Dining Room-Examples-of-Ancient-and-Modern-Furniture-1876

Modern Gothic, also known as Reformed Gothic, was an

Aesthetic Movement Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be prod ...

style of the 1860s and 1870s in architecture, furniture and decorative arts, that was popular in Great Britain and the United States. A rebellion against the excessive ornament of

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

and

Rococo Revival The Rococo Revival style emerged in Second Empire France and then was adapted in England. Revival of the rococo style was seen all throughout Europe during the 19th century within a variety of artistic modes and expression including decorative ...

furniture, it advocated simplicity and honesty of construction, and ornament derived from nature. Unlike the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, it sought not to copy Gothic designs, but to adapt them abstract them, and apply them to new forms. The style's leading advocates were English designers

Christopher Dresser Christopher Dresser (4 July 1834 – 24 November 1904) was a British designer and design theorist, now widely known as one of the first and most important, independent designers. He was a pivotal figure in the Aesthetic Movement and a major cont ...

and

Charles Eastlake Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March 1836 – 20 November 1906) was a British architect and furniture designer. His uncle, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in 1793), was a Keeper of the National Gallery, from 1843 to 1847, and from 1855 its fi ...

. Eastlake's ''Hints on Household Taste, Upholstery, and Other Details'', published in England in 1868 and in the United States in 1872, was one of the most influential decorating manuals of the Victorian Era. The

Eastlake movement The Eastlake movement was a nineteenth-century architectural and household design reform movement started by British architect and writer Charles Eastlake (1836–1906). The movement is generally considered part of the late Victorian period in t ...

argued that furniture and decor in people's homes should be made by hand or by machine-workers who took personal pride in their work. Eastlake lectured in the United States in 1876. French architect

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author who restored many prominent medieval landmarks in France, including those which had been damaged or abandoned during the French Revolution. H ...

advocated similar principles in ''Entretiens sur l'architecture'' (in 2 volumes, 1863–72), which was translated and published in the United States as ''Discourses on Architecture'' (1875). He incorporated modern materials, such as cast iron, into his historicist designs and building restorations. He also designed furniture. Other designers who worked in the Modern Gothic style include

Bruce James Talbert Bruce James Talbert (1838 – 28 January 1881) was a Scottish architect, interior designer and author, best known for his furniture designs. In the United States, he influenced the Modern Gothic work of the Herter Brothers, Kimbel and Cabus, Fr ...

Edward William Godwin Edward William Godwin (26 May 1833, Bristol – 6 October 1886, London) was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic " Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by ...

, and

Thomas Jeckyll Thomas Jeckyll (1827 Wymondham, Norfolk – 1881 Norwich) (baptised on 20 June 1827) was an English architect who excelled in the creation of metalwork and furniture strongly influenced by Japanese design, and is best known for his planning in 1 ...

in England; and

Kimbel and Cabus Kimbel & Cabus was a Victorian-era furniture and decorative arts firm based in New York City. The partnership was formed in 1862 between German-born cabinetmaker Anthony Kimbel (c. 1821–1895) and French-born cabinetmaker Joseph Cabus (1824&nd ...

Frank Furness Frank Heyling Furness (November 12, 1839 - June 27, 1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often unordinarily scaled b ...

, and

Daniel Pabst Daniel Pabst (June 11, 1826 – July 15, 1910) was a German-born American Victorian decorative arts#Furniture, cabinetmaker of the Victorian Era. He is credited with some of the most extraordinary custom interiors and hand-crafted furniture in th ...

in the United States. The style's parting zenith was the Modern Gothic furniture exhibited at the 1876

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. By 1878, the American critic

Clarence Cook Clarence Chatham Cook (September 8, 1828 – June 2, 1900) was a 19th-century American author and art critic. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Cook graduated from Harvard in 1849 and worked as a teacher. Between 1863 and 1869, Cook wrote a serie ...

was already pronouncing the style ''passé'':

There was a little while ago quite a rage for a certain style of furniture that made a great display of seeming steel hinges, key-plates, and handles, with inlaid tiles, carving of an ultra-Gothic type, and an appearance of the ingenuous truth-telling in the construction. The chairs, tables and bedsteads looked as if they had been on the dissecting-table and flayed alive,—their joints and tendons displayed to an archaeologic and unfeeling world. One particular firm imbel and Cabusintroduced this style of furniture, and, for a time, had almost the monopoly of it. It had a great run.Clarence Cook, ''The House Beautiful: Essays on Beds and Tables, Stools and Candlesticks'', (New York: Scribner, Armstrong and Company, 1878), p. 325.

File:Red House home of William Morris (5).jpg, Dining Room of the Red House (1859), London, England, designed by

Philip Webb Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of common ...

for

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

. File:Clock, Bruce James Talbert (attrib) - Indianapolis Museum of Art - DSC00562.JPG, Clock (ca. 1865), designed by

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It i ...

, Indianapolis, Indiana. File:Cabinet Talbert Holland Sons 1867.jpg,

Sideboard A sideboard, also called a buffet, is an item of furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or more drawers ...

(1867), designed by Bruce James Talbert. File:Wolfsonian-FIU Museum - IMG 8238.JPG, Sideboard (1868), designed by

Wolfsonian-FIU Museum The Wolfsonian–Florida International University or The Wolfsonian-FIU, located in the heart of the Art Deco District of Miami Beach, Florida, is a museum, library and research center that uses its collection to illustrate the persuasive power o ...

, Miami Beach, Florida. File:Dromore Castle Bookcase LACMA AC1999.179.1.jpg, Bookcase (1869), designed by

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

. File:HHFCabinetDoors.jpg, Cabinet doors (1871), designed by

, made by

. File:HockleyHouse.jpg,

Thomas Hockley House The Thomas Hockley House (1875) is a Victorian city house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed by architect Frank Furness. Located west of Rittenhouse Square, it is a contributing property in the Walnut–Chancellor Historic District. Histo ...

(1875), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Frank Furness, architect. File:Modern Gothic Campeche Chair circa 1875-1880.jpg, Campeche-style chair (ca. 1875-1880), attributed to Frank Furness and Daniel Pabst. File:Kimbel & Cabus catalogue -382 cropped.jpg, Secretary-abattant (ca. 1875), by

. File:Kimbel & Cabus display at 1876 Centennial Exposition - Harper's Weekly Dec 2, 1876.jpg,

exhibit at the

1876 Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

. File:Art Furniture at the Centennial Harper's Weekly, Oct 14, 1876.jpg, Cover of ''

Harper's Weekly ''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...

'', October 14, 1876. File:Cabinet MET DT180.jpg,

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

(ca. 1877-80), by

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York City. File:Settle Viollet-le-Duc Compiègne.jpg, Settle (ca. 1878), designed by Viollet-le-Duc, Musée du Second Empire, Compiègne, France. File:Christopher Dresser - Teapot - 1879.jpg, Teapot (ca. 1879), designed by

Pinakothek der Moderne The Pinakothek der Moderne (, '' Pinakothek of the Modern'') is a modern art museum, situated in central Munich's ''Kunstareal''. Locals sometimes refer to it as the ''Dritte'' ("third") ''Pinakothek'' after the Old and New. It is one of the world' ...

, München, Germany. File:HerterBedstead.jpg, Bedstead (1880), by

Herter Brothers Herter is a German occupational surname for a herdsman. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert Herter (1871–1950), American painter; son of Christian, the furniture maker * Christian Herter (1895–1966), American politician; son of ...

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, Atlanta, Georgia.

References

{{reflist *Doreen Bolger Burke, et al., ''In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement'' (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986), pp. 146-47, 429-31. *David Hanks, "Reform in Philadelphia: Frank Furness, Daniel Pabst, and 'Modern Gothic' Furniture," ''Art News'', vol. 74, no. 8 (October 1975). *David A. Hanks and Page Talbott, "Daniel Pabst—Philadelphia Cabinetmaker," ''Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin'', vol. 73, no. 316 (April, 1977), pp. 4-24. *Kristin Herron, "The Modern Gothic Furniture of Pottier and Stymus," ''The Magazine Antiques'', vol. 155, no. 5 (May 1999). *Wendy Kaplan, "The Furniture of Frank Furness," ''The Magazine Antiques'', vol. 131, no. 5 (May 1987), pp. 1088-95. *Mary Jean Madigan, ''Eastlake-influenced American Furniture, 1870-1890'' (Hudson River Museum, 1973). *Mary Jean Madigan, et al., ''Nineteenth Century Furniture: Innovation, Revival and Reform'' (Arts & Antiques, 1982). *Mark Orlowski, "The Furniture of Frank Furness," ''Journal of Interior Design'', vol. 13, no. 2 (September 1987).

External links

Gothic Luxury Furniture
Decorative arts History of furniture