20 
House & Garden 
CELEBRATING THE DOWNEALL OF GOLDEN OAK 
And the Rediscovery of Mclntire and the Masters 
Who Lovingly Carved Wood for Interior Embellishment 
COSTEN FITZ-GIBBON 
P O\'ERTY stricken without 
knowing it! 
An anomalous condition, truly, 
for anyone to be in. All the 
same, a great portion of the 
public has been for a long time 
in this unfortunate state so far as 
one highly important resource of 
interior embellishment is con¬ 
cerned, namely, the use of ap¬ 
propriate carving to emphasize 
duly and to enhance the beauty 
of the wooden architectural fit¬ 
tings of our houses. 
An awakening to the diverse 
possibilities of this resource and 
its rediscovery, after a long and 
ill-deserved oblivion, should be 
as welcome as the unexpected 
finding of a ten-dollar bill in the 
pocket of an old unused coat. 
The finder of the windfall is 
naturally curious to know how 
he came to overlook the yellow 
back, and we likewise, if it is any 
satisfaction to us to account for 
our indifference through three 
generations or more to the claims 
of so valuable an architectural 
and decorative asset, may find 
our explanation by attributing 
the o\ersight to the pitiably 
jejune and numbed conceptions 
])revalent during the dark ages of 
the 19th Century with its nemesis 
of A^ictorbanality. Photo by Cousins 
When it occurred to the architectural 
mind in the foolish and fantastic ’80’s that 
there might be a field for interior wood 
carving, it was the very heyday of viciously 
An example of Samuel Mclntire’s work is found 
in “Oak Hill,” Peabody, 3Iass. Note the carviny 
of the trim of the fan light done after an Adam 
design 
crude ideals that complacently 
accepted Turkish cosy corners, 
window sashes bordered with 
alternate squares of red and blue 
crinkly glass, an infinitude of 
antimacassars and other kindred 
horrors. While those that wished 
to be credited with recherche 
taste glibly prattled an unctuous 
Ruskinian patter about beauty 
and sincerity, they nevertheless 
cheerfully approved the carving 
of golden oak woodwork, that 
was more taffy - colored than 
taffy, into gobby masses and 
seething details that resembled 
agglomerations of wriggling 
bacilli. This era of undigested 
atrocities cannot properly be 
considered a renaissance of 
carved ornament; it only dis¬ 
gusted those who learned bet¬ 
ter a few years later and 
thereby did endless harm to 
the cause of interior wood carv¬ 
ing as it should be. 
Meanwhile, designers and 
carvers, in what they fondly 
fancied the revival of an erst¬ 
while dormant art, rollicked and 
revelled in a veritable orgy of 
grotesque and incoherent adorn¬ 
ment which they loaded ui)on 
every mantel and banister that 
fell into their clutches. They 
splurged inordinately with their 
new-found resource, like a drunken sailor 
spending his earnings broadcast for the 
mere joy of spending, and their ])erform- 
ances had about as much grace as the vocal 
qarJrJWrJrJfJrJ- 
In the first phase of American carviyig 
the over-mantel panel and its decora¬ 
tions received important considera¬ 
tion, This is from Whitby Hall 
Geofifery Lucas, Architect 
Under the head of decorative wood¬ 
work come turned spindles, but only 
when the lines are as well designed 
as in this stairs grill 
Geoffery Lucas, Architect 
Reduced to a word, the beauty of the 
balustrade to the left is its proportion. 
Good lines are the first requisite of 
interior woodwork 
