IS^O."] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



131 



Architectural Publication Society. Part I. Now Volume. — The 

 part now out is an earnest for the volume of 1819-50, showing- 

 that good faitii will be kept with the supporters of the Society, 

 while it is announced that a second pai-t is in profrress. Among^ 

 the present subjects of illustration are Catacomb, Corbel, Facade, 

 Furniture, Loggia, Screenwall, Staircase, and Tomb, and a coloured 

 plate is promised with the next part. Many examples are given 

 which will be new to the profession. 



On Ciipyriglit in Design. By Thojias Turxkr, Esq., of the 

 Middle Temple. — A work which contains much useful matter on a 

 subject now of great interest to the mechanical classes. We would 

 suggest to the author, that in a second edition an index should be 

 added. 



Counsel to Inventors of Improvements in tUe Useful Arts. Sy 

 Thomas Turner, Esq., of the Middle Temple. — A popular and 

 amusing dissertation on patents and inventions, with many anec- 

 dotes. 



Buildings and Monuments. By G. Godwin, F.S.A. Part VI. — 

 We have already spoken so frequently in commendation of this 

 cheap and useful work, that we can do nothing more than record 

 its progress. 



Hints on the Valuation of Ecclesiastical Property. — A useful little 

 work, explaining the nature of ecclesiastical property, the valua- 

 tion of which is necessarily not understood by the profession gene- 

 rally. 



ON FURNITURE AS A BRANCH OF DECORATIVE 

 DESIGN. 



[first AKTIC1.B.1 



^Veui: the matter itself regarded and treated as one of no im- 

 portance — were we content to abide by usefulness and convenience, 

 without aiming at anything further, we could not expect that any 

 study should be given to the subject of Furniture, as a branch, 

 though perhaps a subordinate one, of artistic design; but as pre- 

 cisely the reverse is the fact, and as next to architecture furniture 

 affoi'ds opportunities for exercising taste and invention, and that 

 not only occasionally but daily, it is somewhat surprising that 

 nothing whatever has been written concerning it, beyond a few 

 random and incidental remarks. Neither Hope nor Percier have 

 entered into the subject, or attempted to lay down any guiding 

 principles of correct taste; but have contented themselves with 

 merely exhibiting their designs, and prefacing them by some de- 

 sultory general observations. Tasteful, too, as their designs are 

 upon the whole, they betray not a few incongruities, and, in some 

 instances, a most disagreeable mixture of excessive plainness with 

 excess of ornament. Speaking generally, furniture-design may be 

 said to be made altogether a matter of empirical practice. We 

 frequently see very great skill of workmanship and great beauty 

 of material expended upon objects of the kind, with scarcely any 

 attention to elegance of form; the last being in some instances 

 completely marred by ornament that serves only to enhance both 

 labour and cost. With both the producers and the purchasers of 

 furniture, sound good taste is but a very secondary consideration; 

 while the former look chiefly — and naturally enough too — to their 

 immediate interest as manufacturers and tradesmen, the others 

 consult only fashion, or are guided hj' individual fancy alone. 

 Neither party is capable of properly directing or correcting the 

 taste of the other; nor is it strange that such should be the case, 

 when furniture is looked upon as having nothing to do with art, or 

 art with it, but as being altogether lawless, and when with regard 

 to "taste" means little more than "whim." 



Some there arc who are either quite indifferent to everything 

 connected with fl«;cH6/e)He»i< — as was, for instance. Goethe, although 

 t>therwise by no means destitute of forinen-sinn and Eesthetic sen- 

 sibility — or else affect to despise all such matters as partaking of 

 frivolity and effeminacy; and we may very safely leave them to 

 enjoy their philosophical contempt, there being no danger whatever 

 of it's becoming an epidemic. ^Ve ourselves adopt Mr. Fergusson's 

 philosophy: "At present," says that able writer and original 

 thinker, "the art (viz. of furniture) is entirely in the hands of 

 shopkeepers, and, of course, has no right to the rank wliich I have 

 assigned it. Yet there are instances even in this country, and at 

 the present day, where one pi-esiding mind, under the guidance of 

 good taste, has taken the requisite trouble to elaborate the whole 

 design, and nliere the carpets, curtains, and furniture have been 

 grouped into a whole of no small beauty and elegance. It is not a 



high art, but it is one capable of a very considerable degree of 

 refinement; and from the circumstance of its being an absolutely 

 necessary one, and its objects always present, it is capable of 

 exercising no small degree of influence on the tone of the mind, 

 according as refinement or vulgarity may predominate,"— which 

 doctrine, we may observe, has been successfully carried out 

 practically by the vvriter himself in his own tastefully fitted-up 

 and embellished residence. 



After all, it will perha])s be said, all objects of the kind soon 

 grow familiar to the eye, and cease to afford any positive enjoy- 

 ment. Tlie charm of novelty, of course, wears away, the first 

 emotions of vivid delight gradually sober down; but so is it with 

 a prospect, however beautiful, wliich is daily viewed from one's 

 windows. In the one case as in the other, the charm of novelty is 

 succeeded by the more quiet and silent gratification of habit. An 

 atmosphere of taste and artistic beauty is produced, whose cheering 

 influence is permanently felt, although it is what is unnoticed, and 

 also what hardly admits of being explained. All, indeed, that 

 recommends itself by the mere vogue of fashion, or by glare, 

 glitter, and showiness alone, soon palls upon the eye, — we become 

 cloyed with it, and wish for change. Really good taste, on the 

 contrary, carries with it a permanent charm, and a nameless fasci- 

 nation. Such taste, too, is, cmteris paribus, the cheapest and most 

 economical of any — albeit, not very cheap in one sense, since it is 

 not to be bought; there is no mart where it is sold ready-made. 

 Still, it is in itself the most economical, because capable of pro- 

 ducing effect with the minimum of means — never wasting any of 

 the means at its command; and also because it never stales, but 

 possesses an endurable power of charming. Independent of mere 

 fashion from the first, it never becomes "old-fashioned," like that 

 which, destitute of intrinsic artistic merit, recommends itself only 

 by being in the passing mode of the day, admired for a brief whUe, 

 and then not only discarded, but perhaps held up to derision and 

 ridicule. Time settles a good many questions of taste; notwith- 

 standing which, there is just now a most unfortunate disposition to 

 revert to much false and even depraved taste which, whether oa 

 that account, or merely owing to the changes of fashion, had very 

 deservedly been exploded, yet is now again brought into vogue by 

 the prestige of names— Renaissance, Elizabethan, Louis Quatorze, 

 &c. — and in consequence of the demand for novelty, while our 

 designers and manufacturers, unable to produce it— incapable of 

 extracting what is good in former styles of decorative art from 

 their mere dross and rubbish — merely serve them up again, with 

 less of invention and skill than a cook shows by converting the 

 remains of a cold joint into a savoury hash. 



Good taste, again, is the most economical, because it works accord- 

 ing to the means and resources at its command; making the most of 

 the means afforded it; never attempting more tlian can be carried 

 out consistently by them. It knows precisely how far it can go 

 without breaking down; it never errs on the side of too much; 

 still less does it jumble the "too much" and the "too little" together, 

 as is frequently done; and if but little can be accomplished, it 

 will make that little appear to be the "quite enough." Wasting 

 nothing, it allows nothing to appear wanting; but working with 

 well-understood purpose, and putting everything in its proper 

 place, it makes every stroke tell. To all that it does we may apply 

 Pope's well linowuline: — 



" And not .a vanUy 13 giveu in vain :" 



taking vanity in the sense of ornament, which is more than can 

 be generally said of the taste of "decorators'and their employers; 

 for theu-s is apt to remind us too forcibly of the "all is vanity." 

 With them, elaboration and ornament are everything— at once their 

 fo>-te and their foible — their strength and their weakness; while of 

 character and expression, artistic effect and ensemble, they take 

 no account. They are in decoration what Denner was in painting— 

 we marvel at the pains-taking hand, but we miss the artist-mind 

 Such minikin taste seems to be just now gaining vogue; for although 

 decorative art and ornamental design are much talked about, they 

 seem to be very imperfectly understood, and to be taken up on 

 wrong principles, if upon any principles at ail. 



Now, in our opinion, ornamental design means a very great deal 

 more than the merely designing ornament, details, and patterns, 

 which are afterwards applied at random to anything and every- 

 thing indiscriminately. Our designers and artisans seem to en- 

 deavour to conceal their poverty of invention, crudeness of taste, 

 and inability to produce gi-acoful and fresh combinations, by a 

 profusion of unmeaning, fantastic ornament, which rather encuni- 

 bers and disguises tlian embellishes, tliough it very seldom conceals 

 the insipidity or else the positive ugliness of the article to which 

 it is applied. Most of the designs for furniture and manufactures 



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