One House Two Worlds

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

Fig. 1 A “Z” stool designed by Gilbert Rohde (1894–1944) c. 1935 for the Troy Sunshade Company, a cone chair designed by Verner Panton (1926–1998), 1958, and two recent examples of his stacking chair of 1960 provide seating in the kitchen. On the top wall shelf are examples of the Diplomat coffee service designed by Walter Von Nessen (1889–1943), 1932, and of …

Eames House tour contest

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

The Delaware-based type foundry and design firm House Industries is offering three lucky individuals a chance to win an exclusive tour of the Eames House (Case Study House #8) in Pacific Palisades, California, where the dynamic design duo lived from 1949. Although the grounds of the Eames House are open to the public, tours of the interior are usually only …

Great Estates: Davenport House in Savannah, Georgia

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

Completed around 1820, Davenport House, located in the historic port city of Savannah, evinces the post-Revolutionary American taste for contemporary European design.  Isaiah Davenport, a master carpenter by trade, looked to the classicizing mode that had become prevalent in residential architecture throughout England and Europe when he constructed Davenport House for his growing family.  Today, visitors can experience the excitement …

Museum accessions, part 2

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

This short list of notable acquisitions began with a request to decorative arts curators in major American museums to choose and discuss a favorite recent gift or purchase. The design of this elegant Gothic revival center table is attributed to the renowned Alexander Jackson Davis. The leading advocate for the “pointed style” in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, …

Pennsylvania style

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

Photography by Gavin Ashworth | It took knowledge—knowledge and taste together,” according to Harry Hartman of Harry B. Hartman Antiques and Interiors who helped to form this exceptional private collection of American furniture and folk art and American and Chinese export paintings. For nearly fifty years, the Hartman name has been synonymous with purveying fine antiques from southeastern Pennsylvania. This …

European elegance in San Francisco

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

Photography by Aya Brackett | One of California’s finest collections of eighteenth-century English and European decorative arts is to be found in San Francisco in a large Queen Anne revival house in Pacific Heights. Carefully chosen to evoke the atmosphere of an English country house or a French château, these objects shine brilliantly against the dark brown paneling in the …

Audio source missing

The legacy of Henry Davis Sleeper

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

December 2009 | November 1915. On “one of those autumn days when the darkness comes so suddenly that one seems to bump one’s head against it,” a small party departs from an unnamed city. Wrapped in furs and nestling into blankets, they huddle in the back of the open car to ward off the chill. Soon paved roads give way …

The Hidden Magic of Henry Davis Sleeper’s Beauport

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

December 2009 | Beauport, with its labyrinth of small rooms, layers of objects, and false doors, is a playhouse and a place that exists as a dream. The small rooms change shape, lead one to another without a quickly understood plan or even a simple hallway. There are doors, windows, paneling, tables, chairs, and art taken from long-gone houses, different …

Vintage finds in turquoise, Pantone’s 2010 color of the year

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

When Pantone announced yesterday that it had selected Turquoise (15-5519) as the color of the year for 2010 I wasn’t at all surprised. Touted by the company for its “serene and invigorating” qualities, turquoise has been one of the most sought after colors in decorative arts history starting with the turquoise ground, called bleu céleste, developed in 1753 for Louis …

Benjamin Henry Latrobe and the furniture of John and Hugh Finlay

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

December 2009 | On the evening of Wednesday, August 24, 1814, British troops brazenly torched much of the small capital city of Washington, including the large Virginia sand­­­stone house built as the residence for the president of the United States between 1792 and 1800 (see Fig. 1).1 Among the losses smoldering in the rubble was an extraordinary set of painted …