A very brief but whimsical commentary on how "the manufacture of antiques has become a modern industry", which hints at the origins of professional 'distressing'.
An entire issue devoted to antique furniture and decorative objects used in the reconstruction of Colonial Williamsburg.
Two-volume edition features seventeen essays from the symposium which, the editor proposes, demonstrate attentiveness to the emergence of "material culture as a form of nonverbal communication." Contributors who model a variety of new approaches to furniture and design studies include Donald Fennimore, David Hanks, Christopher Monkhouse, Rodris Roth, Page Talbott, Edward Teitelman and Richard Guy Wilson. Includes “The Ironies of Style: Complexities and Contradictions in Decorative Arts, 1850 — 1900” by Harvey Green.
Tells the story of a Baltimore furniture-making firm that has produced hand-crafted reproduction furniture for almost a century.
Detailed information on colonial furniture and wall decoration, with practical demonstrations, done in the hope that "Colonial interior decoration will come into its own as a delightful background for daily living."
History of the transformation of the du Pont home to a museum after 1951, owing to Henry Francis du Pont's avid conoisseurship of the decorative arts. Throughly illustrated account demonstrates how du Pont's personal collection became a tool of scholarship, and turned the display of objects into an artform.
A photographic essay on the interiors of forty-five houses from the colonial and Early Republican periods, designed to tell the story of the progress of American taste and manners.
Quaintly contemporary commentary on seeking value in old things.
A guide to taste in the decoration of the home, which contains scattered references of admiration concerning "old" furniture.
Examines the development of a popular market for Colonial Revival kit quilts in the twenties and thirties and the manner in which sentimental rhetoric was used to target potential buyers.
A collection of papers on American clothing that contains Beverly Gordon's, "Dressing the Colonial Past: Nineteenth Century New Englanders Look Back," an essay that describes how some mid-nineteenth century people costumed themselves in colonial-type dress as a way of "enacting" the past.
Helpful visual review of museum holdings acquired since 1924, organized by period and collection type. Includes "Early Colonial, 1630-1730" and "Late Colonial, 1730-1790" headings for sections on period rooms, furniture, silver, pewter, ceramics, glass, and art.
This article describes the activities of Wallace Nutting (1861-1941), a prolific and important collector, photographer, promoter and designer of colonial and Colonial Revival furniture and objects.
Reviews the life and work of Candace Thurber Wheeler, one of the first American women to make a living as a designer. Wheeler co-founded the Associated Artists firm in 1879 along with Louis Comfort Tiffany, Samuel Coleman and Lockwood de Forest. She promoted Colonial Revival styles in architecture, decorative arts and interior design in an attempt to reform the quality of modern life.
An illustrated description of Phyfe's colonial furniture, published in conjunction with an exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A compendium for "collectors, amateurs and searchers for fine old things," designed to provide "precious knowledge of our artistic heritage." Covers glass, metalwork, needlecraft, silver, pewter, pottery, decorative painting, portraiture and allegorical painting, weaving, fractur, woodblock printing, wood and stone carving and lace.
Studies the history of a scenic wallpaper designed by the French company Jean Zuber et Cie in 1834. The forty-nine foot wallpaper, which depicted "a rose-colored view of life in Jacksonian America," became so popular that it was reissued many times between 1854 and 1864, and again in 1880 and 1923. It was a favorite of colonial revivalists, and was even used by Jacqueline Kennedy for the White House's Diplomatic Reception Room.
A brief history of an important furniture-making company of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, which specialized in revival styles and made furniture for the White House and many of Boston and New York's wealthy elite.
Describes and praises (and overestimates the availability of) Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton furniture in the colonial period, implying that it is worth our attention and affection.
The story of how the American Antiquarian Society, which is not in the business of collecting furniture, has compiled an impressive collection of colonial furniture since 1814.
Examines American needlework from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, with particular attention given to the changing nature of "colonial" during that time and the role of women in the production of both material objects and meanings.
Later editions, such as the 1928 version, feature increasingly finer photographs of room interiors, which at the time of this initial "deluxe" run were state-of-the-art. Subtitling says it all: "From the beginnings of New England through the early days of the republic; exhibiting the development of the arts of interior architecture and house decoration, the arts of cabinetmaking, silversmithing, etc., especial emphasis being laid upon the point that our early craftsmen evolved from the fashions of the Old World a style of their own; with an account of the social conditions surrounding the life of the original owners of the various rooms."
Influential in its time, this how-to guide includes sections on needlework with types of stitches, china painting, and hints for decorating the “modern” home, including decorations for dinner tables.
Tells the history of a Baltimore furniture-making firm that produced Colonial Revival pieces among its other work over a 105-year period.
Presents furniture styles of Colonial and Federal periods, illustrated with b/w photos, and provides one of the earliest rationales for the sources of certain styles of furniture.
One of a series of guides to period decoration from one of America's most popular homemaking magazines. Each article provides an illustrated dictionary of furniture and architectural decoration. Demonstrates the popularity of the Colonial Revival on the eve of World War II.
One of a series of guides to period decoration from one of America's most popular homemaking magazines. Each article provides an illustrated dictionary of furniture and architectural decoration. Demonstrates the popularity of the Colonial Revival on the eve of World War II.
One of a series of guides to period decoration from one of America's most popular homemaking magazines. Each article provides an illustrated dictionary of furniture and architectural decoration. Demonstrates the popularity of the Colonial Revival on the eve of World War II.
Exhibition catalog that highlights various craft revivals in the interwar years. Includes essays by Harvey Green ("Culture and Crisis: Americans and the Craft Revival"), William B. Rhoads ("Colonial Revival in American Craft: Nationalism and the Opposition to Multicultural and Regional Traditions"), William Wroth ("The Hispanic Craft Revival in New Mexico"), and John Michael Vlach (""Keeping On Keeping On": African American Craft during the Era of Revivals").
A demonstration of early twentieth century interests in historical furniture, including that of the American colonial period.
This study of central Pennsylvania quilts includes a chapter on the "grandmother's quilt" movement of the 1890s to 1930s.
A handbook on colonial American furniture for the collector and connoisseur.
An interesting history of American taste and those who shape it in the architecture and the arts.
A good example of an early colonial era furniture study.
An illustrated book on the history of American interiors, with sections on colonial and colonial revival eras.
Intended for those who, "desiring to furnish their houses comfortably and at a modest expense, want them at the same time to express the atmosphere and feeling that existed in the days of which our modern Colonial and Federal dwellings are reminiscent."
This history of wallpaper includes 12 color plates, 245 half-tone illustrations and a chart of periods.
Charts the revived interest in spinning wheels during mid-19th century as symbolic of the pre-industrial era. Monkhouse argues that modern versions of the Philadelphia Centennial, at 1976 bicentennial exhibits, often featured spinning wheels, and led to a wave of furniture styles that resembled spinning wheels.
Highly visual history of the White House from Washington's era to the Clinton administration, with emphasis on how furnishings and decorative objects were acquired by various presidential families. "Catalog of Objects", chapter on “National Identity and the Colonial Revival, 1900 — 1950s" and a separate roster of "Important Acquisitions, 1961-2000" of particular interest.
A survey of colonial period furniture.
This two-volume compendium by one of the major figures in the Colonial Revival contains all types of early colonial furniture.
A vast catalog of 5,000 pieces of colonial furniture and household objects.
Catalog of Wallace Nutting colonial furniture reproductions from the 1930s.
A survey of the history of American furniture to the mid-nineteenth century.
Tells the story of a furniture making company that continued to use "old-fashioned" techniques and tools to produce colonial style furniture into the 1960s.
An important article on the early Colonial Revival interest in furniture.
Giving expression to the idea that furniture transmits history, Roth features special furniture was created for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Pieces of interest include "relic furniture", created from a tree in Independence Square, hickory chairs from the grounds of Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, and furniture made from the Charter Oak in Connecticut (the site where the colony's charter was hidden from English government representatives).
A collection of photographs of Victorian-era interiors that demonstrates how colonial reproduction furniture was often incorporated with other decorative items to produce an eclectic whole.
A chatty book that details the authors' never-ending search for colonial objects.
Combines tales of daily social life in the colonial period with notes on individual pieces of furniture by architectural critic Russell Sturgis.
Popularized through expositions such as the Paris Exposition of 1878, the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876 and the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, Smith illustrates how revivals in furniture design often combined two or more styles.
Described by the subtitle: "The lives and careers, the deals, the finds, the collections of the men and women who were responsible for the changing taste in American antiques, 1850-1930." Includes many Colonial Revival promoters found in this bibliography.
A guide to early American decorative arts. Arranged by chronological style, covering furniture, silver, ceramics and glass.
A review of Adam style furniture, the source for the "delicacy and restraint" in American colonial style designs.
A review of the Queen Anne style in furniture and architecture; all illustrations are of furniture.
Defines colonial furniture ("all furniture in vogue prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century") and compares it to the "clumsy pseudo classic stuff" that dates from 1810-1870 and fools many collectors.
An effort to end confusion over what is and is not Chippendale style, in light of the multitude of mislabeled revival pieces.
Twelve chapters spanning the 17th- to early 19th-century demonstrate how New England's female-centered production of textiles developed long before the Revolution or hydraulic technologies as a response to new marketing opportunities in the rural North. The story of the feminization of weaving in the 18th century. By the 19th-century, Americans began collecting "authentic" items that were valued as expressions of patriotism, family pride, national identity, domestic thrift, and household industry. Thoroughly indexed and footnoted.
Measured drawings and sketches of details from colonial and Colonial Revival houses.
Wheeler's simple narrative about the history of American needlework, and some of its sources, elevates American native quillwork, crewel work, samplers and quilts as records of history, revealing a perspective that was contemporary with the 20th-century Colonial Revival.
A primer on home decoration as the art of good taste by a prominent Colonial Revival promoter. Includes many examples of colonial antique or revival decoration, and praises the "fine fitness" of colonial furniture.
Thorough recounting of the savvy marketing of southern Appalachian crafts, and one of the earliest campaigns to sell a concept of tradition, which influenced the general public between 1890 and 1950. Although Clinch Valley's looms were powered by steam, water and electricity, its brochures, promotional flyers and mail order ads show how the Goodwin family intentionally projected a sense of historical authenticity for commercial gain.