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From the early years of the twentieth century until well into the 1930s Paris was the epicentre of a design movement that aimed to redefine the decorative arts in a very modern and particularly French way. The passing of time has done nothing to diminish its allure. Chris Yeo delves deeper.
Now, as we know, the French have a long and proud history in the decorative arts – they virtually invented the idiom – but, more than any other, there’s one style that encapsulates le style Francais. You might know it as Art Deco. The French called it Moderne. Ah, Art Deco. Just mention it and images of sleek ocean liners, peopled by impossibly beautiful characters wearing Cartier jewels and sipping Manhattan cocktails spring to mind. Or maybe it’s the futuristic styling of Max Sterm’s Metropolis or even the gaudy delights of the Odeon cinema – those streamlined and chrome-plated ‘peoples’ palaces’ that brought Hollywood glamour to the depression-ravaged masses of the 1930s. Art Deco emerged as a style for the new century and an ever-changing, fast-paced world of motor cars, air travel, flappers, and syncopated jazz. It’s the style of the Chrysler building, of the Zigfeld Follies and, as it happens, Victoria Coach Station; an intoxicating mix that continues to beguile us as much as it did in the Roaring Twenties.
Has there ever been a style more luxurious, glamorous, more imitated and, perhaps, less understood? Let’s start with the name. ‘Art Deco’ was actually only first coined in the late 1960s as a sort of two-hander to Art Nouveau which had preceded it. Also, far from being a single recognisable style, there were, in fact, many different strands, depending on when and where it popped up.
Italy, Sweden and, of course, America all had their own particular ‘takes’ on it. But nowhere did the style emerge more coherently than in France. Many books will tell you that Art Deco first surfaced at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the world expo held in Paris in 1925. Except that it didn’t. The Moderne style actually began to appear in France much earlier, around 1910 and was well into its stride by the time of the exhibition.
So, having de-bunked a couple of myths, let’s look at what is it that makes French Art Deco, sorry, Moderne, so distinctive. It’s all down to time and place. The French interpretation of the style was extremely luxurious, relying on rare and exotic materials like Macassar, ebony, lacquer, shagreen and mother-of-pearl, to give a sheen of glamour. As the centre of the world’s luxury goods market, Parisian designers were well-placed to take advantage of the readiness of these materials and could also draw on the world-leading expertise that Parisian craftsmen had in working them.
So much for place, as for time, le Style Moderne sought inspiration not from the modern industrial world, instead, it looked back in time to the world of Marie Antoinette and the French aristocracy. For a style so synonymous with the twentieth century, the French Moderne style is firmly rooted in the grand traditions of the 18th Century ancien régime – the political and social system of France before the revolution of 1789 – and its time-honoured traditions of apprenticeship and guild training.
During the 18th Century, France established itself in the forefront of the luxury trades, producing furniture, porcelain, glass, metalwork and textiles of unsurpassed refinement and elegance with Paris becoming the style capital of the western world. The ebenistes of Paris became the acknowledged masters of furniture making in Europe, supplying the homes and chateaux of the French court and aristocracy.
Some of the most beautiful and refined furniture ever made, displaying the highest level of artistic and technical ability, was created in Paris during the eighteenth century. Rather than breaking with tradition, the great designers of the 1920s saw themselves as inheritors of a grand tradition stretching back over two centuries. Tradition, however, was not the only source of inspiration. So too were the exotic, avant-garde trends in the fine arts and fashion. The vogue for exoticism developed following the arrival in Paris of the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev and his dance troupe, the Ballets Russes, in 1909, with its wildly atmospheric and outré productions. Léon Bakst’s design for Schéhérezade (1910), for example, featured lavish orientalist sets and costumes. The unexpected colour combinations, vivid patterns and louche furnishings – billowing curtains, low-slung divans, piles of tasselled pillows – were immediately imitated in stylish interiors by Paris artist-decorators.
Paris in the 1920s had an abundance of places where objects in the Moderne style were sold and displayed, mostly galleries, showrooms and shops on the more voguish Right Bank of the city centre. What were called Ensemblier showrooms, such as those of Emille-Jacques Ruhlmann, Süe et Mare and Martine, not only displayed individual pieces for sale but presented fully furnished interiors that suggested the range of what the ensemblier could produce on commission. At the more accessible end of the market, the four big Paris department stores established specialised decorating departments and many speciality shops, including Jean Luce, La Crémaillère and Le Grand Dépôt, which sold a wide range of glass, ceramics, linens and other utilitarian and decorative goods. It was as if Moderne had entered the DNA of the French capital.
For those in search of the Moderne style, Paris is, of course, a mere hop and skip over the channel but for a taste of the style that’s a little closer to home, Eltham Palace near Greenwich is a capsule of 1930s Parisian-inspired sophistication. Stephen and Virginia Courtauld of the eponymous textiles dynasty bought Eltham with its semi-ruined medieval Great Hall, moat and bridge, and rebuilt it as a dazzlingly sophisticated semi-rural hideaway. The saloon is a vast Moderne interior, lined with Australian black bean wood panelling, topped with a dome and finished off with a vast, circular, abstract carpet, the effect is like entering the First Class Lounge of a 1930s liner. Not that everyone felt that at the time: one editorial in The Times likened it to a cigarette factory.
The stock market crash of 1929 saw the optimism of the 1920s gradually decline. By the mid-1930s, Art Deco was being derided as a gaudy, false image of luxury. Despite its demise, however, Art Deco made a fundamental impact on subsequent design. Art Deco's widespread application and enduring influence prove that its appeal is based on more than visual allure alone.
Vive la France!
Click here to visit our lookbook 'Iconic Geometry' for our take on an Art Deco inspired interior.
Or click here to shop our full collection of Art Deco pieces.
"That's the beauty of garden design in a way. Longevity is there in the plan and the structure and everything else changes all the time - whether you want it to or not." Legendary duo Isabel and Julian Bannerman are garden designers by appointment to The Prince of Wales. Their accolades include the majestic gardens at Highgrove, Trematon Castle and Houghton Hall. We had the privilege of asking Isabel about all things garden design.
The beautiful gardens at Trematon Castle, Cornwall
Q: You left Trematon Castle in Cornwall in 2019, having transformed its landscape. What different gardening concerns come with a coastal setting?
A: Well, wind is the main one. It was very windy! You have to adopt a trial and error approach. We plant euphorbias and they literally blow out of the ground, so it’s a matter of seeing what will stay put. Because Trematon was a castle it was surrounded by walls and that makes it worse because the wind forms eddies and currents. It was a dramatic but lovely setting.
We used to stay at Arundel Castle when we were working there. They don’t have any central heating upstairs so you have to have a wood fire in your bedroom which is really romantic and lovely.
Q: Your third book is coming out soon. What will we learn?
A: Our first book was about our work - lots of people didn't actually know what we did all day. Our second book was about making the garden at Trematon and scent. The third, this book, is basically an anthology of smell literature. It also offers a lot of science about scent and pollination.
The Walled Garden at Houghton Hall, Norfolk
Q: Having worked on so many iconic houses all over the country, does any one in particular hold a special place in your memory?
A: We’d always loved Houghton before we even got to work there, so that was very exciting. Architecturally it is fabulous. Also, we used to stay at Arundel Castle when we were working there. They don’t have any central heating upstairs so you have to have a wood fire in your bedroom which is really romantic and lovely – so Arundel sticks in my mind.
Q: Working and living together with Julian, do you ever disagree on designs for a project? How do you overcome that?
A: *laughs* we have LOADS of disagreements. I mean it’s part of the process actually. I think it’s the reason we are quite good value for money in some ways. We argue things through a lot, so presumably the ultimate solution is the best because one of us has given in to the other!
Q: So, do you have quite different styles?
A: On one level not at all. But on another level… I’m much more environmentally concerned. I’m much more organic than Julian. We're of slightly different generations, he’s ten years older than I am and I think that makes a difference. Also, he’s probably braver. You know, he’s just that much more confident.
Q: On that note, how do you think the approach to garden design is going to evolve in light of environmental concerns in the near future?
A: Oh, I think a lot. I hope there will be a lot less mowing of everything. It has already started though, in Hyde Park they changed that in the 90s. I think the industry has got to change, plants are like cheap clothes at the moment- throwaway things.
We did this courtyard on Hertford Street that's a bit like the Sir John Soane museum - lots of plaster casts on the wall and a fireplace and stuff. We’ve actually done several gardens in London like that. They’re more like outdoor rooms.
Q: You design some huge grounds for your projects. For those with smaller city or town gardens, is it possible to bring grander features into a smaller space? Or is a completely different approach necessary from the get-go?
A: It is different, obviously. We did this courtyard on Hertford Street that's a bit like the Sir John Soane museum - lots of plaster casts on the wall and a fireplace and stuff. We’ve actually done several gardens in London like that. They’re more like outdoor rooms. That works very well in smaller gardens which are basically an extension of the house. But that’s what we’re trying to do in the big gardens too – make places for people to live in. This is sometimes more difficult in a big garden if anything.
A courtyard garden on Hertford Street in London, designed by the Bannermans.
Q: With grand country house gardens, do you bear in mind their interiors and the social and historical context when planning the garden design?
A: They’re definitely integrated. It’s all about how the garden and the house connect and how you live in those two spaces. It’s changing a lot, I find it a bit sad that everybody now wants to turn a barn into something else. Personally, I like lost dusty places to stay like that. There’s a bit of a compulsion to convert everything into something.
Q: How do you ensure longevity in garden design? How do you know what is right for the client now will be right in ten years? It's certainly a big element in interior design...
A: Well, it’s different with gardens in that they go on getting better if they are well-designed. That's the beauty of garden design in a way. Longevity is there in the plan and the structure and everything else changes all the time - whether you want it to or not. Gardens are constantly evolving. But you do want to get the basics, those bones, right from the beginning.
Q: I know you're fond of an obelisk... when it comes to garden ornaments, are there certain garden features that you come back to time and time again - no matter what the setting is?
A: Sort of, yes. Big coppers and big planters are generally always good… Sorry, my mind is flooding with things I don’t like! We always keep an eye out for nice benches and coppers. Strange planters are usually a good thing. We don’t like statues *laughs*, they’re mostly pretty awful.
Q: What will we find you and Julian doing when you are doing nothing to do with gardens at all?
A: Ooo. I suppose we drink and eat a lot! We like visiting churches and architecture. We read a lot. Going to antiques shops is another big pastime of ours.
Isabel's latest book, 'The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing,' will be published next month.
Inspired by the majestic landscapes created by the Bannermans? Shop our garden antiques.
Read all of our Q&As on L-Shaped.
The outdoors provides enormous pleasure for many of us. Throughout the last year or so of lockdowns, we have never appreciated these spaces more. Whether your canvas is a city balcony, a suburban courtyard, or a rolling landscape garden, garden antiques bring texture and interest.
Seeking Arcadia
Gardens, in their private and public capacities, have existed in some form since the ancient world. Their uses have evolved, of course, from the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon to modern sculpture gardens. However, at their essence gardens have always been a space for beauty, relaxation, solitude, and worship.
Various developments have transformed gardens over the years. Urban planning descended on Europe in the 17th Century, and cultivated gardens were seen as a way of regulating nature. By the 19th Century, demand for public outdoor spaces gave rise to more and more furniture, including the humble park bench. Industrialisation played a huge role, and the mass production of materials like cast-iron brought about a wide range of garden features.
Despite these common developments throughout Europe, countries across the continent developed their own unique approaches to gardens. Much of our collection of outdoor antiques originates from France and England, and these countries had quite different takes on the ‘garden’ concept.
Jardin à Françoise
The formal gardens at Versailles, designed by André le Nôtre.
The French garden style is a majestic feat of design and engineering. Symmetry, cohesion, and straight lines typify the Jardin à Françoise and this formality still characterises French gardens today. The Sun King, Louis XIV, commissioned what would become the pinnacle of French gardens. The extraordinary and vast gardens at Versailles exemplify the formal French style.
Versailles was executed by André le Nôtre, principal gardener to the King of France. Le Nôtre was not only faced with a dull and uninspiring landscape but also a capricious and unpredictable master. This makes the end result all the more impressive.
Taming nature
Indeed, Louis XIV wanted his chateau and their gardens to reflect his total dominance over everything- nature included. André le Nôtre took this brief and ran with it, and his name is synonymous with the apex of French garden design. He began work on Versailles in 1662, and it would take him until the end of the century to finish his project. The design focussed on subordinating nature whilst also appreciating its natural beauty. Gardeners manipulated water into over 50 water features, including fountains, pools, and canals. Similarly, endless topiaries are tamed into neat aesthetic shapes which give the overall look a mesmerising cohesion.
Despite the scale of gardens like Versailles, French gardeners wanted the beholder to appreciate certain features in the landscape. French gardens were designed to highlight a centerpiece, which is often the château or house. They were intended to be viewed from a distance so that nothing is obscured and your eyes are trained to the main attraction. Symmetry and geometry allow for this focus whilst also giving the impression of endless depth and scale. This is the magical paradox at the heart of the Jardin à Françoise.
The English landscape movement
The Temple of Ancient Virtue on Elysian Fields at Stowe, Buckinghamshire.
Across the pond, Britain followed in the footsteps of their counterparts on the continent for a while. In the 17th Century, gardeners adopted a similarly magnificent and grand approach. In particular, the reign of William and Mary saw an overhaul of the gardens at Hampton Court to incorporate features inspired by the Dutch and French, including the Great Maze. When Charles II ascended to the throne, he asked André le Nôtre to oversee the designs for Greenwich Park in London.
But the style didn’t find permanence in England like it did in France. In the 18th Century, there was a groundswell against formal landscape gardening. The French style mirrored an absolutist monarchical government, and British sentiment was leaning away from this. In Horace Walpole’s 1750s essay The History of the Modern Taste in Garden, he captures this attitude clearly. He describes Britain as, ‘an Empire of Freemen, an Empire formed by Trade, not by a military conquering Spirit, maintained by the valour of independent Property.’ He goes on to champion a new natural garden style, that he claimed the English had invented.
Much of the inspiration behind this new natural landscape garden came from art as well as politics. Romantic paintings depicted landscapes that were much more natural than English gardens at the time. The growing desire for something freer, something less prescribed, led to a gardening revolution.
Kent's revolution
One name is heavily attached to the new approach: William Kent. Kent already had a reputation for his prowess with classical architecture, and he began to incorporate the classical Arcadian feel into gardens. Chiswick House is often described as having the first ‘natural’ garden, designed by Kent under the direction of his mentor Lord Burlington. The gardens offer sloping lawns, a serpentine lake, and a rustic waterfall. Clipped hedges and heavily formulaic gardening are notably absent.
Kent’s name is also attached to the stunning landscapes at Rousham House, Stowe, and Badminton House amongst others. Classical buildings, such as temples and monuments, sprung up in his gardens. In his essay, Horace Walpole delights in the way Kent ‘leaped the fence, and saw that all nature was a garden.’
Structured informality
The revolution did not begin and end with Kent, and many consider Lancelot Brown as Britain’s most prolific country garden designer. His nickname, 'Capability Brown,' comes from his oft-repeated phrase that a site had great ‘capability’ for improvement. Despite early collaborations between the two, Brown moved Kent’s style on in the face of new commercial and practical factors. For example, the rise in hunting birds with guns demanded more areas of cover in the landscape and Brown incorporated clusters of trees into open spaces. He did, however, share Kent’s fondness for buildings in the classical style. Brown's landscapes were peppered with rotundas, temples, and monuments- his Grecian Valley at Stowe is most notable.
It was Brown who truly codified the natural landscape garden. He worked at over 250 sites and had the majority of the House of Lords on his client list. It is important to note that this revolution was never about doing away with design completely. In fact, meticulous planning is behind every great English landscape garden- you just cannot tell.
Conversations with the past
Whilst different countries evolved their own approaches to gardening, they also produced beautiful furniture and statuary elements to adorn their landscapes. Royals and nobles raced to keep up with fashions across the continent and source beautiful garden statues and sculptures. Stone has always been very popular, and the rich also commissioned marble and cast lead pieces.
Genuine 17th and 18th Century examples of these items are hard to come by and often very expensive. But in the 19th and 20th Centuries makers reproduced many popular styles with great results. These pieces often appear older than they are because of years of exposure to the elements.
French foundries produced some of the finest iron furniture. The town of Arras in northern France produced reams of wrought iron pieces in the 19th Century. This durable yet very pretty garden furniture is still highly sought after today. The organic curves of an Arras piece will bring texture and whimsical appeal to any garden setting. Val D'Osne was one of the most prolific cast iron art foundries, producing everything from street furniture to majestic statues. England has an enormous legacy of makers who crafted iconic designs. Work by the likes of Coade, Coalbrookdale, and Pulham & Sons is still coveted today and can be seen at many prominent sights around Britain.
Styling garden antiques today
Blending antiques with nature. One of our tables at the on form exhibition in 2018.
Times have changed of course, and the function of gardens continues to evolve. We may not be dealing with the same amount of space (nor budget) as The Sun King, but garden antiques have a magical effect on a space. The garden and its features have a certain timelessness to them and you don’t have to inhabit an ancestral estate to create a wonderful garden. Adding weathered features to a newly planted garden will give it a more established and mature feel.
Gardenalia connects us to our ancestors as well as our natural surroundings. Often practical features and tools, such as lead cisterns and tethering blocks, are just as charming as purposely decorative benches. Antiques have a symbiotic relationship with the flora and fauna that surrounds them. Natural processes, such as the oxidisation of copper and weathering of a stone statue, transform an object into something arguably much more beautiful.
The French were masters of playing with scale, and this is where the secret to a beautiful garden lies. With an open mind, a grand statue can look fantastic in a small leafy corner and other carefully placed pieces can really change the beholder's perception. Don’t fear a clash of styles; you can unite a wide range of pieces, materials, by their common texture and colour.
Garden antiques at Lorfords
Because these pieces were designed to endure in the first place, we are lucky to have a plethora to choose from. We covet garden antiques because of their wear and tear, rather than in spite of it. Lichens, moss, weathering, and patination give a garden piece its beauty and appeal.
If you're not quite ready to start moving outside, our previous article, 'Where home meets garden,' explains how can you bring garden pieces into your interiors.
Here at Lorfords, we believe our outdoor spaces deserve the same love as our interiors. Our extensive collection of garden antiques brings the beautiful history of European gardens to you. Choose from our planters and urns, garden seating and tables, architectural elements, and more.
The Arts & Crafts movement touched every corner of the design world. From furniture to textiles to jewellery, designers adopted a holistic approach to manufacture. At the very heart of every surviving piece is the craftsman himself.
Another cog in the machine
Vintage engraving from 1860 of a jacquard weaving machine.
By the end of the 19th Century, the industrial revolution had utterly transformed Western society. Industries boomed as new technologies emerged, and handicrafts dwindled. Vast factories emerged to accommodate these changes, and productivity and efficiency were the new watchwords.
The industrial revolution brought many elements of our lives today into fruition. In lots of ways, this was a momentous step forwards. Society underwent a dramatic change and standards of living improved for many. However, it was not so for those on the frontline of machine-led production.
The underbelly of factory work was tedious, gruesome, and dangerous. Unskilled labour was in high demand because the process required scores of workers to perform repetitive tasks. Certainly, the skilled craftsman conceiving, designing, and producing a piece became mere nostalgia.
The counter-revolution
Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
For some thinkers, critics, and designers, these developments were unsettling. John Ruskin was a vocal art critic in the second half of the 19th Century. He claimed a link between poor design standards and poor social health in England. Ruskin suggested a return to handicraft: 'fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.' This idea that art serves a moral purpose would later become a fundamental principle of the Arts & Crafts movement.
Let's go back to 1851, the year of the highly anticipated Crystal Palace exhibition in London. This exhibition celebrated the finest corners of Victorian design and pieces from as far away as India. It was a majestic display of talent and wondrous furniture, but it also exposed the excesses of industrialisation. A nauseating range of revival styles was on display, and much of it was heavy-duty furniture that was rich with ornament. It was no coincidence, then, that the following years of the 1850s sowed the seeds for a different sort of revolution.
The pre-Raphaelite brotherhood
Excitement about machine-led production side-lined the decorative arts, and discontent mounted. The antidote to this artificial excess was a return to medievalism. The gothic was a popular Victorian revival style, and reformers hailed 16th Century methods. In his 1851 text, The Stones of Venice, John Ruskin praises gothic architecture and saw its roughness as evidence of the craftsman’s personality and freedom.
Pugin was another gothic advocate, and he believed in the importance of a piece's construction. He was in favour of exposing joints and other methods in the manner of a Medieval carpenter. This school of thought found its voice in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, formed in 1848.
Among the group's members were Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, and Ford Madox Brown. The Pre-Raphaelites opposed the High Renaissance, which they saw as frivolous and insincere. Instead, they sought moral seriousness and integrity, and this group was in many ways a precursor to the Arts & Crafts movement.
Madox Brown was one of the first to transfer the group’s shared ideals about design into furniture. He shared Pugin’s vision of flat surfaces and linear profiles that had more in common with Medieval carpentry than refined 18th Century cabinet-making.
Arts & Crafts established
Arts & Crafts societies sprung up to centralise this growing group of individuals. The biggest of these, the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, was formed in 1888. This society held regular shows up to and beyond its 50th anniversary in 1938. They gave the decorative arts a stage and spread the beauty of Arts & Crafts. In 1960, the society merged with the Cambridgeshire Guild of Craftsmen to form the Society of Designer Craftsmen which is still active today.
There was a strong sense of community amongst these different organisations. 'The best tastes are to be found in those manufacturers and fabrics wherein handicraft is entirely or partially the means of producing the ornament.' These words of Richard Redgrave, a prominent reformer at the London School of Design, describe their shared sentiment. Significantly, many of the early members of this movement were architects. This meant that they held a shared interest in the gesamtkunstwerk- the 'total work of art.' For example, Charles Voysey was foremost an architect and then a major contributor to Arts & Crafts furniture and textiles.
Exhibitions put Arts & Crafts on display for all to see and escalated the movement. Journals such as The Studio helped to spread the word internationally. America's own movement was well underway, but with a slightly different approach. Unlike UK reformers, US practitioners were indifferent to the machine. They saw it merely as another tool at the craftsman’s disposal and necessary for commercial success. Under Gustav Stickley the American 'mission style' emerged. The mission style used sturdy oak and promoted democratic values, but Stickley was more than happy to use machinery to produce the furniture.
William Morris
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
Although he was already a prolific designer, William Morris only became fully involved with Arts & Crafts later on. Nonetheless, his influence was monumental and he played a central role at the beginning of the Arts & Crafts heyday in the 1880s. His focus was on a return to small-scale workshops, whereby the craftsmen involved could oversee the design process from beginning to end. The Medieval Guilds inspired Morris and offered a model for the personalised craftsmanship that he craved.
As an upper-class man himself, the impact of the factory system on the working classes shocked Morris. He drew on Ruskin’s teachings and shared his nostalgia for a pre-industrial world. Morris loved nature, and flora and fauna are front and centre of the 50+ wallpaper designs he produced over his career. The designer realised that to live in his perfect home, he would have to design every aspect of it himself. His famous Red House embodies his trademark quote: ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.’
Arts & Crafts design principles
Designers wanted to create furniture that was useful to ordinary people and free from fussy decoration. Nonetheless, this movement was about reviving the decorative arts and aesthetics were still important. But crucially, designers did away with the ‘artificial’ ornamentation that had been front and centre of the Great Exhibition.
The Arts & Crafts umbrella was wide-ranging, but the majority of designs are united by a few simple features. Tables, chairs, and cupboards would have rectilinear shape and rely on simple vertical forms. The construction was a return to basics and most joints exhibit mortise-and-tenon or dovetail joinery. Arts & Crafts practitioners were unconcerned with hiding hinges or other aspects of a piece's mechanism. The movement proved that practical and aesthetic elements could happily coexist in design.
19th Century engraving showing the interior of the Crystal Palace in London, UK, which housed the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Substance over style
Craftsmen preferred darker woods, such as stained oak. They would use the wood itself as an aesthetic factor, with the grain, flecks, and rays often on display. It was not always solid wood, and some craftsmen took a more decorative approach than others. Some pieces might exhibit veneers and intricate carvings, but these elements never sacrifice the piece's utilitarian value.
The ‘through tenon’ provided another decorative touch, whereby the tenon extends through the mortised piece and projects out of the other side. Craftsmanship itself is visible in the end product of an Arts & Crafts piece, in a way that had formerly been lost to the machine. ‘Truth to materials’ was the mantra, and the results had a sense of integrity.
Upholstery would involve leather or simple cloth, in order to keep the overall look as plain as possible. Hand-sanding and pigment-staining gave pieces of furniture the best possible finish. Hand-rubbing exposed the different layers in the wood and began a piece's journey to having a wonderful patina.
The Arts & Crafts legacy
In the cities, Arts & Crafts gathered momentum through exhibitions and print promotions. Soon, the philosophy turned into commercial success. Designers forged good working relationships with manufacturers who could sell their wares. William Morris set up Morris & Co in 1875. The major Oxford Street store stocked other designers too, and they also sold through Liberty and Heals. Suddenly, the Arts & Crafts movement was reaching a much wider audience and it moved into the mainstream. It was the dominant design force in Britain up until the 1910s, and its influence spread across Europe, America, and Japan.
At the turn of the 20th Century, Arts & Crafts migrated out of the city and into the countryside. Lots of the designers celebrated simple rural ideals and the rolling hills naturally held great allure. Workshops sprung up across Britain, and many designers settled in the Cotswolds. These workshops became their own schools of sorts and each had its own take on design.
Sturdy structure, compelling patina, and timeless aesthetic appeal. These are just some of the qualities offered by Arts & Crafts designers. From cupboards to metalwork, every piece has the social history of this movement behind it. We are privileged to have the Arts & Crafts legacy around us in the Cotswolds. Our dealers are always sourcing Arts & Crafts gems so that we have wonderful pieces in stock. Our collection includes big names and makers, from iconic Heal's pieces to Gordon Russell's fantastic works. Visit our lookbook, 'Truth to Materials,' to explore a sample.
Did life exist before Mad Men?* It’s a question I’ve been pondering a lot since the peerless series faded to black for the final time (*answer: yes, but it didn’t look as good).
Critics may have focused on the internal machinations at the Sterling Cooper ad agency but, as we all know, the real star of the show was the sumptuous mid-century styled sets: Gorgeous eyefuls of caramel coloured interiors with sleek, sensuously curved furniture and desk lamps that deserved their own mini-series. Has there ever been a tv series so determined to make the viewer drool with couch envy? Of course our love of all things mid-century was already well established by the time Don Draper sparked up his first Lucky Strike. Hard to believe that it’s twenty years since furniture of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s came in from the cold and started making serious headway in the style supplements and salerooms. Fashions come and go; nowhere is this more true than in the conjoined worlds of antiques and interiors, but, two decades on, mid-century is still here, stronger than ever. It remains the chic-style option it always was and, no longer hobbled by its former retroassociations, Mid-Century has taken its place alongside Art Nouveau and Art Deco as an established epoch in 20thcentury design history. Before you embark on a full Mad Men inspired home makeover, here’s my guide to the essentials of mid-century furniture, a style that remains as fresh and innovative in 2016 as it did half a century ago.
What do we mean by mid-century?
As the name suggests, the style dates from the middle decades of the 20thcentury, roughly from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s. Rather like Art Deco, the name was coined long after the period in question. When it first emerged, our parents and grandparents knew it as Contemporary, and as a decorative style it influenced everything from the shape of a sofa, a vase or a coffee pot to the pattern on a tablecloth. It was youthful, stylish and bang up to date, and that was exactly what people wanted. Every style comes with its cultural baggage and mid-century speaks of an era of confidence, one which looked ahead optimistically to a bright future of ever increasing economic prosperity with more money and leisure time to relax and enjoy life. Mid-century interiors were all about chic style and ease of living, and this was also reflected in the furniture. Small wonder it appeals to us so much today.
Deciphering the mid-century style can at first seem something of a challenge. Certainly not all modern furniture from this period will be in the mid-century style. Plastic inflatable furniture from the 1960s, for example, is definitely not mid-century (it would be an example of Pop design, in case you were wondering). As an
illustration, let’s try this: At first sight a Danish rosewood and leather dining chair by Neils Moller seems to have very little in common with an American high-gloss white fibreglass Tulip chair by Eero Saarinen, yet they’re both hailed as mid-century design classics. So what’s going on? Well, I’d say what unites these seemingly unrelated chairs boils down to three things: simple, modern elegance, functional comfort and fine craftsmanship. In my view, it’s the mix of those three essential elements which is the hallmark of mid-century design. Mid-century designers had a dictum: Form follows function, in practice this meant no excess decoration or unnecessary flourishes. In less capable hands it’s a mantra that might have resulted in some very boring furniture. Fortunately for us, the generation of designers who followed it was one of the best the design world has ever seen. With the possible exception of the Regency period in the early 19thcentury, perhaps no other point in history has produced quite the same number of top calibre artists and designers as the 1950s and ‘60s: Charles and Ray Eames, Robin Day, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia and scores more. Unlike the Regency period, however, when only the wealthiest could afford the best furniture, mid-century designers were driven by a mission to bring good design to the many rather than the few and embraced mass-production with the result that their designs are still relatively plentiful today and Amen to that. But the mid-century movement is more than a mere roll-call of designer names (nice though that is). The philosophy of good design available to all, which those great designers championed, was taken up by manufacturers at the more affordable end of the market, with many smaller factories producing good quality, well designed furniture within easy reach of the middle class. The names of most of these designers have mostly been lost to history but today, these pieces can be picked up at reasonable prices while still ticking all the boxes for style and quality.
Where did the mid-century style originate?
After World War Two furniture designers began to move away from the hard lines and polished chrome of pre-war German inspired modernism towards a softer, warmer aesthetic. The great architect-designer Marcel Breuer led the way and others soon followed. The mood was for something more human, more organic and for this everyone looked north. Since the 1930s Scandinavian, especially Finnish, designers had developed a soft modernism, relying on wood rather than metal and drawing on their own native skills in cabinetmaking, producing designs that were simple, understated and elegant. This fitted the mood exactly and Finland, Sweden and Denmark moved centre stage, becoming the benchmark for the best of mid-century style. What we tend to think of as classic mid-century furniture, in rosewood or teak with soft, fluid curves and simplicity of form has its roots in 1940s and ‘50s Scandinavia. It wasn’t just the north that had a part to play in the mid-century look. The 1950s was a time of convergence in design, when Italian, French and British, as well as Nordic influences began to merge together, creating a style that was truly international in its outlook. But at its heart the mid-century style was solidly American. America in the 1950s was the powerhouse economy of the world with previously undreamt of levels of wealth and international influence. A new generation of young designers set out to reshape the look of modern America, pushing the boundaries of furniture design by experimenting with new materials and manufacturing techniques.
Harry Bertoia (1915-78) was born in Italy and moved to the USA in 1930. He studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Fine Arts near Detroit, Michigan and eventually became head of the metal working department at the academy. Bertoia brought a sculptor’s eye to his furniture designs, particularly in the series of wire mesh chairs he designed in the early 1950s. The Bird lounge chair, designed in 1951-2 for Knoll, has been described as looking like a piece of sculpture suspended in space. The chair, which was mass-produced but by hand rather than machine, was made by welding a sheet of metal mesh into shape and then welding it on to the wire legs.
Mid-century designers eagerly embraced the possibilities created by new materials like plywood and plastic. Eero Saarinen (1910-61) was particularly influenced by developments in the field of plastics. His Tulip chair was one of the first chairs designed with a single pedestal base and was revolutionary when it was introduced in 1956. A true Modernist, Saarinen’s chair was a solution to what he saw as the clutter of chair legs under a dining table. A design classic, the Tulip chair anticipates the Pop design movement of the 1960s by a good ten years and is every bit as striking today as it was when it was new.
Although America and Scandinavia drove the mid-century look, other countries produced significant designers whose work is highly desirable today. In Britain, William Plunkett (1928-2013) was a designer with a background in engineering who worked in a highly individual style. Like Harry Bertoia, he combined his engineering skills with a sculptural flair and created a series of elegant metal-framed seating that won many design awards.
An essential ingredient in the mid-century interior was lighting. Lighting has, of course, always had a practical use in the home but was now more closely integrated in the overall decorative scheme. The floor lamp, designed in 1950 by George Rispal is a highpoint in mid-century lighting design. The coolie shade and cylindrical shade provide task and ambient lighting respectively, while the strikingly organic form, inspired by the work of German-French artist and sculptor Hans Arp (1886-1966), means it works as a piece of sculpture every bit as much as a lamp.
Well designed, refined, slick without being cold, at times a little decadent but never camp and very grown up; the appeal of mid-century furniture is highly seductive and it’s easy to understand why, twenty years after its rediscovery, it’s in ruder health than ever.