October, 1916 
27 
William and Mary and early Queen Anne panels, mouldings of cornice and door trim are 
usually prominent. In this room the light oak background acts as a foil for gilded William 
and Mary sofa and lacquer cabinet on carved base 
chests and console cabinets, likewise mirrors 
and chairs and tables, that have enough 
grounds of correspondence to render them 
in thorough keeping with the environment 
such as we have been considering, while 
from France may be added many a chair 
and table that will accord perfectly. If 
the paneling is painted, it will even be pos¬ 
sible to add a piece of mahogany here and 
there, so long as the lines of contour are 
consistent and do not clash. 
One would not, of course, think of hang¬ 
ing a delicately wrought mirror, or placing 
an Adam lacquered console cabinet in some 
pale color, or a Sheraton escritoire in satin- 
wood, with painted decorations by Cipriani 
or Pergolesi, in such a room. It would be 
manifestly unfit and out of place. But 
there is no lack of resources, quite distinct 
from the accepted period properties, that 
may be used, all of which meet the require¬ 
ments of underlying correspondence in one 
important particular or another. 
The Early Georgian Changes 
In the early Georgian period the archi¬ 
tectural background changes somewhat. 
Oak paneling practically passed out of use; 
mouldings, though still heavy, had a less 
prominent profile; pediments, pillars, pilas¬ 
ters, entablatures and architectural devices 
generally entered much more insistently 
into the interior composition of a room; the 
exquisitely delicate carving of the Gibbon 
school had ceased, and in its place we find 
urns, dentils, triglyphs, mutules and other 
small architectural details or else, in the 
majority of cases, there is but a puny and 
insignificant survival of the carver’s art. 
White paint, too, has become increasingly 
popular to give these architectural features 
at least the hue of marble, the material in 
which they were originally fashioned. It 
is even more necessary for us carefully to 
consider the architectural background of 
such rooms than of rooms of the Queen 
Anne period, for we have a much larger 
number of them to deal with in America, 
both old and in modern adaptations. 
One conspicuous feature of this early 
Georgian period was the 
reaching out of architecture 
into the furniture world 
and the consequent incor¬ 
poration of much of the 
large wall furniture within 
the realm of architecture. 
Many architects felt it in¬ 
cumbent upon them to de¬ 
sign furniture. They had 
designed stately and pre¬ 
tentious rooms and had not 
found furniture sufficiently 
stately and pretentious to 
keep the environment in 
countenance. They forth¬ 
with set about remedying 
the shortcoming to the best 
of their abilities. Much of 
what they did possessed 
considerable excel¬ 
lence. This “architects’ 
furniture’’ was often cum¬ 
brous and heavy, and, in 
some cases, was actually at¬ 
tached to the wall. Book¬ 
cases, cabinets, china cup¬ 
boards, presses, wardrobes 
—any piece of wall furni¬ 
ture, in fact, came within 
the purview of architectu¬ 
ral design. The furniture designed by the 
architects so impressed an architectural 
stamp upon the cabinet-makers’ art that 
from thence onward pediments, pilasters, 
ornate capitals and sundry other features 
persisted with more or less constancy 
through the furniture design of succeeding 
epochs. Often it is strikingly evident. 
Enter Mahogany 
But a new cabinet wood was partly re¬ 
sponsible for this change of design and 
partly responsible, also, for the prevalence 
of white paint. This was mahogany. It 
was possible to execute work in mahogany 
that would have been im¬ 
possible in any preceding 
cabinet wood. Then, too, 
mahogany showed to much 
better advantage against a 
w bite background than 
against any other. The 
characteristics of this pe¬ 
riod, which have to be con¬ 
sidered in establishing prin¬ 
ciples o f correspondence 
are (1) its excessively ex¬ 
act and robust architectural 
mode which calls for em¬ 
phatic contour and well 
considered proportion i n 
furniture; (2) the compar¬ 
ative lack of small detail in 
the fixed woodwork, thus 
permitting wider freedom 
in the detail of furniture; 
(3) the prevalence of white 
or some light neutral color 
for woodwork and walls, 
supplying a foil for har¬ 
monious contrasts. 
While the furniture of 
the corresponding period of 
mobiliary development is 
full of interest, and fur¬ 
nishing schemes in which it 
is used are highly satisfactory if the char¬ 
acteristics of the background are kept in 
mind, one may utterly disregard period de¬ 
scriptions and furnish with perfect con¬ 
sistency while drawing individual pieces of 
equipment from various sources, for the 
early Georgian background permits a larger 
liberty of furniture adjustment than most 
preceding or subsequent types. Mahogany 
and walnut furniture of almost any of the 
18th Century types will prove satisfactory. 
So also will lacquer and likewise the painted 
furniture that was executed during the 18th 
and early 19th Century. Furniture of the 
better Empire type is acceptable, too. 
Architects’ Furniture 
A great deal more use might well be made 
of the painted and sometimes decorated 
“architects’ furniture,” either built-in or 
disengaged, already referred to. Satin- 
wood, maple, sycamore, and amboyna are 
also in order. As to oak, the contrast in 
color is unobjectionable but the contour and 
the character of the decorative detail are 
unsuitable save in some of the Cromwellian 
pieces with turned legs and comparatively 
plain surfaces. The possibilities in Conti¬ 
nental pieces are legion. It must be borne 
in mind, however, that while the early 
Georgian background is exceedingly flexible 
and tolerant of almost anything in color, it 
contains a rectangular emphasis, and the 
proportions of its decorative detail are apt 
to be robust, so that whatever furniture is 
used should neither display the excessive 
sinuosity and chromatic levity of French 
rococo modes nor lack visible substantial 
quality as do some of the slender, high¬ 
shouldered Sheraton forms whose attenu¬ 
ation better accords with Adam architec¬ 
tural manifestations. 
This, after all, is a problem in the com¬ 
parative values of scale, and worthy of 
careful attention on the part of those who 
would observe strict period proprieties. 
Early Georgian corner cup¬ 
board painted golden brown. 
Mouldings and cornice gilded 
