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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



April 10, 1922 



By courtesy Marshall Field & Company, Chicago, III. 

 All the wood work of the furniture in Mr. Armour's office is of American walnut with heavy, carved pilasters in the rathsr majestic character of Italiai* 

 Renaissance design. It is massive and very suggestive of poise and strength and permanence 



American Walnut Selected for f 

 J. Ogden Armour's Office 



The beauty and dignity of American walnut is recognized in the 

 highest circles of American business and achievement by its selec- 

 tion for the furnishing of the office of J. Ogden Armour, the Chi- 

 cago packer. The paneling of the walls of this office as well as 

 the furniture, is in walnut, in one of the modern finishes, w^hich 

 subtly reveals the natural beauty of the wood, instead of hiding it 

 under a sombre varnish, as was the practice during the Victorian 

 age. The office was furnished by Marshall Field & Company, 

 Chicago, which in its publication, "Fashions of the Hour," has this 

 to say concerning this office and the ideal office of the present day 

 successful American business man: (The article is by Wallace 

 Rice). 



"Office furnishings, as exemplified in the room where Mr. J. 

 Ogden Armour transacts his great business, should be much like a 

 gentleman's wearing apparel, simple, serviceable, and without 

 ostentation. If a man should wear nothing in conflict with this 

 standard, similarly a man's office should show nothing of luxury, 

 nothing of uselessness. If any impression is to be conveyed beyond 

 that of comfortable utility, it might be summed up in the single 

 w^ord, 'Faultlessness.' As a man, to produce the air of success 

 which leads to more success, should wear his clothes as if they w^ere 

 not on his mind, so his office should automatically proclaim him 

 the methodical man of successful business affairs. 



His desk, as here, should be spacious to befit the spacious room, 

 both symbolizing the wide reach of his transactions; his chair com- 

 fortable in the sense that, like his clothing, it has not to be thought 

 of further. It is assuredly hospitable to have one's visitors" chairs 

 equally comfortable, as Mr. Armour has thoughtfully arranged. 



Neatness governs the 

 desk; with the mod- 

 e r n equipment o f 

 human beings re- 

 sponsive to the call 

 of a push-button, 

 there is no need for 

 accumulating clutter. 



"Three hundred 

 years ago a French 

 philosopher discov- 

 ered that the prog- 

 ress of his thinking 

 went on by a consist- 

 ent process of elim- 

 ination. Now, Das- 

 cartes' philosophy of 

 the seventeenth cen- 

 tury probably bears 

 some marks of resem- 

 blance to business of 

 the present day, for 

 a man's office must 

 arrive at perfection 

 through careful elim- 

 ination which makes 

 n'liiititiurd 071 page 50) 



This table st.uuls .it tii. right of the desk and 



provides an ingenious way of concealing the safe 



which is securely hidden behind its door 



