November, 1916 
35 
While architecturally Adam, the room is 
furnished consistently but not strictly: 
Adam mirror. Hepplewhite chair and 
sofa , tables of Dutch marqueterie; clock 
and small mantel ornaments arc French 
Another view of the Adam room opposite. 
Empire type chair is painted black with 
gold decoration; the chest of drawers is a 
Dutch piece of burr walnut veneer. The 
door trim placque is of blue Wedgeivoocl 
Empire furniture in a room tcith Classic 
Revival physical characteristics: mantel 
of blue mottled marble; built-in bookcase 
of Empire lines painted deep cream; 
cream colored Empire chairs 
honestly — the Adam 
age was a period of 
refinement of con¬ 
tour, slenderness of 
proportion, polished 
elegance of design 
and delicacy of color- 
i n g. Furthermore, 
the Brothers Adam 
brought into English 
architecture a n d 
decorative art both a 
blithesome joyousness 
and a genial formality 
that had not been 
there before. It will 
help our analysis of 
the presence of these 
qualities if we re¬ 
member that “straight 
lines suggest formal¬ 
ity as well as sim¬ 
plicity and favor a 
formal arrangement” 
and, still further, that 
“the straight line is 
stimulating and gives 
the impression of 
rapidity because it is 
that which the eye 
follows most rapidly, and this impression 
is more vivid as the line becomes thinner 
and longer.” In short, straight structural 
lines and attenuated proportions played no 
small part in the make-up of the spirit of 
Adam design and dominated what we may 
call not inappropriately “the age of the 
drawing room.” 
Taking it for granted that the reader is 
fairly familiar with the characteristic fea¬ 
tures of the Adam mode of architectural 
expression both in the lines of structure 
and in the particulars of such decorative 
detail as spandrel fans, ovals, pendant 
husks, rams’ heads, swags and drops of 
flowers, fruits and leaves or of drapery, 
Mcllor & Meigs, architects 
This is the opposite end of the room shown directly above. The falling front mahogany 
secretary at right is an excellent Empire piece. The Sheraton writing cabinet in front 
of the bookcase is the only piece of furniture not of Empire type 
urns, headings and pearlings, paterae, me¬ 
dallions and similar devices, it will be to 
the purpose to point out that furniture de¬ 
signed by the Brothers Adam or under the 
influence of the style they had created 
echoed architectural precedents in contour, 
proportions, the composition of structural 
features and the items of decorative design. 
Naturally enough, then, such furniture was 
thoroughly in keeping with its architectural 
background, almost too much so at times 
when a little more variety might have been 
acceptable. The resemblance was every 
bit as close as it had been between the oak 
panelled rooms of the Stuart period and 
the carved and panelled oak furniture with 
which they were 
equipped. It will also 
be remembered that 
the furniture de¬ 
signed by the great 
mobiliary masters of 
the period during 
which the Adam in¬ 
fluence was para¬ 
mount — H e p p 1 c- 
white, Shearer and 
Sheraton with a few 
lesser contemporaries 
—reflected all t h e 
characteristics to 
which attention has 
been called in the 
architecture and fur¬ 
niture whose design 
is to be directly at¬ 
tributed to the per¬ 
sonal agency of the 
Adelphi, modified and 
adapted, to be sure, 
according to individ¬ 
ual bias and the 
promptings of fertile 
invention, but unmis¬ 
takable as to the 
source of its original 
inspiration under the craftsman's hand. 
It will not be necessary, therefore, to 
point out the appropriateness of using fur¬ 
niture of Adam, Hepplewhite, Shearer or 
Sheraton design against an architectural 
background of Adam provenance or against 
a background whose designer has been in¬ 
spired by Adam principles, for it would be 
nothing but furnishing a period room in a 
straight period style. And it is an easy 
enough matter to do that correctly; it is 
merely an achievement of mobiliary arch¬ 
aeology and the task makes no special de¬ 
mands upon discriminating judgment or 
originality. But a knowledge of principles 
(Continued on page 54) 
