House and Garden 
bad and this solely for the sake of change. His idea 
of design alternated between extravagant eccen¬ 
tricity of outline and profusion of ornament,—being 
apparently actuated by a vague feeling 
that he must offer variety, and not, as 
with the earlier workmen, with an in¬ 
tention of doing a particular thing 
with a particular reason. It was in 
such furniture as this that the dealer 
revelled, and not until the interest in 
antiques (which was of itself educa¬ 
tional), was widespread and the an¬ 
tique dealer was lured by the profits 
offered, into launching reproductions 
on the market under the guise of the 
“genuine antique”—and often very 
dishonest reproductions at that,—that 
the manufacturer saw his opportunity. 
America is charged with divorcing art 
from her everyday living, but the fur¬ 
niture manufacturer suspects that if 
it does it is from necessity and not 
from choice and with the courage of 
his convictions is feeling the public 
pulse for himself and determining its 
requirements as he sets about meet¬ 
ing them. 
The originals of the Georgian side 
and arm chairs shown here are now at Biltmore, 
N. C. There are six in all and they were a part of a 
Baltimore collection, Mr. Vanderbilt paying $14,500 
for them at a sale. I'hese reproductions are entirely 
accurate. Excellent reproductionsof the Field bed are 
to he had and this is one of the best. It is a type of 
hed found most generally in early New England 
houses, the quaint tester 
lending itself, as it does, 
to a gracef ul and effective 
treatment is very adapta¬ 
ble to a modern bedroom, 
d he originals of this type 
of bed usually show two 
carved posts and two 
plain — the head - posts 
being covered by the cur¬ 
tains, were often plain 
and uncarved,—a conces¬ 
sion of our thrifty ances¬ 
tors, no doubt, to econo¬ 
my of labor. In many of 
the best examples the 
posts are simply fluted. 
The Sheraton chair 
which is a particularly 
good example is now in St. Michael’s Church in 
Charleston, S. C., the Colonial corner chair is a re¬ 
production of the one in which Patrick Henry died 
with the exception of the seat which in the original. 
now in the State Library at Richmond, Va., is a 
flat, leather seat. The originals of the Chippendale 
chairs are in the Museum of Art in Dublin. 
There are factories in America 
where the plastic secrets of old de¬ 
sign are being used freely and wisely 
by artistic designers and there are 
factories where slavish reproductions 
of charming old models are being pro¬ 
duced,—a practice which is much 
safer than an effort at originality, 
though to discourage the former would 
be to discourage creative genius and 
it is just such effort that will sooner or 
later culminate in a national type of 
furniture. Such a type is most de¬ 
voutly to be hoped for: for after all 
it is rather a footless thing to have 
one’s house furnished as one of the 
Louises the Jameses or the Georges 
had theirs furnished if one had no 
other reason for using those types of 
furniture than that they had been used 
by them; for one’s dwelling should 
above all things be an expression 
of one’s individuality, of one’s 
thoughts and of one’s mode of living. 
Goethe says, in speakingof strict 
period decoration, “ One cannot praise the man who 
fits out the room in which he lives with these strange 
things. It is a sort of masquerade, which must 
have an unfavorable efl'ect on the man who adopts it. 
Such a fashion is in contradiction to the age we live 
in and will only confirm people in the empty and hol¬ 
low way of thinking and feeling wherein it originates.” 
I he tendency in Amer¬ 
ica to-day in house-dec¬ 
orating is distinctly to¬ 
ward a “modified pe¬ 
riod” treatment which 
gives scope for greater 
individuality; and in time, 
through the effort of the 
manufacturer to embody 
all the best of all tbe 
periods in their models, 
—and by the common 
usage of these modified 
types the American twen¬ 
tieth century types will 
be evolved. It is intended 
that this series ot papers 
shall give accurate de¬ 
scriptions and reliable 
prices of correct furnishings of the various rooms of 
the house which are likewise practical and artistic, 
and within a cost possible to the householder of 
moderate means. 
ADAM 
Sir Spencer Ponsonby Fane 
C'ollection, London 
LIBRARY TABLE 
Massive in Design, but Well Proportioned 
52 
