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192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
158
There
is
a
graceful
Louis
XV
sofa
in
the
Petit
Trianon
that
I
have
copied
many
times.
The
copy
is
as
beautiful
as
the
original,
because
this
sort
of
furniture
depends
upon
exquisite
design
and
perfect
workmanship
for
its
beauty.
It
is
possible
that
a
modern
craftsman
might
not
have
achieved
so
graceful
a
design,
but
the
perfection
of
his
workmanship
cannot
be
gainsaid.
The
frame
of
the
sofa
must
be
carved
and
then
painted
and
guilded
many
times
before
it
is
ready
for
the
brocade
covering,
and
the
cost
of
three
hundred
dollars
for
the
finished
sofa
is
not
too
much.
The
original
could
not
be
purchased
at
any
price.
Then
there
is
the
Chinese
lacquer
furniture
of
the
Chippendale
period
that
we
are
using
so
much
now.
The
process
of
lacquering
is
as
tedious
to-day
as
it
ever
was,
and
the
reproductions
sell
for
goodly
sums.
A
tall
secretary
of
black
and
gold
lacquer
may
cost
six
hundred
dollars.
You
can
imagine
what
an
Eighteenth
Century
piece
would
cost!
The
person
who
said
that
a
taste
for
old
furniture
and
bibelots
was
"worse
than
a
passion,
it
was
a
vice,"
was
certainly
near
the
truth!
It
is
an
absorbing
pursuit,
an
obsession,
and
it
grows
with
what
it
feeds
on.
As
in
objects
of
art,
so
in
old
furniture,
the
supply
will
always
equal
the
demand
of
the
unwary.
The
serious
amateur
will
fight
shy
of
all
miracles
and
content
himself
with
excellent
reproductions.
Nothing
later
than
the
furniture
of
the
Eighteenth
Century
is
included
in
the
term,
"old
furniture."
There
are
many
fine
cabinet
makers
in
the
early
Nineteenth
Century,
but
from
them
until
the
last
decade
the
horrors
that
were
perpetrated
have
never
been
equaled
in
the
history
of
household
decorations.
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