Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
159
I
fancy
the
furniture
of
the
mid-Victorian
era
will
never
be
coveted
by
collectors,
unless
someone
should
build
a
museum
for
the
freakish
objects
of
house
furnishing.
America
could
contribute
much
to
such
a
collection,
for
surely
the
black
walnut
era
of
the
Nineteenth
Century
will
never
be
surpassed
in
ugliness
and
bad
taste,
unless--rare
fortune--there
should
be
a
sudden
epidemic
of
appreciation
among
cabinet-makers,
which
would
result
in
their
taking
the
beautiful
wood
in
the
black
walnut
beds
and
wardrobes
and
such
and
make
it
over
into
worth-while
things.
It
would
be
a
fine
thing
to
release
the
mistreated,
velvety
wood
from
its
grotesqueries,
and
give
it
a
renaissance
in
graceful
cabinets,
small
tables,
footstools,
and
the
many
small
things
that
could
be
so
easily
made
from
huge
unwieldy
wardrobes
and
beds
and
bureaux.
The
workmen
of
to-day
have
their
eyes
opened.
They
have
no
excuse
for
producing
unworthy
things,
when
the
greatest
private
collections
are
loaned
or
given
outright
to
the
museums.
The
new
wing
of
the
Metropolitan
Museum
in
New
York
houses
several
fine
old
collections
of
furniture,
the
Hoentschel
collection,
for
which
the
wing
was
really
planned,
having
been
given
to
the
people
of
New
York
by
Mr.
Pierpont
Morgan.
This
collection
is
an
education
in
the
French
decorative
arts.
Then,
too,
there
is
the
Bolles
collection
of
American
furniture
presented
to
the
museum
by
Mrs.
Russell
Sage.
I
have
no
quarrel
with
the
honest
dealers
who
are
making
fine
and
sincere
copies
of
such
furniture,
and
selling
them
as
copies.
There
is
no
deception
here,
we
must
respect
these
men
as
we
respect
the
workers
of
the
Eighteenth
Century:
we
give
them
respect
for
their
masterly
workmanship,
their
appreciation
of
the
best
things,
and
their
fidelity
to
the
masterpieces
they
reproduce.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
