The age of a piece of furniture is
of great value to a museum, but for domestic purposes, use and beauty
will do. How fine your home will be if all the things within it have
those qualities!
Look through the photographs shown on these pages: there are many old
chairs and tables, but there are more new ones. I am not one of these
decorators who insist on originals. I believe good reproductions are
more valuable than feeble originals, unless you are buying your
furniture as a speculation. You can buy a reproduction of a Chippendale
ladder back chair for about twenty-five dollars, but an original chair
would cost at least a hundred and fifty, and then it would be "in the
style and period of Chippendale." It might amuse you to ask the curator
of one of the British museums the price of one of the Chippendales _by_
Chippendale. It would buy you a tidy little acreage. Stuart and
Cromwellian chairs are being more and more reproduced. These chairs are
made of oak, the Stuart ones with seats and backs of cane, the
Cromwellian ones with seats and backs of tapestry, needlework, corded
velvet, or some such handsome fabric. These reproductions may be had at
from twenty-five to seventy-five dollars each. Of course, the cost of
the Cromwellian chairs might be greatly increased by expensive
coverings.
Pages:
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197