Household Furnishing 1063 



wood, glowing in color and fine in grain, but the sort of grooving, piercing, 

 carving, and molding to which it was subjected largely robbed it of its 

 natural charm. Many pieces were too ponderous to be easily moved 

 about. Simple designs in walnut, similar to colonial pieces, would be 

 beautiful and valuable, but even mahogany worked into ornate designs 

 as was walnut would be artistically valueless. A few of the plainer pieces 

 of walnut are good in design and are therefore permanent in worth. Wal- 

 nut sets of chairs and sofa may be given a very good appearance by re- 

 moving the black horsehair and using a Hghter-colored upholstery in 

 browns, greens, old gold, or old blue. 



Oak, as well as walnut, has been greatly abused in the manufacture of 

 furniture. Oak pieces are usually heavier in structure than are mahogany 

 pieces, because of the bold, vigorous grain of the wood. Of all styles of 

 furniture, the golden oak, or varnished natural oak, of fifteen or twenty 

 years ago, was probably the tawdriest and the most insincere ever manu- 

 factured. There were several reasons for this, chief among which was the 

 perfection of machinery that could produce with great ease all sorts of 

 mechanical curves, carvings, and so-called decorations. In this way 

 furniture-makers became childishly involved in producing monstrosities, 

 instead of using the machinery as a tool for the larger production of normal, 

 durable furniture at less cost than was required for handmade products. 



Stamped decoration of poor pattern, machine carving glued to panels, 

 scroll-work brackets, and bended arms ending in animal heads, all these 

 distortions have been applied to furniture in the nam.e of decoration. 

 But all in vain is the name, for decoration means enhancement. A chair 

 or table of plain structure, with straight edges, has at least the dignity 

 of being genuine. If the general form is to be softened or refined, a human 

 being, not a machine, must have the upper hand. The attempt to beautify 

 must be an inspiration, not a nightmare. We must ponder over our 

 national sins in furnishing before our homes are purged of the trash that 

 represents false ideals. We have wandered far from the goal, we have 

 confused the means with the end. As an instance of this, take the morris 

 chair. Who could have foreseen that the attempt of Wilham Morris to 

 make a plainly-shaped chair comfortable by adding cushions and adjust- 

 able back would have been misconstrued into meaning that the cushions 

 and back might be placed on any sort of hideous framework? 



The burnt-wood fad created another epoch of avoidable ugliness. Be- 

 cause it was discovered that by means of burning grooves in wood with a 

 hot tool designs could be made on furniture, a hunt was immediately 

 begun for things that could be burned. The process involved neither 

 skill nor art on the part of the performer, who became literally intoxicated 

 with the decorative idea and proceeded to damage everything in sight. 



