| The importance of English furnishings in America | | | | or XV commodes or tables, and even chairs may add |
| cannot be overestimated. During our Colonial period, | | | | charm to Chippendale furnishings, and many of the |
| English furniture, furnishing accessories, wallpapers, | | | | gracious pieces of the Louis XVI period give a |
| and chintzes were been continuously imported. | | | | delightful touch to the later Georgian styles of |
| Unlike the French period styles, which demand great | | | | Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Adam. |
| accuracy and a strict accord of architectural interior, | | | | A few Victorian pieces can be accommodated in |
| designer window toppers, and furnishings, English | | | | modern rooms. When we consider the American |
| furniture can be safely used in practically any | | | | Colonial and Early American furnishings, English types |
| American house or apartment. Even in a house of | | | | are quickly at home with the corresponding American |
| Spanish or Italian type, early English furniture is not | | | | interpretation of the period. |
| impossible. | | | | A single piece or several pieces from the English |
| For the decorator or the householder, English | | | | metropolis often grace Colonial furnishings, just as a |
| furniture is always safer than any other type. The | | | | well dressed and stylish English sister or brother from |
| English themselves have been so conservative in | | | | overseas graced many a provincial party in America in |
| holding on to earlier forms and assembling them with | | | | Colonial days, and was its central attraction. English |
| later models, that this assembling of early and late | | | | furnishing accessories - pottery, pewter, glass, and |
| types in a house or even in a single room is not a | | | | silver are happily associated with American |
| forbidden practice. | | | | furnishings, and often in fact necessary to complete |
| It is wiser, however, to keep the early period types | | | | them. |
| - Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean together; while | | | | In every period style, from Jacobean hand-blocked |
| the periods of Dutch influence-William-and-Mary, | | | | linens, through the various Georgian types in the |
| Queen Anne, and Early Georgian are more suitable to | | | | Dutch, French and Classic modes to the splendid |
| be used with one another. | | | | Victorian florals, chintzes are required for English, |
| With Chippendale we touch more individual types and | | | | Colonial, Early American, and modern furnishings. |
| rooms in strict Chippendale style are often as | | | | Wall hangings and corner protectors, window and |
| delightful as those done in the French periods. | | | | door hangings, permanent upholstery, loose cushions |
| Chippendale's various types can frequently be | | | | and slip covers, screens, pillows, and lamp shades, |
| assembled to advantage, but those in the Chinese | | | | dresser and table covers, and all those countless |
| style are best kept to themselves, unless one or two | | | | family touches that women deem indispensable for |
| pieces are introduced as actual Chinese pieces might | | | | comfort. In the modern use of English furnishings no |
| be introduced for variety. | | | | point requires the exercise of more careful judgment |
| Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and Adam types are often | | | | than floor coverings. |
| akin and may be nicely assembled. To the purist in | | | | Other textiles such as silk, damask and brocades, |
| design there is nothing more gratifying than a room in | | | | woolen tapestry and needlework are all accurately |
| strict period style, and rooms furnished in pure period | | | | adjusted to their period styles, but rugs and carpets |
| are soothing and unimpeachable. Still, the greatest | | | | are less studied and consequently less understood. |
| latitude in the use of English furnishings is compatible | | | | The Oriental rug has been deemed the only suitable |
| with good taste. | | | | rug for the earliest periods, but this must be carefully |
| French furniture and accessories can be introduced | | | | selected as to type and coloring. |
| successfully into a scheme. A highly decorative chair | | | | Persian, Syrian and Asia Minor types are available, as |
| or antique picture frames of the Early French | | | | are also modern Chinese rugs. With Hepplewhite, |
| periods-Henry II, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, often adds | | | | Sheraton and Adam, rugs of French design of |
| just that touch of stateliness, magnificence, and | | | | Aubusson type are appropriate. Designs in the classic |
| authority that a Tudor, Elizabethan, or even a | | | | mode of the Adams' are considered necessary for |
| Jacobean room may need. | | | | rooms in the Adam style. Carpets to the baseboard |
| Even an occasional Italian or Spanish piece of the | | | | are appropriate for Victorian rooms and may be used |
| same era may be introduced successfully. Louis XIV | | | | in modern rooms. |