Sep

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CANDLES STICKS - CARPETS AND RUGS - CLOCKS AND WATCHES - COINS AND TRADE TOKENS: GENERAL - EMBROIDERY - FURNITURE

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CANDLES STICKS—see Brass

CARE OF ANTIQUES—see Restoration

CARPETS AND RUGS Campana, M. Oriental Carpets. 1969

Dilley, A. U. Oriental Rugs and Carpets. New York, 1931 (1960) Edwards, A. C. The Persian Carpet. 1953

Erdmann, K. Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets. 1961 (1970) Hawley, W. A. Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern. New York, 1913 Hopf, A. Oriental Carpets and Rugs. 1962 (1969) Jacoby, H. How to Know Oriental

Carpets and Rugs. 1963

Kendrick, A. F. and Tattcrsall, C. E. C. Handwoven Carpets, Oriental and

European. 2 vols. 1922 Liebham, P. Oriental Rugs in Colour. New York, 1963 Martin, F. R. A History oj Oriental Carpets before 1800. 1908 May, C. D. How to Identify Persian and other Oriental Rugs. 1952 (1968)

Mumford, J. K. Oriental Rugs. 1901; The Yerkes Collection of Oriental

Carpets. 1910

Sarrc, F. and Trenkwald, H. (trans, by A. F. Kendrick) Old Oriental Carpets.

2 vols. Leipzig, 1926 Schurmann, U. Caucasian Rugs. 1965

Tattersall, G. E. G. Handwoven Carpets, Oriental and European. 2 vols.

1922; The Carpets of Persia. 1931 Tattersall, C. E. C. and Reed, S. A History of British Carpets. Leigh-on-Sca,

1934 (1966) Thatcher, A. B. Turkoman Rugs. 1940

Von Bode, W. and Kcihnel, E. (trans, by C. G. Ellis) Antique Rugs from the Near East. Braunschweig, 1958

CARRIAGES AND WAGGONS

Arnold, J. The Farm Waggons of England and Wales. 1969

Damase, J. Carriages. 1968

Tubbs, D. B. Horseless Carriages. 1969

CHESSMEN

Copley, F. S. Improved Geometrical and Universal Chessmen. Statcn Island, 1864

Graham, F. L. Chess Sets. 1969 Hammond, A. A Book of Chessmen. 1950

Ilarbeson, J. F. Nine Centuries of Chessmen. Philadelphia, 1964 Liddell, D. M. and others. Chessmen. New York, 1937 Mackett-Beeson, A. E. J. Chessmen. 1968 Murray, H. J. R. A History of Chess. 1913 Wichmann, H.

and S. Chess and Chessmen. 1964

CHRISTMAS AND GREETINGS CARDS

Buday, G. The History of the Christmas Card. 1954 (1965)

Chase, E. D. The Romance of Greeting Cards. Cambridge, Mass., 1926

Laver, J. Victoriana (pp. 97-106). 1966

CLOCKS AND WATCHES

Baillie, G. H. Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World. 1947 (1966); Clocks and Watches: an historical bibliography. 1951

Bcntlcy, W. J. The Plain Man’s Guide to Antique Clocks. 1963

Britten, F. J. Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers. 1899. (The seventh edition of this classic, with new illustrations, was issued in 1956 with the material largely rewritten by G. H. Baillie, C. Clutton and C. A. Ilbert

and was reprinted with corrections in 1969); The Watch and Clockmaker’s Handbook, Dictionary and Guide. 1955

Breguet, C. A. L. Briguel—Horologer. 1964

Bruton, E. The True Book about Clocks. 1957; Clocks and watches, 1400-1900. 1967

Chamberlain, P. It’s About Time. 1941 (1964). (A book about watches and watchmaking.)

Clutton, C. and Daniels, D. Watches of Europe and America. 1965 Cumhaill, P. W. Investing in Clocks and Watches. 1967

books  for reading  and reference

Dawson, P. G. The Design of English Domestic Clocks. 1956 De Carle, D. Watch and Clock Encyclopaedia. 1959; Clocks and their Values. 1968.

Drepperd, C. W. American Clocks and Clockmakers. Boston, 1958 Edey, W. French Clocks. 1968

Edwards, E. L. The Grandfather Clock. 1952 (1956)

Fleet, S. Clocks. 1961

Goaman, M. English Clocks. 1967

Gordon, G. F. C. Clockmaking, Past and Present. 1949

Hayden, A. Chats on Old Clocks. 1918

Hill, R. R. Early British Clocks. 1949

Jordan, B. and von Bertele, H. The Book of Old Clocks and Watches. 1964 Joy, E. T. The ‘Country Life’ Book of Clocks. 1967 Lee, R. A. The Knibb Family—Clockmakers. 1964

Lloyd, H. A. Some Outstanding Clocks over Seven Hundred Years, 1250-1950. 1958; The Collector’s Dictionary of Clocks. 1964; Old Clocks. 1965

Morpurgo, E. Precious Watches. 1966

Palmer, B. The Book of American Clocks. New York, 1950; A Treasury of

American Clocks. New York, 1968 Peate, I. C. Clock and Watch Makers in Wales. Cardiff, 1960. Robertson, J. D. The Evolution of Clockwork. 1931 Smith, J. Old Scottish Clockmakers. 1921

Symonds, R. W. A History of English Clocks. 1947; The Life and Work of

Thomas Tompion. 1951 (1969) Tait, H. Clocks in the British Museum. 1968 Tyler, E. J. European Clocks. 1969

Ullyett, K. British Clocks and Clockmakers. 1947; In Quest of Clocks.

1950 (1962); Watch Collecting for Amateurs. 1969 Wenham, E. Old Clocks. 1951 (1965) Willard, J. W. Simon Wiltard and his Clocks. 1969

COINS AND TRADE TOKENS: GENERAL

Bcyne, W. Trade Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century. 2 vols. 1891

Brown, L. Coin Collecting. 1962

Carson, R. A. G. Coins. 1962

Chamberlain, C. C. Guide to Numismatics. 1960

Craig, W. D. Coins of the World, 1750-1850. Wisconsin, 1966

Davis, W. J. Nineteenth-Century Token Coinage. 1906

Einzig, P. Primitive Money. 1957

Johnson, R. F. Coin Collecting. 1969

Linecar, H. W. A. Beginner’s Guide to Coin Collecting. 1966; Coins. 1967 Narbeth, C. The Coin Collector’s Encyclopaedia. 1968 Linecar, H. W. A. Beginners Guide to Coin Collecting. 1967 Portcous, J. Coins. 1964

Rayncr, P. A. Coin Collecting for Amateurs. 1967

COINS AND TRADE TOKENS: SPECIAL AREAS Andrews, A. Australasian Tokens and Coins. Sydney, 1921 Askew, G. The Coinage of the Roman Empire. 1951 Brooke, G. C. English Coins. 1932 (1955)

Charlton, J. E. Catalogue of Canadian Coins, Tokens and Paper Money.

Toronto, 1960 Craig, J. The Mint. Cambridge, 1953 Grant, M. Roman History from Coins. Cambridge, 1958

Grucbcr, II. A. Handbook oj the Coins of Great Britain and Ireland in the

British Museum. 1899 Linecar, H. W. A. Crown Pieces of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

1962

Mack, R. P. The Coinage oj Ancient Britain. 1953

Mathias, P. English Trade Tokens. 1962

North, J. J. English Hammered Coinage. 1960

Oman, C. The Coinage of England. Oxford, 1931

Rowe, C. M. Salisbury’s Local Coinage. 1966 (1968)

Schlumbcrger, H. Gold Coins of Europe since 1800. 1900

Seaby, II. A. (Ed.) Notes on English Silver Coins (1066-1648). 1948

Seaby, II. A. Standard Catalogue of the Coins of Great Britain and Ireland.

Published annually. Seaby, H. A. and Kozolubski, J. Greek Coins and their Values. 1959 Seaby, H. A. and Rayner, P. The English Silver Coinage from 1649. 1968 Seaby, P. J. The Story of the English Coinage. 1952

Stewart, I. II. The Scottish Coinage. 1955

Sutherland, A. Numismatic History of New Zealand. Wellington, 1941 Wang, Yu-Ch’uian. Early Chinese Coinage. American Numismatic Society, New York, 1951

Waters, A. W. Notes on Eighteenth-Century Tokens. 1954; Notes on Nineteenth-Century Tokens. 1957

COPPERWORK

Burgess, F. W. Chats on Old Copper and Brass. 1954 Hamilton, H. The English Brass and Copper Industries to 1800. 1926 Wills, G. Collecting Copper and Brass. 1962; The Book of Copper and Brass. 1968

COSTUME—sec also Fashion Plates and Monumental Brasses Boucher, F. A History of Costume in the West. 1966

Bradfield, N. Women’s Dress, 1730-1930. 1968; Costume in Detail. 1969 Bradshaw, A. World Costumes. 1962

Brooke, I. English Children’s Costume Since 1775. 1930; A History of

English Costume. 1937 (1968) Bruhn, W. and Tilke, M. A Pictorial History of Costume. 1955 Buck, A. Victorian Costume and Costume Accessories. 1961 Calthrop, D. C. English Costume. London, 1907. (Also published in

four

parts—Early English, Middle Ages, Tudor and Stuart, Georgian.) Contine, M. Fashion. 1965 (1967)

Cunnington, C. W. English Women’s (,’lothing in the Nineteenth Century. 1937; The Art of English Costume. 1948; Handbook of English Medieval Costume. 1952; Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century.

1954; Handbook of English Costume in the Seventeenth Century. 1955; Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century. 1957; Handbook of English Costume in the Nineteenth Century, 1959; A Picture History of

English Costume. 1960

Cunnington, C. W. and P. The History of Underclothing. 1951; Handbook of English Medieval Costume. 1969

Cunnington, P. and Lucas, C. Occupational Costume in England. 1968

Cunnington, P. and Mansfield, A. English Costume for Sports and Indoor Recreation. 1969

Fairholt, F. W. Costume in England. 1846

Gibbs-Smith, C. H. The Fashionable Lady in the Nineteenth Century. 1960

hooks FOR READING AND REFERENCE
Hartley, D. Medieval Costume and Life. 1931

Hill, M. H. and Buckncll, P. A. The Evolution oj Fashion: Pattern and Cut, 1066-1930. 1967

Holmes, M. R. Stage Costumes and Accessories in the London Museum. 1968

Houston, M. G. Medieval Costume in England and France. 1939

Laver, J. Taste and Fashion from the French Revolution until today. 1937;

Costume Through the Ages. 1963 Lister, M. Costume, An Illustrated Survey from Ancient Times to the

Present Day. 1967 Martin, P. European Military Uniforms. 1963 (1968) Maxwell, S. and Hutchinson, R. Scottish Costume. 1958

McQuoid, P. Four Hundred Years of Children’s Costume from the Great

Masters, 1400-1800. 1923 Moses, F. Modern Costume. 1823 Planchd, J. R. A Cyclopaedia of Costume. 1876-79 Rhead, C. W. Chats on Costume. 1906 Waugh, N. The Cut of Women’s Clothes, 1600-1930. 1968

Yarwood, D. English Costume from the Second Century B.C. to 1960. 1952 (1967)

DAGGERS—sec Edged Weapons

DOLLS—sec also Toys

Early, A. K. English Dolls, Effigies and Puppets. 1955

Fraser, A. Dolls. 1963

Hillier, M. Dolls and Dollmakers. 1968

Johnson, A. Dressing Dolls. 1969

Low, F. H. Queen Victoria’s Dolls. 1894

Noble, J. Dolls. 1968

St George, E. Dolls of Three Centuries. 1951

Singleton, E. Dolls. 1927

Von Boehn, M. Dolls and Puppets. 1965

White, G. Dolls of the World. 1962; European and American Dolls. 1966 DOLLS’ HOUSES

Benson, A. G. and Weaver, Sir Laurence. The Book of Queen Mary’s Dolls’

House and the Book of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House Library. 1924 Grant, J. The Doll’s House. 1934 Greene, V. English Dolls’ Houses. 1967 Jacobs, F. G. A History of Dolls’ Houses. 1954 Latham, J. Dolls’ Houses. 1969

DRUG JARS

Howard, G. E. Early English Drug Jars. 1931

DUMMY BOARD FIGURES

Scott, A. and C. Dummy Board Figures. 1966

EDGED WEAPONS (Bayonets, Daggers and Swords) Altmayer, J. P. American Presentation Swords. Alabama, 1958 Atwood, J. The Dagger and Edged Weapons of Hitler’s Germany. Berlin, 1965

Aylward, J. D. The Small Sword in England. 1960 Bosanquet, H. T. The Naval Officer’s Sword. 1955

Burton, R. F. Book of the Sword. 1884

Carrington-Piercc, P. A Handbook of Court and Hunting Swords, 1660-

1820. 1937

Dean, B. Catalogue of European Court and Hunting Swords. New York,

1929; Catalogue of European Daggers. New York, 1929 Ellacott, S. E. Armour and Blade. 1962

Ellis-Davidson, H. R. The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, 1962

Ffoulkes, C. T. Sword, Lance and Bayonet. 1967

German, M. C. A Guide to Oriental Daggers and Swords. 1967

Hawley, W. M. Japanese Sword Smiths. California, 1966

Hayward, J. F. Swords and Daggers. 1951

Henderson, J. Sword Collecting for Amateurs. 1969

Hutton, A. Fixed Bayonets. 1890; The Sword and the Centuries. 1901

Joby, H. L. Japanese Sword Mounts. 1910

Knutsen, R. M. Japanese Polearms. 1963

Latham, R. J. W. British Military Swords. 1966; British Military Bayonets.

1967

Norman, A. V. Small Swords and Military Swords. 1967

Oakeshott, R. E. Archaeology of Weapons. 1960; The Sword in the Age of Chivalry. 1964

Peterson, H. L. American Knives. New York, 1958; American Indian Tomo-hawks. New York, 1965; Daggers and Fighting Knives of the Western

World. 1968

Rawson, P. S. The Indian Sword. Copenhagen, 1969

Robinson, B. W. Primer of Japanese Sword Blades. 1955; The Art of the

Japanese Sword. 1961 Stephens, S. J. Bayonets. 1968 Valentine, E. Rapiers. 1968 Wagern, E. Cut and Thrust Weapons. 1967 Wayne, B. Exercise of Broadsword. Washington, 1850 Webster, D. B. American Socket

Bayonets, 1717-1873. Ottawa, 1964 Wilkinson, F. Swords and Daggers. 1967

Wilkinson Latham, R. J. British Military Swords from 1800 to the Present

Day. 1966; British Military Bayonets. 1967 Yumoto, J. M. The Samurai Sword. Tokyo, 1958

EMBROIDERY

Campbell, C. Linen Embroideries. 1935

Church, E. R. Artistic Embroidery. New York, 1880

Dolby, A. Church Embroidery. 1867

Higgin, L. Handbook of Embroidery. 1880

Johnstone, P. Byzantine Tradition in Church Embroidery. 1967; Greek

Island Embroidery. 1961 Jourdain, M. A. English Secular Embroidery. 1910 Kendrick, A. F. English Embroidery. 1905

Morris, B. History of English Embroidery. 1954; Victorian Embroidery. 1962 Wheeler, C. The Development of Embroidery in America. New York and London, 1921

ENAMELS—ENGLISH

Brown, W. N. The Art of Enamelling on Metal. 1900 Cunynghame, H. The Art of Enamelling on Metals. 1906 Hughes, T. and B. English Painted Enamels. 1951 Ilford, Lord. Staffordshire Coloured Enamels. 1965

books for reading and reference

Mew, E. Batter sea Enamels. 1926

Turner, W. Transfer Printing on Enamels, Porcelain and Pottery. 1907 ENAMELS—EUROPEAN

Gauthier and Marcheaux, M. Limoges Enamels. 1962

ENAMELS—ORIENTAL

Bowes, J. L. Japanese Enamels. 1884

Garner, II. M. Chinese and Japanese Cloisonni Enamels. 1962

FAKES AND FORGERIES, AND THEIR DETECTION

Arnau, F. Three Thousand Years oj Deceptions in Art and Antiques. Dussel-

dorf, 1959; London, 1961 Cescinsky, H. The Gentle Art of Faking Furniture. 1931 (American reprint,

1968)

Kurz, O. Fakes: A Handbook for Collectors and Students. 1948 (Revised edition, 1969)

Savage, G. Forgeries, Fakes and Reproductions: A Handbook for Collectors. 1963

Schiilier, S. Forgers, Dealers and Experts. 1960

Tillcy, F. Ultra-Violet Fluorescence and Micro-Analysis of English Porcelain. 1957

FANS

Cust, L. Fans and Fan-Leaves. 1893 Maclver, P. The Fan Book. 1920 Rhead, G. W. The History of the Fan. 1910 Salwey, C. M. The Fans of Japan. 1894

Schreiber, Lady Charlotte. Fans and Fan-Leaves: English. 1888; Fans and

Fan-Leaves: Foreign. 1890 Uzanne, O. The Fan. 1884

FASHION PLATES

Holland, V. Hand Coloured Fashion Plates, 1770-1899. 1955 Lavcr, J. Fashion and Fashion Plates, 1800-1900. 1943; Costume Illustration, The Nineteenth Century. 1947

FIREARMS

Akehurst, R. Sporting Guns. 1968; Game Guns and Rifles. 1969 Atkinson, J. A. Duelling Pistols. 1964 Baker, E. Remarks on Rifle Guns. 1825

Baxter, D. R. Superimposed Load Firearms, 1360-1860. Hong-Kong, 1966

Blackmore, H. L. British Military Firearms, 1650-1850. 1961 (1967); Firearms. 1964; Guns and Rifles of the World. 1965

Blair, C. European and American Arms, c 1100-1850. 1962; Pistols of the World. 1968

Blanch, H. J. A Century of Guns. 1909

Boothroyd, G. Gun Collecting. 1961

Bowman, H. Antique Guns. New York, 1953

Busk, H. The Rifleman’s Manual. 1858

Carey, A. M. English, Irish and Scottish Firearms Makers. 1967 Carman, W. Y. History of Firearms. 1955

Chapel, C. E. U.S. Martial and Semi-Martial Single-shot Pistols. New York, 1962

Dowell, W. C. The Webley Story. Leeds, 1962

Dunlap, J. American, British and Continental Pepperbox Firearms. California, 1964

Edwards, W. B. The Story of Colt’s Revolver. Harrisburg, 1953 Ellacott, S. E. Guns. 1955

Ffoulkes. The Gunfounders of England. Cambridge, 1937 Folkard, H. C. The Wild Fowler. 1864 Forsyth, J. The Sporting Rifle. 1867 Frecmantle, T. F. The Book of the Rifle. 1901

George, J. N. English Pistols and Revolvers. Onslow County, North Carolina,

1938; London, 1963; English Guns and Rifles. Pennsylvania, 1947 Glcndenning, I. British Pistols and Guns, 1640-1840. 1951 (1969) Gyngell, D. S. II. Armourers’ Marks. 1959 (1960) Hastings, M. English Sporting Guns.

1969

Hayward, J. F. European Firearms. 1955; The Art of the Gunmaker. Vol.

I 1500-1660: Vol II 1660-1830. 1962-3 Held, R. The Age of Firearms. New York, 1957; London, 1959 Jackson, II. J. European Hand Firearms of the Sixteenth to Eighteenth

Centuries. 1959

Kaulfman, H. J. The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle. Harrisburg, 1960 Lavin, J. A History of Spanish Firearms. 1965

Lenk, T. The Flintlock, Its Origin and Development. Stockholm, 1939; London,1965

Lister, R. Antique Firearms: Their Care, Repair and Restoration. 1963 1 .”v.in. H. C. Underhammer Guns. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1960 Ncal, W. K. Spanish Guns and Pistols. 1955

Ncal, W. K. and Back, D. H. L. The Mantons: Gunmakers. 1967; Forsyth

& Co., Patent Gunmakers. 1969 Partington, J. R. A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Cambridge,

1960

Peterson, H. L. (Ed.) Encyclopaedia of Firearms. 1964 (1967); The Book of

the Gun. 1963 (1967) Pollard, H. B. C. History of Firearms. 1926 Pope, D. Guns. 1965

Reynolds, E. G. B. The Ue Enfield Rifle. 1960 Ricketts, H. Firearms. 1962

Riling, R. Guns and Shooting: A Bibliography. New York, 1951; The Powder

Flask Book. New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1953 Roads, C. H. The British Soldiers’ Firearms, 1850-1864. 1964 Servcn, J. E. Colt Firearms. California, 1954 (1959)

Smith, W. H. B. Gas, Air and Spring Guns of the World. Pennsylvania, 1957

Taylcrson, A. W. F. The Revolver, 1865-1888. 1966; Revolving Arms. 1967 Taylerson, A. W. F., Andrews, R. A. N. and Frith, J. The Revolver, 1818-1865. 1968

Walsh, J. H. The Modern Sportsman’s Gun and Rifle. 1882 Wilkinson, F. Small Arms. 1965 (1966); Flintlock Pistols. 1969 Winant, L. Early Percussion Firearms. New York, 1959; London. 1961; Fire arms Curiosa. New

York, 1955 (1961); Pepperbox Firearms. New York, 1952

FIRE MARKS

Fothergill, G. A. Fire Marks from 1680. 1911

Williams, B. Fire Marks and Insurance Office Fire Brigades. 1927; Specimens of British Fire Marks. 1934

hooks   for reading and reference

FIREPLACES

Kelly, A. The Book of English Fireplaces. 1969

William, T. Designs o\ Monuments and Chimney Pieces. 1843

FURNITURE—GENERAL

Aronson, J. The Encyclopaedia of Furniture. Third cdtn., 1966 Binstead, II. E. English Chairs. 1923

Blake, J. P. and Hopkins, A. E. R. Old English Furniture. 1930 Boger, L. A. The Complete Guide to Furniture Styles. 1961 Boynton, L. English Furniture. 1969

Davies, L. T. and Lloyd-Johnes, N. J. Welsh Furniture. 1950 Dean, M. English Antique Furniture. 1968

Edwards, R. A History of the English Chair. 1951 (1965); The Shorter

Dictionary of English Furniture. 1964 Fastncdge, R. English Furniture Styles from 1500 to 1830. 1955 (1962) Foley, E. Book of Decorative Furniture: 2 vols. 1910-11

Cloag, J. A. Short Dictionary of Furniture. 1952 (Revised and enlarged

edition, 1969); The Englishman’s Chair. 1964 Gordon, II. Old English Furniture. 1948

Haydcn, A. Chats on Cottage and Farmhouse Furniture. 1912 (1950) Hayward, II. (Ed.) World Furniture. 1965 Heal. A. The London Furniture Makers, 1660-1840. 1953 Henderson, J. Furniture. 1967

Honour, H. Cabinet Makers and Furniture Designers. 1969 Hughes, B. The Pocket Book of Furniture. 1968 Hughes, T. Old English Furniture. 1949

Joy, E. T. English Furniture. 1962; ‘Country Life’ Book of Furniture. 1964 (1969)

Litchfield, F. Illustrated History of Furniture. 1922

Macquoid, P. A History of English Furniture : 4 vols. 1904

Macquoid, P. and Edwards, R. The Dictionary of English Furniture from

the Middle Ages to the late Georgian Period: 3 vols. 1924-27 (1954) Menzies, W. G. Period Furniture for Everyman. 1939 (1950) Mercer, E. Furniture, 700-1700. 1969 Negus, A. Going for a Song: English Furniture. 1969

Pendcrel-Brodhurst, J. G. J. and Layton, E. J. Glossary of English Furniture. 1925 (1954)

Ramsey, L. G. G. (Ed.) Antique English Furniture. 1961

Ramsey, L. G. G. and Comstock, II. (Eds.) The Connoisseur Guide to

Antique Furniture. 1957 (1969) Symonds, R. W. The Present State of Old English Furniture. 1927; English

Furniture from Charles II to George II. New York, 1929; Old Furniture.

1939 (1964)

Wanscher, O. The Art of Furniture: 5,000 years of Furniture and Interiors.

Copenhagen, 1966; English Translation, London, 1968 Wenham, E. The Collector’s Guide to Furniture Design. 1928; Old Furniture.

1964

Wheeler, G. O. Old English Furniture. 1909 FURNITURE—AMERICAN

Andrews, E. D. and F. Shaker Furniture. New Haven, 1950 Bjerkoe, E. II. The Cabinetmakers of America. Garden City, New York, 1957

Burton, E. M. Charleston Furniture, 1700-1825. Charleston, 1955 11

Carpenter, R. E. Jr. The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island, 1640-

1820. Newport, 1954 Comstock, H. American Furniture: Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth

Century Styles. New York, 1962 Downs, J. American Furniture of the Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles.

New York, 1952 Ilinklcy, F. L. A Directory of Antique Furniture, New York, 1953 Hipkiss, E. J. The M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth Century

American Arts. Boston, 1941 Horner, W. M. Jr. Blue Book, Philadelphia Furniture. Philadelphia, 1935 Iverson, M. D. The American Chair, 1630-1890 New York, 1957 Kettell, R. EL The Pine Furniture of Early New England.

New York, 1929

(1956)

McClelland, N. Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency, 1795-1830. New York, 1939

Miller, E. G. American Antique Furniture. 2 vols. 1967

Montgomery, C. F. American Furniture. The Federal Period, 1788-1825.

New York, 1966; London, 1967 Nagel, C. American Furniture, 1650-1850. 1949

Ormsbee, T. H. Early American Furniture Makers. New York, 1930; The

Windsor Chair. New York, 1962 Otto, C. J. American Furniture of the Nineteenth Century. New York, 1965 Sack, A. Fine Points of Furniture: Early American. New York, 1950 (1963) Williams, II. Country Furniture of Early

America. 1964

FURNITURE: EARLY ENGLISH DESIGN BOOKS

Chippendale, T. Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director. 1754; Re-issued

in London and New York, 1957 Hepplewhitc, A. & Co. Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide. 1788 Hope, T. Household Furniture and Interior Decoration. 1807 Ince, W. and Mayhew, T. Universal System of Household

Furniture. 1762-3;

Reprinted 1960

Manwaring, R. Cabinet and Chairmaker’s Real Friend and Companion. 1765;

Reprinted 1954

Sheraton, T. Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book. 1791-4; The Cabinet Directory. 1803

Smith, G. Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide. 1826; Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration. 1808

FURNITURE—ENGLISH BEFORE 1800 Brackett, O. Thomas Chippendale. 1924

Ccscinsky, II. English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century. 3 vols. 1911-12 Coleridge. A. Chippendale Furniture: The Work of Thomas Chippendale and

his Contemporaries in the Rococo Taste: e. 1745-1765. 1968 Edwards, R. Sheraton Furniture Designs.  1949; Hepplewhitc Furniture

Design. 1955

Edwards, R. and Jourdain, M. Georgian Cabinet Makers. 1944; Revised

Edition London and New York, 1963 Ellwood, G. M. English Furniture and Decoration, 1680-1800. 1933 Fastnedge, R. Hepplewhite Furniture Design. 1954; Sheraton Furniture. 1961 Harris, E. The Furniture of Robert

Adam. 1963

Hayward, C. II. English Period Furniture, 1580-1800. 1936; Period Furniture Designs. 1968

Jourdain, M. English Decoration and Furniture of the Early Renaissance,

1500-1650. 1924; The Work of William Kent. 1948 Lenyon, P. Furniture in England from 1660-1760. 1914 (1925) Musgrave, G. Adam and Hepplewhite Furniture. 1965 Nickerson, D. English Eighteenth-Century Furniture.

1963 Rogers, J. C. English Furniture. 1923 (1968)

Strange, T. A. Eighteenth-Century Furniture, Woodwork and Decoration.

1958

Symonds, R. W. Old English Walnut and Lacquer Furniture. 1923; English Furniture from Charles II to George II. 1929; The Ornamental Designs of Chippendale. 1949; Chippendale Furniture Design. 1954; Furniture

Making in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century in England. 1955; Veneered Walnut Furniture. 1952 Tipping, H. A. Old English Furniture of the Cabriole Period. 1922 Ward-Jackson, P. J. English Furniture Designs of

the Eighteenth Century. 1959

Watkin, D. Thomas Hope and the Neo-Classical Idea. 1968 Wolsey, S. W. and Luff, R. W. P. Furniture in England: The Age of the Joiner. 1968

FURNITURE—ENGLISH REGENCY

Aslin, E. Nineteenth-Century English Furniture. 1962

Harris, J. Regency Furniture Designs from Contemporary Sources Books, 1803-26. 1961

Jourdain M. and Fastnedge, R. Regency Furniture. 1965 (Revision of earlier publication.)

Musgrave, C. Regency Furniture (1800-1830). 1961

Reade, B. Regency Antiques (Contains a useful appendix giving the names and addresses of London furniture makers in 1817.) 1953

FURNITURE—ENGLISH VICTORIAN

Aslin, E. Nineteenth-Century English Furniture. 1962

Bird, A. Early Victorian Furniture. 1964

Braund, J. Illustrations of Furniture from the Great Exhibition. 1858 Jervis, S. Victorian Furniture. 1968

Joel. D. The Adventures of British Furniture, 1851-1951. 1953

Lawford, H. The Cabinet of Practical, Useful and Decorative Furniture

Designs. 1859 Roe, F. Victorian Furniture. 1952

Symonds, R. B. and Whineray, B. B. Victorian Furniture. 1962 FURNITURE—FRENCH

Packer, C. Paris Furniture, 1710-1810. New York. 1956 Souchal, G. French Eighteenth-Century Furniture. 1961

Strange, T. A. French Interiors, Furniture, Woodwork and Decoration. 1958 Verlet, P. French Royal Furniture. 1963; French Furniture and Interior

Decoration of the Eighteenth Century. 1967 Watson, P. J. B. Louis XVI Furniture. 1960; French Furniture in the Wallace Collection. 1956

FURNITURE—ITALIAN

Hunter, G. L. Italian Furniture and Interiors. 2 vols. 1920

Morazzoni, G. Italian Furniture of the Neo-Classic Period (1760-1820). 1955

GAMES—see also Toys

Whitehouse, F. R. B. Table Games of Georgian and Victorian Days. 1951

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Jul

27

VICTORIAN FURNITURE

July 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment

ANY systematic charting of the history of Victorian furniture – at least after 1850 – must take constant account of the overlapping of styles, though necessarily giving prior attention to those pioneer, and indeed often rebel, designers upon whose inspiration the entire development ultimately depends. Collectors have the choice of furniture at every level of taste, though for obvious reasons it is usually only the more ‘advanced’ pieces, in so far as they survive, which can provide the additional interest of exact dating and documentation.
In the absence of an accepted body of doctrine on Victorian furniture, the opinions expressed in the survey which follows are necessarily personal and tentative. Moreover, they are unavoidably based as much on an examination of contemporary documents as of actual surviving furniture. The survey concentrates on cabinet-makers’ furniture, and excludes upholstered furniture and those sidelines, such as metal furniture, wicker, cane and bent-wood furniture and garden furniture, which require separate study.
Early Victorian Furniture:
The first fifteen years of Victoria’s reign mark the lowest ebb ever reached in the whole history of English furniture design. Indeed, the most severe strictures so often applied indiscriminately to Victorian taste as a whole are entirely justified if only directed against the products of this initial period. It would, however, be absurd to suggest that a sudden deterioration set in as soon as the new reign had begun; the most that can be said is that a debasement which was already evident as early as the late 1820S gained steady impetus during the 183os and 1840s. The Great Exhibition Of 1851 is always taken to mark the culmination of this debasement. In a sense this is true; although it is only right to remember that by stimulating competitive ostentation among manufacturers it tended to exaggerate the most vulgar elements in Early Victorian design, while the fact that, for the first time, the various illustrated catalogues of the exhibition provide a permanent record of its horrors, unfairly weighs the evidence against the Early Victorians. Had a similar exhibition been held in 1837 instead of 1851, it would hardly have demonstrated a higher average standard.
Two characteristics stand out in the general confusion: an emphasis on rich and elaborate carving, preferably with a narrative or anecdotal interest, and a delight in the numerous new substitute materials which technical progress was making available. Lacking any accepted architectural framework, the shape and outline of such items as cabinets and sideboards was frequently entirely subordinated to an overall covering of carving, often worked not by hand carving but by new methods such as the burning techniques of the Burnwood Carving Company’s ‘Xylopyrography’ and Harrison’s Wood Carving Company (Pimlico), or the machine stamping of Jordan’s Patent Wood Carving, or even produced from materials such as gutta-percha, Jackson’s `carton-pierre’, Bielefeld’s ‘Patent Siliceous Fibre’, White and Parlby’s ‘furniture composition’, or Leake’s sculptured leather.
Elaborate carving became so established as the hall-mark of fine furniture during this period that the furniture section of Wornum’s Report on the Great Exhibition is actually headed ‘Carving and Modelling’, and the only artists known to have been commissioned during the years 1837-51 to design furniture from outside the trade (with the exception of Pugin, to be mentioned below) were not architects as one would expect, but sculptors, such as Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), John Thomas (1813-62) and Baron Maro-chetti (1805-67). Inevitably the most popular examples of English furniture at the Great Exhibition were the elaborately carved cradle presented to Queen Victoria by W. G. Rogers (1792-1875) — known as the ‘Victorian Grinling Gibbons’; the monstrous ‘Kenilworth’ buffet (now at Warwick Castle), the chef-d’oeuvre of the Warwick school of wood carvers which flourished throughout the 19th century; and Arthur J. Jones’s ludicrous patriotic carved furniture in Irish bog-oak.
The only one of the new materials which may be said to have produced something new and attractive was papier-mache, enriched after 1842 with Jennens’s and Bettridge’s patent jewelled effects. This plastic material, though suitable for trays, caskets and the like, is, however, basically unsuitable for load-bearing furniture, and has no real place in the development of Victorian furniture. Owing to the natural attraction of the smaller items for collectors, it has, nevertheless, received disproportionate attention, and has helped to spread the myth that Early Victorian furniture is lighter and less clumsy than mid-Victorian. In a few cases, of which the settle is a good example, the techniques for decorating papier-mAch6 (e.g. lacquer painting and encrustation with shell and mother-of-pearl) were applied to a normal wooden framework, thus producing a legitimate piece of furniture; but such examples are rare.
Mid-Victorian Furniture: x851-67
The furniture of the period 1851 to 1867 differed very markedly from that of the preceding period. In particular the wild eclecticism and confusion of styles was rapidly replaced after 1851 by a surprising uniformity, and a single consistent style soon imposed itself on the great bulk of fashionable productions. Victorians themselves gave no name to this style, but usually described examples of it with generalized phrases such ac ‘following the purest taste of the Italian Renaissance’. Twentieth-century writers have hitherto ignored its existence, although a careful analysis of, for example, the copious records which have survived from the vast Modern Furniture Court of the 1862 Exhibition makes
its existence perfectly clear.
Its main characteristics were the use of solid wood, usually walnut or mahogany, rather than veneers or inlay, a repudiation of baroque or rococo curves in favour of more severe outlines, and a continuing emphasis on carving. The latter, however, was now no longer allowed to sprawl over the whole surface with a profusion of unrelated motifs, as in the 184os, but was concentrated into carefully disposed and deeply cut masks, swags and trophies (usually of ‘appropriate’ objects, such as dead game birds on sideboards), and almost invariably incorporated human figures in the form of caryatids or brackets. Indeed, this emphasis on human figures became something of an obsession with designers during this period, so that no fashionable sideboard or cabinet was considered complete without them — as large as possible and preferably free-standing. Equally indispensable was an enormous mirror, backing, and usually dwarfing, the whole piece — a direct consequence of the technical developments in mirror making first displayed in the industrial section of the 1851 Exhibition.
It cannot be doubted that the best examples in this manner — however unacceptable to present-day taste — show a sense of style and consistency that had been completely lost in the i 840s, and certainly justify the enthusiasm with which all writers in the 186os refer to the great improvement in the stylistic purity of English furniture since the nadir of 1851. The improvement must be mainly attributed to the influx of French designers imported from Paris by all the leading firms after the 1851 Exhibition had so clearly exposed the general superiority of French design. Some, such as Eug6ne Prignot and Alfred Lormier, who acted as chief designers to Jackson and Graham throughout the 1850s and 186os, were brought over permanently, while in other cases designs were commissioned from artists in Paris, such as Ernest Vandale and Hugues Protat. In either case, the manufacturers always emphasized that ‘the piece has been entirely executed by English workers’.
Gothic Revival
The first conscious reformers of Victorian furniture design
—    A. W. N. Pugin (1812-52) and William Burges (182′7-81)
—    cannot be said to have had a direct or decisive influence on the general trend of trade design. Nevertheless, the developments of the late 186os cannot be explained without a reference to their role. Though they both worked within the orbit of the Gothic Revival, their actual designs differed very radically.
The influence of Pugin on English furniture design has usually been overrated. His general influence as a propagandist, his key position in the mid-century transition from a sentimental to a scientific medievalism and the significance of his teachings on church furnishings have tended to obscure the fact that his own domestic furniture had little influence and that his following among furniture designers was always small. He himself designed a good deal of furniture in an extremely plain and unromantic Gothic style for the numerous houses which he erected in the 1840s, but as this was never published, it had no effect on the trade.
By contrast, the much more ornate and monumental furniture which he designed for the Houses of Parliament, and in particular the elaborate display piece which lie designed for J. G. Grace for the Medieval Court of the 1851 Exhibition, and which was purchased by the Museum of Ornamental Art in 1852 were much publicized and copied. Consequently the trade furniture of the 1850s which was claimed by its manufacturers to be ‘in the purest Gothic taste, after recognized authorities’, and dismissed by its detractors as ‘Puginesque’, tended to repeat all those faults of over-elaboration with architectural conceits in the way of finials, crockets and the like, which Pugin himself had so trenchantly attacked in his Contrasts and which his own domestic work so skilfully avoided. In fact, this type of architectural Gothic furniture was far too closely associat -,d in the public mind with Pugin’s catholicism to have any
wide vogue.
Morris Furniture
Several pieces exhibited by William Morris and his associates in 1862 have survived, and all are solidly constructed, supposedly Gothic, carcases, used as surfaces for painting. They belong by rights to the history of painting rather than of furniture. However, the Morris firm also produced several other types of non-Gothic furniture each of which had an influence on the general trend of furniture design. So many misconceptions are current about Morris furniture that it is necessary to examine these in some detail.
Morris himself (despite frequent statements to the contrary) never designed any furniture, nor do his writings indicate much interest in it. All the furniture produced by the firm was the work of his various collaborators. Four different types were manufactured in these early years. Firstly, Philip Webb (1831-1915), the architect, designed a number of large tables depending for their effect entirely on the use of unstained oak and on the interest of their unconcealed joinery construction, thus marking a conscious revolt against the debasement of mid-Victorian cabinet making. Though they were exaggeratedly massive and monumental, their proportions and their simple chamfered decoration reveal the hand of a sensitive architect. Their importance lies not in any immediate influence on the trade but in their delayed influence on the Arts and Crafts furniture designers of the 18gos, and they can be legitimately regarded as the original prototypes of the whole Cotswold school of joinery.
Secondly, Ford Madox Brown designed a set of cheap bedroom furniture, produced by the Morris firm in large quantities, usually in a green-stained version, of which a few examples have survived. These appealed particularly to those mid-Victorians who felt that the introduction of examples of good plain design into servants’ bedrooms could not but help raise the taste, and even the morals, of the lower classes. Their success led to plagiarism by many firms in the
1880S.
Thirdly, the firm produced and sold right up to the 1920S a set of cheap rush-bottomed chairs and settle in turned ebonized wood, including seven alternative shapes, which quickly became immensely popular with middle-class families anxious to escape from the general philistinism of contemporary decoration. These also were copied with minor modifications by numerous other firms. This set was not originally designed by the firm, but was adapted from a traditional-type country chair seen by William Morris in Sussex.
Fourthly, the firm produced with equal success a drawing-room easy chair with an adjustable bar at the back, which became so popular that in the United States the type is still known as a ‘Morris chair’. Though often spoken of as designed by Morris himself, it was in fact copied directly from a chair seen in 1866 by Warington Taylor, the young manager of the firm, at the workshop of a Herstmonceux furniture maker named Ephraim Coleman.
Later in the century the firm evolved several entirely different types of furniture, which are referred to below in connexion with the Arts and Crafts movement.
Bruce J. Talbert and C. L. Eastlake
Although neither the architectural Gothic of Pugin nor the painted-plank Gothic of William Burgos and the Morris firm had much direct influence on trade design, they were nevertheless responsible for providing the point of departure for the development of what ultimately became the most widespread and original of all Victorian styles — a development that was so rapid that in the decade 1868 to 1878 it transformed the whole course of Victorian furniture design. Two stages — or rather two overlapping strands — can be traced in it: the first associated with Bruce J. Talbert (1838-81) and C. L. Eastlake (1836-1906), the second with T. E. Collcutt (1840-1924)- Once again the usual Victorian confusion about labels has served to obscure the significance of these changes and the originality of the furniture which developed from them, for contemporary writers gave the style no name and referred to its products as simply Gothic, Early English, Old English or even Jacobean.
The first stage dates from 1867, when Talbert, a prolific and neglected designer, won a silver medal for Holland and Sons at the Paris Exhibition with a so-called ‘Gothic dressoir’ and several smaller cabinets. The influence of this success was consolidated by the publication in the same year of Talbert’s Gothic Forms, applied to Furniture, Metalwork, etc. for Interior Purposes, and in 1868 of Eastlake’s Hints on Household Taste, a book which exerted an enormous influence in sophisticated middle-class circles – especially in America, where it gave rise to a so-called ‘Eastlake style’.
Although Talbert’s Paris Exhibition pieces were still in a heavy semi-Gothic style, not so far removed from the `Puginesque’, the more unpretentious examples in both his book and in Eastlake’s, which were of course, those which had most influence on trade production, marked a definite step away from the Gothic of both Pugin and Burges towards a style more practical and three-dimensional. Its main characteristics were a rigid avoidance of curves or florid carving, a concentration on straight lines and an elaboration of surface colour and texture (but always in the lowest possible relief) by the use of a great variety of different techniques and materials, including the insertion of painted and stained panels, tiles, stamped leather, embroidery, enamels and chased metal. Talbert produced large quantities of this furniture, not only for Hollands, but also for Gillow, and for Marsh, Jones and Cribb of Leeds. However, only two authenticated examples of his work have so far been traced (both are now in the Victoria & Albert Museum). They are both in this modified Gothic style, and demonstrate the particular flavour of rich sobriety which characterized his work. Other examples must certainly survive, along with pieces by Eastlake himself (he designed for Heaton, Butler and Bayne), and those designers who closely followed this style in the 1870s, such as E. J. Tarver (working for Morant Boyd) and Owen Davis, the eclectic assistant of Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt and author of Art and Life (1885).
Despite the acclaim with which Talbert’s book was received and the designs in it copied, he himself quickly abandoned the style, and already in the early 18705 turned towards a dull and unoriginal rehash of Jacobean motifs, with a tedious elaboration of carved strap-work and a generally baronial air. This change can be clearly traced in the designs which he exhibited at the Royal Academy over these years, and in his second book of designs, Examples of Ancient and Modern Furniture, published in 1876. Its influence was slight, for it merely provided additional models for the large firms of traditionalist decorators, such as Gillow and Trollope, who had in any case always found in late Elizabethan and early 17th-century oak carving a ready-made source of inspiration for their more pretentious schemes.
T. E. Collcutt
The second stage in these developments, though it stemmed directly from the first and rapidly followed on its heels, was due neither to Talbert nor Eastlake, but to Thomas Edward Collcutt. Though remembered as the architect of the Imperial Institute, his role as a furniture designer has been entirely forgotten. It opens in 1871, when Collcutt exhibited at the South Kensington International Exhibition a cabinet designed for Collinson and Lock, which was bought by the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition and finally found its way into the South Kensington Museum. The publication in 1872 of a large catalogue of designs by Collinson and Lock (mostly the work of Collcutt, although ,J. Moyr Smith, the author of Ornamental Interiors (1887) later claimed some credit for them) gave the style a wide currency in the trade, so that already by the time of the Paris Exhibition of 1878 firms such as Cooper and Holt, and Bell and Roper of London, and Henry Ogden of Manchester were copying it precisely. By 188o its influence appears in the catalogues of mass-production firms such as Hewetson and Milner, Smee, and Lucraft.
In Collcutt’s hands the style, though following Talbert in the emphasis on straight lines and the use of coved cornices and painted panels, was elaborated in a far more fanciful and light-hearted spirit, which marked a further stage in the evolution away from the medieval. A simultaneous emphasis on both verticals and horizontals, and a proliferation of shelves and divisions, diversifies the facade and provides variety by giving space for the display of knick-knacks. As always, the rapid spread of the style was accompanied by an equally rapid debasement, so that by the early 1880s it was responsible for a mass of elaborate but gimcrack cabinets, what-nots, corner-cupboards (a particular favourite) and the like, with spindly supports, a profusion of small pigeonholes, often divided off by little railings of turned balusters or embroidered curtains, and panels painted with floral sprays or willowy female figures, usually on a gold ground. A persistent cliche which became almost a trade-mark for the style was a double panel in which an inner oblong or hexagon is joined to an outer frame by ties at the four cardinal points.
At its best, the style must be regarded as the Victorian era’s most individual contribution in the whole field of furniture design. Quantities of its cheaper manifestations have survived, particularly in country rectories. Over-mantels, usually backed with numerous small mirrors, have tended to survive as being fixtures, and examples of a drawing-room version of the style, decorated in black and gold, can also be found. Authentic pieces from the Collinson and Lock 1872 catalogue are, however, very difficult to come by.
The surprisingly rapid spread of Talbert’s original style, and Collcutt’s later version of it, can only be explained if account is taken of the way in which Eastlake and the many publicists who followed him supported their influence with arguments which seemed to provide would-be connoisseurs and purchasers with certain easily remembered maxims for judging furniture, and which buttressed their own uncertain taste with apparently authoritative criteria. These all derived ultimately from the teachings of Pugin, Owen Jones and Ruskin on ‘honesty in design’. The most telling was the proposition that because wood has a straight grain it should always be used in the plank and never debased by being carved or curved into twisted shapes more appropriate to plastic or ductile materials. This argument was strengthened by simultaneous appeal to economic and nationalist considerations, for the carving or curving of wood obviously involves the cutting-to-waste of good timber, while ‘wanton curves’ and ‘meaningless scrolls’ could be condemned as symbolizing the decadent extravagances which had so recently brought the French Second Empire to the ground.
During this period a parallel movement in favour of straight lines, a lighter and more varied colouring and texture and a shunning of the deep carving of the 186os can be traced even in the luxury productions of firms such as Jackson and Graham, and Wright and Mansfield. At its best it produced some very handsome pieces, such as the cabinet by Wright and Mansfield, which won the highest awards at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 and was purchased for the South Kensington Museum for C800. Judging from contemporary descriptions, the elaborate inlaid furniture produced by Jackson and Graham in the early 187os for Alfred Morrison’s palace at 16, Carlton House Terrace, to the designs of Owen Jones (1809-74), must have reflected the same trend. The 187os also saw the production of furniture designed by Norman Shaw for Lascelles and Co. Unfortunately, in the absence of surviving photographs or specimens, the wildly conflicting opinions of contemporary critics provide no clear picture of its style.Anglo-Japanese Style
Owing to the absence of furniture in the European sense in the traditional Japanese home, the revolutionary influence on Victorian design of the displays of Japanese craftsmanship at the International Exhibitions of 1862 (London) and 1867 (Paris), following the opening-up ofJapan by the West, had rather less effect in the field of furniture design than in those, for example, of wallpapers, textiles or book illustration. Nevertheless, the impact of the new culture - providing, as it did, a heaven-sent stimulus to jaded designers in search of some authentic historical style that had not already been copied ad nauseam - was sufficient to inspire a vogue for so-called ‘Anglo-japanese’ furniture in the i87os and Mos.
The first enthusiast was E. W. Godwin (1833-86), the architect and stage designer and associate of Whistler and Ellen Terry. He is said to have decorated his own house in the Japanese manner as early as 1862, and was certainly designing furniture showing a strong Japanese influence by the late 186os. An illustrated catalogue issued by William Watt in 1877 contained many examples of his work and did much to familiarize the general public and the trade with his particular style.
Inevitably the trade version of Godwin’s style, worked out in the i88os by hack designers, produced some deplorable furniture, in which the Japanese inspiration was limited to such obvious tricks as imitation bamboo legs, and asymmetrical fretwork panels, However, a few of the better professional designers managed to design some quite pleasing pieces by grafting certain Japanese motifs on to the Talbert-Collcutt style. The most successful of these was H. W. Batley, who designed some very elaborate furniture for James Shoolbred and for Henry Ogden of Manchester. It is possible, also, that some of the ‘Anglo-Japanese’ furniture produced by the short-lived ‘Art Furnishers’ Alliance’, founded in 1880 by Christopher Dresser (1834-1904), the indefatigable but eccentric designer and publicist (he was for a time Art Editor of the Furniture Gazette in the 188os), may have been of interest, for Dresser had a real understanding of Japan, which he visited officially in 1876; but the only two surviving examples are too unimportant to justify an
opinion.
This Anglo-Japanese vogue was accompanied in the 188os by a revival of interest in other exotic styles, such as the Indian, Persian and Moorish, as a result of which such features as ‘Anglo-Arab lounges’ and ‘H indoo smoke-rooms’ became popular, particularly in clubs and hotels. However, this fashion was largely met by the importation and adaptation of genuine Oriental examples (Egyptian mushrabiya panels, Chinese embroidered screens, Indian mother-of-pearl and ivory tables and the like) by firms such as Liberty’s, rather than by Western manufacturers, and no serious English designers seem to have been influenced by it.
The Arts and Crafts Movement
Late Victorian furniture design — indeed, the Late Victorian decorative arts generally — was dominated by the birth of what has come to be known generically as the ‘Arts and Crafts movement’ (i.e. the Century Guild, 1882; the Art Workers’ Guild, 1883; the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, 1888; the Guild of Handicraft, 1888; the Home Arts and Industries Association, 1889; the Wood Handicraft Society, 1892; and many others). In fact, during the last dozen years or so of the Victorian era no furniture of interest was designed outside its orbit.

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