Illustrated History of Furniture, fifth ed.: From the Earliest to the Present TimeLitchfield, Frederick
History
Illustrated History of Furniture, fifth ed.: From the Earliest to the Present Time
Litchfield, Frederick
Furniture -- History
The illustration of a carved frame in the rococo style of Chippendale with
a Chinaman in a canopy, represents an important school of wood-carving
which has been developed in Munich; and in the "Künst Gewerberein," or
"Workman's Exhibition," in that city, the Bavarians have a very similar
arrangement to that of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society of this
country, of which mention has already been made, each article being
labelled with the name of the designer and maker.
Italian carved furniture of modern times has already been noticed; and
in the selections made from the 1851 Exhibition, some productions of
different countries have been illustrated, which tend to shew that,
speaking generally, the furniture most suitable for display is produced
abroad, while none can excel English cabinet makers in the production
of useful furniture and woodwork, when it is the result of design and
handicraft, unfettered by the detrimental, but too popular, condition that
the article when finished shall appear to be more costly than it really is.
In conclusion, it seems evident that, with all the faults and shortcomings
of the latter part of the nineteenth century--and no doubt they were many,
both of commission and of omission--still, speaking generally, there
was no lack of men with ability to design, and no want of well trained
patient craftsmen to produce, furniture which would equal the finest
examples of the Renaissance and Jacobean periods. With the improved means
of inter-communication between England and her Colonies, and with the
chief industrial centres of Europe united for the purposes of commerce,
the whole civilised world is, as it were, one kingdom: merchants and
manufacturers can select the best and most suitable materials, can obtain
photographs or drawings of the most distant examples, or copies of the
most expensive designs, while the public Art Libraries of London, and
Paris, contain valuable works of reference, which are easily accessible
to the student or to the workman. It is very pleasant to bear testimony
to the courtesy and assistance which the student or workman invariably
receives from those who are in charge of our public reference libraries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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