Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

30 Conservation of Furniture
on a less elite level was the use of bamboo and
other Japanese products such as grass cloth,
lacquer panels and leather papers.
The last quarter of the century saw a taste
for Moorish and Middle Eastern styles characterized
by pierced and carved fretwork (sometimes
imported from Cairo and named
Cairene), inlay, carpets and cushions and potted
palms.
In the United States this style was also promoted
by designers and makers such as the
Herter Brothers and Louis Comfort Tiffany who
worked for clients who wanted furniture to
reflect the contemporary aesthetic sensibilities.
On the other hand the Colonial revival of the
1870s onward, revealed a nostalgia for
America’s past, whether it be from 1620 or
1820. As well as an interest in the antiques of
the past, the revival was also a response to the
fully blown Victorian furniture that was
rejected by other groups such as the Arts and
Crafts movement and often for similar reasons.
During the century the attempts by the furniture
industry to meet the demands of the
growing population for stylish and even ostentatious
furniture were decried by design
reformers. The problem was that reformers
could not break out of the system. Reviving traditional
methods and materials would
inevitably have been very expensive and the
introduction of plain, simple furniture would
not have been appreciated by most people.
This is not to say that efforts were not made to
attempt to improve taste. The reformers mentioned
above all tried to introduce new ways
of thinking about furniture design but most
missed the point about the public’s demand for
quantity of ‘work’ and costly looking materials.
Materials used
The search for novelty and control of material
and cost resulted in an eclectic range of materials
being used during the nineteenth century.
The Regency period favoured striped figured
timber, especially rosewood, calamander and
zebrawood, all of which would contrast with
the use of brass. From 1840 African mahogany
was imported as a substitute for the expensive
Central American type. Walnut remained popular
in Scandinavian countries where exotic
woods were too expensive. The Biedermeier
style in Germany favoured mahogany in the
north, and yew, cherry, or maple in the south.
The developments in using plies of wood
continued with experiments in Europe and the
United States. One of the most successful was
the Gardner company of New Jersey, who
patented a chair seat using perforated three ply.
The search for substitutes encouraged many
inventions associated with the imitation of
wood. The simplest was the method of mixing
fine glue and sawdust or wood raspings to a
paste to be put into a mould and allowed to dry
under weight. Composition ornament (a mixture
of whiting, animal glue, rosin, and linseed
oil) was pressed into a mould and allowed to
dry. It was then applied to a surface.
J.C. Loudon recommended the use of metal
for furniture in his Encyclopaedia and illustrated
some very advanced, as well as revivalist
styles. The use of cast iron reached a high
point during the mid-century. Established manufacturers
turned to the expanding furniture
market to supply garden seats, tables, jardinières,
hallstands and other static items.
Metal was also used in upholstery. From 1830
coiled springs were used and iron-framed chair
backs were produced in quantity to give a flexible
but strong support to easy chairs. Twisted
wire for all kinds of furniture was especially
popular around 1870 in the United States.
In the early part of the century a taste for
tabletops of marble or stone became fashionable.
British marbles and spars became popular
and it was inevitable that attempts would be
made to imitate them. The use of enamelled
slate by E.G. Magnus was so successful that the
marble industry gradually declined.
The period from 1835 to 1870 can be considered
the heyday of English papier mâché
(Figure 1.20). There were several varieties of
papier mâché, the two main ones being pulped
paper and layered paper. The first was mainly
used for small-scale applied decoration, e.g.
cornices, mouldings canopies and other applied
ornament that could be used on furniture. The
second type was used to make parts of furniture
using a mould. This process produced
blanks which could then be decorated. In 1825,
Jennens and Bettridge took out a patent for
pearl shell ‘inlaying’ for papier mâché. This
well-known process, which was not actually
inlaying, used slivers of pearl shell applied to
the surface and varnished over. The important
decorating process was based on a black background
and an applied painted design.