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CHAPTER XXIV
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
Gradually architecture and interior decoration drew apart, becoming
two distinct professions, until during the Victorian era the two were
unrelated with the result that the period of Victorian furniture is
one of the worst on record.
There were two reasons for this divorce of the arts, which for
centuries had been one in origin and spirit; first, the application of
steam to machinery (1815) leading to machine-made furniture, and
second, the invention of wall-paper which gradually took the place of
wood panelling and shut off the architects from all jurisdiction over
the decoration of the home.
With the advent of machine-made furniture came cheap imitations of
antiques and the rapid decadence of this art. Hand-made reproductions
are quite another thing. Sir Richard Wallace (of the Wallace
Collection, London) is said to have given $40,000 for a reproduction
of the bureau du Louvre.
Fortunately, of late years a tide has set in which favours simple,
well made furniture, designed with fine lines and having special
reference to the purposes for which each piece is intended, and to-day
our houses can be beautiful even if only very simple and inexpensive
furniture is used.
In the Victorian prime, even the carved furniture, so much of which
was made in England both for that country and the United States (see
Plate XXI), was not of the finest workmanship, compared with carvings
of the same time in Belgium, France, Germany and Austria.
To-day Victorian cross-stitch and bead work in chairs, screens,
footstools and bell-pulls, artificial flowers of wax and linen, and
stuffed birds, as well as Bristol glass in blue, green and violet, are
brought out from their hiding places and serve as touches of colour to
give some of the notes of variety which good interior decoration
demands.
To be fascinating, a person must not be too rigidly one type. There
must be moments of relaxation, of light and shade in mood, or one is
not charmed even by great beauty. So your perfect room must not be
kept too rigidly in one style. To have attraction it must have variety
in both line and colour, and reflect the taste of generations of home
lovers. The contents of dusty garrets may add piquancy to modern
decorations, giving a touch of the unusual which is very charming.
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