were cultural. Further ex- peditions into Italy on the part of the French kings who succeeded Charles had the same outcome. Kings, nobles, and soldiery alike had gazed upon the fruits of the Italian Renaissance only to become enamoured of them and imbued with a determination to emulate them in their own land and for their own behoof. Besides the returning nobles and soldiery, other important factors that served to spread the Renais- sance influence in France were the missions and em- bassies to Italian courts, Italian missions to the French 108 FRANCE 109 court, and a growing- influx of Italian bankers and mer- chants who brought in their train sundry articles of " goldsmiths' work, medals and cameos, books, pic- tures, furniture and intarsias, casts and bronze work, terra-cottas and maiolica," all of which " helped to ac- custom French eyes to Renaissance forms." The sin- cere admiration of French travellers and ambassadors for what they saw in Italy is typically voiced in the words of Philippe de Comines w r ho, in 1495, conducted a mission to Venice which he described as "the most triumphant citie that ever I sawe" and enthusiasti- cally wrote of the Grand Canal, "Sure in my opinion, it is the goodliest streete in the world and the best built." But even more important than the agencies just mentioned, in completing Italy's peaceful conquest of France, were the lessons French artists learnt in Italy and the things that Italian artists and artificers taught in France. During the fifteenth century there were comparatively few Italians in France; "but from its closing years onwards a continuous stream of archi- tects and engineers, decorators and all manner of artifi- cers poured across the Alps, beginning with Charles VIII 's colonies at Amboise and Tours, and continued by that of Francis I at Paris and Fontainebleau. " Generous royal patronage and, to some extent, the patronage of great and wealthy nobles played a sig- nificant part in the Renaissance development of the decorative arts in France. The colonies of Italian artifi- cers established and maintained by Charles VIII and Francis I were only the first instances of this royal interest and support. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the crown, either directly or else indirectly through its ministers, gave substantial encouragement to decorative progress. This whole 110 INTERIOR DECORATION architectural and decorative development in France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may be divided into five phases of style. The dates are to some degree approximate as there were necessarily overlappings and survivals. The Style Louis XII, 1495-1515 (Charles VIII, 1483-1498 ; Louis XII, 1498-1515 ; contemporary rulers in England, Henry VII and Henry VIII) embraced the beginnings of Italian Eenaissance influence the deck- ing of the Gothic body in Eenaissance clothes and marked the incorporation of a few of the delicate char- acteristics of the Tuscan school, a school marked by a ' * certain austerity . . . and a rather minute type of ornament, evolved by a race of architects of goldsmith training." The Style Louis XII was only a prelim- inary phase, a feeling of the way. The second phase is known as the Style of Francis I, 1515-1545 (Francis I, 1515-1547: Henry VIII con- temporary ruler in England) marked the complete fusion (Plate 26) of the native French elements and the Lombard Eenaissance forms, the latter represent- ing a style of eminent " charm and delicacy" exuberant with the devising of new features and impressive both from its wealth of ornament and the "beauty of its detail." The Style Henry II, 1530-1590, the third stage of development (Henri II, 1547-1559; Francis II, 1559- 1560; Charles IX, 1560-1574; Henri III, 1574-1589; Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, contem- porary rulers in England), which followed in close suc- cession, saw the assimilation of the Eoman phase of the Eenaissance, that phase which took shape in Eome dur- ing the last quarter of the fifteenth century and con- tinued dominant during the first quarter of the six- teenth. The mature Eoman phase, inspired by a more FRANCE 111 systematic study of ancient monuments, and " pruned of earlier exuberances," "became bolder, surer, more balanced in its composition, gaining in calm monumen- tality and masculine strength what it lost in youthful vitality and variety of decorative motives.'* The three foregoing phases belong wholly and purely to the Renaissance in all their characteristics of style except in so far as chance Gothic traits sur- vived here and there. Of the two that follow, the for- mer embodied the beginnings of Baroque influence and its commingling with the ripe Renaissance concep- tions ; the latter comprised the full fruition of the Ba- roque mode and its complete ascendancy over the purer and more restrained forms of Renaissance provenance. The Style Henri IV and Louis XIII, 1590-1660 (Henri IV, 1589-1610; Louis XIII, 1610-1643: Eliza- beth, James I, and Charles I, contemporary rulers in England) was a phase of fusion when curvilinear forms and bolder, heavier detail began gradually to make their progress into popular favour. The Style Louis XIV, 1640-1710 (Louis XIII, 1610- 1643 ; Louis XIV, 1643-1715 : Charles II, James II, Wil- liam and Mary, and Queen Anne, contemporary rulers in England) marked the apotheosis of ponderous curves and scrolls, singly and in combination, of pomposity, redundance, oftentimes heaviness of detail and all that conceptions of superabundant splendour could devise to create the "Grand Manner." What was naturally imposing, the exponents of Baroque essayed to make more so and did not hesitate to create structure for the sole purpose of carrying their massive decorations which were, it is true, mightily imposing but could scarcely be called logical. The exaggerations of this period belong to the earlier portion (1610-1650). Directly the influence of Louis XIV began to make itself 112 INTERIOR DECORATION felt there was far more restraint and the style was per- ceptibly tempered by an infusion of Classicism and a more studied sobriety in composition. During all this period of five phases there was a steady and rapid development in the technical mas- tery of decorative processes and resources which com- bined to make the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in French decorative art one of the most resplendent epochs in history. Architectural Background and Methods of Fixed Decoration. Throughout the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries the rooms of French chateaux and houses were commonly of large size. Indeed, they were often oppressively so, especially in the formal and grandiose days of Louis XIV. As was natural, and in fact necessary under the circumstances, the fixed or architectural background formed a vitally important part of the composition. The ceilings were lofty. Style Louis XII. In the interiors of the Style Louis XII the embrasured windows were of good size, had either square heads or very flat elliptical arches, and were usually two lights wide, divided in the centre by a substantial vertical stone mullion, intersected by one or more transverse mullions or transomes. The casements were of metal. In the less important rooms oiled linen or oiled paper were used ; in the better rooms the casements were glazed with roundels or with small quarries set in lead. Inside shutters were used and, in some cases, the lower lights had also perforated out- side shutters. Door heads, like window heads, were square or had flat elliptical arches. Walls were sometimes panelled, either wholly or in part, with small panels, but were more commonly of stone or plaster, which might be painted or frescoed, but they were more frequently relieved by hangings FRANCE 113 of painted cloth or canvas or by tapestries and em- broideries. Complete schemes of permanent decora- tion were rather exceptions than otherwise but gradu- ally came more and more into vogue under spreading Italian influence. The motifs used in the panelling, medallions and other carved, sculptured or moulded features of door and window trim or wall decoration were a medley of Gothic and Renaissance details. Fireplaces, with their surmounting chimney-pieces, afforded an opportunity for rich and imposing struc- ture and a wealth of carved detail. Some of the struc- tures left the fire largely exposed at the sides, the hood receding upwards from a bold vertical mantel whose weight was carried on half -piers or corbels ; other over- mantel structures consisted of an elaborate pilastered and panelled architectural composition carried up ver- tically part or all of the way to the ceiling and resting on a vigorous vertical mantel which, in turn, was sup- ported on a pillared substructure that left only the front of the fireplace open. Ceilings were either vaulted, with a more or less complicated system of ribbing, or else of wooden con- struction with the timbers, as a rule, exposed to view. At times the timbers were concealed by temporary cloth or tapestry testers attached by hooks. In other cases, the ceiling timbers were boarded in the manner of a barrel vault with wooden rib divisions. Panelled wood ceilings, with square, hexagon or octagon-shaped panels, affixed to the under side of joists gradually ap- peared as a result of Italian influence and were fre- quently enriched with colour and gilding. Flooring consisted of stone slabs, of bricks, of en- caustic tiles and also, as a direct outcome of Italian teaching, of maiolica tiles and of parquetted wood. Style Francis I. The most numerous type of win- 8 114 INTERIOR DECORATION dow in the Francis I style was square-headed. An oc- casional variation was the rounding of the shoulders. This detail, however, chiefly appeared outside and did not affect the interior aspect. Besides these, there were also in lesser number round-arched windows and win- dows with flat elliptical-arched tops. The windows were generally large, two lights wide, and divided ver- tically by a mullion which was crossed by a transverse mullion or transome, nearer the top than the bottom, thus forming a cross, hence the name fenetre croisee. There were also smaller windows without mullions, square-headed, and filled by two full-length casements. Besides the leaded quarries or roundels in the metal casements, stained-glass cartoons were occasionally introduced. Door heads corresponded in shape to win- dow heads and above the door heads carved or sculp- tured decoration was often added. As in the preceding style, walls were panelled wholly or in part (Plate 26), stone-faced, or plastered. At times the plaster surface above the panelled wain- scot was embellished by reliefs in stucco-duro (Plates 26 and 27). Paint and fresco adornment, as previously, were sometimes employed, but complete permanent decorations were still, for the most part, to be found only in the houses of the very great and very wealthy and it remained a common practice to deck compara- tively austere walls with tapestries or with painted cloth and canvas hangings that could be taken down at will and moved elsewhere. The chief features of the rooms, however fireplaces, overdoors and the like were accorded rich permanent treatment. The panels for wainscotted walls and for other in- terior woodwork were generally small (Plate 27) and very frequently square in shape, defined by mouldings of low profile, in a manner strongly reminiscent of PLATE 26 WOODWORK AND PLASTERWORK, GALLERY, FONTAINEBLEAU. FRANCIS I From "Le Palais de Fontainebleau," A. Gu6rinet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. STYLE PLATE 27 PLATE 28 - S g. *j 3 2. ill . _ to o C f 2. S PLATE 29 FRANCE 115 North Italian Renaissance panelling of an earlier date. The motifs with which the panels were often enriched, as well as other decorated woodwork and interior stone carving, included arabesques, paterae, monograms (Plate 27), initials, emblems, mottoes on ribbon scrolls, cockleshells, ox skulls, plant forms and human and animal forms and heads. Gothic details had quite dis- appeared. All of these just mentioned, and others of similar nature, appeared more especially in chimney- piece carvings and in door trims and overdoor enrich- ments, where also one might find divers classic orders, of different scale, brought into the same composition without reference to classic precedent; capitals com- bining cornucopias, fanciful volutes and heads; and panelled pilasters enriched with arabesques, interlacing scrolls or strapwork, or with circles and lozenges, the former and latter of which were especially character- istic of Francis I decoration. The relief of all carved (Plate 26) ornament was almost invariably low and restrained, and the detail exceptionally refined. Fireplaces were quite generally surmounted with a distinctly architectural chimney-piece composition carried up vertically to the ceiling. The chimney-piece of sculptured stone or carven wood displayed niches, canopies, pilasters, panelling and sculptured devices in impressive array above a suitable corresponding mantel carried on piers, corbels or caryatides. Vaulted and stone slab ceilings were used in places that readily admitted their construction, but ceilings with exposed timbers and panelled ceilings were stead- ily becoming more and more the rule. The beamed and panelled wood ceilings were often divided up into small panels (Plate 27) and enriched with delicate carving or with colour and gold. Stone, marble and encaustic tile floorings continued 116 INTERIOR DECORATION in use, but parquetted wood floors (Plate 27) were win- ning wider and wider favour as were also the floors of Italian enamelled or maiolica tiles in bright colours or with divers subjects in colour on a white ground. Style Henri II. The Style Henri II marks the very height and flower of the French Renaissance, the climax to which all previous development was only prepara- tory. It is logical and straightforward in all its char- acteristics and its creations carry a sense of satisfaction and conviction unequalled by the work that preceded or followed. The composition of a room in this style possessed unity of conception and did not represent merely a more or less unrelated group of fixed dec- orative items. Windows to a great extent retained their mullioned and transomed divisions and their two-light width, al- though mullions and transomes were not invariable, and square-headed windows without them and with two full-length casements were not uncommon. Round- arched windows also occurred to some extent. Panelled inside shutters were used. Door heads were of corresponding shape to window heads and over- door decoration often took the form of a pediment, either rectilinear or arc-shaped, with appropriate accompaniments. While movable hangings, such as those mentioned in the review of the preceding styles, continued to some extent in use, permanent complete decorations (Plate 28) were much more common. Walls were often pan- elled, either wholly or in part, and the panelling, which tended to become larger and more diversified (Plate 28) in the shapes of its divisions, was not infrequently embellished with carving and gilding and sometimes also "with marqueterie of coloured woods, and inlays of ivory, ebony, precious metals and even of marble.*' FRANCE 117 Oftentimes walls that had an high-panelled dado (Plate 28) were of decorated and moulded plaster above, with colour and gilding applied to the plaster relief, or else there were frescoes (Plate 28) framed in moulded plas- ter cartouches with all their attendant scroll embel- lishments. Again, whole wall surfaces were frescoed, or were hung with tapestries or decorated leather hang- ings which were framed in with stucco or plaster frames wrought in high relief and embellished with scrolls, strapwork and figures in the round. "Wall cov- erings were also made from embossed and stamped leather decorated in the Spanish manner, polychromed and gilt in repeat patterns, and affixed to the wall. A much less pretentious wall covering, but one neverthe- less capable of agreeable decorative effect when wisely used, was the Italian motley marbleised paper made in small squares and applied to the walls. This paper, similar in pattern to that used for book covers, was called ' ' domino ' ' paper and was made in Italy from the fifteenth century on. The motifs employed for the sundry wall decora- tions this includes likewise the adornments of the chimney-pieces and door trims showed, for one thing, an increased use of the orders (Plate 28) in a systema- tised and consistent arrangement with due recognition of their proportions and parts. The combinations of members and forms were somewhat more restricted in variety than previously by a more conscientious atten- tion to classic rules. Capitals, for instance, adhered more nearly to traditional types (Plate 28) and the variations from precedent were chiefly in minor mat- ters such as the incorporation of monograms, sprays of foliage and the like. Bay, olive, myrtle, oak, acanthus and palm were the usual sorts of foliage. It was very significant and characteristic that pilasters were fluted, 118 INTERIOR DECORATION or now and then wreathed, instead of being panelled and adorned with arabesques or with circles and loz- enges, a treatment thoroughly indicative of the Francis I style. Strapwork, scrolls, interlacings, frets and running borders were among the " properties " in evidence. While the profiles of mouldings and the cutting of all enrichments were cleanly and incisively wrought with extreme delicacy, a larger scale in general was adopted, patterns were less complex and "in the treat- ment of doors, shutters, panelling, and indeed all feat- ures, larger and bolder patterns were preferred, with a tendency to make of each a single, centralised design with one dominant feature, while the characteristic of the best rooms is the manner in which all the features were combined into a consistent whole." In other words, whereas the earlier styles had been largely methods of enriched decoration of spaces with small enrichments, the style of Henry II was far more archi- tectural in its feeling and in its well-rounded scheme of composition. The general contour and structure of the chimney- piece, which still continued the most significant single feature (Plate 28) in the room, remained substantially the same as previously. The only notable differences were that its composition was more closely governed by classic precedent and that it was not seldom exe- cuted in coloured marbles as well as in the stone or wood of former times. Plaster ceilings had now come into high favour and were wrought with all the mastery of design and deli- cacy of finish of which the best Italian and Italian- taught French plasterers were capable. To the rare artistry of pattern and modelling these ceilings added the living glory of colour and gold in brilliant and glow- FRANCE lid ing schemes. In addition to flat and coffered plaster ceilings, there were simple and intersecting barrel vaults and domes. The wooden ceilings also glowed with rich colour and gold and were beamed and pan- elled or coffered in hexagons, octagons and the like. Oftentimes the beams were encased in panelling. Oc- casionally the wooden ceilings were inlaid instead of being painted and gilt. While the formerly mentioned flooring materials were still employed, carefully laid wooden floors, en- riched with parquetting, were more than ever in high esteem. Likewise, glazed polychrome tiles, now made in France after the inspiration of the Italian maiolica tiles, played an important part as flooring materials. Style Henri IV and Louis XIII. In this style of decoration Baroque influences, and especially Flemish Baroque influences, began to make themselves jnore and more conspicuous. The crisp delicacy and restraint of the Style Henri II were supplanted by a more bul- bous, obtuse and ponderous conception of line and design. Windows under Henri IV grew larger and longer but, generally speaking, kept their stone mullions and transomes, making the divisions previously noted. The openings were commonly square-headed but were occasionally varied by round-arched heads. The two- light width remained unchanged. Later in the period, under Louis XIII, many windows were further in- creased in size, so that they extended nearly all the way from floor to ceiling. About the same time, also, stone mullions and transomes began to fall into disuse, being replaced by wooden substitutes or by wooden casement frames with broad stiles and rails. Door heads, as usual, followed the fashion of window openings. Save in the most sumptuous rooms, the bare plaster 120 INTERIOR DECORATION of the walls was exposed, thus leaving a broad expanse to be decorated with frescoes or treated with "domino" paper as indicated in the previous style. While, of course, tapestries were plentifully used, they no longer formed an inseparable adjunct to the general scheme as indicated by the earlier plaster or stucco mouldings, especially contrived to frame them. A low-panelled dado or wainscot, with small divisions (Plate 31 B), was often used and embellished with painted decora- tions of landscapes, flowers, foliage and the like. The prevailing motifs for mural decoration in which may also be reckoned the carved wood, stone or modelled plaster adornments for chimney-pieces (Plates 29 and SOB) and overdoor enrichments (Plate 30 A), where they were especially prominent, included the "cartouche" form (Plate 30 A), one of the most ubiq- uitous and important with its surrounding "scrol- liage" pierced and slashed, and pulpy strapwork, heaving convex cabochons, masques, pudgy cherubs, which one wit has humourously dubbed "pukids," volutes, conucopiae, ovoid bulging shields, massive draperies, scrolls, rectilinear pediments, arc-shaped pediments (Plate 30 A), and both kinds of pediments interrupted, scrolled pediments, and several kinds of pediments combined in a redundant medley, swags and drops of foliage and flowers, palm branches, laurel leaves, human figures, caryatides, quadrangular term- shaped pedestals or pilasters tapered toward the base, along with the various other characteristic Baroque "properties" which found an analogue to their thick, pulpy gobbiness in the contemporary big-scale, fat women painted by Rubens. The same conception of the properties of line was back of both. Mouldings, as contrasted with their sharp crispness and incisive deli- cacy in the Henri II style, now appeared obtuse and A. VESTIBULE D'HONNEUR, FONTAINEBLEAU. STYLE LOUIS XIII (EXTREME BAROQUE) From "Le Palais de Fontainebleau," A. Gue'rinet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. B. SALLE DBS GARDES, FOXTAIXEBLEAU. STYLE LOUIS XIII. (TRANSITION FROM HENRI II) From "Le Palais de Fontainebleau," A. Guerinet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. A. SALON. MARIE. DE MEDECIS, LUXEMBOURG PALACE. STYLE LOUIS XIII From "Le Palais du Luxembourg," A. Gu6rinet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. B SALON, FONTAINEBLEAU. STYLE LOUIS XIII From "L Palais de Fontainebleu," A. Gue'rinet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. PLATE 32 PLATE 33 FRANCE 121 blunted (Plates 29 and 30 A) as well as rotund and massive. And yet, notwithstanding the tumid pom- posity and exaggerated emphasis of the Baroque style, its often grotesque conception and lack of refinement, we must concede that it could be both imposing and distinguished and, when discreetly managed, was not without a certain agreeable quality of charm. It should be added that in France the tendency to extravagance of expression was generally kept within bounds, thanks to the national trait of moderation. Although the fireplace openings began to be ap- preciably reduced in size (Plates 29, 30 B and 31 A), the chimney-piece superstructure extending to the ceiling lost none of its pristine importance and was duly em- bellished with all the decorative assets of the time. The scheme usually included some central feature a decor- ative panel or picture surrounded by a composition of some of the motifs just enumerated. The whole com- position might be in stone, wood or stucco. Ceiling beams (Plate SOB) were often decorated with painted and gilt patterns as were also the enclosed panels (Plate 31 B). Sometimes the panels were of stucco wrought and coloured. Again, the whole ceil- ing was an elaborate production of the plasterer's art (Plates 29 arid 31 A) with heavy stucco details and gorgeous colouring. The formerly mentioned flooring materials contin- ued in use in varying degrees of popularity, but mar- ble tiling and parquetted wooden floors (Plates 29 and 30 A and B) were regarded with most favour. Style Louis XIV. In his admirable summarisation of characteristics that dominated the style of Louis XIV, W. H. Ward (Architecture of the Renaissance in France) says, "No government, however powerful, and no monarch, however good his taste and within cer- 122 INTERIOR DECORATION tain limits that of Louis XIV was excellent can create an art or a literature to order. Success was achieved in virtue of a coincidence in aim with the artistic ten- dencies of the century and a skillful choice of agents." To put the matter a little differently, one might say that the almost universal prevalence, at any one given period, of a great w r ave of popular taste or, in other words, the vogue of a particular style, may be likened to the on-sweeping epidemic of a contagious disease that few or none can wholly escape. One person, for in- stance, may have a light case of small-pox and be ap- parently little affected by the disorder; another may be severely ill with all the attendant symptoms fully developed. But the same influence has been at work in both cases. So is it in the matter of falling under a style of influence and so is it that the epidemic of a style merges into a clearly defined and crystallised fashion. Thus was it also in the case of the Style Louis XIV. There were certain antecedents back of it whose pres- ence, in the new style development, could not be ignored and from whose influence there could be no complete escape, no matter what fresh elements came into play, unless there was to be an absolute and drastic revolu- tion in all conceptions and in all methods of style expression. And such a sweeping revolution it would have been exceedingly difficult to compass even had it been desirable or desired. As a matter of fact, it was not desired and the obvious solution, therefore, was a compromise with the infusion of a large and vigorous new element of ideals. The Style Louis XIV was just such a compromise. It was a full coordination of the elements that had gone to make up the Henri IV-Louis XIII style with something added a very appreciable addition, indeed. In architecture, and to a very much PLATE 34 BED CHAMBER OF LOUIS XIV. VERSAILLES. STYLE LOUIS XIV From "Librarie Centrale d'Art et d' Architecture" Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. PLATE 35 PLATE 36 O 4 3 3 2 s 2. c I > tr o O 2 - ce" HO K- t-^ H- FRANCE 123 greater extent in decoration, it was a compromise, and on the whole a sane and satisfying compromise, between Palladianisni the scholastic interpretation of Classi- cism as formulated during the late Italian Renaissance and Baroque tendencies. The result was Baroque idealised, purged of its grossness and abnormal, swol- len heaviness, presented in a tempering and restraining setting of Classicism (Plate 35), a rationalised style that incorporated what was best in the preceding epi- sode and added positive elements of fresh provenance. Its physical affinities were Baroque, a chastened and reasoned Baroque; its spiritual affinities were Classic and Renaissance. The foremost artists and craftsmen of the age and it was a truly great age, despite certain defects- encouraged and assisted by the king, aided in making the Style Louis XIV one of the most sumptuous and impressive that the world has ever seen. Simon Vouet, Eugene Le Sueur, Nicholas Poussin, Charles Le Brun. Le Pautre, Marot, Francesco Romanelli, Berain, Jac- ques Sarrazin, Laurent Magnier, these are a few of the names of men who added lustre to the decorative work of the period, their association with the practice of their several metiers proving a guarantee of the excel- lence therein realised. If the cartouche and all its satellite entourage of auxiliary motifs was the "trade-mark" of the Style Louis XIII, the rayed sun, the Gallic cock, along with the shaped panel (Plate 33, Figs. 1-5) and all its kin- dred variations, may be regarded as the badges of Louis XIV decorative expression. Other distinguish- ing traits were the impressive applied orders (Plates 34, 35 and 36 A) , the general architectural composition of interiors (Plate 35), the full convex sections of mouldings (Plates 32, 34 and 35) and projecting mem- 124 INTERIOR DECORATION bers, often deeply undercut, the frequent use of the torus and of the cytna reversa, reticulated diaperwork (Plate 33, Fig. 7) in otherwise unoccupied spaces such as spandrels, and the striking use of shadow. It was, in short, an opulent, masculine and magnificent style. Windows and doors were commonly square-headed (Plate 36 A) or round-arched (Plate 35), the former being far more numerous. The divisions of casements and panes were, as a rule, much the same as in the pre- ceding style. Mouldings of door frames were full and often richly ornate, and above important doorways was generally an imposing architectural and decorative composition (Plate 34) in bold relief, subsidiary fea- tures of the decoration not infrequently extending to the floor on either side. The doors themselves were richly panelled (Plates 34, 35 and 36 A) and decorated in relief or colour or both. Order and organised symmetry were two of the most characteristic traits of the style and the wall spaces, vast as many of them were, afforded oppor- tunity for impressive architectural composition with the use of orders of pilasters and rich panelling be- tween. The whole ensemble represented " symmetri- cal and careful scheme, distributed into large well- defined divisions, and these sometimes subdivided into smaller compartments. ' ' The tops of panels were com- monly shaped (Plate 33, Figs. 1-5), or 'rounded, and angles were apt to be softened into quadrants. Where orders of pilasters were not used, walls were, nevertheless, divided into compartments or broad rec- tangular panels (Plate 32), extending from floor or dado to cornice, with enriched borders, "the centre either plain or containing a tapestry, a picture, a relief, a carved or painted arabesque, or octagonal panel in the centre." FRANCE 125 The motifs and "properties" most in evidence, be- sides those already mentioned, were the lion, eagle and griffin among animal forms, normal and robust human figures quite different from Rubens 's specimens of unwholesome obesity ; and, in the vegetable types, oak, laurel and olive in full, close-packed and be-ribboned wreaths, acanthus, heavy swags and drops of fruit and foliage. Shells and scrolls, cherubs and masques (Plate 33, Figs. 6 and 7), were used to break the cen- tres of lintels or arches ; while the cartouche, in conjunc- tion with architectural mouldings and pediments, was reduced to "its original function of framing a shield or panel." Architraves and kindred members form- ing "frames to panels and openings were broad and bold, and carved with close-packed foliage or other enrichments. ' ' When tapestries were used, it was a common prac- tice to stretch them in a fixed frame like a painting or to empanel them. Wall adornment also often con- sisted of modelled stucco (Plate 32), of paintings or frescoes (Plate 32), and of inlays or coatings of vari- ous and richly coloured marbles. Mirrors also began to be employed for wall panelling and for incorpora- tion in chimney-pieces. The colour schemes were full and vigorous and gilding was freely called into service. Fireplaces with their accompanying overmantel decorations were focal features in the composition of the room (Plates 35 and 36 B), although the chimney breast was now often disguised in the thickness of the wall and, instead of the fireplace and chimney-piece constituting an architectural projection, it became a massively detailed and impressive piece of applied dec- oration. The overmantel embellishment, whether a picture empanelled in an ornate and heavily moulded 126 INTERIOR DECORATION surround, or some other feature, usually extended to the cornice. Cornices were distinctly architectural (Plates 34 and 35) in their interpretation. Ceilings, which were frequently plastered with a flat surface throughout their expanse, were commonly enriched with heavily moulded plaster or stucco ornamentation of an elab- orate character to which the additional touches of col- our and gilding were added. The larger panels of the ceilings were often the vehicles for gorgeous frescoes. At other times the beams were visible and coloured and gilt decoration was added to coffered panels and projections. Barrel vaulted (Plate 32), domed and coved (Plate 35) ceilings were used as well as flat. The floors were of various-coloured marbles, of tiles and of wood, plain or parquetted in patterns. Furniture and Decoration. During the sixteenth century, Renaissance forms of furniture completely ousted any remaining traces of Gothic design. Gothic influence, however, persisted for a time in the high- backed, stall-like seigneurial chairs of state. Oak and walnut were the staple cabinet woods and yielded a ready medium for the interpretation of Renaissance ideals, especially the latter, which was much more re- sponsive to the carver's efforts. The chief articles of furniture (v. illustrations, Part III) were chests and cabinets, a few chairs of state the use of a chair was still a mark of distinction and rank and tables, either of the draw or refectory variety. Contours were bold and structure heavy, al- though the lines were graceful, for French artisans had proved apt pupils and shown themselves alert to grasp the new ideas of style and oftentimes to improve upon them. Upholstery, more as a bit of elegance than for comfort, was introduced fairly early in the century, FRANCE 127 but it was not until the latter part of the century that it figured to any appreciable extent. Carving was the chief decorative resource and the motifs used by the carver, as well as the structural contour of the objects, closely reflected contemporary architectural features. From about the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury, the progress of French mobiliary art made rapid strides. The variety of articles in use increased, struc- ture became lighter, contours more graceful, decora- tive processes more diversified, and altogether the characteristics of a politer age, or at least a more lux- urious age, were unmistakable. Indeed, the French cab- inet-makers and carvers of the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth quite equalled in skill and taste their Italian preceptors and, in addition to other excellences, they succeeded in imparting a very distinct touch of national individu- ality to their handiwork. By this time Baroque influ- ence had perceptibly affected French mobiliary design and we find curvilinear structural elements, such as scrolled legs, arms and stretchers, profusion of orna- ment, and detail in vigorous relief, in distinction to the rectilinear, flatter and more reticent qualities that marked the earlier styles. Under the lavish patronage of Louis XIV, the mak- ing of furniture attained a degree of finish and per- fection hitherto unprecedented in any country. Furniture, likewise, branched out into various new phases. Besides employing the staple oak and walnut, rare woods of divers colours and ornamental grains were freely drawn upon for veneer, inlay and marque- terie. One of the most significant developments was the introduction of the wonderful Boule inlay of tor- toise-shell and brass. To set off properly this extraor- dinarily rich combination, elaborate ormolu mounts 128 INTERIOR DECORATION and metal appliques, cast, chiselled and engraved, were profusely resorted to. Painting, gilding, lacquering, and carving also played their respective parts, but there were so many decorative processes now available that carving lost its paramount position. Although Baroque scrolls and curves had long since established themselves, structural lines, especially in cabinet work, were mainly rectilinear. Cabinets and armoires were among some of the most resplendent examples of this resplendent age. Other Decorative Accessories and Movable Decora- tions. Throughout the sixteenth century there poured into France choice products of craftsmanship from Italy and the East ivories, intarsias, goldsmiths' work, maiolicas, small mirrors from Venice curiously set, and divers objects of like nature which, however, came more in the capacity of curios and cherished per- sonal possessions than as accessories to decoration. Apart from the wrought-iron or brass candelabra and sconces (Plate 32), and the banners, arms and trophies of the chase, the chief decorative accessories were such as have already been noted in connexion with the fixed background. In the seventeenth century the story was quite dif- ferent. Besides the tapestries, hangings and pictures whose presence was mentioned in discussing the fixed decorations, foreign trade had brought porcelains and bronzes from the Orient, zeal for classic research had stimulated the use of sculpture in marble and bronze, and lacquer from the East was beginning to count as an appreciable item. The brass founders and the smiths were contributing chandeliers and sconces of admirable design and these were employed to the full extent of their decorative as well as utilitarian capacity. During the reign of Louis XIV all of the aforemen- FRANCE 129 tioned accessories were multiplied in number and the recently started manufacture, in France, of mirrors of greater size than heretofore contributed another item of effective decoration, while the metal workers ex- celled their past performances in the fashioning of lamps, candelabra and sconces, which performed a more conspicuous function in the decorative schemes than ever before. Glass and crystal lustres for chandeliers and sconces also helped to create brilliant results. Materials and Colour. The materials of furniture and the fixed decorations have been noted in preceding paragraphs. The fabrics employed during this period, besides embroideries and tapestries, numbered silks, satins, brocades, damasks, brocatelles, velvets plain and figured, and printed linens. Copious importations from Italy were later supplemented by the excellent products of the French looms. Throughout the period the colours were rich, full and varied, and the patterns were, for the most part, vigorous and large. Arrangement. During much of the sixteenth cen- tury the arrangement of furniture was determined more by considerations of convenience than by notions of symmetrical composition or systematic grouping. By the end of the century principles of formal balance were beginning to be heeded and by the middle of the seventeenth century, in the reign of Louis XIV, con- ceptions of formalism and symmetry in arrangement had reached their full fruition and pairs of objects were symmetrically disposed where they would pro- duce the most impressive effect. CHAPTER VIII INTERIOR DECORATION IN FRANCE DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AND THE FIRST DECADES OF THE NINETEENTH /NTRODUCTION.The story of interior decora- tion in France during the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth is not only dramatically fascinating from the merely human point of view, and intensely suggestive of innumer- able precedents susceptible of modern application with the most felicitious results, but it is also thor- oughly illuminating to the student of how and why things were done and of the methods of composition and design manipulation. The French were then, as they always had been, such consummate masters in the art of assimilating divers elements and of evolving therefrom, with rare selective insight, new combina- tions and striking forms of expression that a careful survey of their processes well repays investigation. In- deed, it is indispensable as a part of preparation for dealing successfully with modern requirements in the decorative field. It will suit our purpose best and conduce to a truer and more coherent estimate of the character of the period if we begin our discussion with the accession of Louis XV in the year 1715. The earlier years of the century really belong to the preceding period, although the influences that blossomed forth in full force upon the demise of the Grand Monarque, and the letting down of the restrictions and conventions that had been rigorously upheld during his lifetime, had been at work for a number of years prior to that event. The year 130 FRANCE 131 1715, so far as any one specific date can signalise a line of demarcation between two styles, which are nearly always necessarily of gradual growth and are wont to overlap each other in their course of progress, marked the final breaking away from the old spirit of ponder- osity and oppressive formalism which had been rigidly maintained, in theory at least, with a sense of almost religious obligation, so long as the "Roi Soleil" sate upon the throne. Once the restraining force was re- moved, reaction set in as swiftly as a bow flies back when the arrow is shot. One phase of the revulsion materially affected the very character of the houses and influenced not only such building activities as were newly undertaken but set in motion a significant train of alterations and read- justments in the palaces, chateaux and houses that al- ready existed. The people were determined to be rid of the palatial atmosphere of the old regime that had grievously weighed upon their spirits and irritated their nerves. "The chilly splendours of the vast and imposing halls, which had persisted in the last century, might be an admirable setting for state pageants, but they no longer answered the wants of society, whose chief requirement was a congenial milieu for intimate gatherings, combining cosiness, daintiness, and gaiety. The age of the withdrawing-room and boudoir had arrived.'* Outwardly, indeed, the architectural char- acter of the newer domestic edifices exhibited little if any noticeable departure from former precedent. "Many of the chief monuments erected at this period might, except for relatively unimportant details, be- long equally well to the periods which preceded or fol- lowed ; the majority of its buildings betray their Louis Quinze character externally, if at all, only by the few features which were carved or otherwise enriched." 132 INTERIOR DECORATION It was inside that the notable changes took place. People preferred smaller houses, it is true, and built smaller houses, and, in the country, the petites maisons, where they could quickly escape from all tedious for- malities, were often more regularly occupied than the chateaux to which they belonged, but the people like- wise fell to breaking up large apartments into suites of smaller ones the precedent for this had been set at Versailles and prepared themselves an environ- ment in which to live rather than a setting in which to be on parade. And it is with the interiors of such houses and apartments, " devoted to pleasure and so- cial life," that we are here concerned, with their dec- orations and furnishings to which, under their various guises, we apply the generic term, "Style Louis Quinze." In a broad, general way, when speaking of the great decorative styles, the term Rococo is usually regarded as synonymous with the Style Louis Quinze. And for purposes of convenience and the sense of identity that has sprung up, we may let it go at that. In doing so, however, we must make this reservation for the sake of historical accuracy. The early years of the Regency, while the Duke of Orleans held the reins of govern- ment, saw the development of a style commonly termed Eegence, which marked the transition between the " Style Louis Quatorze" and the later full-fledged Ro- coco. We must also add, and insist that the facts be kept clearly in mind, that the Rococo style, in the larger signification of the term, had really struck root in the latter years of the reign of Louis XIV and that it had run its full course long before the close of the Fifteenth Louis 's reign. Furthermore, we must call attention to the fact that the neo-Classic style, with which we are wont to associate the name of Louis Seize when speak- PLATE 37 REGENCE PANELLING IN CARVED OAK. PARCEL GILT Collection Lelouz Courtesy of Messrs. L. Alavoine & Co. PLATE 38 FRANCE 133 ing of French decoration, had already been well devel- oped and established for years in popular favour when the last-named Louis ascended the throne. Eococo, using the term in its more comprehensive sense, was of two kinds, good and bad. It may be lik- ened to the proverbial little girl with the curl. When it was good, it was very, very good, instinct with grace and delicacy and full of a most refreshing, blithesome naivete of conception and a remarkable finesse of exe- cution. Altogether, it was a decidedly agreeable and optimistic style to live with and radiated a kind of decorative sunshine. Quite on the other side of the picture, when it was bad, it was excessively horrid. Nothing, in fact, could have been worse, more offen- sively vulgar, more nauseatingly saccharine, more dis- torted, more extravagant. Adjectives, indeed, com- pletely fail adequately to describe the thoroughly odious and inconsequently vicious character of the strumpet phase of Eococo decoration. That Eococo should have run to irresponsible ex- travagance was, perhaps, not unnatural when we remember the rigid "centralised systematisation" of "life, thought," and of every kind of decorative ex- pression that had previously confined all efforts within strait and prescribed limits. The change was not merely a rebound ; it was an out and out rebellion, and that any of its fruits should have been tempered with common sense and artistic judgment is cause for won- der rather than otherwise. That it was so is a tribute and testimony to the innate mental balance and logical attitude of the French people. There was the utmost diversity of expression in this newly dawned era which may be regarded as a period of free-thinking and anarchy in decorative art, despite the many really fine things it produced. Some one has 134 INTERIOR DECORATION characterised it as a "hot-house period "; whether this be quite justifiable or not, it was certainly exotic. It was an era of flux and changing ideals. The quest for novelty was the one constant element that seemed dominant. Everything was grist that came to the Rococoist's mi11 T The subjects that might be used with high approval as inspirations for decorative treatment were drawn indiscriminately from the "country, ani- mal life, the customs of foreign lands," Oriental art and every other conceivable source. There was the utmost freedom in the use of all manner of naturalism. "The subject, indeed, was indifferent, provided it was novel in itself, and that its artistic presentment had esprit and invested it with le bel air. . . . All known roles of architecture might be set aside with impunity, if the result had but style, piquancy and perfect technique." When the course of decorative license had run to its utmost limits, it was to be expected that a revulsion of feeling should ensue. And this reaction came in the form of the neo-Classic style. "While the decorative forces let loose in the early part of the reign of Louis Fifteenth had "undoubtedly pushed defiance of Classi- cal traditions further than any other period since the Renaissance," they ultimately "reached a climax be- yond which no further advance in the same direction was possible," and a "fresh return to the sources" became not only necessary but inevitable. The impar- tial student of the work of the Rococo age "cannot but recognise that it has never been surpassed for finish, both of design and execution, for sparkling elegance and coquettish playfulness in a word, for complete adaptation to the life of the age which, with all its faults, had many delightful qualities"; but the impar- tial student will likewise recognise that it had not in FRANCE 135 it the element of permanence. While it was often most agreeable it was, nevertheless, essentially ephemeral. It was also essentially restless. And the time had come when there was a common craving for something more restful in decorative expression. By fortunate coincidence, there had gradually grown up a widespread disposition toward archaeo- logical research. Perhaps it may have been partly due to the skeptical spirit of the age which was unwill- ing to accept without question the standards and con- ceptions that had been handed on to it by preceding ages. At any rate, the fact remained that antiquarian studies and appreciation, hitherto unparallelled except in the beginning of the Renaissance period, if indeed then, exerted a most compelling influence upon the popular mind. The ruins of the palace of Diocletian at Spalato had been not only explored and sketched but accurately measured and drawn to scale by the Brothers Adam and the results of their labours were in due course published in several volumes. The ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii had been excavated and most thoroughly studied and the publication of the results of this work exercised an enormous influence. Similar undertakings, dependent upon a freshly awak- ened ardour for antiquarian research, were also pushed forward elsewhere in Italy, in Greece and in other por- tions of what had once been the Roman Empire. The outcome of all this activity was that there soon followed a consciousness, growing into ?.n overwhelm- ing and general conviction, that the models of ancient architecture and ancient decoration, and the principles deduced therefrom, once acclaimed as standards by the fathers of the Renaissance and their successors, did not by any means represent all the architectural and decorative wealth of Classic antiquity nor even, neces- 136 INTERIOR DECORATION sarily, what was best. The full realisation of this larger horizon with its larger liberty of interpretation, along with such rationalistic attacks upon the affecta- tions of Palladianism as that put forth by the Abbe Langier, spelled the doom of Vitruvianism, which quite collapsed. Architects and decorators disregarded the earlier norms that were thus proved to be artificial and arbitrary, and not infallible as they had once been sup- posed, and went back direct to fresh springs for inspiration. This new influence was felt not only in France but also in England and all throughout the Continent. In France it assumed a concrete form that we know as the 1 ' Style Louis Seize. ' ' It was architecturally and dec- oratively consistent and there was no longen any tol- erance shown for that earlier compromise between Palladianism and Rococo, strict architecture and free decoration, an anomalous pairing off that was very like condoning a Saturday night drunk on condition that the Sabbatarian inebriate would remain sober the rest of the time. Along with the renewed ascendancy of straight lines in architecture and decoration, charac- teristic of the Style Louis Seize, and along with a cer- tain degree of Classic severity, we can see also the addition of many elements of local grace, tempering blithesomeness and restrained naturalism, the latter due in great measure to the influence of Eousseau, which taken all together gave the style its peculiar individuality. It was the elimination of many of these added graces and amenities and the pushing of certain influ- ences to a logical and somewhat puristic conclusion that resulted in the Directoire Style. The urbanity and mellowness of the old regime were now taboo and a kind of archaeological mania seemed to have possessed FRANCE 137 men's minds and impelled them to find their highest satisfaction in discerning parallels between their own ideals and practice and the precedents afforded by a certain period of Roman public and domestic life. To such an extent did they carry the infatuation that, not content with reproducing as nearly as circumstances would permit the architectural and decorative back- ground of their chosen prototypal Roman period, they even tried to emulate Roman peculiarities of costume and domestic usage and, arrayed in tunics and togas, would sit or recline to eat a meal from a tripod table, doubtless with more archaeological than bodily satisfaction. While the Directoire Style was professedly a revolt and a departure from the Style Louis Seize, it was in reality a development from it or, at any rate, a develop- ment from the same parent stock, pushed to extremes and a little attenuated and formalised in the process. In its best manifestation, the Directoire Style was pure and graceful, but the very rigidity of archaeological interpretation to which its sponsors seem to have been unalterably committed, would soon have proved its undoing had it not, ere long, been completely sup- planted by the Empire Style. Contemplating the two together it seems hard to understand how two modes, drawn as were both Directoire and Empire, from much the same Well-spring of inspiration could have turned out so different in their final developments. The determination to make a clean break with all traditional backgrounds, so far as French history was concerned, and to give the people a new system of art and architecture as well as a brand-new political or- ganisation resulted in Napoleonic fiat authorising Percier and Fontaine to devise an entirely unprece- dented system of decoration which they based, indeed, 138 INTERIOR DECORATION upon Classic models, but upon that aspect of Classic models most calculated to appeal to aggressive mili- taristic ideals. Military trophies and symbols, and the emblems of imperial pomp, were freely and prepon- derantly introduced among the properties of their schemes of decoration along with the more graceful forms that had characterised Roman decorative art in the early imperial period. Their system, though often overloaded with ornament and excessively prof use, was, nevertheless, impressively rich and sometimes dis- played considerable grace and charm despite its obvious opulence. In the earlier stages of the Empire Style there were frequently manifestations worthy of sincere commendation. That was, however, before the style be- came heavy, debased, vulgarised and bombastic to suit the tastes of a body of rich parvenus who had taken the place of the old noblesse. This phase of the style merits only condemnation. In architecture what is known as the Greek Revival parallelled the Empire Style in decoration. Its inter- pretation was usually stolid, pompous and heavy, but its saving grace was that it was generally simple and fortunately took its direction mainly from an archaeo- logical bias of inspiration. Architectural Background and Methods of Fixed Decoration. In the preparation of the fixed architec- tural or interior decorative backgrounds of the Louis Quinze or Rococo style of decoration, using the latter term in the sense previously explained, we find certain general characteristics common to all the phases that come under that comprehensive heading, whether or not we choose to attach to those phases the names Eegence, Watteau, Boucher or RocaUle. These charac- teristics, which betokened an amazing fluidity of con- ception and manipulation in all the aforesaid varieties, FRANCE 139 were the studied avoidance of everything formal or ponderous; the neglect, or rather the deliberate defi- ance, of all strict Classical canons or rules ; the elimi- nation of deep shadows (Plates 37 and 39 A), the disuse of straight, especially of horizontally straight, lines and of right angles, and a consuming "delight in ca- prices and surprises, playful forms and piquant com- binations. ' ' Everywhere was studied irregularity and complication of motifs and the whole system of decora- tion may be said to have been reduced to a fluid state and, occasionally, to a frenzy of anarchistic riot. After the rigidity of the Louis Quatorze period, everything was undergoing a process of mollification. The architectural foundation upon which the Louis Quinze episodes of decoration were grafted was essen- tially symmetrical in its genius and so it remained. Even during the period of utmost license in decorative practice, the French mind had too sincere a perception of fundamental values and too profound a respect for constructive sanity to make any radical departures from the structural principles and usages of the pre- ceding age. Eooms, therefore, still retained their sym- metry of form and were well proportioned in respect of their usually symmetrical disposition of doors, win- dows and other distinctly architectural features. There was a tendency to accentuate the size of win- dows, and the window openings, in a great many cases extending all the way to the floor, had square- or arc- shaped heads or else terminated in either round-headed arches or arches very much flattened at the top. It was a common thing for the upper part of the windows to contain some heavy wooden tracery with curved flowing lines or else to be separated from the larger and lower part by an horizontal mullion or transonic, and the small casements of the upper portion opened indepen- 140 INTERIOR DECORATION dently of the long casements under them. Door heads, like the tops of windows, were square, arc-shaped, round-arched, or flat-arched. In some cases, by the manipulation of the interior trim, there was a tendency to bound even door and window openings, especially at their heads, not by lines of geometrical regularity that would indicate their limits as structural features, but by a succession of curves, retaining only the chief vertical lines. Such exaggerations of treatment, however, exaggerations that justified the accusation that the Rococo style was naught but a series of "tormented and broken lines," were to be found rather in extreme cases and were not the rule, as the limits of structural features were ordi- narily clearly defined in a reasonable manner. The contours of mouldings and other members of door and window trims, in accordance with the prevailing prac- tice, although frequently ornate and complicated in line, were almost invariably flattened (Plates 41 and 47 A) so that the openings did not assume the aspect of dominant features, as they often had done in pre- ceding periods. The treatment of walls in the Louis Quinze style was a matter of paramount concern. The Classic or- ders, which had hitherto played so conspicuous a part in the make-up of the architectural background, were now adjudged quite too formal as a dominant element in decoration and were either left out altogether or else so radically disguised by fantastic treatment that they could scarcely be recognised at all. In the wall scheme for important rooms, pilasters and rectangular architraves yielded place to elaborate framing and bor- dering of panels. Panelling, indeed, was the chief resource (Plates 37, 38 B, 42, 43, 44 and 46) by which the momentous FRANCE 141 item of wall treatment was compassed. Wood was the favourite and most universally satisfactory medium for this purpose and was used both in its natural state and likewise painted or painted and parcel gilt. When the natural wood was employed (Plate 37), it was fre- quently oak or light-coloured walnut, and its users had the sanity to let it alone and not smear it over with any artificial darkening mixture. Other natural woods than the two just mentioned also occurred. When paint and gilt played a part in the scheme of decorative foundation, one favourite combination was white and gold, the flat surfaces being painted white and the mouldings and other carved projections gilt. White and gold, however, were by no means pre- ponderantly in vogue. Colours were freely used (Plates 38 B, 40, 41 and 42), either by themselves or in conjunc- tion with gilding. As a rule the colour schemes, as judging from the social character of the times we might fancy they would be, were prevailingly light and gay light green, citron, tender pink, green blues and blue greens, yellow or buff, light warm greys, fawns or putty tones and occasionally graining. Sometimes deeper tones were used, such as fairly dark blues or greens, sufficiently greyed, and the necessary lightening was supplied by a judicious addition of gilding. Again, when wood was not used throughout for in- terior finish, the panels were often executed on canvas and then the canvasses were defined and held in place by wooden mouldings. Besides these media of execu- tion, the panelling was sometimes wrought in plaster and then painted and gilt. In some cases, too, while the mouldings were of wood, the elaborate scroll, shell, leaf and other decorations were wrought in compo which, indeed, supplied a better base for gilding than 142 INTERIOR DECORATION wood, which had first to be gesso-coated before apply- ing the gold leaf. The panels were large and vertically oblong in their emphasis, extending all the way from a low dado to the cornice (Plates 40, 41, 42, and 44, Fig. 3). The width varied according to the exigencies of the room and the distribution of openings. Some of the panels were very narrow, others were fairly wide (Plates 40, 41 and 42). They were always spaced and balanced with a sense of symmetry despite the tendencies to ir- regularity elsewhere manifested. These panels, notwithstanding all their "enrich- ment and complication," by force of sheer height ac- quired a value in vertical emphasis equal to that of the erstwhile conspicuous pilasters that had been sup- pressed. This process of flattening out or completely suppressing the major members of wall projections was consistently carried out in minor details. For one thing, the projections of all mouldings were substan- tially reduced (Plate 39 A and B), a marked departure from the practice of the Louis Quatorze style. Not only did the contours of all mouldings become appreciably flatter and slimmer, but all other projections likewise were radically modified; cornices (Plate 39 A and B) and pediments that had cast bold and vigorous shad- ows were replaced by "gentle coves (Plates 40, 41 and 42) and graceful volutes," sculpture in the round or trophies and emblems in high relief yielded precedence to paintings, while massive carven and moulded fruit and foliage swags and drops or similar features of im- bricated laurel leaves were cast aside for "dainty wreaths of roses and fluttering ribbons." Everywhere the forces of flattening out and attenuation were simul- taneously in operation with the dominant curvilinear force. FRANCE 143 Attention has already been called to the general aversion from straight horizontal lines and the ten- dency to bound spaces "not by geometrical figures, but by a series of curves and to retain only their main vertical lines, while consoles and the pedestals were diversified by gentle swellings and taperings." In ac- cordance with this all-prevalent impetus, the bottoms (Plates 40, 41, 42, 43, Figs. 7 and 8 ; 44, Fig. 3, and 47) as well as the tops of panels were often curved and broken, while "angles and junctions of all sorts were A managed by means of scrolls, flourishes and other soft- ening devices. " It was quite the common thing for the only horizontally straight lines in a room to be the top of the dado below and the cornice at the top (Plates 40, 42 and 47), and sometimes the latter was encroached upon by flamboyant motifs (Plate 41) that climbed from the wall or sprawled over the ceiling. In the^ more exaggerated phases of the style, even the vertical bounding lines of the panels were not free from occa- sional curvilinear interference. Ordinarily, however, vertical boundaries of panels and of door and window openings were allowed to retain their customary em- phasis modified only by curvilinear treatment at panel tops and bottoms or, perhaps, by small superposed in- terruptions in the forms of leafage or floral sprays or entwinements (Plate 38 A). The curvilinear shaping at the tops and bottoms of panels, or above doors and windows, might be sym- metrical (Plates 42, 43, Figs. 2, 4, 5 and 6; 44, Figs. 2 and 3, and 47), in such cases usually centring in a shell (Plate 43, Figs. 1 and 4). or some similar motif. Again, and this was peculiarly characteristic of the Rocaille episode, it might be altogether asymmetrical, depending upon adroitly counterposed flexures to con- vey to the eye a sustaining and satisfying ultimate 144 INTERIOR DECORATION sense of balance. Here, too, a centring was frequently made; by a shell, a cartouche or a mascaron and the general treatment was apt to be somewhat flamboyant in the rapid action of its curves. Before speaking specifically of the character of the decorative motifs customarily employed in Louis Quinze decoration, it seems advisable to say a word about the manner of distribution. In a period of such license and breaking away from all previous canons of restraint, it is not surprising that decorators should , have given free rein to their fancy and indulged in the utmost exuberance. It often seemed as though a space left undecorated was abhorrent to them and that every space carried with it an obligation to lavish thereon some kind of ornament. If one may be permitted to paraphrase the advice of the bellicose old Irishman to his son who was about to set out for the Donnybrook Fair: "Mike, wherever you see a head, hit it!" one might say that the motto of the decorator of this epoch was, "Wherever you see a space, decorate it!" Not by any means all of the work of this period was thus decorated to excess. Some of the simpler things showed admirable restraint and reticence. The more elaborate creations, however, and especially during the Rocaille stage, often laboured under a redundancy of ornament. One of the most characteristic motifs employed we should not be far amiss in calling it the "trade- mark" of the Rocaille phase of Louis Quinze decora- tion, just as the scroll composed of interrupted curves had virtually been the trade-mark of Baroque decora- tive design was the shell (Plate 38 A). It was often shaped very much indeed like a large oyster shell, more elongated than the usual Baroque cockle or escallop shell and much flared at the top with clearly defined FRANCE 145 flutings, scallops or frillings of surface and edges. Along with rockwork, it was one of the stock motifs of the Rocaille system and was worked for all its might and main, being constantly in evidence under a wide diversity of guises but always recognisable. By cut- ting out all the body of the shell (Plate 43, Figs. 1 and 4) so that only the outer rim was left they derived a cartouche form which they sometimes employed for small mirror frames and for sconces as well as for the centres of decorative compositions. Sinuous leaf and vegetable motifs (Plate 40), which lent themselves readily to expression in flamboyant curves, along with sundry scrolls and flourishes were likewise everywhere in evidence as were also ribbons, scrolled or tied in loose bows, wreaths and bunches of roses and other flowers, divers naturalistic details and masques. One important resource of decorative enrichment, of which the Louis Quinze decorators fully availed themselves, was the use of chequered, latticed and other geometrically diapered groundwork (Plate 43, Figs. 4 and 8) to fill in the spaces between the rectilinear lines of panel heads or sides and the multiplex curving forms of other bounding lines ; to fill in the distance between curving boundaries ; and, finally, as a base upon which to superpose free groupings of decorative motifs. This device was a direct reflection of Spanish influence, de- rived by the Spaniards, in turn, from the Moors. The effect of this closely chequered or latticed diapering, with its seemingly endless succession of uniform re- peats, was, as it always is, to produce a rich texture rather than to convey any conscious impression of pattern. Furthermore, it served as a medium to blend and pull together diverse forms into an united composi- tion and helped to modify the sharpness of contrasts 10 146 INTERIOR DECORATION that, without some such tempering influence, might have seemed too incisive. One evidence of the naturalistic tendency of the period in decoration is to be seen in the popularity of pastoral motifs (Plates 38 B and 42) of which Watteau, Fragonard, Lancret and other artists of scarcely less note were the chief exponents. Besides making use of the familiar shell, scroll and foliated accessories, they introduced into their panel paintings dainty, elegant dames and slim courtly beaux in gay attire, or masquer- ading as shepherds and shepherdesses, disporting themselves in the most fanciful pastoral scenes fur- nished forth with hedges, trees, flowers, fountains, birds and animals and the additional accompaniments of grilles, lattices and trellised arbours. Panels of a dif- ferent tone, but in the same vein of elaborate and refined execution, were painted by Francois Boucher and his school who decorated both boudoirs and salons with voluptuous and erotic scenes from Classic mythology (Plates 38 A and 41). All manner of Chinese motifs were combined into genial compositions for panels and other features, and from these graceful Chinoiseries it was but a step to the playful singeries or representations of apes and monkeys in human costume engaged in sundry pranks. Chinoiseries, singeries, bergeries and other pastoral scenes were commonly incorporated with and sur- rounded by freely rendered arabesques, many of which were even more open and slender in composition than were Berain's, and more modern and naturalistic in the subjects depicted. To the foregoing stock of properties of the Louis Quinze decorator we must add the complement of palms, cartouches, ribbons, amorini, sprigs of "slim spidery foliage" of nondescript genus, along with a FRANCE 147 medley for ceiling adornment consisting of gods and goddesses, blue skies, birds, scattered flowers, butter- flies, and rosy clouds inhabited by chubby cherubs. Mirrors were immensely popular as decorative fac- tors (Plates 38 A, 39 A and B, 40, 41 and 47) and were freely used in panels and incorporated in doors, as well as occupying an important place over mantels. Indeed, they were used to such an extent that, between them and the painted panels, there was little chance for pictures most of which, as a matter of fact, were of dis- tinctly decorative character and were customarily em- panelled as overdoor decorations or set into the heads of empanelled mirrors (Plates 38 A, 39 B, 41 and 42). In not a few rooms, coved niches were provided at appropriate places for the display of sculpture or of carved urns, porcelain vases or other similar items of adornment. As a natural accompaniment to the many mirrors there were numerous sconces (Plates 39 A and 40) elaborately wrought in chiselled ormulu, affixed to small mirrors of cartouche shape, or made of glass and crystal with pendants to catch and reflect the rays of the candles. Chandeliers also (Plates 39 B, 42 and 47), either in ormulu or made of glass and crystal, were ob- jects of ingenious design and finished workmanship. Fireplaces were low in dimension (Plates 39 A and B, 40 and 47) and sometimes wide, with low mantel- pieces of wood, marble or stone carved in motifs con- sistent with the rest of the curvilinear decoration. The low mantel shelf terminated the decorative construc- tion of the fireplace; there were no structural " con- tinued chimney-pieces.'* The front of the chimney jamb above the mantel shelf was graced by a mirror or by panelling and treated in a manner precisely sim- ilar to the rest of the walls. 148 INTERIOR DECORATION Cornices were low in projection (Plate 39 A), but were frequently coved (Plates 39 B, 40, 41, 42 and 47) and sometimes of considerable width. It was not an uncommon practice to divide the cornice into oblong- panels with groups of decoration centred in them thus, in a way, echoing the treatment of the walls. Then again, as previously noted, the cornice decoration oc- casionally climbed up and encroached upon the ceiling (Plates 39 B, 40 and 41). Ceilings were frescoed or else decorated with a certain amount of relief in plaster which could be coloured or gilt. While marble-tiled floors might now and then be em- ployed in galleries and a few large apartments, wooden floors were almost universally prevalent and were very commonly parquetted with varicoloured woods and divers patterns. In contrast with the " Style Louis Quinze," the " Style Louis Seize" was marked architecturally by a ' 'four-square sobriety" and decoratively by a return to classical purity of expression and more restraint in the quantity and distribution of ornament. Both archi- tecture and decoration became perceptibly simpler and more reserved, though not severe. There was no dim- inution in refinement of design nor in rendering, but there was a readier disposition to acquiesce in the 11 guidance of antiquity." There was no longer an "architectural tendency pulling in one direction and a decorative tendency pulling in another." Architecture and decoration were again wholly consistent the one with the other and the Style Louis Seize, with reference to both architecture and decoration, was unquestion- ably a "more completely homogeneous style than any of those which had obtained since Henri II." For the chief specific characteristics of the Style Louis Seize and items of contrast with the preceding PLATE 39 ir* v s ** - j. PLATE 40 CHIMNEY-PIECE, HOTEL DE MATIGNON, PARIS. STYLE LOUIS XV (EXTREME ROCOCO) From "Les Vieux Hotels de Paris," F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. PLATE 41 PLATE 42 FRANCE 149 style, we may point to the reassertion of the principles of symmetry and of rectilinear and rectangular treat- ment (Plates 44, Fig. 1, and 46) ; the general avoidance of curved forms with the occasional exception of simple circles and ellipses which, however, were always kept subservient to the rectangular environment ; the carry- ing through of straight lines with the least possible in- terruption ; the inclusion of such arched forms as were used within a rectangular panel or recess (Plates 48 B and 49) ; the use of undisguised and unrounded angles (Plate 46) except occasionally in the framing of panels whose corners were modified by square re-entering angles, the space thus formed being filled by a rosette (Plate 46) except occasionally in the framing of panels cornices, friezes, balustrades and lintels uninterrupted by cartouches, ornate keyblocks or sculpture. Kooms were scrupulously symmetrical and well pro- portioned in their dimensions and in the balanced dis- position of windows and doors. Windows commonly extended all the way to the floor and even those that did not had low cills. They were almost invariably of the casement type with wooden muntins, stiles and rails and were frequently divided vertically by a mullion and horizontally by a transome, the upper section, when such divisions were made, being smaller than the lower, and, of course, opening independently. Window and door heads were commonly rectangular (Plates 47 A and B and 48 A), or, when round-arched (Plate 48 B), straight lines and rectangular elements were so dis- posed as to maintain the rectilinear predominance. Trims for doors and windows were of low projection and refined contour (Plates 47 B and 48). They were also of far more restrained design and of rectilinear emphasis. Wherever any curved features were re- tained in door heads (Plate 45, Fig. 1) or in overdoor 150 INTERIOR DECORATION treatment, they were always subordinated to the rec- tilinear note in composition as in all similar instances to which attention has already been called. Classic pilasters often framed door and window openings in the larger and more important rooms, while in smaller rooms, where it was desirable to keep the scale down and to flatten projections, the pilasters were not seldom replaced by thin strips (Plate 44, Fig. 1). All mouldings and projections were derived from Classic precedents and maintained the aspect of purity and severe restraint consistent with their source of inspiration. Walls were both panelled (Plates 46, 47 B, 48 and 49) and plain of surface. Panelled walls were executed in wood, either in its natural finish or painted, the lat- ter being the more usual. They were also executed in plaster with mouldings of plaster or compo or of wood applied to the plaster background. Small ornaments of more or less intricate character in themselves were sometimes moulded in carton pierre or in compo and then applied. The plain walls might be covered with wall-paper or with fabrics strained over their surface. For this purpose brocades, silks, reps, poplins, printed linens, chintzes and other appropriate fabrics were employed. Wall-paper, up to the latter part of the century, was printed with hand-blocks upon sheets about three feet long by a little more than a foot wide. About 1790 it began to be made in rolls. It was customary to divide the walls horizontally by a dado about two and three-quarters feet to three feet high (Plates 46, 47 B, 48 and 49). This relieved what might otherwise sometimes have seemed too strong an emphasis of verticality, especially in the case of panelled walls where a number of the panels were PLATE 43 CHARACTERISTIC ROCOCO DECORATIVE MOTIFS FROM PANELLING 1. Rococo Pierced Shell Motif. 2, 3, 5 and 6. Panel Head Details. 4 and 8. Sections of Characteristically Diapered Ground. 7. Section of Motif from Panel Base PLATE 44 PLATE 45 CHARACTERISTIC NEO-CLASSIC PANELLING MOTIFS 1. Full Section Louis XVI Cupboard Panelling. 2. Section of Overmantel Detail. 3. LouwXVI Panel Corner Detail PLATE 46 BOUDOIR, H6TEL DE LAFAYETTE, PARIS. STYLE LOUIS XVI From "Les Vieux de Hotels de Paris," F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. FRANCE 151 tall and narrow. It likewise added an architectural note to the composition. Niches for sculpture, for urns and for large porcelain vases were now and then introduced into the walls of large rooms where such features of decoration were becoming. Panels were large and vertically oblong and varied in width. One very common treatment was to alternate broad and narrow panels (Plate 47 B), and this alter- nation of panel widths, corresponding with the widths above, was often continued in the dado or immediately below the chair rail. The panels were regular in shape with straight sides, tops and bottoms, and all orna- ment was strictly confined within the limits imposed by the frames of moulding. Furthermore, the panels were either entirely rectangular or else relieved at the corners by square re-entrant angles, as previously mentioned, rosettes or some similar small device be- ing introduced to fill out the vacancy thus created. Colour was quite as important a factor in Louis Seize interiors as it had been in those of the preceding mode, although the schemes were somewhat differently managed. The prevailing colours were cool and gen- erally receding in character and soft in tone. White and gold figured to some extent, but more character- istic of the spirit of the period were silver rose, pearly grey, tender blues and pale greens and putty colour. The colours just mentioned, of course, were chiefly employed for backgrounds and served as foils for the decorations subsequently painted thereon and the other items entering into the furnishing schemes. During the preceding epoch mirrors had proved too valuable a decorative accessory to be dispensed with and they continued in high favour for the spaces -over mantels and likewise for insertion in panels (Plates 46 and 48) at other appropriate positions in rooms, 152 INTERIOR DECORATION although, in this latter capacity, they were not, per- haps, utilised to such an extent as they had been during the Louis Quinze period. Decorative landscapes (Plates 46 and 47 B) and other decorative subjects on large canvasses were to a certain degree employed as panel embellishments, but the favourite devices for ornamentation were arabesques, classical subjects in- troduced in the form of medallions or tablets, group- ings of trophies or attributes, enriched or decorative bands, and floral compositions in the shape of pendants, swags, garlands, interlaced wreathings and borders (Plates 47 B, 48 and 49). The disposition of all orna- ment was well-ordered and logical and the composi- tions were always confined within geometrically regular boundaries. Decorative paintings that filled whole panels were chiefly of two sorts, landscapes and architectural sub- jects in the eighteenth century Italian manner, which were also largely employed at the same time in Eng- land under the Adam influence, or else paintings apotheosising rustic life, these latter inspired by the influence of Jean Jacques Rousseau. In some cases, whole panels, usually of small dimension, were filled with classic subjects executed in monochrome. It was more customary, however, to use the classic figure motifs in the smaller form of medallions, plaques and tablets, wrought in the fashion of cameos, which made integral parts of arabesque compositions, or else executed as low reliefs on plaster walls. Ara- besques were commonly of the Pompeiian type or pat- terned after those of the Vatican Loggie. They were quite as delicate in execution and as full of imagination as were those of the preceding period, but more re- strained and occasionally less vigorous, and they were decidedly lighter in scale than those of the Louis PLATE 47 A. SALON, HOTEL GOUFFIER DE THOIX, PARIS. STYLE LOUIS XV (ROCOCO) From "Les Vieux Hdtels de Paris." F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. B. SALON, H6TEL BAUDART DE ST. JAMES, PARIS. STYLE LOUIS XVI From "Les Vieux Hotels de Paris," F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. PLATE 48 A. SALON, H6TEL DU CHATELET, PARIS. STYLE LOUIS XVI From "Les Vieux Hotels de Paris," F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. B. SALON, H6TEL DU CHATELET, PARIS. STYLE LOUIS XVI From "Les Vieux Hotels de Paris," F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. PLATE 49 FRANCE 153 Treize or Louis Quatorze styles. The groupings of trophies or attributes included a diversity of subjects, but there seems to have been a special predilection for musical emblems, rustic motifs, such as wheat sheaves, bundles and baskets of vegetables or fruits (Plate 48 A), agricultural or horticulural hand implements, hay-makers' hats and beehives, or distinctly ''senti- mental emblems, such as burning torches, quivers, pierced hearts, and billing doves." The floral and foli- ated treatments occurred as pendants falling nearly the full length of a panel, as swags and garlands; as pairs of light and long sprays of such small-leaved plants as myrtle or ivy or jasmine, "interlaced to form a series of vesica shapes, or else with a series of tassel- like knots of foliage or bell-flowers issuing one from the other" ; or as loose bands of bordering. The flowers and blossoms themselves roses, marigolds, daisies, anemones, forget-me-nots, bell flowers, and many more were almost invariably small in size and dainty in execution. Besides the motifs and classes of motifs just enu- merated, ribbons played an important part in much of the painted and modelled decoration of the period and were closely associated with flowers and foliage. They were generally closely pleated throughout their length and, as well as appearing in bow knots and wreaths, were used in the foliage banding of panels or for spiral coilings or intertwinings round staves or mouldings. Swags and drops (Plate 45, Fig. 1) of im- bricated leafage of bay, olive and myrtle appeared in carved, moulded and painted expression. Drapery fes- toons sometimes took the place of foliated and floral swags. Among the purely naturalistic items must also be mentioned birds, insects, and single knots of fruit, foliage and flowers. Diapers or chequerings were 154 INTERIOR DECORATION retained for occasional background enrichment. The honeysuckle pattern was much in evidence as were also urns and vases, successions of Vitruvian scrolls in the "wave" motif "postes," as the French call them many kinds of guilloche (Plate 45, Fig. 1) or meander, paterae, rosettes and sundry other small classic archi- tectural motifs, besides the usual stock complement of tripods, sphinxes and lyres. In the depiction of human figures, classic apparel rather than modern was to be seen. Sconces, which were extensively employed, were of brass, of carved and gilt wood, of compo painted and gilt, and of crystal. In design, rectilinear feeling was dominant and in their general purity of motif and re- straint of treatment they fully conformed to the pre- vailing spirit of the style. The same observations apply to chandeliers anent which it is merely necessary to add that crystal was peculiarly in favour owing* to brilliance and the manifold reflections. Fireplaces remained low (Plates 46, 48 and 49) and there were no "continued chimney-pieces," the over- mantel space (Plate 45, Fig. 2) being customarily filled by a large mirror (Plates 46, 48 and 49). If the ceiling was very high, a decorative panel might be included in the space between the head of the mirror and the cor- nice. Mantel shelves were low and, in the design and structure of the whole mantel composition, right angles, straight lines and parallel sides took the place of the flowing curves that had previously been in vogue. The depth and breadth of the fireplace itself were somewhat decreased by placing decorative metal side and back plates within the wood or marble trim. Mantels were made of carved and painted wood, of carved stone, or of carved and sometimes inlaid marble. The frieze FRANCE 155 beneath the shelf was supported on scrolled consoles or brackets or else upon termes or term-like columns. Ceilings were much less frequently coved than for- merly and were quite commonly flat, an occasional exception being made for flat elliptical vaulting. Un- broken cornices with strong horizontal accent mark (Plates 46, 47 B, 48 and 49) the boundary between walls and ceiling and are distinctly architectural in the character of their members. Not a few of the ceilings were quite plain, while others were enriched with for- mal plaster mouldings, bands of imbricated foliage and other devices that conformed with the generally classic architectural tone of composition. The mouldings and foliated bands often divided the ceiling into symmetri- cally panelled spaces. These plaster decorations, standing forth in relief, were frequently coloured and parcel gilt. In the more elaborate ceilings, the flat surfaces were not seldom frescoed or else embellished with classic motifs in low relief which were intensified with subdued colour. The frieze of the cornice might be filled with motifs of purely architectural derivation or else with swags, festoons, wreaths and other items of semi-architectural or of conventionalised natural- istic origin. These latter might be in moulded relief and coloured or gilt or they might be wholly painted on a flat surface. Floors were usually of wood and it was customary to enhance the entire decorative ensemble of the room by introducing geometrical patterns parquetted (Plate 49) in several woods of different contrasting colours. Marble and marble-tiled floors were also occasionally used in the larger and more formal rooms. The Directoire mode embodied an ideal altogether different from that which had actuated the architec- tural and decorative practice of the Louis Seize period. 156 INTERIOR DECORATION In Louis Seize manifestations, French individuality and the fecund spirit of the time, although deriving the major part of their inspiration from classic antiquity and incorporating pure classic forms into current com- position, nevertheless added thereto an. abundant body of graceful and often playful amenities of detail of modern and local devising. Adaptations, likewise, were freely made, but always in a spirit consistent and harmonious with the underlying classic ideals. These additions and adaptations were responsible for the piquancy and blithesome vitality of the " Style Louis Seize." The Directoire mode was a deliberate and inten- tional piece (Plate 50) of decorative archaeology. From the classic body it remorselessly sheared off all the accretions of blithesome grace and vivifying inven- tion which the Louis Seize designers and craftsmen had imparted to their handiwork and confined itself to a rigidly literal reproduction of antique practice. It was Louis Seize stripped naked and reduced to. the low- est terms. Nay more, whenever opportunity permit- ted, not satisfied with meticulous adherence to the spirit of a long dead and gone past, its interpreters strove with all their might and main to reproduce "particular monuments or as large portions of them as could by any possible means be made to accord with modern requirements." "Thus the letter took prece- dence over the spirit with the usual unsatifactory re- sults and, while the details and composition of antiquity were more accurately copied, they were used to less purpose." Such forms of ornament as were retained in the new system had the specific sanction of exact his- toric prototypes. The process of elimination and re- straint produced a fashion in many respects altogether admirable. FRANCE 157 The Directoire style at its best excels in chaste sim- plicity and grace and possesses a very distinct charm worthy of sincere emulation (Plate 51). The weak point about it all, and the feature open to unfavourable criticism, was the narrow conception of its originators and fautors, a conception that absolutely limited it within the straitest bounds, stifled imagination, ar- rested legitimate growth and forbade development, a conception, indeed, that effectually suppressed real creative instinct and deprived it of the vitality neces- sary to endurance and perpetuation, a conception, in short, that embalmed the style and insisted upon put- ting it on exhibition instead of using it. It was well enough for the people of the time, if it pleased their fancy, to conceive that "the ancient republics enjoyed a regime of pure democracy and indi- vidual liberty, and that their citizens were models of all the austere and simple virtues " ; it was well enough, too, for them to light their rooms with Pompeian can- delabra, to place Etruscan vases on their chimney- pieces, and "to breakfast at tripods, seated on curule chairs," but to insist upon these domestic equipments and these only, to the exclusion of all else, was an atti- tude that did not conduce to wholesome growth and a logical interpretation of precedents to meet the living needs of the day. In other words, the ultra purist pro- moters and adherents of the Directoire style seem to have esteemed its real elegance and graceful beauty less than its symbolism of a social condition which, to them, it seemed to embody. They made it an empty simulac- rum of their political aspirations. They shut their eyes to its real value and meaning as an expression of art and reduced it to the level of a fad. Under the cir- cumstances, it is not to be wondered at that it was soon strangled and obliged to give way before the more 158 INTERIOR DECORATION robustly insistent Empire mode which was shortly to follow it. It goes without saying that the rooms were entirely symmetrical in their dimensions and regular in the disposition of their openings when there was every- where such zeal for exact archaeology. Window and door trims were much simplified and were often bereft of their former architectural features. Indeed, the openings for doors frequently had no architraves, col- umns nor pilasters, and when columns or pilasters were used, they had no bases. There was a mere apology for capitals, and pillars very often carried only lintels and not entablatures. Windows were divided into fewer and larger panes and the panes were set in narrower muntins. In some cases windows had semicircular, instead of square heads, and also a few window open- ings were semicircular or lunette shaped. The panels of doors were shallower and the surrounding mouldings flatter. In shape the panels were horizontally rectangu- lar and of fairly small size, or else of lozenge shape and large. The taste for lozenge-shaped panels seems to have been akin to the fancy for intersecting diagonals wherever they could be introduced in balconies or lattices. The time-honoured custom of panelling walls was in many cases represented by painting on a flat plaster ground (Plate 51), the decorating being done in the Pompeian style, long, narrow panels alternating with broader divisions. Again, panels or divisions approxi- mating panels would be filled with strained fabric the toile de Jouy linen with its classic motifs, elongated octagons, ovals, circles, cameo designs and lyres, all connected by a series of arabesques, or else a linen printed in some restrained and small-sized Chinese motif. An even more characteristic treatment was to PLATE 50 DINING ROOM, H6TEL CHANAC DE POMPADOUR. PARIS DIRECTOIRE INFLUENCE MERGING INTO EMPIRE From "Les Vieux H6tels de Paris," F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. PLATE 51 A SALON, H6TEL DE GRAMMONT, PARIS. STYLE LOUIS XVI DIRECTOIRE FURNITURE EMPIRE From " Les Vieux de Hotels de Paris," F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. B. SALON, H6TEL DE MAILLY, PARIS. STYLE EMPIRE From "Les Vieux Hotels de Paris," F. Contet Courtesy of William Helburn, Inc. FRANCE 159 apply paper in panel forms, using for this purpose the hand-blocked designs of classic subjects in large size, done in monochrome from cartoons prepared by David. These were exceedingly beautiful and dignified and within the past few years the present owners of the blocks have again begun to make impressions from them, which are not at all prohibitive in price. Then, again, plain walls were often covered with simple paper of small design or with landscape paper in monochrome or in subdued tones. When walls had a plain papered or painted surface it was not at all unusual to intro- duce a deep frieze below the cornice and to dispense, on the other hand, with the dado, there being nothing but a low washboard at the base of the walls. Mantels of marble, stone or wood, were low and severe in line (Plate 50) ; there was a straight lintel, and the shelf was supported on simple round columns, on elongated scroll brackets or upon caryatid figures (Plate 51). There was no set overmantel decoration, but a large mirror or painting usually occupied the space. Ceilings were flat, separated from the wall by a re- strained cornice, and they usually carried some moulded geometrical or severely classical plaster decoration around the edges and, perhaps, in the centre ; or else the ceilings were concaved to a flattened arc or formed into a barrel vault. These latter ceilings might be frescoed, or, when the arc was flat enough to make the treatment effective, they might be embellished with plasterwork squares, octagons, circles and hexagons enclosing classic figures, the whole scheme being wrought in very flat relief. Floors were of marble tiling or of wood, in the latter case frequently parquetted in geometrical devices. The key to the genius of the fully developed Empire 160 INTERIOR DECORATION style is found in two factors, one political, the other social. The first was the emphasis intentionally Laid upon every element that savoured of militaristic pomp and imperial display; the second was the ascendancy of a ruling class composed in the main of parvenus, who, * ' after their kind, liked pretentious display, and were not restrained, as the old aristocracy had been, by hereditary culture and a mode of life which amounted to a continual training in elegance and good taste," a condition that resulted in a ' * coarsening in tone of the work carried out for them. ' ' The better examples of the Empire style were of two sorts, the elaborate kind that was executed with punctilious regard for a certain type of classic prece- dent and was both inspired by ideals of the utmost magnificence and supplied with means to realise the ideals with thorough elegance ; and, on the other hand, the simpler sort of Empire work that exhibited a de- corous reticence in the use of the current motif and materials. The less desirable examples, which unfor- tunately predominated numerically, were characterised by thorough-going ostentation and bombast. Symmetry was one of the prime requirements and all openings were regularly disposed. Window and door openings were usually square-headed or round- arched. Trims were broad and of flat profile. Door- heads had straight, flat lintels, sometimes in the form of a very much simplified cornice supported on modillion brackets. Door and shutter panels were large, rec- tangular and flat, with flat moulding profiles. Walls were almost invariably plain. The more ele- gant walls were covered with strained fabrics or fres- coed ; the simpler walls were painted or papered. The dado dropped out of fashion and the frieze became general. FRANCE 161 Fireplaces were low and without fixed chimney- piece decoration, and the space between mantel shelf and ceiling was usually occupied by a mirror of corre- sponding breadth. A straight lintel, often without any decoration, topped the fireplace opening and the mantel shelf was supported by plain round columns or by caryatid figures. The high ceilings were flat, the cornices were modest, and the moulded plaster ornament around the edges and in the centre was in geometrical or heavy classic motifs. Floors were of wood, plain or par- quetted, and, in halls and some of the more sumptuous rooms, of marble tiles. Furniture and Decorations. Both wall and seat- ing furniture, at the beginning of the reign of Louis XV, was more abundant and varied than had been the case during the preceding reign. It was a period of polished manners and luxurious habits, and once the restraint of Louis XIV formality was removed and the door opened to greater freedom of social habits, mobiliary art was quick to reflect the change in the in- creased number of intimate, domestic and luxurious forms introduced. Louis Quinze furniture faithfully mirrored the domi- nant traits of contemporary fixed decoration as noted earlier in this chapter. The curving line was supreme. Nearly all furniture dimensions were smaller and lighter in line, a change indicative of the abandonment of pompous, stately forms in favour of greater conve- nience and bodily comfort. While all the usual types of bedsteads, cupboards, or armoires, tables and seating furniture were fully in use, there was an appreciable increase in the number of forms and refinements introduced in writing furni- ture and in console cabinets or commodes. These latter 11 162 INTERIOR DECORATION were used upon every conceivable occasion and in every conceivable place. Besides these, there were contrived numerous small stands, tables' and cupboards to meet specialised demands. While walnut was the staple wood, all sorts of rare and highly coloured woods were freely employed for veneer, inlay and marqueterie. Much of the furniture, also, was painted, painted and parcel gilt, or lacquered. The colours used were generally light. When it was possible to introduce panels painted with arabesques, pastorals, singeries or Chinoiseries, it was done. To add to the mobiliary grace and elaboration, ormulu mounts were lavishly employed on cabinet-work. With the neo-Classic period, returned the domi- nance of rectilinear emphasis in furniture. The cabriole leg made place for the straight fluted and tapered leg; the bombe-f routed console cabinet with its swelling, undulating contours, yielded to a successor whose right-angled restraint of line was in sharp con- trast. The kinds of articles and the amount of furni- ture used did not appreciably change; the difference was wholly in contours and motifs of decoration. Light colours in painted, painted and parcel gilt, or lacquered furniture continued in favour, as did also the great variety of multicoloured woods for veneer, inlay and marqueterie. Likewise continued the fashion of nu- merous metal mounts for cabinet-work, the design, how- ever, being altered to suit the revived classical spirit. Directoire movable furniture, like Directoire fixed decoration, was virtually a reduction of the corre- sponding Louis Seize elements to their lowest terms. The Empire style, while retaining a good deal of rec- tilinear severity, nevertheless, occasionally flourished out into flamboyant and grandiose contours, especially where seating furniture, bedsteads and, to some extent, FRANCE 163 tables, were concerned. During the Empire phase of the neo-Classic style, while painting and parcel-gilding of furniture continued to a limited degree, the favourite material was mahogany, which made an admirable foil for the elaborate filigree and embossed ornamental applique which enjoyed such vogue. Empire contours were almost invariably substantial and robust, and, at times, became even gross and clumsy. Other Decorative Accessories and Movable Dec- orations. During the dominance of the Rococo style, tapestries of the old pattern continued in use to some extent where large, formal rooms or galleries left a place for them. Other accessories, however, had usurped most of their function. Hangings at doors and windows were made of silks, taffetas, brocades, dam- asks, velvets and printed linens, light colours and dainty patterns being most in favour. Door and window heads were very commonly adorned with shaped valances or loopings, and the hangings were frequently draped back. Pictures for the walls of many of the rooms were not at a premium (v. para- graph on the use of mirrors). Porcelains, both Orien- tal and of Western fabrication, were in great demand, and, along with pieces of bronze or marble sculpture, were introduced with great frequency. Many of the Oriental porcelains, such, for instance, as some of the finer Chinese ginger jars, were carefully set with ornate ormolu mounts. Chandeliers of crystal, brass, or of ormolu, depended from the centres of ceilings in the more elegant and important rooms. Sconces of chiselled ormolu, in graceful, flowing designs, were hung in symmetrical positions on the panelled walls. Candelabra were designed to accord with them. During the period of neo-Classic influence, while 164 INTERIOR DECORATION the love for the old tapestries never quite died out, there was a perceptible turning toward the newer Aubusson tapestries of paler, lighter hue and more blithesome pattern for such wall surfaces as required a large hanging. Door and window hangings were of practically the same fabrics as noted for the Rococo period. Light colours and dainty patterns also re- mained in favour, with the addition of a well-defined vogue for stripes. At door and window heads there were both straight and shaped valances, and likewise looped draping or else shirred ray-like folds centring in a button, the two latter treatments being suitable for round-arched windows. Valance mouldings or boxes were likewise in use and added a distinct note to the composition. In accordance with the prevalent rectilinear emphasis, door and window hangings gen- erally fell in straight folds. Pictures regained the position from which they had been temporarily ousted during the most mirror-loving days of the Rococo period. The disposition of rooms was not less symmetrical or ordered nor was the exten- sive use of mirrors discontinued, but it became the fashion either to hang pictures within panels that ac- corded with their dimensions or to remove them from their frames and empanel them. Porcelains and other objects of vertu, whether Oriental or Occidental, found abundant appreciation and were freely employed. In addition to the taste for Oriental forms and European fashions of recent date in ceramics, there was keen interest in revived classic forms in pottery and por- celain. At the same time, with the re-awakened classic sense, bronze and marble sculpture enjoyed increased favour. What was said of lighting appliances for the foregoing period applies with equal force for the neo- FRANCE 165 Classic, the only significant difference being the sub- stitution of Classic for the Rococo design. Tapestries in the Empire period were distinctly out of place. They were tolerated where they had to be retained, but their presence was not sought as a factor in decorative schemes. Hangings of silk, satin, bro- cade or velvet were voluminous and impressive by their ample folds and by their shaped valances and cornice mouldings or by their intricate loopings at window heads. Pictures had more leeway in decorative prac- tice, as many of the wall surfaces were unbroken by panel boundaries. Porcelains and sculpture were popular in their imposing and heroic dimensions, and where they aided vigorous contrasts of strong colour. To chandeliers, sconces and candelabra, many of which were of exceedingly beautiful design and workman- ship, in glass, marble, crystal, brass, bronze and ormolu, must be added the lamps for mantel garniture, usually of bronze, with etched or cut-glass globes and pendent prisms. The fire iron and hearth accessories of the period also aided the ensemble with their polished brass fittings. Materials and Colour. The fabrics and other ma- terials in use at the successive periods have already been more or less fully noted. To what has been said it is only necessary to add that during the Rococo and neo-Classic periods a great use was made of Aubusson tapestry for furniture covers and that in the Empire period a great deal of heavy brocade, brocatelle, da- mask, velvet and rep was used not only for hangings but also for wall coverings, likewise that haircloth, figured and plain, began to occupy an appreciable space in upholstery calculations. Throughout both the Louis Quinze and Louis Seize styles there was a marked preference for cheerful and light colourings, whether 166 INTERIOR DECORATION in woodwork, furniture or fabrics. At the same time, delicacy of pattern was a sine qua non. These character- istics were well exemplified in the Aubusson and Savon- nerie rugs and carpets so much used at this date. During the Directoire episode, while the colouring occasionally became more vigorous in emulation of Pompeian pre- cedent, the design was so restrained and shapely that there was no oppressive impression of heaviness. With the full blossoming of the Empire style, the whole colour preference changed. Strong and heavy reds, greens, purples, yellows and other vigorous hues in raw and often combative tones came into high favour and the patterns reflected the militaristic and imperial tone observable in all other decoration. Arrangement. Throughout the Kococo and neo- Classic periods a balanced, orderly and symmetrical disposition of furnishings and decorations was con- sidered indispensable to a well-appointed interior. The modes might change, but the conception of order remained unaltered. CHAPTER IX NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES AND AFTER /NTRODUCTION. -Howsoever wonderful the nineteenth century may have been as an era of phenomenal material progress and of unprece- dented mechanical, engineering and scientific achieve- ment, it was distinctly not a period kindly to architec- ture or to any of the allied arts, and the art of interior decoration fared worse, if such a thing were possible, than any of the others. After about 1830 architecture, furniture design and the practice of decorative furnish- ing slumped into a dismal vale of barrenness or of revolting vulgarities and simpering inanities ; a deplor- able state with almost no bright spots at all to relieve the artificiality, dreariness and stupidity. From the day of the so-called "carpenters' Classic" style in domestic architecture and the synchronous gobby, clumsy and tumid mahogany-veneered travesties upon the Empire style in furniture, both of which spread over the United States about the date above mentioned, there was a dreary procession of one abnormality after another until near the very end of the century in architecture, the Gothic revival with its wooden crenellations painted and sanded to simulate stone, and jig-saw tracery and fretwork, the mansard roof episode with its attendant bastard Rococo enormities of decorative detail, the still more atrocious whimsicalities of the Centennial fashion with bird-box masses and details that were a most unhappy medley derived from Gothic tracery, Moorish fretwork and Hamburg edging, and next fol- 167 168 INTERIOR DECORATION lowing this nightmare the aberrations of the ' ' dreadful 80 V; in furniture, the rosewood fantasticalities, the black walnut perversions when designers so frequently adapted and parodied the least inspired eighteenth century Italian and Spanish precedents an exhibition not of ignorance but of abysmal bad taste the East- lake trivialities, the golden oak brutalities of unhappy memory and still more unhappy survivals ; and, to com- plete the tale of iniquities, the shocking "art nouveau" demonstrations of what an utterly unbalanced and de- praved, and we might add starved, imagination could descend to. Even in the last decade of the nineteenth century and after the beginning of the twentieth, when the invitable but long delayed reaction against all the preceding abominations had set in and the trend towards reasonable taste and sane furnishing had gained appreciable impetus, occasional discouraging reversions to mobiliary imbecility were to be noted and, along with them, reversions to decorative imbecility as well. Witness the extravagances and faddish, inane gaucheries perpetrated under the inspiration of Vien- nese influence. Bad as things were in America, conditions were lit- tle if any better in England or on the Continent. As a fit accompaniment to the ill-shapen furniture, the acme of decorative effort in Great Britain seems to have been reached in a very orgy of kakochromous needle- work in Berlin wool and a dolorous achievement of dexterity in decalcomania plastering, to be followed slightly later by a succession of equally unedifying performances. Like absurdities made their appear- ance locally elsewhere. And in all this mad age, which seems to have run riot in a delirium of delight over the fancied possibility of creating art by purely mechanical processes, there was a drab, unmitigated monotony of NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES 169 decorative horrors relieved only by such infrequent and sporadic episodes as the Biedermeier period in Bavaria or some of the better efforts of William Mor- ris and his contemporaries in England. One of the most deplorable and pathetic features of the period was the universal self-satisfaction and the universal striving to attain the smug and genteel verbum hor- ribile! result. There was no lack of mental capacity among decorators and designers would that there had been! The outcome might have been less appallingly hideous, but the mental capacity was prostituted to the pursuit of copious and banal activity wholly devoid of imagination and of worthy ideals. The minds of those who should have created worthy things were grovelling in a moil of the grossest mechanical materialism. Architectural Background and Methods of Fixed Decoration. During the period of ' 'carpenters' Classic" ascendancy there is little that can be said, in a positive way, of the architectural background. Its qualities were chiefly negative. Apart from the rec- tangular door and window openings with their rec- tangularly detailed and perfunctory trims and rec- tangularly detailed, perfunctory and flat fireplace sur- rounds and mantels to match, there was little that could be dignified by the name of interior architecture. The best that can be said of these items of equipment is that they were simple. The rooms were apt to be lofty and of fairly good proportions and the door and window openings were generous ; so that, despite the lack of any real spirit of inspiration, there was a certain amount of dignity because there was no great pretense. To be sure, it was the dignity of a large box, an altogether passive and negative dignity. The soul of the room was often throttled by blocking up the fireplace and substi- 170 INTERIOR DECORATION tuting an hot-air register to serve in lieu of the living fire. The walls were merely expanses of white plaster above an insignificant baseboard and the cornices, while respectable, were neither impressive nor of any positive decorative value. Succeeding this period of " carpenters ' Classic" dominance, when the woodwork was customarily painted an unobtrusive white or cream and the walls were either painted or else papered in banal or even worse than banal taste, came an era of the same barren walls which offered an expansive opportunity for the display of atrociously hideous wall-paper, soulless registers set beneath vulgarly proportioned marble mantels, and pompous, tumid, ill-detailed woodwork executed either in expensive walnut or else fashioned from some humbler wood and painted white or dirty chocolate brown or grained. The finishing touch to this delectable interior would be a grotesque and pre- tentious chandelier dropping out of a no less grotesque and pretentious cast plaster centre-piece affixed to the middle of the ceiling. At this same time we often find doors and windows with heads either semicircular or else showing the segment of an arc, supposedly con- veying a bit of distinction, and, when affluent vulgarity was minded to splurge in elaboration of woodwork, there were sometimes added borders of heavy machine- carved flowers, thick rope mouldings and heavy gad- rooned edges, borrowed unintelligently from eigh- teenth century Italian models of not the best type. City houses of the brown-stone-front vintage supply plenti- ful examples of these depressing items. The next phase of ugliness was the Centennial epi- sode with nothing new or better to contribute to the architectural background and only a variation in the matter of fretted gingerbread woodwork more plenti- NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES 171 fully diffused, besides the supplementary horror of so-called frescoes consisting of awkward designs printed on paper and pasted on ceilings. An Eastlake spirit also manifested itself in the woodwork. Next came the dreary, ponderous and stupid period of the 80 's with its attendant monstrosities of wainscot, gro- tesque galleried and fussy mantel-pieces and over- mantels with mirrors ; stair rails and grilles with multi- tudinous spool and globular turnings ; panels and fire- place hoods with muscular griffins and caryatides and a maze of foliations and grisly masques derived from clumsy mediaeval German motifs, all substantially wrought in golden oak or, perhaps, in red-stained ma- hogany. A frequent piece de resistance of fixed decor- ation at this time was a terrifying composition in "stained" glass of virulent colouring or else a bewil- dering maelstrom of much be-leaded fragments of thick white glass, set in unusual shaped windows on stair landings or above sideboards. Almost synchronous with this hectic era was the "Art Nouveau" craze with its attenuations, its contortions and its misshapen sinu- osities that closely resemble hanks of molasses toffy being pulled at a candy frolic. From all this moil of aberrations there was bound to be a revulsion of feeling and a recrudescence of san- ity ; the human mind had done its worst and the pendu- lum was due to swing back to better things. The day of better things had dawned, there were searchings among the saner precedents of the past and consider- able progress had been achieved when there arose a brief reversion to anarchy in the extravagant gauche- ries of the ultra-Viennese school, an isolated ebullition, however, which endured in vigour for only a brief sea- son and did not serve to stay or seriously hinder the 172 INTERIOR DECORATION course of decorative progress to which we have since held. Furniture and Decoration. The furniture prop- erly cognate to the "carpenters' Classic" phase, in the matter of architectural background, was of the swollen and clumsy late American Empire type, which was usually of solid mahogany or else veneered with crotch wood over the tumid proportions. There is so much of it still extant, and unfortunately some of it is being extensively reproduced and palmed off on the unen- lightened in out of the way regions, that it is unneces- sary to describe it in detail. This mobiliary type was closely followed by the rosewood furniture with much meaningless sinuosity of members and profuse carv- ing of details. Such pieces as etageres or "what-nots" flourished in polite drawing-rooms as did also marble- topped tables, oftentimes surmounted with coloured wax flowers under glass domes as becoming central features of ornament. The rosewood period gave place in due season to the period of black walnut, a time in which mobiliary design made no improvement and only succeeded in debauching sundry eighteenth century Spanish and Italian motifs and making them infinitely worse than they were originally. Upon the heels of black walnut came the procession of golden oak with its tedious ponderosity and revival of loutish German mediaeval details, there being but a brief episode of Eastlake creations in walnut before the toffy-coloured tyranny became universal. After the chief vogue of golden oak, with its monstrous sideboards and ungainly tables, a medley of styles began to crop up. Then the dry bones were stirred and towards the end of the nine- teenth century there began to be a revival of sane de- sign in furniture which has improved steadily to the present day without serious let or hindrance, save for NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES 173 the "Art Nouveau" and ultra-impressionistic modern Viennese furores which, however, soon ran their ephem- eral course and subsided into deserved obscurity. There were, undoubtedly, analogies during all this ster- ile and misguided period between the design of furni- ture and the architectural characteristics, but in a time when there was little domestic building that deserved the name of architecture and little furniture of any merit, it would be idle to point out correspondences of glaring imperfection. Other Decorative Accessories and Movable Decor- ations. During nearly the whole of this dreary period of progressive horrors, which may be said to have reached its culmination in the Turkish cosy corner with all the grotesque and inappropriate accompani- ments thereto appertaining, the "decorative acces- sories" were not decorative but quite the reverse and their room would have been better than their presence. There were wall-papers, which were usually bad, and there were numerous draperies and fringes, which were generally far worse, about as bad, indeed, as perverted and fantastic imagination could make them. Carpets there were, and rugs, ingrain, Brussels, Wilton, Axmin- ster and sundry other weaves, physically admirable but, for the most part, either poor or actively objec- tionable in colour and pattern. It was d e rigueur as a rule to have the carpets cover every inch of floor space. Later on, towards the end of the century when there began to be a taste for parquetted floors of hard wood and ornamental (?) designs, rugs came into greater vogue, especially after the impulse given towards the collection of Oriental rugs by the Centennial. Barring these and shocking bad lighting fixtures and very mediocre sculpture in marble or bronze, with oc- casional excursions into the least inspired t>hases of 174 INTERIOR DECORATION Sevres, Royal Worcester and other ceramic produc- tions, the period was barren of decorative accessories and movable decorations. The wall-papers designed by William Morris and the Japanese bronzes and some of the porcelains that appeared after the Centennial ought not to be unconditionally included in this cate- gory of condemnation, but their influence went only a little way towards mitigating the otherwise objection- able tone of the era. Materials and Colour. Reference has already been made to the woods used for furniture and interior fin- ish. It remains only to mention the materials employed for upholstery and hangings. Haircloth, both plain and patterned, enjoyed great popularity at the begin- ning of the period and deserved furniture of better de- sign on which to be applied. Velvets, both plain and figured, brocades, damasks, brocatelles, poplins, satins and silks of the best quality were lavishly used for upholstery and draperies but, as a rule, far more could be said for their quality than for either their colour or their design. Carpets, likewise, were of the best possible quality but shared the same limitations re- garding colour and pattern as the other fabrics. The colours most favoured were either sombre and dull or else vigorous and full, in the latter case being employed without the requisite knowledge of their properties and relations to do them justice. The Vien- nese episode, almost coincident with cubism and post- impressionism in painting, launched into riotous ex- cesses of both colour and design, if much of it can be called design, with an utter disregard for chromatic psychology. Perhaps the psychology involved was Teutonic, which would account for its inscrutability. Arrangement. This was essentially the period of the "what-not" and the centre table it might be more NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES 175 proper to spell it Centre Table with capitals as indi- cating the almost religious veneration paid it of grim, sumptuous, uncomfortable and depressing formality and ' * genteel, ' ' middle-class propriety in arrangement without consideration for either practical utility or comfort. One cause, perhaps, for all the dreary, ex- pensive banality and lack of either humanity or a modi- cum of taste was the fact that it was a period of preeminently material prosperity and rapid accumu- lation of wealth which brought to the fore a vast crowd of nouveaux riches who had neither the knowledge nor traditions back of them to impel them to better things. They allowed themselves to be outfitted by purely com- mercial purveyors who were enjoined to make the establishments of their patrons thoroughly respectable and au fait. And unfortunately those who, from their antecedents, should have known better, allowed them- selves to be infected by the ill example of the vulgarly affluent majority. During the last few years a new movement has arisen. As it has gained a very considerable follow- ing, particularly among those who are strongly indi- vidual in their tastes and preferences, it is desirable that a separate section be given to its consideration. THE "NEW" DECORATION AN EXAMINATION OF THE " MODERN" METHOD When a new tendency or movement first reaches the attention of the public, and particularly if in some of its manifestations it be rather startling, several atti- tudes of mind immediately become evident. One tem- perament shrinks from the unusual, sometimes with repulsion and hard language, while another, with equal 176 INTERIOR DECORATION lack of examination, runs to embrace it as . le dernier cri; still another regards that as everything else with a tolerant smile of amused indifference, while it is re- served for a fourth class to weigh merits and demerits before passing judgment. As it is to this last group that the readers of this book will doubtless belong, they will probably be glad of a consideration of this comparatively new movement in household decoration which shall be at once sympa- thetic and impartial. WHAT IT is While the newer tendency is derived from the Mod- ernistic Movement abroad, it would be fairer to say that its American manifestation is a reflection of that influence rather than a continuation. The European movement, developed in its turn from the Austrian Secession, a recognised school so long ago as the clos- ing years of the last century, is decidedly iconoclastic and will be referred to later. We do not think that there has been a great deal of this spirit shown in household decoration here, and, with the exception of the work of a few exponents of European origin, what has been done in this direction has probably been by way of interesting experiment. We need hardly look for any outbreak of erratic tendencies, and the con- servative need not therefore greatly concern themselvs at the few manifestations of outre decoration which have appeared. There naturally will be some in every movement who go further than others, so that we may expect to find here as elsewhere all shades of opinion and practice, from decided innovation to comparative conservatism. The movement is the product of a number of clever minds, and there is no organisation for the promulga- PLATE 52 OFFICE AND RECEPTION ROOM: AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF "MODERN" WORK Walls, Blue-green Divided into Panels by a Rich Dark Rose Band and Black Line; Base, Chair-rail and Picture Moulding, Black; Partitions, same as Walls; Ceiling, Grey; Carpet, Plain, same Rose as Walls; Furniture, Black; Draperies, Rose Linen with Appliqu^ in Grey, Black and Rose Velvet; Draperies in Reception-room, Rose Linen with All-over Design in Green, Red-violet and Blue. By Courtesy of the Aschermann Studio, New York SCHEME FOR A DINING-ROOM IN "MODERN" STYLE Walls, White Enamel; Ceiling and Walls above Woodwork Painted White; Baseboard, Black; Pilasters, Marqueterie, Black and White; Furniture, Ebony Finish; Draperies, I p- holstery and Rug, Intense Blue and Black; Lighting-fixtures and Bowls, Hammered Copper. By Courtesy of the Aschermann Studio, New York PLATE 53 PLATE 54 PANEL INSERTS OF. JAPANESE PAPER, LAMP AND SIMPLE TABLE, ALL APPROPRIATE TO " MODERN " DECORATION William Chester Chase, Architect NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES 177 tion of certain principles: the tendency here seems simply a reaction from "Period" furnishing and the supplying of another method of treatment which shall be more in accord with our life to-day. How well and how fully it does this is the aim of this section to enquire. If we interpret aright the movement in this country its ideal and what a fine one it is ! is to teach use, con- venience and beauty by way of simplicity and balance on the one hand and fine, frank, cheerful colour on the other. Now there is nothing very "new" about all this and it is none the worse for that. It is what many of us have "been after" for many days. As the thing which comes nearest to their solution of the problem is Peasant Art (including the British Cottage) this has largely been the inspiration of the new movement. The humorous side of this is that while some at least of the new movers have been scathing in their criti- cisms of Period Art as unable to embody the spirit of to-day, Peasant Art is as much Period Art as any other. None of us, however, is entirely logical and we need not stress this, especially as mingled with this older inspiration is the use of anything from any source which will aid in the realising of the object desired. In itself the use of varying materials is also unob- jectionable, providing they can be welded and har- monised into a complete and beautiful whole. It is in the definition of the aim to be realised that we come to our first question. If the Modern Movement is an effort to realise, and to provide homes in correct relation to, human life to- day, it is evident that the result will depend upon the conception of what that life is. 12 178 INTERIOR DECORATION WHAT IS OUR MODEBN LIFE f It is undeniable that there is in our present exist- ence (and those whose disposition it is to ignore the past are invited to remember that there has also been in most ages) an element which is hectic, freakish, anarchistic and unwholesome. In Europe before the war this tendency was growing to an alarming extent and many brilliant but erratic minds so stressed this phase of our existence as either wilfully to deny its other elements or so to dislike them as to wish them begone. The extreme wing of this group would have liked to cut loose from and abolish the past with its lessons and make all new after its own devices. It is little wonder that we have seen an outpouring of cub- ism, vorticism, futurism, attempts to depict emotional- ism and movement without sufficient regard to the basis of form, strident and discordant colour, and the more hectic and immodest tendencies in woman 's dress. We do not say and we do not think that this spirit has entered to any great extent into decorative art in America and probably the war has eradicated it abroad. Here, we may well believe, the movement in gen- eral simply recognises the variety, the virility, the elasticity, yes and the restlessness and excitability of modern life and attempts to meet and interpret it. Whether it would not be better to endeavour to neu- tralise the latter phases is a question worth the asking. With the difference in aim comes the difference in result, and consequently we shall find examples which continue with the fine qualities of simplicity and strength of line the stiffness and want of home feeling which somehow prevails in much of the Vienna Seces- sion; other houses a bouquet, with rooms in colour- schemes representing various and unrelated flowers; NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES 179 and still others in which the unities are rightly kept and which have the cheer and charm and freshness of simplicity and beautiful colour beautifully used. VERVE AND FRESHNESS That the injection of these qualities into our homes would be an exceedingly desirable thing was effectively borne in upon the writers when for selective purposes they had the task of going over some three hundred photographs of the interiors of tasteful houses. With few of them could particular fault be found (other- wise the photographs would not have been taken), but in less than a quarter of this number was any particular individuality shown. Most tasteful Americans are unduly conservative and too content to follow precedent, and a movement which awakens and " gives them to think" is decidedly at present a needed spur. It does not follow that we must rush to adopt the new decoration, but it is well to consider it carefully, for it has much to offer. In addition to providing many hints even to those who prefer the old it certainly affords at much less expense than period furnishing a method of decoration well adapted to modest houses, cottages and some apart- ments, which is simple and at the same time artistic, bright and attractive. There is no obligation to adopt its more outre feat- ures if unsuited to our temperaments, for it presents alternatives from which to choose. In order that full consideration be given this method* its detailed charac- teristics have been treated in Part II in the chapters on Colour, Walls, Floors, Furniture and Fabrics. A very practical question is : How far is it adapted to the possessions we already have ? If, upon examina- tion, we find this spirit or ideal appeals to us, can we 180 INTERIOR DECORATION avail ourselves of it wholly, or to what extent, without an entire redecoration and refurnishing of our homes ? To those who own handsome Period Furniture and furnishings it may be said that such things will not be superseded by this or any other new method which may arise. The ''modern'* method, charming as it may be at its best, is in any event rather limited to small houses or apartments, and indeed not to all of these. It is an excellent sign that many Americans of the better and more thoughtful class are taking account of something other than size. Small families often wish to eliminate the care and continual bother large properties involve and are moving into apartments or smaller houses, even erecting smaller country abodes as well. The tastes of these people may be highly formed and rather luxurious, and merely simple and charming houses would reflect neither their personal- ities nor their lives. They may then wish these abodes to be jewel caskets enshrining gems in the way of rare furniture, textiles, vases and pictures, and there should be none to say them nay in their desire to surround themselves with beauty. In such cases the new decora- tion obviously does not apply. Then, too, if the colouring in any house is rather attenuated it is plain that patches of brighter hue can- not be introduced without working havoc with all that remains; so that in such instances again one must either take or leave it redecorate or let all remain largely as it is. But there are many houses furnished in non-com- mittal style, and others containing period furniture, but which are generally eclectic in character, and these may sometimes be greatly helped by hints from this newer method. As the simplicity of spaciousness is one of its finest features, there may be some elimina- NINETEENTH CENTURY EPISODES 181 tion, and the improvement wrought by the mere re- moval of cumbersome and less desirable pieces is often immeasurable. The colouring of a room generally exists in the walls, rugs and fabrics. If the walls are good and are neutral they are perfectly adapted to this new style, and if they are "fussy" they are not adapted to any style and should be changed. If they are in poor con- dition they may be renewed either in the neutral or more colourful vein. Of rugs much the same may be said. If neutral they are perfectly correct, and so if they are colourful, provided they are not restless in pattern or contrast. If objectionable, bare floors would be better with any style of decoration. An expanse of bare, well-polished floor with a few simple rugs in good solid colouring, or two tones, or bordered, is always attractive. Good Oriental rugs will do excellently well if the new col- ouring to be introduced is made to accord with them. Now with the simple change of upholstery, hang- ings and cushions wonders may be done in the vivifying of such a house. But before anything is done plan the Avhole. Consult the section on "Unity and Variety" and the Peasant colour-combinations given in the chap- ter on Colour, and scheme out what is to be done in each room. If there is a large couch its cover may be colourful, but let it be of solid colour and then use pillows of decidedly ornamental character, with one of black. For upholstery stripes always have an intrinsic style of their own, and these may be strong and varied, or plain strong tones may be chosen, or printed linen or cretonne. If there is great variety in the other furnishings 182 INTERIOR DECORATION keep the portieres and window curtains in solid colour. If variety is lacking it may be introduced here. Much may be done by Oriental, Batik, or other dec- orative hangings, screens, lamps, vases, and the like. The probability is that in most houses many of the pictures may be discarded to advantage. Those that are retained should be good in themselves and for the decorative purpose for which they are used, and their frames should be fitting and unobtrusive. Merely nondescript homes may be made coherent and attractive by following the plan outlined in the preceding paragraphs with the addition of an over- hauling of the furniture. Badly designed, tortuously carved or machine-impressed pieces should be simpli- fied or discarded. "Foolish" bric-a-brac, calendars, photographs and general litter should especially be weeded out. Better a few good things than much which is distracting and inharmonious. Regarding the new decoration we may then finally say that in its saner forms it is attractive, practical and inexpensive. As to its more outre aspects one could not close more fittingly than to quote the words of Mr. Aymar Embury regarding strained and eccentric ef- fects in general : * * Whatever fascination this wayward cleverness may afford at first sight is not lasting, but is sure to dwindle and become a weariness when once the novelty has given place to the habit of familiar con- tact day after day. ' ' PART II PRACTICAL DECORATION AND FURNISHING you cannot separate art and recreation, and you can- not separate art and business. The list includes items which we consider as amusements, and items which we think of as business. We began with dancing and ended with upholstery. Make them all beautiful. " THE ORGANISATION OP THOUGHT." By A. N. Whitehead, Sc.D., F. R. S. London : Williams & Norgate. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. PART II PRACTICAL DECORATION AND FURNISHING THE INTERIOR AS A WHOLE. PLANNING. FOUR METHODS OF FURNISHING IT would be a comparatively easy task for the writers to lay down an accumulation of abstract principles governing the different phases of Interior Decora- tion. They hope, however, to do much more than this ; and, fully recognising the many varying conditions under which the decorator either professional or ama- teur must work, to cover these conditions in such a practical way as to afford the greatest aid in the sim- plest and most systematic manner. Needless to say the salesman will similarly be able to derive much aid in intelligently advising his customers. Part I of this book has dealt with the various Period styles in their purity in which anyone may gather many hints for present-day usage of the same. The present portion of the work treats in detail of the fitting up of our modern houses and apartments and will afford help to those who can make but a limited expenditure in the improvement of their homes as well as to those who are financially so situated as to be able to carry out such plans as they may wish. Notwithstanding the great improvement made in the decoration of the interior during recent years, a fault continually manifest is the failure in many instances to 185 186 INTERIOR DECORATION , consider the house or apartment as a whole. Instead (of the clean, coherent effect which should everywhere be evident as the result of a well-mapped decorative campaign be the property large or small is felt a fit- fulness of purpose, a lack of grasp. The individual rooms may be charming, but the fact that they have been separately considered, strung like beautiful but incon- gruous beads upon a string, is often but too plain. So far are our best architects and decorators from erring in this respect that their first and guiding prin- ciple is unity, but not always through their own fault as we shall see the want of architectonic quality is frequently manifest in the work of clever and competent people, not to mention that of those decorators who are simply tradesmen, while houses which are furnished by their owners are seldom free from this defect. The temporary craze for some particular style is responsible for much of this : the householder furnishes a room or two in the manner then in special fashion, or commissions a decorator to do it, and a year or two thereafter, that vogue having had its little day, other rooms are done, also in the style which is then " just the thing," but in a style which is likely to be totally at variance with the first. Do not householders know that such crazes are fostered by manufacturers and dealers for trade purposes, that art is a matter of sanity and equilibrium, and that worthy interior decoration recog- nises no such thing as the fad? There may be choice and preference, and it is the aim of this book to lay before the householder and the decorator facts and principles that will enable choice and preference to be arrived at intelligently; so that they shall be the honest expression of the individual temperament, and not mere whim or a temporary THE BASIS OF SUCCESSFUL DECORATION 187 "liking," to be effaced by the next attraction that grasps the attention. As such an intelligent choice and appreciation must be based on knowledge, and as decoration by any method or in any style is a whole, its parts being intimately related and inseparable, it is urged that no decision be made or work begun until that knowledge be made one's own. Special attention has here been given to making its acquirement easy through simple, systematic and logical arrangement and treatment, but the contents of one chapter should not be acted upon until the others also have been studied. If a window cannot be curtained without reference to the other furnishings of the room, to the room itself, the others in the house, and the exte- rior of that house and it cannot then it is plain that these other things should be taken into account before we curtain the window. The basis of all good decoration is plan well- selected and adhered to ; and as there are four methods of furnishing these will forthwith be stated. The instances in which an entire house (or apart- ment) is newly decorated and supplied with new furni- ture throughout are few in comparison with those in which already acquired possessions are used at least to a partial extent : these possessions will naturally there- fore have their influence in the selection of a style of furnishing. But it is advisable to see that they do not have too great an influence, and to remember that im- provement can gradually be carried out. The plan may therefore be built upon future rather than existing con- ditions. It is possible even with limited means to change the whole character of an interior during the course of a few years, and each of these years may be marked by constant interest and pleasure. It is questionable if 188 INTERIOR DECORATION such gradual development worked out by the house- holder himself does not give quite as keen and solid satisfaction as the placing of a large commission with a professional decorator may give his wealthy neigh- bour. For those of abundant means to allow the posses- sion of certain bad furnishings to hamper and mar right planning would be poor policy indeed it is better to rid oneself of the incubus and have done with it. FOUR METHODS OF FURNISHING I. INTERNATIONAL-INTER PERIOD DECORATION By far the most satisfactory method of furnishing, either for the elaborate or the simple house or apart- ment, is that combining nationalities and periods which properly accompany each other as under sufficiently close decorative influences. Of such importance is this plan that it has been fully developed and exemplified in Part III. Its title indicates the scope of this method, its infinite variety, and its freedom from all narrowness of view. Full provision is also there made for period furnish- ing where the walls must necessarily be simple, owing to the property being rented, or for other reasons. Many new houses and apartments are finished interiorly with wood-work of simple, classical design appropriate to almost any epoch. Doors and windows are usually in good proportion, the former being simply panelled. These features are so unobtrusive and non-committal that they may be left as they are, and with a treatment of the walls either in simple, tasteful style, or adapted more closely to the period chosen, furnishing may be in accordance with almost any period style. In many con- ditions and for non-plethoric purses this is an excellent method. PLATE 55 PLATE 56 PLATE 57 THE BASIS OF SUCCESSFUL DECORATION 189 II. THE ONE-PERIOD METHOD This method with its limitations is also mentioned in Part III, which see. ni. THE " MODERN" METHOD, OR THE ' 'NEWER DECORATION ' ' This is a various, adaptable, and inexpensive style of decoration enabling those occupying small houses or apartments, if possessed of taste and judgment, to secure excellent and artistic results by simple means. It is fully described in Part I, Chapter IX, and details for its carrying out are provided in the various chapters of Part II. IV. THE NON-COMMITTAL METHOD In many cases families possess much modern furni- ture, including wicker, of various kinds and of no par- ticular style, and there is no alternative to using it. While it is not an advisable method of furnishing to be deliberately chosen, where it already exists and the owners have taste the results may be very charming and homelike. Frequently it is possible to weed out gradually the less desirable pieces and substitute more desirable things. Many hints may be taken from the " Modern Method," or a transformation effected by easy stages to Inter-period style. If either is done the decision made should be adhered to, as a fluctuating policy hin- ders good results here as elsewhere. The improvement of our home-life and surroundings throughout the country, on the farm, and in remote districts as well as in the centres of civilisation should be a purpose dear to all of us. On holidays and anni- versaries no better gift to relatives and intimate friends 190 INTERIOR DECORATION could be found than pieces of furniture or furnishings which are good in themselves and appropriate to the surroundings of those receiving them. As it is to the rising generation that we must look for improvement, so every boy and girl should be encouraged to take pride in the rooms they occupy and be helped in their development. Great insistence has been laid upon the need of " expressing one's own personality in one's surround- ings." The counsel when so baldly stated is apt to lead to self -consciousness, artificiality and a false striving to be different, resulting merely in freakishness of effect. If, with sincerity, we endeavour simply to make our surroundings as beautiful as in us lies, as homelike, as consistent with our needs and our social standing, we shall in the end find that we have expressed our- selves as we are, and not according to some vain imagining of what our personality is. Of the four methods of furnishing above described it will be seen that two contemplate the use of Period Furniture. There seems to be an impression among many who have given no particular attention to the sub- ject that there is something esoteric about Period Fur- niture, that it is beyond their comprehension and also that the furniture itself is beyond their pocketbooks. Both suppositions are probably wrong for readers of this book. Half the time spent on bridge, motors or "movies" for a few weeks would give them much valu- able information, and for those who cannot afford gen- uine antiques there are always faithful reproductions. "But why should I trouble myself about the styles of the past?" may be asked. Because there we find a beauty unapproached by modern designers. With the decadence of the Empire style the art of great furni- ture-design died, and we still await its resurrection. CHAPTER II COLOUR AND COLOUR-SCHEMES PKINCIPLES AND CHARACTERISTICS OP COLOUR. ACCENTS AND DOMINANTS. COLOUR IN DECORATION. COLOUR AS DICTATED BY PERIOD STYLES. VALUE. SCALE. THE PRO- PORTIONS OF COLOUR. UNITY AND VARIETY IN DECORA- TION. COLOUR IN THE " MODERN" DECORATION. FORM and Colour are the twin foundation stones of art. Form must come first, before the appli- cation of colour, but construction is the province of the architect. Wall decoration when extensive may be done by the architect, the decorator, or by both working conjointly. Part I of this book gives a thor- ough consideration of the treatment of walls in all periods, so that nothing pertaining to form remains here for consideration excepting the arrangement and balance of the furniture and other objects to be intro- duced into the interior and the matters of design and scale. Consideration of these points will naturally come later. On the other hand, it is impossible for us even to plan our scheme of decoration without reference to the universally interesting subject of colour. COLOUR In this chapter colour will be treated from a simple and practical point of view, (it is a subject upon which a vast deal of theory is usually expended, all in itself excellent but usually resulting simply in the obfusca- tioiTbf the general reader. There is perhaps a better way to communicate it. 191 192 INTERIOR DECORATION As everyone knows, the primary colours are yellow, red and blue, and the binary colours (those composed of two) are orange (yellow and red), violet (red and blue) and green (yellow and blue). Bed, yellow and blue are called primary colours because white light in the solar spectrum separates into these three basic colours. As pure light these colours would fuse back into white. In material pigment they do not quite accomplish this but fuse into grey. Two simple little diagrams will explain the matter of colour. Yellow, red and blue may be called the " eternal triangle" of colour let us so arrange them. As orange is an equal mixture of normal yellow and red, let us place it midway between its two components, also placing the other two binary colours between the components of each. We then have superimposed a second triangle upon the first. The dotted lines will show at once the opposing or complementary colours. They are opposing because each of these contains none of the other. Orange is a mixture of yellow and red and contains no blue. Blue and orange are therefore opposing. A glance at the diagram will likewise show the other opposing colours. It is simplicity itself. There is a curious effect which while, of course, COLOUR AND COLOUR-SCHEMES 193 experienced by all artists, has not, to the writers' knowledge, previously been formally pointed out. It is a most important one to be remembered by all who have to handle colour. Let us glance for a moment at our triangle of yellow, red and blue. Yellow and blue, though occupying opposing points of the triangle and thus contrasting, do yet form a harmony of difference, i.e., they are pleasing in combination. Blue and red also occupy two opposing points of the triangle and while they are less contrasting than blue and yellow are at the same time less pleasing an harmony. Yellow and red likewise- occupy two opposing points of the triangle. Now these, in their pure state, form no harmony, but rather a discord. If we but remem- ber these things, and also that the three colours in the upper left of the diagram (yellow, orange and red) are advancing or aggressive and warm colours and those in the right (green and blue) are retreating or quiet and cool colours, we have already gone far in the understanding of colour for decoration. Violet is neu- tral. In decorative practice gold also is neutral. 13 194 INTERIOR DECORATION Our useful little diagram shows that normal orange is half way between yellow and red, i.e., it is composed of an equal power of each. It is evident that if more red be added it becomes a reddish orange, and if more yellow it becomes a yellowish orange. It is also plain that if one follows the dotted line from orange across the diagram to its opponent blue and adds blue to orange he will neutralise the orange by the blue' he adds until if a sufficient power of blue were added the orange would be totally destroyed and the combination become grey. It is by this adding of a portion of one colour to another, or the adding to them of white or black that tones are made. The number of hues and tones to be produced by the mixture of colours is necessarily very large. The most prominent are those composed of any one of the six colours on the second diagram with the one next it thus yellow and orange produce yellow orange. The others in successive order are red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green. In practice the most generally useful colours are the slightly greyed hues of these twelve colours and those known as the Tertiary and Quartenary Colours and are produced as follows : Tertiary: The mixture of two Binary (sometimes called Secondary) colours Slate (violet and green), citrine (green and orange), russet (orange and violet). Quartenary: the mixture of two Tertiary colours Sage (citrine and slate), buff (citrine and russet), plum (russet and slate). ' As one thinks of such tones as buff, rose, grey, grey blue, etc., it is plain that such tones are more agree- able and subtle than the strident and hard primary yellow, red and blue. The strong prismatic primaries and binaries are COLOUR AND COLOUR^CHEMES 195 suitable for accents, about which we shall by-and-by have much to say, but in quantity are not agreeable to cultivated tastes. With but a few words as to the general characteris- tics of each colour we shall be ready to proceed to their use in decoration. It should be remembered that these characteristics are those of the pure colours and that in their tones they are modified by the amount of de- parture from this original. ^ellwtK Although sunlight is a white light, yellow gives more of an effect of light than does white itself. If a piece of light yellow paper is placed out of doors on a gloomy day and glanced at through the window it will appear as if the sun were shining upon it. Yellow in its various shades is therefore useful for the lightening of dark rooms. Red.: It is perhaps safe to say that when the colour red is mentioned many understand by it the colour which is represented by vermilion ; nor is this strange when even writers on interior decoration give this hue as prismatic red in their colour charts. Nevertheless, the real prismatic red is a quite different colour, strongly inclining toward the crimson shade and more nearly represented by rose madder or carmine. Anyone at all familiar with the three-colour process of colour-plate making and its present remark- ably faithful reproduction of tones of every descrip- tion will at once realise the truth of this, as the * * Red ' ' ink used in printing these plates is of a quite carmine hue. The distinction is of high importance, a misun- derstanding of the definition of a point at issue being " often the main cause of dispute. It is, for instance, usually observed that red is a very exciting colour. This is quito true of the vermil- iorTred, winch contains some yellow and is therefore 196 INTERIOR DECORATION really orange red, and true to a less degree of the true prismatic red. All reds have the quality of warmth. Orange: Orange, which partakes of the nature of both yellow and red, therefore combines their qualities of light and heat. j^&e; Blue is one of the retiring colours and is quiet- ing in its influence ; it is also cool, in some shades cold. These qualities should be borne in mind. Green: Green, which is the combination of yellow and blue, has the qualities of light, quiet and coolness. Violet: Violet possesses richness and sumptuous- ness, which have associated it with royalty. It has also sombreness, which has associated it ecclesiastically with penitential seasons and death, and individually with a lesser mourning than black. Having briefly gone over the characteristics and re- lations of colours, their use in decoration can be taken up, and this can perhaps best be done in an easy-going conversational way. Let us begin with an example : As a well-dressed man might, for instance, with clothes and accessories of quiet tan, wear a tie of an orange shade, or containing it, so if the colouring of a room were of similar character a strong note might be struck by an orange bowl filled with nasturtiums, an orange screen, or other such object. This strong, in- troduced note would be an Accent. Without such accent a keyed and related room (or a costume), though har- monious is apt to be monotonous and