Hints On Household Taste In Furniture, Upholstery And Other Details | by Charles L. Eastlake
There are an increasing number of people in all classes who are desiring to live among more picturesque surroundings. Mr. C. L. Eastlake has just published a handsome volume which will be of immense value to such persons, and will tend to increase their number. "Hints on Household Taste" is a plea for the artistic furnishing of our houses, and a guide to such furnishing.
| Title | Hints On Household Taste In Furniture, Upholstery And Other Details |
| Author | Charles L. Eastlake |
| Publisher | Longmans, Green, And Co. |
| Year | 1869 |
| Copyright | 1869, Longmans, Green, And Co. |
| Amazon | Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and Other Details |
By Charles L. Eastlake, Fellow Of The Royal Institute Of British Architects
'Parmi ces splendeurs a bon marche, ce faux gout et ce faux luxe, nous sommes ravis quand nous trouvons un banc bien fait, une bonne table de chene portant d'aplomb sur ses pieds, des rideaux de laine qui paraissent etre en laine, une chaise commode et solide, une armoire qui s'ouvre et se ferme bien, nous montrant en dedans et en dehors le bois dont elle est faite, et laissant deviner son usage. Esperons un retour vers ces idees saines, et qu'en fait de mobilier, comme en toute chose, on en viendra a comprendre que le gout consiste a paraitre ce que I'on est et non ce que I'on voudrait etre' Viollet-le-Duc
Second Edition (Revised)
Hints on Household Taste- Opinions of the Press. London Review. 'A valuable and useful handbook for any one who wishes to adorn his house with the quiet pleasures of artistic fitness and grace.' Public Opinion. 'Mr. Eastlake...
- Preface
- A few lines in explanation of the object and origin of this book may not be out of place by way of preface to its contents. Some time ago a little essay of mine on 'The Fashion of Furniture,' which a...
- Introduction
- IT is unfortunate for the interests of Art at the present time that in civilised countries it has come to be regarded as the result of theories utterly remote from the question of general taste, total...
- Introduction. Part 2
- As this is especially the case with those articles of household use on which the eye has constantly to rest, we can scarcely be surprised that there is so little popular sympathy with works of high ai...
- Introduction. Part 3
- * This preposterous pattern has not only been employed for carpets, but is evidently very popular, and may be noted as an instance of the degradation to which the arts of design can descend. Glass, c...
- Chapter I. Street Architecture
- IT is always interesting to note the early impressions which the superficial aspect of our country produces on foreigners who visit it for the first time, and to compare those impressions with feeling...
- Street Architecture. Part 2
- Some attempts at architectural display are occasionally made in the way of shop-fronts. But here a certain practical difficulty attends the designer. However elegant the superstructure may be, it has ...
- Street Architecture. Part 3
- How far this detestable practice has increased in London anyone familiar with the principal suburban squares and streets can well testify. But what the general public do not know is that the structura...
- Street Architecture. Part 4
- It is quite time that these evils should be remedied by legislation. It would not be difficult to strengthen my argument by artistic considerations, but I am content to leave it in a practical form. I...
- Street Architecture. Part 5
- Pugin was the first who deftly expounded the true principles of what he not inaptly named Christian art. No man of his day was better fitted to undertake the task. He was by profession an architect. H...
- Chapter II. The Entrance Hall
- THE external aspect of a house, which has not been built expressly for its occupants, is, of course, a question of taste utterly beyond their control. Those who are lucky enough to reside in the pictu...
- The Entrance Hall. Part 2
- If we apply this principle to the treatment of cast-iron, it will be readily perceived that a noble material, which has lost in process of manufacture the most essential quality of strength which it p...
- The Entrance Hall. Part 3
- The mural decoration of the hall is a point concerning which modern conventionalism and true principles of design are sure to clash. There can be little doubt that the most agreeable wall-lining which...
- The Entrance Hall. Part 4
- I am now only treating of furniture in general terms; but under this head may be discussed two important points connected with its ordinary manufacture, viz., veneering and carved work. The former has...
- The Entrance Hall. Part 5
- In attempting a solution of this difficulty, the old question of 'demand and supply' is once more raised. The upholsterers declare themselves willing to give more attention to the subject of design as...
- Chapter III. The Dining Room
- AMONG the many fallacies engendered in the mind of the modern upholsterer, and delivered by him as wholesome doctrine to a credulous public, is the notion that all conditions of decorative art must ne...
- The Dining Room. Part 2
- Among the dining-room appointments, the table is an article of furniture which stands greatly in need of reform. It is generally made of planks of polished oak or mahogany laid upon an insecure framew...
- The Dining Room. Part 3
- The general arrangement of an ordinary English sideboard is reasonable enough. It consists of a wide and deep shelf fitted with one or two drawers, and resting at each end on a cellaret cupboard. If t...
- The Dining Room. Part 4
- A feeling is, I trust, being gradually awakened in favour of 'art furniture.' But the universal obstacle to its popularity up to the present time has been the cost which it entails on people of ordina...
- The Dining Room. Part 5
- While on the subject of curtains, it may be as well to add a few words regarding the employment of fringe. Fringe, as Pugin justly pointed out, was originally nothing more than the threads of silk or ...
- Chapter IV. The Floor And The Wall
- MODERN manufacture may perhaps be said to have received the greatest aid from science at a period precisely when the arts of design had sunk into their lowest degradation. A twofold error sprang from ...
- The Floor And The Wall. Part 2
- The floors of good old French mansions were often inlaid with variously-coloured wood arranged in geometrical patterns. This branch of decorative art, known as parquetry, has been of late years revive...
- The Floor And The Wall. Part 3
- Such were the eccentric forms with which our sires surrounded themselves, and which are, I need scarcely add, all widely removed from true principles of taste. Indeed, common sense points to the fact,...
- The Floor And The Wall. Part 4
- Nothing is more difficult than to estimate the value and intensity of colour when spread over a large surface from the simple inspection of a pattern-book. The purchaser will frequently find that a pa...
- Chapter V. The Library
- OF all the rooms in a modern house, that which is used as a library or study is the one least like to offend a fastidious taste by its appointments. Here at least the furniture - usually of oak - is s...
- The Library. Part 2
- With regard to the association of tints, it would not be difficult to quote from Chevreul, and others who have given scientific reasons for their various theories - who teach that blue is best suited ...
- The Library. Part 3
- By and by I may have more to say on this subject. Meanwhile I would suggest to those who possess such things that they should associate and group them together as much as possible. A set of narrow she...
- The Library. Part 4
- There is, perhaps, no branch of English trade more prolific in design than that of the furnishing ironmonger. The variety of patterns which Birmingham and other manufacturing districts supply in the w...
- The Library. Part 5
- Public taste is often very perverse and inconsistent as to the choice and appliance of material and ornament. For instance, there was, not many years ago, a great demand for bronze candlesticks, where...
- Chapter VI. The Drawing-Room
- IN the field of taste, whether moral or aesthetical, it is always much easier to point out paths which should be avoided than to indicate the road which leads to excellence. And although, while endeav...
- The Drawing-Room. Part 2
- There is a notion very prevalent among people who have given themselves but little trouble to think at all on the matter, that to ensure grace in furniture, it must be made in a flimsy and fragile man...
- The Drawing-Room. Part 3
- In the sphere of what is called industrial art, use and beauty are, in theory at least, closely associated : for not only has the humblest article of manufacture, when honestly designed, a picturesque...
- The Drawing-Room. Part 4
- Real art has no recourse to such tricks as these. It can accommodate itself to the simplest and most practical shapes which the carpenter or potter has invented, as well as to the most delicate and su...
- The Drawing-Room. Part 5
- I suppose that ever since the days of King Arthur, round tables have been in favour with knights and ladies. But the round table of mediaeval carpentry was not the rickety, ill-contrived article which...
- Chapter VII. Wall-Furniture
- HAVING already considered the subject of paper-hangings, I will now offer a few hints on what may be called the wall-furniture of rooms in general, and of the drawing-room in particular. In most house...
- Wall-Furniture. Part 2
- It is, however, by no means necessary to good effect that the drawings or paintings thus arranged should come into close conttact. On the contrary, it is often a much better plan to separate them, esp...
- Wall-Furniture. Part 3
- This, however, is a point which the modern and professional decorator will generally dispute. There are of course exceptions to every rule, and let us hope there may be to this one. But as far as my e...
- Chapter VIII. The Bed-Room
- THE modern development of art is full of strange inconsistencies, and they are nowhere more apparent than in the connection of design with manufacture. Many people who are fully alive to the inartisti...
- The Bed-Room. Part 2
- The design for a washing-stand which I have suggested here is of very simple construction, the only ornament introduced in it being a few easily-worked mouldings and a little inlay of coloured woods. ...
- The Bed-Room. Part 3
- Our English notions of cleanliness would scarcely permit us to tolerate any kind of coverlid for a bed which could not be periodically washed. Hence the modern counterpane, in some form or another, is...
- Chapter IX. Crockery
- FROM the earliest periods of civilisation down to the present time, there is, perhaps, no branch of manufacture which has undergone such vicissitudes of taste and excellence of workmanship as that of ...
- Crockery. Part 2
- Private energy has, however, done much towards a reform in ceramic art. The names of Wedgwood in the last century, and that of Minton in our own time, are well known as those of men who have worked wi...
- Crockery. Part 3
- The manufacture of modern pottery in England includes no better example of good design applied to cheap and useful objects than the red 'delf' ware, originally produced, I believe, by Wedgwood, but no...
- Crockery. Part 4
- The ewers retain the form prevalent for ordinary use, which is hardly worthy of their surface-decoration, but the toilet-ware, of which a few specimens are given in Plate XXXI. is also excellent in ge...
- Chapter X. Table Glass
- NEXT to a good display of china on the table or sideboard, there is nothing which lends greater grace to the appointments of a dining-room than delicate and well-designed glass. North of the Tweed, I ...
- Table Glass. Part 2
- Unfortunately for the interests of Art, a taste grew up in the eighteenth century for the imitation of crystal. Now, without entering into scientific details, it is sufficient to remember that glass i...
- Table Glass. Part 3
- In the days of the Venetian Republic, its glass was exported to every country in Europe. Its manufacturers were artists who vied with each other in the beauty of form and the fertility of invention wh...
- Chapter XI. Dress And Jewellery
- AMONG the various influences to which we may attribute the decline of artistic taste and of art manufacture during the present century, the ugliness of modern dress stands pre-eminently forward. On th...
- Dress And Jewellery. Part 2
- Most of us recollect the old coat-collar which used to rise from the shoulders of the wearer in a padded roll until it touched the back of his head. That ungainly feature has long since resumed its pr...
- Dress And Jewellery. Part 3
- Now there are two points of view from which we may regard the possession of plate and jewellery. We may admire them for their intrinsic value, on account of the high price we paid for them, and the am...
- Dress And Jewellery. Part 4
- In the same case was a kind of fillet for the head, composed of small uncut rubies and other precious stones inclosed in hexagonal and plain oval settings, and alternating with seed pearls in several ...
- Chapter XII. Plate And Cutlery
- A WELL-APPOINTED dinner-table is one of the triumphs of an English housewife's domestic care. That the cloth shall be of fine and snow-white damask; that the decanters and wine-glasses shall be delica...
- Plate And Cutlery. Continued
- To return, however, to the more ordinary articles of table use, there seems but little, from a practical point of view, that could be suggested by way of improvement for modern cutlery. Yet the shape ...
My Books
