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Victorian Furniture: No One Style. Season 2, Episode 27.
46 Plays3 years ago
We take a closer look at some examples of Victorian furniture this week and explore how different they can really be.
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Transcript
Introduction to Sponsor: Bits and Bits
00:00:21
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All right, folks, welcome to the show. Yeah. It's a good, uh, gray, rainy day here in the Northeast. Yeah. Yeah. There's the, uh, April showers coming early because it's only March and, uh, we're out of the comfy confines of our normal studio. Yeah. I got a, I got a sick household, so, um, we're doing it from the shop today.
00:00:43
Speaker
So we want to thank our new sponsor, new sponsor of the podcast, and that is Bits and Bits. Big fans of Bits and Bits. It's basically the only place we go for router bits these days and for the last couple of years.
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to keep them sharper for longer. Yeah, we're not just the sponsors here. We're dedicated users. Yeah, yeah. And they're the only factory that's authorized the AstraCoat white side bits. So we end up...
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We use a lot of different edge profiles for different types of jobs. We end up buying these Astrakota white side bits a lot, which are really nice. And they have flush trim bits, round overs, chamfers, rabbeting, all kinds of different stuff. And they're also a festival dealer. So if you need router accessories, domino accessories, that's sort of what they specialize in. Consumables. Right, yeah, your dominoes, your domino cutters, stuff like that.
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Yeah. Check them out. Uh, we have a coupon code for 15% off. That is American craftsmen. So, uh, if you want to help support the podcast, head over to bits and bits and, uh, get yourself a nice router bit and support another American company. Yeah. Yeah. Great guys out there. Uh, so let's jump into the show. Uh, we're at episode 27.
Victorian Furniture: Styles and Influences
00:02:55
Speaker
So we're the second episode of the Victorian period, and we're going to be talking about a furniture design and influences.
00:03:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny, you know, as we go through these periods, we're learning as well. I mean, you know, we weren't encyclopedias on all this stuff. So it's really interesting because when you think about Victorian, we're typically
00:03:21
Speaker
You know, we think of like Victorian houses and then Victorian fashion. And you figure that Victorian furniture had its own little definitive thing, but it was really an amalgam of all of the previous styles. I see a pattern forming.
00:03:44
Speaker
We have to hit that on every period. Yes. No single style emerged as the dominant in the homes of early Victorians and rather furniture designers. And now because of the Industrial Revolution manufacturers, they drew on or as I put it, ransacked a multitude of styles from earlier periods in history. There was Gothic.
00:04:09
Speaker
Tudor, Elizabethan, Renaissance, or Renaissance. English, Rococo, and neoclassical. They were all sort of battling it out for prominence. For prominence.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah. And Gothic revival was probably the most, I put in quotes, important is in terms of furniture history. But the more exuberant, flamboyant style of the Rococo revival was probably the more popular
00:04:48
Speaker
You know, when you went into, um, the movers and shakers homes, the people with money, that's, that's really what they wanted to do. It was a very, uh, very flounce heavy design. They had flounce during the Victorian era.
00:05:05
Speaker
The design of much Victorian furniture was widely based on older furniture designs, as I say. In the first part of Victoria, Queen Victoria's reign, many design styles were simply copies of the earlier ones.
00:05:21
Speaker
And the period was characterized by more pension pension, more attention paid to surface decoration, things like guilting and mountings and inlays, you know, sort of like. Pasting stuff onto the exterior, right? Yeah, which is
00:05:43
Speaker
Well, it's kind of similar to like during the, I guess it was the colonial or from the early Americans to the colonial, they went from these flat carvings to more of a like a raised carving, you know? Right, right.
00:05:59
Speaker
This works hand in glove with the manufacturing processes, you know, you're reducing the craftsmanship and you're just sort of like sticking things on. So it looks good from the outside or as we like to describe, good from far, far from good.
Identifying Victorian Furniture
00:06:18
Speaker
Looks good for my driveway. Yeah. Like sort of like pulling parts off a shelf and just putting them on.
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah, we have a picture of a Victorian upholstered chair. That's funny because I was making an Instagram post this morning and I googled Victorian furniture and this is actually this came up. Really? Yeah. So, you know, in the last couple of periods, upholstery has really jumped up in
00:06:45
Speaker
popularity because of the, not the cheapness, but the availability, you know, became a much less expensive. Right. Yeah. Because the textile industry, they had all those good kids working. Take advantage of that cheap labor.
00:07:01
Speaker
I think you're mistaken. The kids were putting the labels on the bottles. The adolescents were working. Well, the kids had to stick their hands in the textile machines. Get them all unstuck. They had those nice small hands. Right. So you could see what we're talking about.
00:07:19
Speaker
This is looks like a pretty nicely made piece, actually. Yeah. Very solid carvings instead of appliqués. But the design on the on the upholstery, you could see is a lot of colors, vibrant design. Yeah. Looks like what is that? Flowers up there. And yeah, sort of like I don't know what you would call that. It's kind of like a French curve. Yeah.
00:07:45
Speaker
yeah little wheels on the feet right right which is something that we noticed uh was it last episode or maybe even in the uh yeah i think the shakers invented those is it okay to lay off the shakers from our hands to god's ears is that what they say yeah something like that
00:08:10
Speaker
You can see the shape is sort of a carryover from like the Queen Anne. If this had like a wooden splat, it would look very much like a Queen Anne chair.
00:08:22
Speaker
Right. There's really nothing new. It is sort of, you know, a combination of parts and different styles from a previous era. Yeah. And that's what the Victorian furniture design was all about, you know, combinations.
00:08:40
Speaker
I see a lot of parallels between like current times. Yeah. I mean, this is nice. The, the upholstery for me is the killer. Right. Like if it was like a nice, like a maroon, like a burgundy or like a hunter green or something, I think I would like it more, but it just, you know, there's a lot of, it's like buff yellow, blue, pink.
00:09:03
Speaker
And you can kind of see the influence on that style of furniture that's carried forward through to today. Like you could, with a different upholstery pattern, you could see that dining room chair kind of, you know, around a fancy table. Yeah. I mean, not our style necessarily, but
00:09:26
Speaker
It looks like it's in the style of one of those things you'd see, like a dining room set, like a big box kind of furniture outlet where it was trying to be fancy. So, let's see. Conversely, many later Victorian designs were more about structure and shape. So, in the early part of it, it was about
00:09:51
Speaker
sort of showy, but not so well built. And then they kind of came around and got into creating a little bit better, a little bit better furniture.
00:10:03
Speaker
Medieval styles such as heavily carved pieces in Norman and Gothic style were commissioned and purchased by the Victorian New Rich. The New Rich. Is that a thing anymore? I don't know. There's new pour. I think all those tickets have been sold yet.
00:10:23
Speaker
That's for sure. But we digress. Other pieces featured knights with the K and ladies painted into the surfaces and onto the surfaces and also heavily encrusted furniture inspired by much older pieces. Incrusted, I like it. Yeah, we hadn't come across that word yet in the description of furniture.
00:10:48
Speaker
So how can you identify Victorian furniture? Due to the fact that the Victorians copied older designs when creating furniture, identifying whether a piece is Victorian or older can be tricky. But we've compiled some little bit of facts here to help us. Here are some tips.
00:11:11
Speaker
How to identify Victorian furniture? Write these down. He identifies a Victorian furniture. It was usually made from walnut for smaller pieces, such as small tables, and mahogany for larger pieces such as wardrobes.
00:11:29
Speaker
dining tables and bookcases. Sometimes these pieces featured flame mahogany veneers and used walnut and rosewood for decoration. For example, a tabletop. I'm going to have to ask Chad when we go on the Working Hands podcast on Sunday if he's got any tips for staining things to look like mahogany. I know he's got the walnut down, but mahogany is a different story.
00:11:59
Speaker
The one thing I love about Chad is he really owns everything. He's like staying to look like Walnut. He's not shying away from it. So I got to admire him for that, you know?
00:12:12
Speaker
Yeah. So, uh, you guys have to check out. Um, so let's see, we're going to record with them on Sunday. So I believe that episode will be out on Wednesday. They're releasing now. So Wednesday, uh, let's see, that's a week from yesterday, which will be the 30th, March 30th. You have to check out a working hands podcast where, uh, you know, we'll be guests on the show.
00:12:38
Speaker
Yeah. Just a couple of days before our fishing trip. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. We're eight days away. Yeah. Counting down. Yeah. So back to the Victorian furniture. Chairs in the Victorian era were more curved in design than earlier pieces and usually of three main styles.
00:12:58
Speaker
There's the spoon back armchair, which that that photo we were looking at, that was probably an example that with buttoned or plain upholstered backrest, scrolled arms and toes and carved legs. Yeah, definitely. Right. Definitely looks like a spoon. Let's see if this brings up the same picture. That would be curious. No, but first dibs, this is a big unavailable.
00:13:25
Speaker
There you go. I like the, uh, the angle on this kind of laid back. Yeah. I, the tough thing. I mean, this is definitely something that you'd think of. Uh, if you were talking about Victorian furniture. Yeah. What's going on here? How can we can, uh, I call these salon chairs. Yeah. Look at the carving up here and the, the Crestrail.
00:13:53
Speaker
The closest thing we could sort of see in our home would be kind of almost looks like an upholstered dining room chair. There's the armed and the armless. Yeah, I could see in like in a parlor.
00:14:13
Speaker
Do they have parlors? Do they still have parlors? Where you go and, you know, sit down for a spell. Right. Well, that's what they were for in the Victorian times, you know, sitting rooms and the salon, as they called it. So when you showed up, you presented your card and you'd sit down and wait for the people of the house because, you know, it's probably a servant answering the door. Yeah.
00:14:40
Speaker
But it's, you know, it's fully upholstered and all the wood that showing has some sort of carving in it. Yeah. I really like this arm armchair version. Yeah. Yeah. It adds a little bit more balance to the piece. Yeah. Arms, doesn't it? This looks like a little off balance. Right. It's like, like it'll fall over. Mm hmm.
00:15:02
Speaker
And it's got those wheels on it again. Yeah. And they're like, the way they can a lever just seems like they're just going to snap off. Right. Yeah. Especially this back one. I know. Right. They're, they're just like little tiny. What would you say those are an inch? Yeah. Quarter maybe. Maybe. Yeah. I don't even know what these would be made out of. They're white. Yeah. They didn't have plastic back then. Rhino tusk. Yeah, it could be.
00:15:33
Speaker
as a giraffe's horn after they skin it. Yeah. If you're ever interested in looking up pictures of furniture, First Dibs is a good site. They have a lot. We often default to photos from that site because it's a big antique.
00:16:00
Speaker
online antique dealers. So, you know, there's people who have an incentive to take good pictures of these antiques because they're trying to sell them. That's there for sale. Yeah. So that was the spoon back chair. The second of the three main
Victorian Furniture Details and Materials
00:16:13
Speaker
styles is the nursing chair. So that's the original. So it's got a little bit more straight up posture. Yeah. No arms. But the same basic components. Yeah.
00:16:30
Speaker
little less flare on the, uh, from the seat up to the, the crest rail. Yeah. You could see where, how they constructed it, you know, now as time has passed, you could see the joints as the wood changes up here, tone through the here decades. Yep. Which is interesting. You know, we're always sort of like the furniture detectives, like how did they do that? Yeah. And these are high wear surfaces. Cause you're picking it up from here and you know,
00:17:02
Speaker
I like that red color. Yeah. If the whole thing was a little much too much going on there for me. Um, the balloon back chair is the third and this was used around the dining room table has an open circular backrest and just the base is upholstered. Let's take a look at the balloon back chair. Oh, these are looking very Chippendale. I was, you took the words right out of my mouth.
00:17:30
Speaker
This is some interesting fabric. Is that leather? I don't know. It could be crushed velvet.
00:17:37
Speaker
Like a crushed velvet. Got some Clismo kind of legs. That's right. If you've been listening to the podcast and you haven't looked up a Clismo's chair by now, you're really missing out because you have to be somewhat of a furniture, a woodworking nerd to be, you know, enjoying this podcast.
00:18:02
Speaker
Once you see the Clismos chair, you're going to now see it everywhere. Like, you know, half of the the dentist's offices, I mean, the kind of places that have like real furniture in them, maybe not a dentist, but like my my optometrist, they had. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's like, you know, such an old design that it's been, you know, injected into everything into the future. The weird thing about these chairs, how asymmetrical they are. Yes.
00:18:32
Speaker
I mean, is this off center? Is it just the, I mean, it is. It's like there's a right and a left. Yeah. Oh no, those are two lefties. Yeah. Yeah. I do like this. They have it scooped out for your legs, the backs of your legs. I'm not sure what you call that, but the front of the chair is like a, uh, not an S curve, but a,
00:19:00
Speaker
I don't know what you would call that. Yeah. What do you call that on it? Cause they have like Chester drawers that have that same kind of curve on it. It's like an S with just an extra little arc on it. It's like two S's kind of. Yeah. The carvings, the relief carvings or that, no, those are, that wouldn't be a relief carving. That goes all the way through an open car. I don't know. Yeah. The splat is like, um,
00:19:31
Speaker
a flower in the center, but then these sort of, I mean, they kind of look like acanthus leaves going in opposite directions. So they're very asymmetrical. I can't think of another time I've seen that irregular up here. Yeah. Very kind of gives them a strange look. Like if you were to look at just the base, like, yeah, it looks, oh, oh, look at that.
00:20:01
Speaker
Paul looks normal. And then you get up here. This is real heavy right here, whereas it's real light over here. And there's this Pearl or whatever right here, but nothing on this side.
00:20:19
Speaker
Very weird. I think this is the first asymmetrical example we've seen. Is it? Possibly. I mean, I could see maybe like a Duncan Fife or something. But in this kind of sort of classic style. Definitely, huh?
00:20:35
Speaker
So those were the three types of chairs, the nursing chair, the spoon back chair and the balloon back chair. The balloon back being what we would call like the dining room chair without upholstery on the back. And I'd say at least that example, not much resemblance to a balloon. I wonder if they mean the balloon that went around the world in 80 days.
00:21:07
Speaker
Was it 80 days or 180 days? Around the world in 80 days. 80 days. This is the same time period. Well, yeah, I guess it would probably be like late Victorian. There's this guy whose YouTube videos always come up for me. The hell's his name? I forget, but it's like...
00:21:25
Speaker
tasting history or something it's called. Oh yeah, he's got a TV show, right? Is that the guy that cooks over the fire? No, no. Oh no. That guy's good. That's a German guy. Yeah. Yeah. He cooks at that place in Philly. Like it's like some, like Thomas Jefferson or some, some president, old president thing. But no, this guy's like a YouTube guy and he takes like old recipes and, but he's doing all about Titanic this month because the Titanic sank whatever, April 15th or something.
00:21:54
Speaker
Yeah. But he was doing like the, uh, what the third class on the Titanic was eating and he's going to do more on like what the second and first class, but cream of wheat. Yeah. I don't remember where I was going with this, but it's of the same sort of era. You know, that was 1912. Right. Yeah. Late Victorian. Yeah. Well, we were talking about the around the world in 80 days. Oh yeah. That's probably what made me think of it.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah. So, we're trying to, you know, give you guys some tips on how to identify Victorian furniture since it is such a mashup of previous styles. Yeah. We got Chester drawers.
00:22:36
Speaker
Uh, usually made out of mahogany, at least the up market versions. Uh, and, uh, the working folk had, uh, pine, um, versions and the bow front. Was that what we were looking for? Yeah. I wanted to say break front for some reason, but I know that's something different. Yeah. Uh, both bow fronted.
00:23:02
Speaker
So chests of drawers were usually made of mahogany and pine. They were bow fronted, which had out swept curving fronts. And they had simple square fronted chests with rounded corners and edges. The feet were either raised upon shaped block feet or turned bun feet and were fitted with turn knob drawer pulls.
00:23:30
Speaker
See what this Victorian Chester drawers looks like. Oh, that's much simpler than I was anticipating. Yeah. Some wild, curved front. I mean, that's not a bad looking piece. No, no, I mean, it's a little dingy, but it was cleaned up. I mean, the condition is a little, is a little warm, but yeah.
00:23:57
Speaker
But I like the, I like the dimensions of it. Inset drawers, a little, is that a little bead around the edge or it's hard to tell? That or some string inlay. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like a bead. Um, not a big fan of that style of pull, but it goes with the furniture, I suppose, and the period. This is definitely mahogany. Yeah. Nice sort of thumbnail profile on the top. Yeah. Nice thick top. There's those bun feet we were talking about.
00:24:26
Speaker
And, uh, you know, a simple rectangular case aside from the, the bowed front, but the drawers are nice. Um, you know, they all match the curve of the top and the, and the case all the way down. Yeah. Nice job. Yeah. The old two over three, the old two over three. That's nice. Yeah. Um,
00:24:54
Speaker
As brass decorative handles were commonly used in the Georgian period, if these handles are found on a chest of drawers, then they have either been added later or the chest is not Victorian. That's funny because you really associate
00:25:11
Speaker
brass, like the brass backplate, which I guess really see like I associate Victorian furniture with Queen Anne furniture. I guess because there was this Queen Anne revival during the Victorian period with homes and furniture. So those brass backplate handles are really something that I think of as Victorian.
00:25:34
Speaker
Yeah. Um, that's a surprising little factoid. Um, so that's another thing they, they wanted to sort of, uh, borrow, we'll, we'll say from previous periods. Um, tables were designed in a much wider range of styles during the Victorian period and as such can be more tricky to identify. However, common factors in Victorian tables are the following.
00:26:04
Speaker
Wash stands would be made from oak or pine. Sounds like one of those guys from the Antiques Roadshow. You ever see him looking at it? Oh, this is cherry, so this is not Victorian. Console and hall tables and writing desks used mahogany.
00:26:24
Speaker
Center tables and game tables were typically finished in walnut or rosewood. And often Victorian tables had a very decorative carved base.
00:26:39
Speaker
Wow. That's geez. That's ornate. Don't catch your shin on that thing. We're looking at a table, an oval table. Is it oval? Uh, I think it's a circle. Yeah. Um, four intricately carved legs and stretcher. And the apron is all carved. Yeah. Again, those is huge table on like a three quarter inch wheel.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah, Alex Bratz. Little bronze, yeah. Really dark. Yeah. Big urn in the bottom center with these acanthus, like reversing acanthus leaf stretchers going out to curved legs. Yeah. Is that stain to look like walnut? Well, this is probably a game table, so it could be rosewood.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah, back when I could still get that stuff. Yeah. Yeah, it's very, very dark and rich at the same time.
Revival Styles and Arts & Crafts Movement
00:27:50
Speaker
It looks like it weighs about 550 pounds. Yeah, that apron's thick, isn't it? You know, these legs like almost look like octopus tentacles. They start out pretty thick at the top and then they go real thin at the bottom and then sit on this tiny little wheel.
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah. I wonder how that was, uh, I guess I'll call it the stretch. I wonder how they're joined. Like, is there just some sort of like a dowel or something? Biscuit. I'm going to guess that this is, this is one solid piece, you know, from here all the way to here. And then, yeah, I don't know. It was maybe a tenon.
00:28:34
Speaker
I mean, it took some execution, took some craftsmanship there. Oh, yeah. I mean, even the backside of the legs is carved or carved. That's insane. We got a Victorian desk. Oh, this came up this morning, too, when I was looking at stuff. I kind of like that. This kind of got like a federal feel to it. Yeah.
00:29:03
Speaker
like the Resolute disc. Right. Sort of like it's a rectangular structure. Sort of you sit in between two sets of drawers. Yeah. But it's open at the bottom. Yeah. It was like a little shelf. Now, are these, this is not brass hardware. That's what I would think. I mean, what else would it be? Could be bronze, but
00:29:31
Speaker
They do look like they're two different colors. This one. Oh, that one down there. And they are different designs too. Yeah. Well, like this is what I think of when I think back plate, back plate hardware. Yeah. It's a lot more rectilinear than most of the stuff we're looking at. Yeah. Hard to control this. Uh,
00:30:00
Speaker
display over here. Right. Much less flowery than that last table, which makes sense. I mean, if it's a writing desk, it's probably in like a gentleman's office or something like that. Yeah. Like this looks like something you see in like a lawyer's office. Right. Or a bank. Yeah. I could see this like, you know,
00:30:20
Speaker
like a bunch of them lined up in a bank with bankers sitting at them. With those tufted leather sofas, those green or you know burgundy leather sofas with the deep tufting. Yeah, people smoking cigars.
00:30:39
Speaker
Um, so even given all that identification can still be difficult. Um, cause it's often revivalist in style. It adopts stylistic motifs from other periods, uh, and creating huge waves of revivals with nostalgic nods to the past. So what are some of the myths or misconceptions? It's a myth that all Victorian furniture has the same look.
00:31:09
Speaker
Well, there you go. That desk and the table are two good examples with a number of styles during the different decades of that period. There are a number of types of Victorian furniture, like modern Gothic or Egyptian revival. So, uh, if you say Victorian furniture, there's just not one.
00:31:32
Speaker
one definitive style. I guess that's how we open this episode. You're saying there really isn't one definitive Victorian furniture style. Not like Chippendale or the Shakers. They had these very, very... Identifiable styles. Concrete.
00:31:56
Speaker
So we'll go through some of the revival styles of the Victorians. There's the Gothic revival. The Gothic period was the 12th to the 15th century, a long time ago, originating from French Gothic architecture in the early 12th century.
00:32:16
Speaker
I always think about those churches like with the flying buttresses on the outside. Yeah. Yeah. Think about like a haunted mansion. Yeah. Gru's house in Despicable Me. Yeah, exactly.
00:32:34
Speaker
because you can see heavy influence of medieval gothic architecture in the 19th century with the gothic revival style imitating the castles and glorious cathedrals of europe yeah like what's the cathedral in paris that burnt down recently yeah like that's a very gothic
00:32:55
Speaker
And I mean, we see some nods to that in the houses around here sometimes, like the widows, widows walk, walk. Yeah. You know, like those those where kind of I don't want to call it a tarp, but like those. Yeah, cupola. Yeah.
00:33:15
Speaker
Um, yeah. So the, and we have a lot of Victorian era homes here. Yeah. Um, in fact, uh, yours is almost mine's definitely late Victorian, but it's a farm house. So it doesn't really have any, um, any typical, like it doesn't, it may have had some of that, uh, gingerbread stuff back in its early days, but it has just plain, uh, wood siding on the bottom half and it's got asbestos.
00:33:45
Speaker
Oh yeah. On the second floor. I got up too and they're just covered with aluminum. I guess my house would be a four square. Yes. But it was built, you know, just after the end of the Victorian era. 1923. Mine was just like right around the turn of the century, 1900. 1925, something like that. Yeah. So it was definitely the time period.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah, I've got cedar, asbestos, and aluminum. The trifecta. Yeah. Can't wait to replace all that. Somebody's getting paid to do that. Oh, God. I mean, I thought I, you know, it's like when we moved in here, it's like, yeah, wood siding, blah, blah, blah. But it's so much maintenance. I mean, to paint every spring, I always say to myself, I'm going to paint one side of the house.
00:34:41
Speaker
You can keep that shit. I was like, you know, if I just pick up one side, I could go out here like a Saturday and like. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be a breeze.
00:34:56
Speaker
So let's get back to the Gothic revival. Victorian Gothic furniture took on the style of detailed carving and geometric forms and became a popular aesthetic in the 19th century. We're talking about the late 19th century, late 1800s.
00:35:16
Speaker
Intricate carvings mark out this style with wood such as rosewood, which we saw on that table. Oak, walnut were used to craft the pieces and heavy fabrics would often be used like velvet. Yeah. Or leather.
00:35:34
Speaker
I like that. Yeah. Um, designers favored foliate motifs. Uh, I, I'm guessing that means Laurel, foliage leaves. Yeah. For ornamentation and would incorporate elements such as pointed arches, spires, quatrefoils, tray foils.
00:35:56
Speaker
and crockets. I don't know what a crocket is. We're going to have to look that up. We know like quattrofoils and trefoils. We know those because of our work, our liturgical work, doing work in the churches.
00:36:12
Speaker
A crocket is a small, independent, decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French croque, meaning hook, due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crossier. We just stepped out of the wheelhouse. They're like little... I don't know what you would call it.
00:36:41
Speaker
It's a small independent decorative element. And what you see, what I see, yes, is a lot of, um, imagine all the ornate, um, carvings and appendages on these Gothic buildings and they're sort of shrinking them down and, and adding them into the furniture. Yep.
00:37:08
Speaker
So we have an example here of a Victorian fire grate, which is typical of the Gothic revival style. It's a pair of tall ornate grates with the and irons and a rope twist bound foliate rondelles.
00:37:30
Speaker
Let's see a picture. Maybe we could describe it better than that. Westland, London, and we have page not found son of a son of a biscuit. That's how long it's been since a created this outline.
00:37:43
Speaker
Well, we can surely picture it in our heads. Yes. I can see the foliate round drills right now. Here's our favorite word. Yeah. After Gothic revival comes the Jacobean revival. Yeah.
00:38:01
Speaker
The Jacobean revival started in the 1870s and combined the trend for factory made furniture with the Jacobean period. The trend for factory made furniture. Oh boy, that kind of... The beginning of the end. The designs were adaptations of 17th century Jacobean strap work.
00:38:24
Speaker
and the furniture details would be wide and flat with ornamental molding twisted into the designs. Whatnots were popular pieces of this time as were spindled chairs, circular tables, and storage chests. What's a whatnot? I'm going to guess that could be a relation to a knick-knack. Knick-knack, Patty Wack.
00:38:52
Speaker
So the Jack of being revival, you have that stuff more or less factory made. Just like a tiered sort of display kind of thing. Yeah. We've, we still use things like that. Yeah. I never heard it called a whatnot, but it's like a multi tiered open shelf. Wow. Look at this cabinet. Look at the sofa. This has nothing to do with anything, but
00:39:19
Speaker
Wow. Is that on first dibs? France and sun. Terraza sofa. Oh yeah. You know, that's Italian. I had to send this to Jacqueline. This looks like it's like right up her alley. Um,
00:39:38
Speaker
So, the Jacobian designs implemented a lot of wide and flat surfaces. And I'm supposing that the ornamentals were added on, you know, since this is factory built stuff for the most part.
00:40:01
Speaker
The fabrics were dramatic, florals, nature scenes, rich patterns. Uh, but the overarching style of the Jacobean revival was, was rigid. Um, if we remember the, the, we went through the Jacobean period a long time ago, uh, very heavy blocky. Uh, so rigid, solid looking pieces with incised ornamentation.
00:40:27
Speaker
Uh, see below a Jacobean revival Oak fireplace mantle, uh, which demonstrates the ornamentation of this style featuring a castellated shelf, a boldly carved leaf adornment and a pair of karyatids on the jam. I remember looking up karyatids. Isn't it a woman? Yeah, something like that. Wow. Holy cow.
00:40:54
Speaker
A lot to dissect in this. Like a monsored roof. Yes, exactly. And I guess that's what the castellated roof is. Exactly. Good call. This looks like Poseidon or something. I was going to say that too. Better. It's Italian Jesus.
00:41:12
Speaker
bearded, long hair, mustache, literally with six pack abs. I don't know. He's got a little bit of a belly down here. He's got a four pack with a belly. Okay. His shoulders are scrolls. So are these the caryatids? Yes. Yeah. Cause this is a log holder. Right. I guess the caryatid could be male or female. It's a figure. Yeah.
00:41:42
Speaker
What do you call these sort of capitals? Isn't there a name for that? Yeah, that's going, well, that's like a scroll, but I'm sure there's a classical. Yeah. It's a big Greek, like on top of a door and cone. Ionic or something like that. It's a real mishmash. Yeah. You got the, this big OG basically like an upside down crown at the base.
00:42:09
Speaker
And those are almost like cornucopia is hanging off the sides, right? Not quite. Long, long blooms of some sort. Yeah. Very foliate. And the, the, the, the, the log holder looks like almost Egyptian. That's what I was thinking. I mean, it's like big, like stretched ears or something. And you could see the, the windings, snakes at the bottom, the hands inside, like a muff.
00:42:39
Speaker
Well, boy, this they really went for broke on this one, didn't they? Yeah. Some good Photoshop in here, too. They blacked out the whole background. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So Victorians, they can pretty much do whatever they wanted. Yeah, it was crazy enough, right?
00:42:59
Speaker
Yeah, we're gonna put some shirtless guy, two shirtless guys on here. With a mane of hair. Right. That ain't no wig. Yeah, no. I like that they carved in the belly button. Yeah. So after the Jack of Bean revival, we got the Rococo revival. All right. Born during the reign of Louis the 15th.
00:43:28
Speaker
The Rococo style represented an opposition to the classical forms of the Baroque style. There's that pattern again, the reaction.
00:43:39
Speaker
That's probably one of the things that stuck with me through all of this, that every design movement that comes is really reactionary to the one that preceded it. The high style furniture of French influence is known for its love of the natural world with flora, shells and fruit motifs. And the Rococo revival encapsulated the grandeur of the European style.
00:44:08
Speaker
an expression of 19th century romanticism. I know that, I mean, I guess we'll look at pictures, hopefully, but they all kind of sound the same in the wording. Rosewood and mahogany were favored woods. Gold finishes were often applied to the furniture. A popular choice for the upholstery was tufting.
00:44:33
Speaker
I like a good tufted furniture. Yeah. And the pieces can often be identified by their curvaceous shapes and rounded corners. Uh, find below a Rococo revival over mantle mirror currently stocked at Westland. It's gilt wood finish, high central cartouche and large floral scrolls perfectly exemplify this style. Let's see if this, uh, Westland link works. Oh, there we go.
00:45:04
Speaker
Wow. That's a mirror. Probably some glass went in there. Yeah. So that sat on the top of a mantle shelf. Yeah. And you know, if you, uh, this is like a very, uh, I'm used to seeing more like the oval shape, but like, this is a very Victorian. When you think of like a Victorian mirror, this is what I think of.
00:45:28
Speaker
So it would be three sort of like vertically oriented horizontal panes of glass framed out by this very ornate floral carving. And it looks like maybe some columns wrapped with vine. And it's very gold. Yeah, it's all gold. Yeah, these are like square, but with the corner.
00:45:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. This is, this is super ornate. Yeah. Oh yeah. All right. That, I mean, you could see that in like a palace or, or something like that, or somebody who was like a social climber trying to, you know, somebody was wealthy trying to align themselves with the aristocracy. Yeah.
00:46:22
Speaker
So the Renaissance revival follows Rococo revival. And let's, let's hear how this is described. So by 1850, there was a resurgence in the interest for classical and Renaissance art. And the furniture this time took on these influences.
00:46:40
Speaker
Renaissance revival pieces are defined by bold features on heavy pieces of furniture. Sounds like the Jack of Bean. A contrast to the feminine elegance of the Rococo style.
00:46:55
Speaker
And it incorporated the use of masculine arches, animal and human figures. So that, there's a lot of contradiction in, well, let's say it is a lot of overlap. Yeah. Instead of, so it uses animal and human figures, a more masculine variety instead of the floral and natural motifs and fluted legs that imitated ancient Greek columns.
00:47:24
Speaker
Uh, the Renaissance revival walnut chimney piece is a fine example of the Renaissance revival style of furniture with its tapering stop looted columns. Let's check it out. Wow. Whoa, that's tall. See if we can get the whole thing in frame.
00:47:46
Speaker
I never would have been able to pick that out as Renaissance revival. No. Yeah. I don't even know what I would think that is, but I mean, you can see the fluted columns. It's so much plainer than the last example. So I guess it is reactionary, you know, in that sense to the Rococo revival.
00:48:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'd say it looks more similar to like some of the Queen Anne chairs that we looked at, you know, with these circles here and this this curve up here. Right. But I don't see any I guess it is, you know, you could call it more masculine in a sense than the Rococo.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's just heavier, you know. Right. It's not so airy. There's some carvings. Yeah. I do like the shape on these columns. Right. I mean, I would almost call it Jack of Bean except for the shape of those columns, right? Yeah. And sort of this. Yeah. Got some curve here with carving. But the darkness of it, the heaviness of it. Yep. Very simple. OK, so this is actually proud of
00:49:07
Speaker
This part all sticks out. I see. Yes. Jogs out. Looking at a front view of this photo. So it's not quite telling us all of the depth of it. Yeah. Well, it really changes it once you realize that how the center is actually protruding. Interesting. Yeah. You know, I could see that, you know, Victoria and think about, um,
00:49:36
Speaker
Shoot, Sheila and Joe's house. Yep. Like, you know, that five place that was taken apart in the kitchen. Like, couldn't you have seen that in that house, like uncovering something like that? Yeah. And they have a Victorian home. Yep. So next time we're, we're going to be able to go, you know, that's a Renaissance revival. Yeah. You see those brass, that brass hardware. This is not true. True Victorian.
00:50:04
Speaker
and arts and crafts. A little early arts and crafts intro. Before I started learning about all this, I sort of linked arts and crafts more closely with Victorian. I didn't necessarily think of Victorian as all the flowery and ornate things because
00:50:28
Speaker
the only thing I knew were Victorian homes. Right. And usually on the inside, they were kind of the only word I could use, you know, only description I had at that time was arts and crafts, you know, that sort of like frame and panel. Yeah. Like you think of the inside of my house in the living room. Yeah. Those simple square columns and stuff like that.
00:50:55
Speaker
So the arts and crafts movement was one of the most significant new style movements of the 19th century. Victorian designers and furniture makers sought to move away from the increasing mechanization of production and return to handmade items that weren't elaborately adorned with unnecessary ornamentation.
00:51:18
Speaker
Characteristics of the arts and crafts movement included simple designs, straight lines, and natural or neutral upholstery. I think most people into furniture probably are familiar with that. The designers of the arts and crafts movement aim to recapture the spirit of quality craftsmanship and they develop the style to reflect these beliefs.
00:51:43
Speaker
We're going to get into this much deeper, but we'll touch on it here in the Victorian period. Makers and designers such as William Morris, Edward Barnsley, and Philip Webb are all names to look out for.
00:51:58
Speaker
I tried to include a couple of names that, uh, we weren't really that familiar with. Like everybody knows William Morris, but Barnsley and Webb. Um, so let's look at, um, an arts and crafts fire great in the style of Charles Boise. He's another prolific arts and craft designer of the Victorian era. Whoa.
00:52:23
Speaker
Yeah, I guess there's a real distinction between, like we all associate arts and crafts with the Stickley stuff, which has a very distinct, you know, it's a very, what the hell am I trying to say here?
00:52:37
Speaker
Uh, it's got a definitive look, right? Yeah. Like it's, it all looks very similar. Like you can, you can, you put a bunch of stickly stuff. It all looks like it's from the same line of stuff. But I think, you know, this early arts and crafts stuff that was going on in England was much
Concluding Thoughts and Podcast Support
00:52:53
Speaker
different. Oh, definitely. Yeah. And there was an evolution within that style as well. I mean, flame finials, that's not anything I would ever expect to see on arts and crafts furniture. Right.
00:53:06
Speaker
And you could see the squareness of the columns and things like that at the base. You could see those elements and the straight lines. This is like almost Art Deco. Yeah. But that sculptural finial and the little back ones too. Yeah. I like this sort of saucer detail in the middle.
00:53:33
Speaker
I like the, I like the rods going across to hold the logs in. Yeah. They have like a little bit of a crook in them. So I guess this is sort of like a raised fireplace. Great. Yeah. Um, cause it's, what is it made out of silver? It's some kind of metal, isn't it? I mean, it's painted. Look at the, look at the, are those like rivets or nuts and bolts?
00:53:58
Speaker
See, see back there holding that back panel on and the side. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah. Let's, let's end this chapter. I'm guessing with more Victorian fun facts. Yeah. Oh, I liked that. I liked the way this is gone. They said they sent strange Christmas cards.
00:54:33
Speaker
I've seen some of these my grandmother has. May yours be a joyful Christmas with a dead bird. It's literally laying on its back. A lifelike, you know, painting of a dead bird, his feet curled in. And may yours be a joyful Christmas.
00:54:59
Speaker
This is a beat. Yeah. Is it an anthropomorphized beat with a walking cane and a top hat and a monocle with a human head got a collar flying out and he's holding a heart, I guess, made of dirt with a flower coming out of the top says a Merry Christmas to you. Yeah. Oh, this next one's the best, though.
00:55:33
Speaker
Again, it says a Merry Christmas to you. Yeah. There's a frog wearing pants and a vest. He's holding a sack that says 2,000 on it. I think so. It's like some money, right? And he's running away from another frog that he has stabbed in the chest with a sword and he's bleeding out. It's so bizarre.
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah, what was LSD invented in the Victorian period cuz these are pretty trippy I Mean this this guy's creepy this human beat man
00:56:13
Speaker
This I don't understand at all. Let's see what the description says with a sack. Humanized vegetables, for instance, a beetroot with legs, arms, and a head wearing a top hat.
00:56:29
Speaker
Dead birds or frogs and animals killing each other were all popular images for a festive greeting. What the hell? Merry Christmas. Here's a frog killing another frog with a sword. Death photos were also popular during the Victorian time. These I've heard of.
00:56:49
Speaker
Yeah, they like taking photos of the recently deceased posing them as if they were alive and sometimes had family members in the pictures. Oh, I don't have any picture of that. Well, I mean, body snatching.
00:57:06
Speaker
At the start of the 1800s, those studying anatomy were legally allowed to have and dissect the bodies of those condemned to death. Sadly for them, this was only around 55 people each year. For the ever-growing study of anatomy in medical schools, however, around 500 bodies were needed per annum. So we needed about 10 more bodies than we had available.
00:57:37
Speaker
Due to this high demand, body snatching became prevalent with many folk out to get a quick buck. Oh, became prevalent with many folk out to get a quick buck. They would dig up the recently buried and then sell the body to the local medical school. Jeez. The practice became so widespread that some relatives would often watch over the burials of recently deceased family members.
00:58:03
Speaker
Oh, man, that's that's an ending there. Yeah, some weird, some weird people. Oh, doggy. So what'd you take from this this bit about the Victorian furniture styles? I mean, I guess just reinforcing that idea that this is all an amalgamation of things in the past and that, you know, really, there isn't one distinct style of Victorian furniture.
00:58:30
Speaker
Yeah, that kind of stuck with me as well. There really is no one Victorian style. It's all a bunch of interpretations of the past. Yeah.
00:58:46
Speaker
And for the most part, pretty fancy stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Highly ornate. They like that. So let's see. Next week we're getting into furniture production during the Victorian age. Oh yeah. That'll, that'll be a real upper. Oh man.
00:59:05
Speaker
Yeah, make sure you're sitting down when you listen next week. Well, you know, the Industrial Revolution and all that. It's a grim time. It is. I mean, for people in our trade, it just changes everything. Thank goodness we have the onset of the arts and crafts movement, you know, to buoy our spirits. Yeah, yeah.
00:59:32
Speaker
Well, I will leave you at that folks. And, uh, if you want to help support the podcast, you can join our Patreon and you can use those coupon codes at bits and bits and that vesting American craftsman. We have the links down in the description. So it was a big help. Um, hope you enjoyed a quick ship or still over at bits and bits. Oh yeah. Yeah. So bits and bits is in Oregon and, uh, we're in New Jersey, as you know. And like, you know, a lot of times we have it in a couple of days. So the other quick,
01:00:03
Speaker
Alright folks, be well out there. Yeah, we'll see you next week.