Chairs That Go Bump in the Night: Gothic Furniture, Part 3

Time to show you the last few delicious prints of Gothic furniture from my collection of prints from Ackermann’s Repository! Part 1 can be viewed here and Part 2 here... and here we go!

These Gothic Chairs give off a shabby chic vibe, don’t they?  According to the accompanying text (after a bit of pontificating about the nature and usefulness of chairs), “There are but few specimens of the furniture of the sixteenth century, remaining; those which once belonged to Cardinal Wolsey and a few others, now in the possession of his Majesty, are the only ones known to be extant; and even these are far from being pure in their details. They are executed in ebony, with ivory occasionally introduced in the heads of the figures, animals, &c. They are totally unfit for imitation, being clumsy in their design and very heavy. The use of chairs was hardly known to our ancestors, stools and benches being generally substituted in their place: so that in designing them for modern use, we must greatly deviate from their original character.”  All of which says, “we are totally making these designs up!” as far as I’m concerned...but they’re still a lot of fun. The chair at right in particular looks like the style of chair already in common fashion, with some Olde Gothicke decoration added in. (December 1826)

A similar confession accompanies the description of this Gothic Bookcase (exact date not known, but it was published in the first half of 1827). It reads, “The library now constitutes one of the principal apartments in the country-seats of our noblemen and gentlemen. No style can be better adapted for its decoration than that of the middle ages, which possesses a sedate and grave character, that incites the mind to study and reflection. The rays passing through its variegated casements cast a religious light upon the venerable tomes on either side, the beautiful arrangements of its parts combining to produce an impressive grandeur in the whole design. Every thing proclaims it an apartment consecrated to learning. All mansions, however, are not sufficiently capacious to admit of devoting a whole apartment to this purpose: bookcases have therefore been resorted to, which form a most excellent substitute; as, while fulfilling the purpose of a library, they form handsome pieces of furniture, which can be well applied in filling up recesses and other inequalities in a room.” So again, not so much a gothic bookcase as a bookcase in the gothic style...but no matter what, I wouldn’t mind a few of these...so long as I kept them on the bottom floor of my house!

Alas, I do not have the accompanying text for our last print from the July 1827 Ackermann’s Repository. It is labeled “Gothic Furniture” but is clearly a card table.  I love the areas for equally Gothic candlesticks at the table’s corners, the tracery on the table’s apron, and the legs modeled to look like cathedral windows—rather an amusing juxtaposition for a gaming table!

I hope you enjoyed our look at Ackermann’s ever-inventive Gothic furniture styles. Any favorite pieces?

Not So Shabby Chic?

More fun with 19^th century fashion prints. 😍

Although I mostly collect prints from Ackermann’s Repository and La Belle Assemblée, I have smaller collections of prints from other publications, including the Lady’s Magazine, the Ladies’ Monthly Museum, and the French Journal des Dames et des Modes, which was published in Paris between 1797 and 1839.  I especially love the prints from the 1830s from that last magazine—the fashion prints are wildly over the top: dresses with absolutely enormous bouffant sleeves and flowing skirts that seem to involve acres of fabric, often exuberantly printed, and millinery that would stop traffic...and they often include fun background props as well—like this particular print, from the August 5, 1833 edition (the magazine appeared every five days—!!)

Here is what I am guessing is an afternoon dress, something suitable for paying calls or shopping. The two ladies so animatedly chatting are wearing the same style; this tête-à-tête pose was often used to show the back and front of a dress. Here are the large gigot sleeves, full skirts, and large bonnets of the time, along with an elegant black lace scarf and pleated bodice.  But what grabbed my attention about this print was the furniture.

Check out the chair in the foreground: it’s a wooden armchair, covered with a fabric slipcover that’s right out of a “shabby chic” photo shoot! Maybe I’m just being silly, but for some reason this tickled me. To stay in keeping with the illustration, all I can say is, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...!*

*The more things change, the more they remain the same. ☺

Chairs That Go Bump in the Night, Part 2: More Gothic Furniture

Are you ready for more Gothic fashions for your home?

Of course, every well-appointed castle home needs a Gothic Flower Stand. As the accompanying text says, “Among the various decorations of modern apartments we can reckon none, perhaps, more pleasing than a flower-stand: it diversifies and enlivens the appearance of almost any room; and the odoriferous perfume proceeding from the flowers, and the beautiful appearance of their variegated hues, tend at once to delight and charm the senses. There is no style more appropriate for this sort of decoration than the gothic: its crockets, finials, foliage, pendants, &c. all flowing and pliable, seem to be a continuation of nature; while its open and fanciful traceries contribute to the lightness of the effect.” The text goes on to say that it cannot be determined if flower stands are “of any great antiquity”, but that any well-appointed modern home should have one...and now we know the Regency origin of this very popular Victorian style. (Ackermann’s Repository, August 1826)


The preoccupation with finding some link to the ancient past in the descriptions of furniture is noteworthy and more than a little amusing; somehow, linking the day’s furniture to the past somehow made it better (as we saw a few weeks back with the Gothic pianoforte.) In the text accompanying this illustration of Candelabras from September 1826’s Repository (which look like an ancestor of the floor lamp) the anonymous author discusses at length their use in Roman household décor and how they lend themselves to Gothic styling for modern “elegant furniture.” Gotta say, though, that the candelabra at right, complete with two tiers of flying buttresses, is just a tad on the silly side...


And speaking of Gothic pianofortes...another example, this time of an upright pianoforte complete with coverings of crimson silk to set off the brass and rosewood. The music stand, with its candles, is a re-imagining of an example found at King’s College in Cambridge, and the chair includes a screw seat that can be raised up and down at the convenience of the pianist.

The description of a Gothic Sofa in the November 1826 Repository is worth, I think, quoting in full: “The annexed plate represents a sofa in the Gothic style. This piece of furniture is comparatively of modern date, and undoubtedly of Eastern origin; but in adapting it to European customs, it has been found necessary to vary the decoration in some degree from that of the original model.

“In the Oriental countries a sofa is but little elevated from the floor, and consists of soft cushions covered with silk and other costly materials. Two of these are generally piled upon one another, and a third is placed against the wall to recline upon. These cushions are thus ranged round an apartment, and the heat of the climate renders them indispensible, either for public meetings or private assemblies. They are also well calculated for the sitting posture of the Eastern nations, which requires an easy couch. As none of these conveniences are adapted to the climate and customs of Europeans, the artist has been obliged to make some change from the original; so that the modern sofa presents quite a different appearance from its Oriental original: it nevertheless possesses a comfort which entitles it to rank among useful furniture. From its flowing and easy form, it is more calculated for the Italian than the Gothic style: the latter character has nevertheless been attempted to be given in the present design, which is composed from the best authorities in the florid style.”

And finally,  January 1827’s issue brings a Gothic upright moveable (see the little wheels?) Looking-glass, with a description containing familiar text about a looking-glass of this size being a luxury unknown to “our ancestors” but admirably adapted to the florid style...


Any favorites this time around? I just keep thinking of the poor maids who job it would be to keep this furniture dusted and polished...!

Chairs That Go Bump in the Night: Gothic Furniture, Part 1

Literature wasn’t the only thing that was influenced by the Gothic craze in 18^th and early 19^th century England.  Horace Walpole, who’d started the whole Gothic thing with The Castle of Otranto, built and decorated his home, Strawberry Hill in Twickenham as a sort of fairytale homage to the middle ages... and for the next hundred and fifty years or so, this fanciful style fell in and out of fashion.

Even the Prince Regent himself was caught up in the early nineteenth century’s “in” cycle of Gothic love: his splendid London home, Carlton House, featured Gothic rooms such as the cast iron and stained glass conservatory (and it is a serious downer that he decided to demolish Carlton House and focus instead on Buckingham Palace; the existing illustrations of it are amazing.)

Well, if it was good enough for Prinny, it was good enough for the rest of society...and our old friend Mr. Ackermann followed suit in The Repository with a series of illustrations of Gothic furniture, suitable for fashionable homes everywhere...even if your house wasn’t Strawberry Hill.

The series started in 1825, but the interest in Gothic decor was already well underway, as demonstrated by this State Bed from the September 1823 issue. The description is interesting: The authors who have written on the arrangement of furniture in olden times, have given to the common bed a width of six feet, and to state ones an altitude quite unknown to the present day, except as we see it exemplified in some of our very ancient mansions, whose chambers exhibit the four-post bedstead at from 20 to 30 feet in height.... The recurrence to such sources for designs of furniture for buildings in the Gothic style is to be desired, because they afford the means of assimilating them to such edifices, in accordance with the practices of the times which they are intended to imitate. 

Here we have an Episcopal Chair in The Repository's November 1825 issue (...the wood is of light oak with gilt mouldings, relieved by rich crimson velvet cushions and tassels. This chair may be introduced with propriety into a church, prelate's mansion, or an extensive library.) The Drawing-Room Chair...is light oak, and the mouldings gilt; the tracery should be filled up with velvet of the same colour as the room; perhaps it would be more appropriate if it were of rose-wood or cedar. And the Table for a Boudoir (can I pretty please have a boudoir some day?) is also of oak or rose-wood.

This Gothic Sofa (Ackermann, December 1825) would appear to be completely at home (so to speak) in a gothic novel, conveniently located, perhaps, for the beleaguered heroine to swoon onto... This piece of furniture, in which the modern form is preserved, is embellished according to the style of the 13th century; or rather the parts are adapted from Gothic tracery executed at that period, so as to combine the peculiar features of Gothic art with the form that is now considered to afford the best accommodation for its purpose.)

I do like the griffin-like beasts guarding the pedestal of this Gothic Table from March 1826, as well as the illuminated manuscripts and books so artfully displayed on its surface...because of course, doesn’t everyone just have to have a table like this to display their 14th century psalter collection? Somehow this plate really brings home that these plates are truly advertisements—that they are selling a "look" to which readers longing to be fashionable should aspire.

More delicious Gothic Chairs...I find the right-hand chair with the blue seat to be most interesting, as it marries aspects of the previously fashionable Classical influence with Gothic decoration. I think I'll skip the middle one, though, as it doesn’t look very comfortable. (The Repository, May 1926)

And to end on a high note (see what I did there? ☺) we have An Horizontal Grand Pianoforte (July 1826’s Repository). Even the editor who wrote the descriptive copy accompanying the plate is forced to recognize the irony of decorating a pianoforte, a relatively recent invention at the time, in the style of many centuries past: This instrument being totally unknown to our ancestors, and only invented within the last half century, we can merely decorate the given forms by traceries and other Gothic ornaments best calculated to assist the sound, and to fulfil the intent of the instrument.

I’ll post more Gothic furniture in coming weeks...which was your favorite?

A Hepplewhite by Any Other Name

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love research. While attending a conference, I heard something about historical furniture that startled and amazed me. So, of course, I had to poke into it and share it with you!

Three names made furniture from the late 1700s and early 1800s famous: Thomas Sheraton, Thomas Chippendale, and George Hepplewhite. We know where and when Sheraton and Chippendale were born, with whom they apprenticed, and where and when they died. Wonderful pieces from either still exist as cherished heirlooms or museum pieces. But George, well George is something of a mystery.

You see, we don’t know where precisely George was born, or the even the day and year. No master was quick to claim him as apprentice. We have only an approximate year when he died. And not one stick of furniture he designed still exists.

Instead, what we have is a guide of his designs published supposedly posthumously by his grieving widow. Alice Hepplewhite published The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide in 1788, with revisions in 1789 and 1790. The guide contains around 300 drawings, most allegedly by her husband, but as some sources note, George’s name is not included on the title page. Instead, Alice’s name graces over 175 of those drawings. She went on to run the establishment that supposedly had belonged to George. Some sources claim that records show her inheritance; others state the couple had four children. A cursory search failed to verify either claim.

So, was George merely a humble and quiet man who died too young for his genius to be appreciated? Or was Alice, in fact, the designer behind the furniture we still revere? It was a time when women frequently published under pseudonyms or generic titles such as “by a lady.” Could Alice have done the same?

Still, when all is said and done, if she was going to select a nom de plume, she might have chosen something other shorter and easier to spell than Hepplewhite. 

Retro Blast: Chair Amie

Here's a Retro Blast that will cleverly lead into a future post. We haven't seen the last of inventors named Mr. Pocock!

Of course, after telling you that we’re going to be branching out of the 19th century, here I am with another Ackermann picture and post. But can you blame me? Here, for your viewing pleasure, is Pocock’s Reclining Patent Chair, from the March 1813 issue of Ackermann's Repository:

The accompanying text reads: Our engraving this month represents an elegant fashionable fauteuil chair, upon Messrs. Pocock’s patent reclining principle, to incline the back to any position, with double reclining footstools, which slide from under the chair to extend it when the back is reclined to the length of a couch. A reading-desk is attached to the side, and contrived to swing round in front of the chair. The whole is designed with classical taste, in the present improved fashion of modern furniture, by the ingenious inventors, Messrs. Pocock’s, of Southampton-street, Covent-Garden.

I did a little research, and it seems that the Pocock company specialized in furniture for invalids, perhaps like some of these that we’ve seen recently. But in this case they put their know-how into a more mainstream piece of furniture...and oh, what a piece! The foot rest is retractable, probably tied in to the mechanism that reclines the back, so that the chair doesn’t necessarily take up all that much space...but the ornamentation! Those winged, pot-bellied lions in front are adorable...and the swiveling reading lectern is wonderful, if a tad precarious-looking perched as it is on the serpent’s coils. I wonder if any of these were actually built and sold by Messrs. Pocock?

 
Well, I totally know what I want for Christmas next year. ;) How about you?

Retro Blast: My Fantasy Library

Do your summer plans include some leisurely reading time and a visit to the library? If so, this post from 2013 might prove inspirational, at least for some serious summer daydreaming. Enjoy!

Some people fantasize about dream vacations. Others fantasize about jewelry or cars or sports teams. Me? I fantasize about the library I would love to have. It would look something like this—a room I was privileged to visit daily while in college— and I think I’d furnish it with the help of our friend Rupert Ackermann.

First, I’ll need many of these Gothic Bookcases (Ackermann’s Repository, 1827) lining the room to hold my books. The glass doors will help keep dust at bay...but I’ll cheat and put UV-filtering glass in to further protect my treasures (which will, of course, include a complete collection of first editions of all of Georgette Heyer’s books):

To reach the top shelves, a few Metamorphic Library Chairs might be handy: the seat and top hinge over forward, creating a handy ladder to scurry up while searching for the right book (July 1811):

Then again, I could also store some of my books (I think there will have to be a complete set of Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey books as well) in this delightful Circular Moveable Bookcase (March 1810):

I’ll definitely need a comfy place to sit and read...like maybe in this Gothic Sofa (December 1825):

Or one of these Gothic Chairs, looking very throne-like but probably not very comfortable (November 1825):

Reading isn’t the only thing I’ll do in my fantasy library...I’ll be writing, of course! Maybe at one of these Cabinet Globe Writing Tables--how much fun are these?! (February 1810):

Or at this slightly more conventional writing table (January 1810):

Though this Secretaire Bookcase (September 1822) is also pretty awesome, as well as having room to store more books:

How about you? Do you have a room of your own you like to dream about? What would you furnish it with?

Chair Amie

Of course, after telling you that we’re going to be branching out of the 19th century, here I am with another Ackermann picture and post. But can you blame me?

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is Pocock’s Reclining Patent Chair, from the March 1813 issue of Ackermann's Repository:

The accompanying text reads: Our engraving this month represents an elegant fashionable fauteuil chair, upon Messrs. Pocock’s patent reclining principle, to incline the back to any position, with double reclining footstools, which slide from under the chair to extend it when the back is reclined to the length of a couch. A reading-desk is attached to the side, and contrived to swing round in front of the chair. The whole is designed with classical taste, in the present improved fashion of modern furniture, by the ingenious inventors, Messrs. Pocock’s, of Southampton-street, Covent-Garden.

I did a little research, and it seems that the Pocock company specialized in furniture for invalids, perhaps like some of these that we’ve seen recently. But in this case they put their know-how into a more mainstream piece of furniture...and oh, what a piece!

The foot rest is retractable, probably tied in to the mechanism that reclines the back, so that the chair doesn’t necessarily take up all that much space...but the ornamentation! Those winged, pot-bellied lions in front are adorable...and the swiveling reading lectern is wonderful, if a tad precarious-looking perched as it is on the serpent’s coils. I wonder if any of these were actually built and sold by Messrs. Pocock?

Well, I totally know what I want for Christmas next year. ;) How about you? 

My Fantasy Library

Some people fantasize about dream vacations. Others fantasize about jewelry or cars or sports teams. Me? I fantasize about the library I would love to have. It would look something like this—a room I was privileged to visit daily while in college— and I think I’d furnish it with the help of our friend Rupert Ackermann.

First, I’ll need many of these Gothic Bookcases (Ackermann’s Repository, 1827) lining the room to hold my books. The glass doors will help keep dust at bay...but I’ll cheat and put UV-filtering glass in to further protect my treasures (which will, of course, include a complete collection of first editions of all of Georgette Heyer’s books):

To reach the top shelves, a few Metamorphic Library Chairs might be handy: the seat and top hinge over forward, creating a handy ladder to scurry up while searching for the right book (July 1811):

Then again, I could also store some of my books (I think there will have to be a complete set of Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey books as well) in this delightful Circular Moveable Bookcase (March 1810):

I’ll definitely need a comfy place to sit and read...like maybe in this Gothic Sofa (December 1825):

Or one of these Gothic Chairs, looking very throne-like but probably not very comfortable (November 1825):

Reading isn’t the only thing I’ll do in my fantasy library...I’ll be writing, of course! Maybe at one of these Cabinet Globe Writing Tables--how much fun are these?! (February 1810):

Or at this slightly more conventional writing table (January 1810):

Though this Secretaire Bookcase (September 1822) is also pretty awesome, as well as having room to store more books:

How about you? Do you have a room of your own you like to dream about? What would you furnish it with?

Fetch the Comfy Chair!

You’ve probably all noticed that most of the fashion prints I post in Fashion Forecasts are from Ackermann’s Repository, that splendidly illustrated journal of early 19th century culture and fashion. But along with the lovely depictions of fashion in each month’s issue, Rudolph Ackermann published many other plates: scenery from abroad as well as solidly English country houses, the latest in carriages, depictions of royal residences, and frequently, over the course of the magazine’s twenty year history, images of fashionable furniture. Paid advertising as we know it didn’t exist in the journals of the day, but furniture-makers hoping for a little free exposure must have flocked to Mr. A, hoping he’d depict one of their products in the Repository along with a flattering write-up.

One of my favorite prints of this type is this one, from the September 1810 edition: Library Reading Chairs.

Here’s the accompanying text:

PLATE 15: FASHIONABLE FURNITURE Our engraving this month exhibits two of the most convenient and comfortable library chairs perhaps ever completed. Each of them has become a favourite piece of furniture for the library, boudoir, and other apartments of the nobility and gentry. The first (on the left-hand side of the plate) is made of mahogany, or any other wood; the back, seat, and sides caned, with French stuffed cushions and covers; the arms corresponding; a movable desk and candlestick, affording every possible accommodation for reading, writing, &c. The whole chair is of itself completely comfortable.

The second is a more novel article, but equally convenient and pleasant: gentlemen either sit across, with the face toward the desk, contrived for reading, writing, &c. and which, by a rising rack, can be elevated at pleasure; or, when its occupier is tired of the first position, it is with the greatest ease turned around in a brass groove, to either one side or the other; in which case, the gentleman sits sideways. The circling arms in either way form a pleasant easy back, and also, in every direction, supports for the arms. As a proof of their real comfort and convenience, they are now in great sale at the ware-rooms of the inventors, Messrs. Morgan and Saunders, Catherine-street, Strand.

I want both of them! How about you?

Speaking of comfy chairs for reading...I’m happy to report that the paperback version of Courtship and Curses makes its appearance today, from Square Fish, Macmillan Children’s paperback imprint. For an excerpt and notes about the book, please follow the links to my website. And for ordering info, check Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indiebound, Powell's, or the Book Depository.  Enjoy!