Vistas on the past : tapestries and the period style interior (c. 1900-1940)
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(Published version)
Date
2012
Authors
Crocker, R.
Editors
Marcello, F.
White, A.
White, A.
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Conference paper
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Interspaces : Art and Architectural Exchanges from East to West : conference proceedings, 2012 / Marcello, F., White, A. (ed./s), iss.3.2, pp.1-19
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Interspaces : Art + Architectural Exchanges from East to West (20 Aug 2010 - 22 Aug 2010 : Melbourne, Victoria)
Abstract
One of the more noticeable cultural consequences of modernisation seems to be a fascination with origins and identity, and the reconfiguration of history to suit these demands. In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, this rediscovery and remaking of the past had many dimensions. The long neglected ‘period’ style interior, so popular in early-twentieth-century Britain and America, originated in a desire to return to find cultural certainty in a world of technical and social turmoil. Incorporating antique furniture or reproductions set within a more or less defined historical ‘period’, this way of designing the interior was seen as authenticated by its origins in an idealised English (or American) past.
This nostalgic preference for the ‘period’ style appeared in magazines devoted to collecting and furnishing, illustrated histories of furniture, textiles, rugs and decorative arts, and the expensive ‘period rooms’ erected in many museums. The passion of the very wealthy and their architects to collect and incorporate sometimes very grand antique elements into their homes was much admired by middle class homemakers. Interior designers and architects, department stores and furniture and furnishing manufacturers all profited from this trend. Its historical veracity, cultural depth and balanced aesthetic were contrasted approvingly with the experiments and passing fashions of design-led innovation.
Using the archives of AH Lee and Sons, a leading English manufacturer of luxury furnishing textiles, this paper will examine the aesthetic at work in the period style interior, and particularly the role of the tapestry, one of its key visual and sensual elements. This provided a handcrafted vista onto an idealised past, mirroring the values enshrined in the interior in which it was placed.
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