Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar91912newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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238 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS July, 191 2 ranging in date of style from the Norman Conquest down to the latest cry from Germany. Leaving out of consideration the imported antiques painted with rare skill and prohibitive in price, we may confine ourselves to two or three styles that seem to be specially suited to our conditions. To begin with, the painted furniture in Adam, Heppelwhite and Sheraton pat- terns is worth close attention. As a rule the form is good and the color and decoration pleasing. In the latter re- spects there is almost unlimited scope for variety of treat- ment. However, one word of caution is necessary. In purchasing such furniture it is better for several reasons to take modern reproductions, which are usually faithfully and well copied. The genuine antiques in this style are often so battered as to necessitate endless touching up at great expense and the initial cost is apt to be out of all proportion to intrinsic worth. Furniture of this sort is particularly suitable for bedrooms and drawing-rooms in Summer homes by reason of its lightness and cheerful coloring. Painted satinwood chairs, tables, sideboards and cabinets are always charming and suitable for any place where they will not be subjected to severe usage. Lacquered work after Queen Anne designs is deservedly coming more into vogue. The shapes are excellent while the coloring and decoration are extremely attractive, the gilt ornament of Chinese land- scapes being applied on a groundwork of dark blue, red, black or green. Much of this furniture is imported from England, but a good deal is made and decorated in America and very well made, too. It is a far cry, perhaps, from the courtly furniture just considered to the homemade contrivances of Bavarian and Hungarian peasants, but the quaint style of decoration em- ployed opens up a field so pregnant with delightful possi- bilities for us that we should be great losers by ignoring it. The peasant furniture of Eastern Europe, whether the mak- ers be Magyar, Teutonic or Slav, is naive in decoration, full of vital originality in design, elemental vigor of color and unweakened by over refinement. Colorings, pattern and construction of this painted furniture are traditional and instinct with national spirit. The wood commonly used is pine and the lines simple and direct. Often his own craftsman, the peasant chose easily fashioned pine as the most suitable material to work in and, prompted to indulge in gorgeous decoration both by the bareness of the wood and his own innate love of brilliant color, he fully availed himself of the free range afforded for play of fresh, un- fettered imagination. In design and execution the Hun- garian pieces are, perhaps, a trifle more angular and as- sertive than the Bavarian work. Decoration of this type is especially suitable for chests, boxes, presses and cupboards. It matters not if they are as plain as "Plain Jane" and made of mean wood, Bavarian painted ornament will help them mightily in nine cases out of ten. If we go into a strange room and discover a cupboard or chest of this kind, it may strike us at first as crude, but by and by we find our eye wandering back to it and we realize its growing charm. Its straightforward naivete lays strong hold upon us and we should feel its removal a positive loss. To be sure, we cannot always get these pieces from their native source, but our craftsmen can faithfully reproduce them in color, design and feeling, and though they may not have the patina of age they create the same ingenuous atmosphere of homely comfort and cheer as the originals. The Bavarian bride's dower chest shown in the illustra- tion is a replica of one in the National Museum in Munich. It is two and a half feet long, a foot wide and a foot and a half high, including the base. On a cream colored ground the bright-hued flowers, figures and bands stand out vividly. The body of the chest is free of depressions or projections of any kind. Wide yellow decorative bands divide the front into three panels. In the two side panels stiff sprays of flowers and leaves spring primly from vases; in the central panel is a bunch of four plums. A comical little man with a (Continued on page 261)
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.'.'".-Vj An exceptionally fine satinwood settee from a private collection in Philadelphia

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