History

Keeping It Real…Faux Bamboo Bedroom Furniture

Nash Royal Pavillion chinese blue room — Interior View, Royal Pavillion by John Nash

While imported goods from the China Seas trade had influenced furniture design in Europe throughout the 18th century, from Thomas Chippendale to the chinoiserie of Louis XIV at Versailles, the popularity of Asian inspired furniture and design reached a peak with the John Nash designed Royal Pavilion at Brighton, completed by the Prince Regent between 1817 and 1822. Furniture designed to resemble bamboo had appeared about 1750 in England and it was used extensively throughout the Pavillion. But by the 1840s, Brighton – both the place and its related design – was out of style.

Fast forward a few decades to the London International Exhibition in 1862, the Exposition Universelle of 1867 in Paris and the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, all of which created a craze once again for all things exotic and of Asia, particularly Japan, as it had just been opened to the West in 1854. Bamboo furniture had a quirky lightness that was a real counterpoint to the heavy Rococo Revival styles of the early Victorian era. An industry making “faux bamboo” furniture sprang up, as real bamboo was only suitable for very lightweight pieces. Golden stained birds-eye maple and pine were shaped to resemble bamboo stalks as the decorative detail on more substantive pieces. Large suites of furniture, particularly for bedrooms, including beds, armoires, wash stands, night tables, chairs, etc., were manufactured in great numbers in England, France and America. According to a 19th century decorating magazine, their characteristics made them perfect for furnishing “morning rooms, bed chambers, summer houses, and cottages.” R.J. Horner of New York City produced some of the finest examples made in America.

Antique faux bamboo continues to be extremely desirable in the furnishing of vacation homes today. This Southampton bedroom, designed by the late Jed Johnson for Maureen and Marshall Cogan, has long been a talisman room for me. It has one of the most beautiful groupings of faux bamboo, including a number of R.J. Horner pieces, such as the dressing table and chairs. For all the elaborate detail on the furniture, the simplicity, calmness and lightness of the room makes it look like floating on a cloud. The owners wanted their country house to feel “nondecorated” – to be soft and cozy, informal, with nothing off-limits to grandchildren, in the true spirit of a Hamptons great house.

This is the other side of the room. In order to keep all the detail, I did not join the photos. Note the simple pale upholstery and the cheval mirror, which is a particularly fine and rare piece.

Here’s a compressed view of the whole room. The bed is what I call the “English” shape – with rectangular detail along the headboard. I cannot decide if the bed is a reproduction as it looks to be king size, but it is so finely made that I can’t be sure.

Unfortunately Jed Johnson died in the prime of his life and career on TWA Flight 800 to Paris in 1996. Architectural Digest has a poignant memorial to him written by Paul Goldberger, in which he writes, “Johnson seemed always to be able to hear the objects that he loved speak.” I just love that idea!

I always find this Upstate New York home and bedroom a bit unexpected as it belongs to avant-garde American poet John Ashbery. Why a modern poet shouldn’t live in a William Morris papered 1894 Victorian I can’t really say. But the pairing of contemporaries – the arts and crafts wallpaper with the faux bamboo bedroom set – is a perfect combination and a cheery mix of rugs and objects adds to the appeal.

Rosanne Wasserman has written a great personal account of John Ashbery’s home on Rain Taxi, which has many additional, less styled photos of the house and as shown below, the guest bedroom. Wasserman writes, “I found John’s house a perfect antidote for what I like least about museums: that they are not lived-in spaces. John’s house, filled with objets d’art and arranged into subtle, funny, and magnificent scenarios, is also always a place where people live and visit, sleep and dine, watch TV, wash up dishes, sit in chairs. Long may they do so.” No way to say it better than that.

For a house that falls stylistically somewhere between the two above, I turn to Joan Davidson’s Hudson River manse Midwood, featured in Martha Stewart Living. Here, a pair of faux-bamboo twin beds that were found at the Armenia Church Auction are part of a set of 8 pieces. They were also made in 1888, the same year the house was built. This set is ebonized and it makes a strong counterpoint to the richly colored paisley in the bedding and rug. Warm white beadboard walls complement.

The dressing table has a lovely form.

Kevin Sharkey (a powerhouse behind the whole Martha Stewart brand) writes in his Home Tour column about the house, “I believe that a truly beautiful room is one that hasn’t been decorated at all, but rather considered…There are no absolutes. You just have to be inspired, passionate and informed. Then you take it and make it your own. That’s really where beauty comes from.” Many other photos of this beautiful property can be found there.

Besides sets of antique faux bamboo furniture, these homes have something innate in common. Whether created by designer or homeowner they are all somewhat undecorated and fluid. Wasserman writes about her view of the Ashbery home as “only one stage in the evolution of his house, some rooms of which have, since then, been further embellished, or reimagined, or pulled apart and are still being put together.” Cogan says about her Southampton home, “These are living places, and they need fussing with.” I don’t have the entire article on the Davidson house, but I am somehow sure she’d say something similar. I find it slightly ironic that such spaces have “matched” bedroom sets, as little else in these houses is “matchy.” In general, matched furniture sets are not a look that I like, nor the current mood in decorating. But somehow, groupings of faux bamboo just work.

As you might expect, Martha Stewart Living has featured bamboo and faux bamboo many other times as well. This charming green room was an in-house style feature, not a real residence, but I love some of the details, like the curtain valances, sheers and bamboo matchstick blinds. It feels exactly like a summer-house should. This headboard has the “French” shape with two crossed bamboo poles in an inverted V and small newel posts at either end and a straight footboard. It is very common to see French armoires with the same shape too.

This side view shows the raised bamboo decoration found on the side rails.

Here is a view of an antique French armoire in a Brooklyn bedroom of my design. While the bed can be partially seen reflected in the mirror, the inverted V of the headboard is cut off. You can really see the beauty of the birds-eye maple on this armoire. John Robshaw hand painted pillow on the chair.

In this bedroom by Peter Dunham, featuring his hemp and cotton fabric “Jaipur” on the walls, curtains and bed coverings, we can see a very similar French maple bed, only larger, perhaps a double. There is a dresser and a mirror too, although they do not look antique.

He shows an additional view on his website, with the bed against a different wall. Faux Bamboo pieces also look wonderful with Indian block prints and crisp white linens – they play off the “British Colonial” feel.

Here is a similar bed in a room designed by Martyn Lawrence-Bullard for Nick Steyne. This bed and nightstand are not antique – they are his design. Again, there are Indian block prints and white linens.

But this pine bed in another room by Martyn Lawrence-Bullard does look to be antique. Here the bed and room are dressed very differently, with a formal french toile, ticking stripe and paisley coverlet. Perhaps little too formal to live with all the time, but I would love to sleep there for a few nights, imagining I was in France.

While I love the antique beds, sizing can be an issue. Twins tend to be somewhat standard, but most of the larger size beds are US double size at best. They can be converted to queen or another option is to use only the headboard and not the side rails and footboard, both of which I have done. For those who don’t relish all the hassle or cannot live without their king size bed, there are many reproductions on the market, such as the one in the first Martyn Lawrence-Bullard photo and those following.

Starting at the top end of the market, here Suzanne Kasler uses a Michael Smith bed from his line with Jasper Furniture in a bedroom she designed in Atlanta. I don’t know the list price on this, but I imagine it to be hefty.

Leonards offers this meticulous copy of a 19th century English bed resized for the modern home. A king retails for $8300 and there is a matching marble top stand.

The Williams Sonoma Hampstead bed retails for $3550 for a king size. There is a matching nightstand and two different dressers and it also comes lacquered in white.

And of course Martha made one in her furniture line for Bernhardt called “Bali Coast,” which listed for around $1500, but unfortunately seems to be out of production. Craig’s List anyone?

But before rushing out to buy a new set, I heartily recommend searching out the antique pieces. While dealers in the Hamptons keep a steady supply around, they often come with big price tags. On the other hand, there are quite a few dealers who import large containers from France, filled with reasonably priced beds, armoires and night stands. Or you can always use it as an excuse to visit les puces….

Image credits: 1. artrepublic.com, 2-4. Architectural Digest, November 1990, photo credit: Scott Frances, 5. Architectural Digest, June 1994, 6. Rain Taxi, photo credit: Ahndraya Parlato, 7-8. Martha Stewart Living, September 2001, 9-10. Martha Stewart Living, date unknown, photo credit: Simon Watson, 11. R. Michaelson, 12. House Beautiful, November 2010, photo credit: Victoria Pearson, 13. Peter Dunham, 14. Elle Decor, December 2005, photo credit: Tim Street-Porter, thanks to So Haute, 15. Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, 16. House Beautiful, April 2008, photo credit: Frances Janisch, 17. Leonards, 18. Williams Sonoma Home, 19. Bernhardt

Jan 28, 2011 By tokyojinja in Furniture, History, Interior Design 9 Comments Tags: aesthetic movement, bamboo, bedroom sets, Brighton, faux bamboo, Jed Johnson, Joan Davidson, John Ashbery, Martha Stewart, Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, michael smith, Peter Dunham, Royal Pavillion, Suzanne Kasler, William Morris

Birds and Bamboo…Japonesque Sterling Silver Patterns of the 1870s

1878 Gorham Advertisement in the Jeweler's Circle of "Decorated Spoonware" in the Japanese Style

Tiffany has emerged triumphant as the most important American silver company today, but in the late 19th century they held equal court with other silversmiths such as Gorham, Whiting, and Wendt. By the late 1860s, all were creating numerous silver patterns and holloware pieces to follow the changing fads in American decorative arts — what is amazing is how quickly they adapted to each and every new trend. One of the most influential to sweep the nation was Japanese style and the silver makers were quick to follow.

I recently had the pleasure of re-examining a collection of John Wendt’s 1872 “Bird” pattern that I worked to assemble a number of years ago. This Japonesque pattern has a bamboo stem running up a simply shaped handle, with a swooping or plunging bird amidst assorted flora. If you look at the handles in the photos below, you can see that the bird varies from piece to piece. This was a very popular device in the Victorian era, called a “multi-motif” pattern. All teaspoons would be the same, but they would differ from the forks, from the knives, from the serving pieces, etc.

Ah, those serving pieces! The Victorians were not content with the “Five Piece Hostess Set” that comes with modern silverware. They had servers and individual place pieces for every food imaginable! There were three sizes of soup spoons – bouillon, cream and gumbo. Oyster forks, asparagus tongs, nut picks, cheese scoops, macaroni servers and Saratoga chip servers were all required. New technology in food storage and preparation made exotic foods available to the wealthy and having the right silver to serve it with demonstrated status to guests. Ice cream, which requires cold storage, was a newly available luxury and had its own special forks and spoons and elaborate servers, like this ice cream slice below.

In addition to the pattern on the handle, fancy servers would often have details etched or engraved on the blade. It is well worth clicking the photo above, and the pie server below, to see the wonderful Japoneseque engraving.

Sometimes, customers made bad choices as they could customize their purchases. The berry spoon below ia a bit of a hodge-podge as it was ordered with an Egyptian revival shaped bowl (the Victorians were not just influenced by Japanese design, they were interested in anywhere exotic and new to them) but with traditional rococo engraving. Definitely not as seamlessly beautiful as the two pieces above.

One charming aspect of collecting antique silver is the monograms and commemorations engraved in spaces on either the front or back, depending on the style of the pattern. Wendt’s “Bird” has space on the back, as this youth knife monogrammed “Frank” shows.

This large ladle was a silver anniversary present, engraved with the date February 2, 1853-1878.

Most likely “Bird” was not designed by John Wendt, as he sold his share of the company to his partner Bernard Beiderhase by 1871. But looking at Tiffany’s “Japanese” pattern sugar sifter below, do you think Mr. Beiderhase was creative in his design? Tiffany did not, and sued for design patent infringement.

To add to the confusion, Whiting entered the fray with their 1874 “Japanese” pattern.

All three patterns were multi-motif and all had realistically depicted birds, flowers and grasses. Tiffany’s pattern had reeds or grasses growing up the handle, as opposed to bamboo. And what about Gorham, you may ask? They too had a multi-motif pattern called “Japanese”, but took a very different design approach, although the birds and bamboo are still there on some of the pieces.

Seeing these extremely similar patterns together gives a real sense of how popular the Japanese aesthetic was. But like all trends, it fell out of favor and went relatively unnoticed for decades. Prices on today’s antique silver market once again show how highly Japonesque design is valued.

If you are interested in silver I highly recommend Charles Venable’s absolutely gorgeous book Silver in America: 1840-1940 A Century of Splendor. There is a fantastic “Bird” macaroni server on page 138. And for more on these patterns, see D. Albert Soeffing’s “The Battle of the Bird: An Investigation of the Bird /Japanese Patterns of the 1870s” in Silver Magazine Nov/Dec 1995.

Interested in the Japanese influence on Western decorative arts? See an earlier post Japan-a-mania…Cracked Ice and Crazy Quilts. The knife handle on Wendt “Bird” has a cracked ice pattern at the juncture point which can be seen on both the youth knife and the ice cream slice.

Many thanks to the silver collector who allowed me to photograph the collection.

Image credits: 1. reproduced in Silver Magazine May/June 1990, 2-8. me, 9-12 Romance With Silver, all items currently available for sale,

Jan 11, 2011 By tokyojinja in Design Motif, History, Metals 15 Comments Tags: aesthetic movement, bamboo, birds, Gorham, silver, Tiffany, Wendt, Whiting

An Artistic Reflection…The 1860 Japanese Envoy to America and Yokohama-e

Shosha Amerikajin True Picture of Americans 1861 — Shosha Amerikajin (True Picture of Americans), c. 1861

Last week, The New York Times ran an article on the first visit by Japanese envoys to America in 1860. The article is part of a larger historical series on the Civil War, but what I found so interesting were the artistic renderings of their trip by the visitors and the gifts they brought with them to present to the President. This first diplomatic mission was led by three Japanese officials and completed by a retinue of 77 others (including 6 cooks). For President Buchanan, on the cusp of political crisis, the visit was a popular and welcome diversion and the visitors took the country by storm. Newspapers and the paparazzi of the day recorded every move, while the Japanese themselves also recorded their impressions and images of America.

Samurai in New York — Delegates and NY Lady, Stereoscope view, hand-colored, Studio of C.D. Fredricks & Co. Collection of Tom Burnett

The impressions of the Japanese were filtered through the lens of their experience. Drawn by a member of the Japanese delegation, one would think that this sketch of Washington D.C. was some pleasure garden or village back in Japan. Closer viewing reveals the Capitol, the base of the Washington Monument and the bridge across the Potomac to Virginia.

sketch of Washington DC 1860 by Japanese Envoy — sketch of Washington D.C., 1860

Repairs to the ship meant to carry them back to Japan were delayed and as a result, the delegation was treated to quite a tour, including a balloon ascension in Philadelphia. Clearly, it impressed them and they recorded it in great detail as shown in this woodblock print circa 1865.

The envoys brought many gifts from the Emperor of Japan as well. Most interesting to me is the lacquer chigai-dana (staggered shelf cabinet) that can be seen in the far right corner of the etching below (from an 1860 newspaper). It shows President Buchanan and his niece unwrapping all the gifts they received from the delegates.

The white house inventory shows this chigai-dana, which actually turns out to be a different one, gifted earlier to President Franklin Pierce by Commodore Perry when he returned from his fateful voyage in 1855.

Currently, it resides in the sitting room adjoining the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House. You can just see it in the left corner of this photo. It is believed that the 1860 chigai-dana is stored in the Smithsonian somewhere…

This small early 19th century lacquered and gilded shelf cabinet is currently for sale at Naga Antiques in New York.

And I recently saw a simple two shelf version heavily decorated with maki-e (sprinkled gilding) and fans at the Oedo Market at Tokyo International Forum.

Back in Japan, foreign traders were now allowed under the “Treaty of Friendship and Commerce”. They set up in the port city of Yokohama and were limited to a 25 mile radius. The foreigners were fascinating to the local population and a new form of ukiyo-e, called Yokohama-e, emerged. It depicted these strange new people and their dress, their weapons, their customs and so on. Earlier works, such as this 1855 print, were based on much speculation and little real information, and as such, the rendering of the faces and dress is clearly not that accurate.

Tagawa Hiromichi Appearance of Foreign Barbarians England — Tagawa Hiromichi, Appearance of Foreign Barbarians "England"

This print, from “A Series of the European Countries,” was made only 6 years later and also depicts an Englishman, but in this case both faces and dress reflect a fairly accurate view.

Utagawa Yoshikazu Englishman with A Dog 1861 — Utagawa Yoshikazu, Englishman with A Dog

While rarer and more expensive than ordinary ukiyo-e, these Yokohama prints can still be found in markets, antique stores and on-line. I saw this print on Sunday at the Tomioka Hachiman shrine sale. If you click to enlarge it you can see more easily the mixture of people and activities, including the American/European couple in red at the bottom towards the right. The combination of Western and Japanese style buildings next to each other is great too. Unfortunately I do not know the name of the print or the artist.

Back in my hometown of New York, the exhibition “Samurai in New York: The First Japanese Delegation 1860” has just closed at the Museum of the City of New York. It was one of a number of “Heritage of Friendship” events planned this year to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1860 visit. Currently running at the Yokosuka City Museum (in Japanese) is the sister exhibit “Japan and America in 19th Century-Technical Revolution and Diplomacy” . If you would like to read more in-depth information I recommend reading Guests of the Nation:The Japanese Delegation to the Buchanan White House by Dallas Finn on the White House Historical Association website. The Library of Congress also has an amazing collection on this topic. Other resources inlcude Ann Yonemura’s book Yokohama:Japanese Woodblock Prints from the 19th Century.

A Quick Addendum:
A few days after this post I stumbled across this ballon ascension print from the same series as the one shown above. It is missing its third panel, but is clearly by the same artist, Yoshitora Utagawa. Such a rare image in ukiyo-e! And you gotta love the inaccurate rendering of the U.S. Flag! This one is currently for sale at Okura Antiques.

Image credits: 1, 3 & 4. Library of Congress collection via The New York Times, 3. via The Museum of the City of New York , 5-7. The White House Historical Association, 8. Naga Antiques, 9. me, 10. Library of Congress Exhibits. 11. Hotei Japanese Prints, 12. me.

Nov 15, 2010 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight, History, Lacquer 3 Comments Tags: japanese prints, ukiyo-e, wood block prints, Yokohama-e

Japan-a-mania…Cracked Ice and Crazy Quilts

What do Victorian crazy quilts sewn in America and antique Japanese porcelain have in common? Well, like the face that launched 1000 ships, Japanese art and wares displayed in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia launched an almost instantaneous and frenzied fad among American quilters.

While trading with the East had gone on for centuries, most of that trade centered on China. Only the Dutch and the Portuguese had access to Japan and even that was quite limited to a small port at Nagasaki. In 1854, that all changed with the arrival of Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan to the West. While this event radically transformed every aspect of Japanese society, the result in the US was a jumpstart to the American imagination. The effect was truly profound and hard to imagine for us here in 2010 as we are bombarded with new ideas instantly and constantly. The Japanese aesthetic, with its hand work, asymmetry and natural motifs had simply never been seen before by the average person. The quality of the Japanese items at the Centennial also contrasted so strongly with the new shoddy industrial made products of the US and other Western countries.

The fascination with these exotic new ideas translated into the decorative arts almost overnight and there is no better example than the craze over crazy quilts. It is believed that the term “crazy” quilt comes from the “crazing” of the porcelain glaze. The word “crazy” at that time would have also meant broken and irregular. The pattern design comes from a well-known Japanese pattern called “cracked ice”. Quilting designs had always been based on uniform and regularly shaped pieces of fabric, sewn into repeating patterns and then quilted in a uniform pattern as well. For the first time asymmetric and irregular patches of fabric were being cut and sewn and decorated along their seams.

Examples of cracked ice patterns abound in Japanese porcelain. Sometimes the pattern stands on its own, as in the covered bowl above, with shadings of color and decorative patterns highlighting each block. Make sure to take note of the little pattern painted inside the rim of the lid and compare it to the feather stitch used extensively on the quilt below.

This plate is even simpler, with just the lines of the cracking ice painted in.

Often it is overlayed with ume (plum blossom) or even sakura (cherry blossom) to symbolize the coming of spring and the breaking of the ice.

This 1880s crazy quilt from New York State is a near perfect example of the American craft. Made of 20 square blocks, with a sawtooth border, it has all the typical aspects one would expect to find.

Unlike earlier (and later) quilts, crazy quilts were not made with a sense of thrift or recycling, even though it may seem so as they utilize bits and pieces of valuable fabrics such as silks and velvets. Nor were they made for warmth as they do not typically have a batting layer in between the top and the back. Crazy quilts were originally made by well-to-do women in the middle and upper classes to demonstrate their needlework skills and show that they had the leisure time to make completely ornamental pieces. The use of the word quilt is a misnomer – crazy quilts were not used as quilts at all – nobody slept with them. They were made to be displayed.

While irregularly shaped patches of silk, velvet, brocade, satin – anything ornamental or textured – were cut to make the quilt, it was usually too difficult to make the entire quilt completely “crazy” and the pieces were organized into square blocks, a necessary compromise.

The fabric was pieced together and decorated along the seams with embroidery stitches of all kinds, including feather stitch, chain stitch, lazy daisy, herringbone, chevron, blanket stitch and others. Detailed pictures and scenes, monograms and messages were added too.

In addition, there was a fascination with Japanese motifs. In crazy quilting this was particularly noticeable with fans and many quilts have fans in all four corners, like this one.

Unfortunately, manufacturers of the day rinsed the fabrics in metals to make them heavier and this has caused them to deteriorate extensively. In the fan below, the peach silk has rotted away, leaving only the cotton backing and the embroidery.

Crazy quilting mania trickled down the social ladder as womens’ magazines of the day ran articles and how-tos. Fancy scraps were recycled, but as the craze progressed, it was possible to buy kits with a variety of fabrics – some of which were even embroidered in advance. Cigarettes and other products were sold with bits of leftover silk as a perk of purchase. Ornamental trims like lace and beads were added. Below, you can see a Masonic Lodge ribbon from 1871 that was saved and used and if you scroll back to the full-sized photo you can see a political ribbon for Vice President used in the second block on the top.

While the 1870s and 1880s were the heyday of American fascination with the exotic, the craze for crazy quilts died down by 1910. By then, cracked ice patterns and many other Japanese motifs had fueled the Aesthetic Movement and helped to launch Art Nouveau and later Modernism.

Out of prevailing fashion, crazy quilts were usually folded up and put away, only to reappear 100 years later. The success of the 1971 Whitney Museum of American Art exhibit, Abstract Design in American Quilts, elevated quilts to the status of “real art” and launched a wave of quilt mania that built up until the 1976 Bicentennial. Since then, quilts have been collected, displayed and valued, and occasionally, as seen below, used in iteresting ways. For a modern take on an old art form, designer Steven Gambrel used pieces of a 19th century crazy quilt to upholster a chair.

A Few Hours Later…

Rather than pack for camping, I was procrastinating and reading a few blogs. One of the things I need to do is make a list of blog resources — there are some great sites about Japanese textiles/art/history etc. out there. But my favorite blogs are the decorating and design ones – they have so much eye candy for a magazine starved person like myself. This photo from Abbey Goes Design Scouting cracked me up and I had to post it. She calls it an “unapologetic interior”! Talk about crazy quilt-a-mania…

Image Credits: 1. Philly History Blog, 2-13. me, 14. House and Garden, April 2002 15. Vogue Guide to Patchwork and Quilting Vintage

Oct 8, 2010 By tokyojinja in History, Porcelain and Pottery, Textiles 46 Comments Tags: crazy quilts, quilts, Steven Gambrel

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