Transition To Modern Styles

After the Empire, there was no other distinctive style of any value produced during the remainder of the nineteenth century. There was a great quantity of furniture manufactured, but it was a sad combination of many old forms and little thought. The result was the large number of black walnut pieces, carved and decorated with countless turned "icicle" pendants and the stamped and inlaid light oak furniture. In the past few years two rather fantastic modes have come somewhat into favor, the British New Art and L'Art Nouveau. These can hardly be ranked as furniture styles, but rather as fads running parallel with the present craze for hand-beaten metal wear and jewelry. Mission furniture, too, has achieved a great popularity, and very suitably fills the need for a cheap but durable style.

A New Renaissance

Historians predict that, because of the unusual prosperity of our present time, there will soon come a great reaction from rapid money making toward art for art's sake. If their prophecy is correct, the twentieth century may still give us furniture makers whose work will rank with that of Chippendale, Sheraton, and Hepplewhite.

References

Clifford, C. R.

Period Furnishings.

Clifford & Lawton, New York, 1915.

Colonial, p. 203.

Gothic Designs, p. 64.

Eberlein, Harold Donaldson, and McClure, Abbot.

The Practical Book of Period Furniture.

J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia & London, 1914.

Periods, Chapters II-XIV.

Kimerly, W. L.

How to Know Period Styles in Furniture.

Grand Rapids Furniture Record Co., Grand Rapids, Mich., 1913.

Typical Examples.

Macquoid, Percy History of English Furniture. Lawrence & Bullen, London, 1906. Age of Oak, Vol. I. Age of Walnut, Vol. II. Age of Mahogany, Vol. HI.