20 
House & Garden 
MORALS AND REPRODUCTIONS 
S OME people have a deplorable habit of troubling the serene spheres 
of art with questions of morality that belong to an entirely differ¬ 
ent world. 
By persuading a whole generation that Gothic was in some way more 
moral than Palladian architecture, Ruskin was responsible for the build¬ 
ing of countless mid-Victorian houses, with arched doors, stained glass 
windows and meaningless little turrets stuck onto the roof. 
The high moral tone is still with us, still affects what should be 
purely esthetic judgments. 
In London gentlemen wax nobly indignant about the dome of St. 
Paul’s, asserting that it is a piece of bad art, because it is a false dome, 
not constructed according to the improved antique method. In New 
York there are even some pious souls who look askance upon the new 
generation of office buildings and think there is something immoral in 
adapting cathedral Gothic to commercial structures. 
Still another race of moralists today pine for everything to be made 
by hand, on the ground that manual labor, unassisted by machinery, is 
so good for the soul. 
T HERE is no artistic question into which these mistaken people 
will not intrude their irrelevant ethical considerations. They pro¬ 
test, always on the highest moral principles, against the modern repro¬ 
duction of ancient works of art. Forgery is a criminal offence; servile 
imitation is degrading to the imitator; modern craftsmen should work 
out modern designs, if they would save their souls. And so on and so 
on. But these Salvationist doctrines have 
very little to do with the problem. 
Forgery is certainly criminal, but avowed 
reproduction is not forgery. As for the 
other considerations, we all agree that it is 
bad for an artist of individual talent to 
imitate what has been done before. But 
the competent handicraftsman can do much 
worse than copy what fine artists of the past 
have created. Totally incapable of creat¬ 
ing anything beautiful of his own, he may 
have all the technical skill required for re¬ 
producing somebody else s conception of 
loveliness. 
If the creators of art nouveau commer¬ 
cial statuary had devoted their attention to 
reproducing Renaissance bronzes instead of 
to the invention of the most horrible forms 
ever conceived in the human mind, the 
world would be an appreciably less ugly 
place than it is. If the French creators of 
modernist decoration had devoted them¬ 
selves to reproducing the most livable of 
their French periods, Parisian interiors in 
the modern style would not be so much like 
nightmares. But they would have lost their 
souls in the process, the moralists protest. 
To which one can only reply that one really 
doesn’t much care. 
be almost as satisfying as the original and will possess this advantage 
over it, that it may be used, while the original can only be .looked at. 
A piece of silver locked up in a case is a melancholy object, barren of 
usefulness. Silver should be used, handled, seen at every meal. Its beauty 
is essentially an intimate, everyday beauty. Reproduction allows one to 
take that beauty out of the glass case and bring it into regular use. 
Or consider that vast range of furniture from which period reproduc¬ 
tions are made. In the article with which this issue of House & Garden 
opens, Mr. Bach explains the various classifications of antiques and 
antiquing and surveys the present condition of reproduction in furniture. 
This article serves to catalog for us some of the legends and practices 
of the furniture trade with which the layman should be acquainted. 
Set down briefly, the situation is this—so long,as the furniture dealer 
tells the truth about his reproductions and modern “antiques,’ no one 
can object from the commercial point of view. But one can very much 
object to faking from the esthetic point of view, especially to alleged 
modern improvements on well-established, old designs. 
The finest makers of furniture today make no effort to insult the in¬ 
telligence of their patrons; they are content to reproduce old lines, some¬ 
times use old wood, and still say frankly that the piece is new. 
HAT we must all fight against—maker, dealer and consumer 
w 
v T alike—are the modern touches. Take an obvious case. I he 
name “Colonial” is promiscuously applied to almost anything made up 
in mahogany or mahoganized birch. Not that Grand Rapids and 
Jamestown are not making excellent repro¬ 
ductions of genuine Colonial pieces, but 
there is an appalling amount of sham, al 
leged “Colonial” furniture being sold to 
unsuspecting Americans every day. 
Imitators have altered the original style 
with such ruthlessness that what was ele¬ 
gant, graceful and well-proportioned in the 
original, has become utterly monstrous. 
Dimensions are altered in such a way that 
original proportions are ruined, ornaments 
are senselessly misplaced. The copy is still 
vaguely “Colonial,” but Colonial with a 
difference—what a difference! 
If you are not acquainted with Colonial 
line and detail in furniture, look it up- be¬ 
fore you buy; and when you come to buy, 
guarantee yourself an honest treatment by 
patronizing reputable dealers. 
I 
NTO 
reproductions 
What makes 
T HE case for the reproduction and 
imitation of old models is perfectly 
straightforward, and has nothing to do with 
these ethical considerations. 
Certain objects of antique art are of such 
exquisite beauty that we would like to 
possess them. Their rarity, however, makes 
it impossible for anyone but the very rich to buy them. Are we, then, 
to be totally deprived of these objects of beauty just because we happen 
to be only moderately affluent? Certainly not. If we cannot afford the 
antique with its exaggerated scarcity value, we can afford the modern 
copy or reproduction. 
If the reproduction gives us the pleasure we derive from the original, 
that is all that is required. The reproduction is justified by our own 
esthetic satisfaction. 
What we require of copies and imitations is that they shall be faith¬ 
ful. Too often the imitation is little more than a travesty of the 
original. How often one sees recognizable imitations of old styles in 
silverware, for example, that are no more than caricatures of the 
original. A change of curve, an extra adornment—and the old beauty 
and grace are no more. 
The satisfactory reproduction is the closest possible copy, made as 
far as possible by the same processes as the original. Such a copy will 
DOTTED SWISS 
Too little regard is paid to the possibilities of 
lace, net and dotted Swiss for curtaining for city 
rooms. Here simple dotted Swiss is made up 
with ruffled edges and a. flounced valance. John 
Hamilton, 
decorator 
this problem of 
comes another question, 
an antique? 
Mere age and the fact that a master hand 
created the original design are not suffi¬ 
cient warrant to guarantee beauty and 
justify reproduction. 
The master designers of old nodded at 
times just as much as some of our furniture 
designers do today. There are designs in 
Chippendale’s “The Gentleman and Cabi¬ 
net-Maker’s Directory” that, had they been 
executed, would have detracted from Chip¬ 
pendale's reputation appreciably. 
To every age and to every man of great 
artistic achievement are attributed objects 
of art that are esthetically questionable. 
They were bad art then, they would be bad art today. 
When we reproduce the art of the past, let us at least treat the past 
intelligently and reproduce only that which is good. 
T HE best advice one can give those who seek the reproduction of 
antiques is to avoid the declining stages of any art period. In 
these one finds either decadence or the dissolution of those fine elements 
that gave the periods and its products character and claim to historic 
position and appreciation. When reproductions are made, let us either 
faithfully reproduce the old designs that were good, or else reproduce 
in modern designs the spirit of a fine era. 
It almost always follows that when we find a revival which is at all 
worth considering, it has chosen the finest designs of the past or crystal- I 
ized in modem designs the very best technique and spirit of the ancient 
period. This is as applicable to furniture as it is to porcelain, as true 
of silver as it is to tables and chairs. 
