Ackermann’s Repository of Arts/Series 1/Volume 1/January 1809/Fashionable Furniture
For No 1
Chaise longue
Window seat
G. Smith del.r 1808
London: Pub. Jan 1809, for R. Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, 101, Strand.
FASHIONABLE FURNITURE.
plate 3.chaise longue.
The design of the chaise longue is Grecian, and should be executed as to its frame-work wholly in mat and burnished gold, when chasteness of execution is desired; the ornaments may be finished in bronze metal, when a similar style has been adopted in the other furniture of the apartment. The covering here shewn is supposed to be of azure blue velvet, the ornaments being worked up in gold colour and bronze. Each end has a Grecian mantle, to correspond with the covering, fringed with a gold-colour silk fringe. One side of this design being geometrical, a scale is added, from which every dimension may be obtained, observing that 28 inch. is its intended width.
window-seat.
This design would have a very good effect executed in bronze, with the rosettes, fillets, and other ornaments of the frame, in mat gold. It might be covered with green velvet, with stripes of rose colour. The design of this window-seat was furnished by Messrs. Morgan and Saunders, Catherine-street, Strand.
general observations.
Fashion is ever creating change and variety in furniture. We observe with pleasure a more tasteful arrangement daily taking place; the gaudy colours of the chintz and calico furniture have given place to a more chaste style, in which two colours only are employed to produce the appearance of damask. The same style is adopting in carpets, giving apartments an uniform and pleasing appearance. Bronze still prevails as a ground-work for chairs, sofas, cabinets, &c. and will always be classic when delicately and sparing assisted with gold ornaments. A great deal of black has been used in chairs, &c. but the appearance is harsh, and the contrast too violent to be approved by genuine and correct taste; its cheapness can alone make its use tolerable. Manchester coloured velvets, used for furniture and curtains, produce a rich effect. Poles richly decorated form the best and most fashionable supporters for draperies, and in all probability will continue throughout the present year. Other improvements will be noticed in om succeeding numbers.
In fitting up dining-rooms it has been suggested, that a new system is about to be adopted, in which the architecture and the furniture are rendered subservient to domestic comfort, as well as elegant arrangement. In the Morning Post, a few days since, is noticed a design now executing for the eating-room of a noble duke: it comprehends a space of sixty feet in length, from which twenty feet are taken by a colonnade of ten feet at each end. Ten feet forms the breast of the chimney; the remaining spaces on each side become recesses, three feet and a half deep, in which are placed architectural pedestals, supporting imitative granite columns. These pedestals are so contrived as to contain every necessary requisite, usually placed in what are called sarcophagus cellarets, with other conveniences, rendering the ingress and egress of domestics less troublesome than is customary. The remaining spaces are appropriated to the side-boards: they are supported by eight beautiful and strictly classic female Caryatides, under a frieze embellished by a Greek ornament of the present taste, executed in bronze metal. The vacuum underneath each side-board is corrected by the placing of elegant sarcophaguses, adapted to the purpose of heating plates, &c. by contrivances from the flue of the chimney. The whole of these embellishments are intended to be executed in the most beautiful mahogany, relieved by ormolu inlay of ornaments and lines. Over each sideboard will be placed glasses of the most superb dimensions, in frames of bronze and gold; in the recesses and center of each glass are to be suspended cut-glass Grecian lamps of an unique design and execution. The carpet for the room is making at Axminster, from a design given by the architect.