The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1906)

Furniture

sideboard in mahogany inlaid designed and executed

with boxwood and ebony by gillows, london

need be copied from, nor
even directly based upon,
historic precedents. For
the forms of old furniture
and the details which em-
bellish those forms are,
comparatively speaking,
accidents merely. It is
rather in the inherent spirit
and in the mode of con-
struction that the value of
ancient models, in their
bearing upon latter - day
practice, consists. Were it
otherwise there would be
no scope for originality on
the part of the modern
artificer, nor any encourage-
ment whatever for the
exercise of his inventive
faculties.

In any event, if a man be a collector
of old furniture—and no hobby is more
engrossing than this—the surest test of
his appreciation is that he lives amidst
his treasures and has them in regular
use day by day. He will, of course,
feel bound to take every possible care,
because of their value and antiquity, to
preserve them from needless damage;
but, if he be genuinely attached to
them, he will never be satisfied to rele-
gate them to ceremonial occasions.
For when a man admires anything he
naturally wants to enjoy its continual
presence. Whoso stows away his pos-
sessions as though in a museum, or like
stage or studio properties, for the inspec-
tion of curious visitors whom he may be
anxious to impress, has, one can be very
sure, taken to collecting merely for an
idle pastime. Furthermore, it is an
excellent thing to have, as many do,
a few specimens, at any rate, of old
furniture in the house. They afford
permanently a high standard which
keeps their owner in mind, when any
fresh additions are to be made, that he
ought to select only such objects as may
be worthy to stand side by side with
the old.

This does not imply that all furniture dresser in oak designed by artiiur j. penty

executed by hoffler, ltd.

S3