French and English furniture : $b distinctive styles and periods described and illustratedSingleton, Esther
History
French and English furniture : $b distinctive styles and periods described and illustrated
Singleton, Esther
Furniture -- England; Furniture -- France
Placido Columbani published _A New Book of Ornaments_, in 1775; and _A
Variety of Capitals, Friezes, Cornices and Chimney-pieces_, in 1776.
These are designs for the interior decoration of rooms, chiefly of
panels to be made in wood, or stucco, or painting.
John Crunden was another. He issued _Designs for Ceilings_, in 1765;
_Convenient and Ornamental Architecture_, in 1768; _The Joiner and
Cabinet-Maker’s Darling_, in 1770; and, with Thomas Milton and Placido
Columbani, _The Chimney-Piece Maker’s Daily Assistant_, or a _Treasury
of New Designs for Chimney-Pieces_.
N. Wallis published, in 1771, _A Book of Ornaments in the Palmyrene
Taste_, which was followed by _The Carpenter’s Treasure_ and _The
Complete Modern Joiner_, which contain designs for ceilings, panels,
pateras, mouldings, chimney-pieces, door-cases, friezes, tablets for the
centre ornaments, chimney-pieces, and door-cases and ornaments for
pilasters, bases and sub-bases. The greater number were of allegorical
subjects. Wallis was fond of the “Raffle” leaf (indented foliage, such
as the acanthus). J. Carter was another designer in the Adam taste. His
ceilings greatly resembled Richardson’s. The latter describes one of his
own chimney-pieces as follows: “The plain ground round the pilasters and
architrave may be of jasper, or antique green; and the ornaments of the
frieze and pilasters might be done of _scagliola_,[21] and should be
executed in wood; the ornaments will produce a fine effect if painted in
the Etruscan manner—in various colours.” A _Triumph of Venus_ is a
tablet of another chimney-piece, “suitable for an elegant gallery or
Drawing-room. She is sitting in a shell drawn by Dolphins guided by
Cupid, in the air and accompanied by a Triton blowing his shell trumpet,
and holding Neptune’s trident. The plain ground round the pilasters with
termes may be of variegated colours, but all the rest should be of plain
white marble.” Of the ceiling for a dressing-room he says: “The oval
picture represents Diana bathing attended by her Nymphs. The small
circles contain figures representing hunting-pieces and sacrifices,
which may be painted in _chiaro-oscuro_, or executed in stucco in the
manner of antique bas-reliefs.” A chimney-piece, suitable for a Parlour
or Dining-room, is thus described: “The ornaments of the frieze may be
of white marble, laid on dark grounds. If the cornice, with the frieze
and back pilasters, be carved in wood, the moldings of the architraves
in marble, might be quite plain.”
It will therefore be seen that the “Adam style” was a fashion. Taste was
running its natural course and the reaction to the antique, from the
curve in favour of the straight line, had set in.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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