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Choosing up the home decorating plan or idea that better fits in
with Empire furniture can be a little bit difficult. There are
some very good books of designs to base your decor idea. You can
then get from them interesting complements and ornaments for all
the corners of your house, of course based on the colonial
style. One the most famous books at the date was the -
Illustrated history of furniture, by Frederick Litchfield. You
can read some tips from that book along the following
paragraphs. We want to encourage the readers to follow its ideas
because they can help you to find your own style.
Materials And Ornaments For Careful Finishes
On secretaries and tables, a common ornament of this
description of furniture, is a column of mahogany, with a
capital and base of bronze (either gilt, part gilt, or green),
in the form of the head of a sphinx with the foot of an animal;
console tables are supported by sphinxes and griffins; and
candelabra and wall brackets for candles have winged figures of
females, stiff in modeling and constrained in attitude, but
almost invariably of good material with careful finish.
The bas-reliefs in metal which ornament the panels of the
friezes of cabinets, or the marble bases of clocks, are either
reproductions of mythological subjects from old Italian gems and
seals, or represent the battles of the Emperor, in which
Napoleon is portrayed as a Roman general. There was plenty of
room to replace so much that had disappeared during the
Revolution, and a vast quantity of decorative furniture was made
during the few years which elapsed before the disaster of
Waterloo caused the disappearance of a power which had been
almost meteoric in its career.
What Books To Consult
The best authority on Empire Furniture is the book of designs,
published in 1809 by the architects Percier and Fontaine, which
is the more valuable as a work of reference, from the fact that
every design represented was actually carried out, and is not a
mere exercise of fancy, as is the case with many such books. In
the preface the authors modestly state that they are entirely
indebted to the antique for the reproduction of the different
ornaments; and the originals, from which some of the designs
were taken, are still preserved in a fragmentary form in the
Museum of the Vatican.
Classic Designs And Ideas
An arm chair and a stool, together with that of the tripod table
which are favorable examples of the richly-mounted and more
decorative furniture of this style. While they are not free from
the stiffness and constraint which are inseparable from classic
designs as applied to furniture, the rich color of the mahogany,
the high finish and good gilding of the bronze mounts, and the
costly silk with which they are covered, render them attractive
and give them a value of their own. By reading the books
proposed above you definitely can break the look of the interior
design of your house, and will learn how to include empire
furniture into home decorating ideas and plans.
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