Posts Tagged ‘household wares’

The Art Deco style of the 1920s and 1930x, which derived ‘its name from the 1925 Paris Exhibition – the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industrials Modernes – was the first truly modern style of the 20th century. .In their subject-matter, style, and bright colours, Art Deco furniture, jewellery, ceramics, cs, posters, sculpture, and other decorative arts reflected the general atmosphere of optimism that prevailed after the devastation of World War I. The increased liberation of women, the rise of jazz music and Hollywood film-making, the preoccupation with speed, travel, and leisure pursuits, and the growth of commercial competition and advertising all had a strong Influence on Art Deco designers. Until the late 1970s Art Deco pieces attracted little interest among dealers and collectors, but since that time, with numerous exhibitions and Publications on the subject, the popularity  of collecting Art Deco has increased enormously.

Like the Paris Exhibition of 1900 –which had been the showcase for the Art Nouveau style – the 192-5 Exhibition aimed to promote France as the pre-eminent centre for the production of luxury goods. Most European countries, except for or Germany, were involved; the USA declined to take part, deciding that it could not meet the entry requirements for examples of work of “new and original inspiration” stipulated by the organizers. The exhibition was therefore dominated by pavilions displaying the work of leading French designers, such as the
furniture designer Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann (1879-1933) and the glassmaker Rene Laliquc ( 1860-1945). The design studios of the major Parisian department stores, such as Primavera at Printemps, La Maitrise at Galeries Lafayette,  and Pomona at Au Bon Marche, displayed complete interiors, with examples of furniture, household wares, textiles, and carpets in matching styles.
Most of the exhibits reflected the “official taste” of the exhibition; forms were adapted from historical or traditional styles, but with lavish ornament of stylized flowers, figures, and animals, and geometric patterns such as zigzags and chevrons. This was particularly evident in Ruhlmann’s Pavilion d’un Collectioneur, with its chairs influenced by 18th-century design, boldly  patterned wall coverings, and elaborate chandeliers, and also in the design by Andre Groult for an ambassadorial boudoir with shagreen-covered furniture.
This style contrasted strongly with the few displays by Modernist designers. The Pavilion de I’Esprit Nouveau was designed by the avant-garde Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) and exemplified his vision of a new, minimalist architecture and lifestyle. His small two-storey house, with its doors, windows, and other structural elements based on a modular system of standard-sized units, contained mass-produced furniture and was decorated with abstract paintings. Although this style made a strong impact, its influence did not become widespread until the 19 30x, when it was represented at the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris and also at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.

THE 1925 PARIS EXHIBITION
The Art Deco style, although mainly associated with the 1920s and 1930s, did not suddenly emerge fully formed in this period. Rich ornament, exotic materials, and emphasis on comfort – all features of the style – were already evident in the decorative arts, especially in French furniture, before and during World War I. However, the development of the Art Deco style is mainly associated with the 1925 exhibition in Paris, which lasted from April to October. This exhibition was originally planned for 1915, Lis a continuation of the French government-sponsored international exhibitions that were held in Paris from the 19th century, but was postponed because of the war.
MOTIFS, INFLUENCES, AND
NEW MATERIALS
The standard motifs of the Art Deco style included such traditional decorative elements as bouquets of flowers, animals, and figures of young maidens. However, these were always stylized and angular rather than naturalistic and were often combined with purely geometric motifs, including chevrons, zigzags, Sunbursts, and lightning bolts. This emphasis on stylization and abstract and repeated forms was influenced by the growing impact of the machine, especially automobiles, trains, and aeroplanes, and by such abstract art movements of the early 20th century as Cubism and Futurism. The taste for bright colours was also inspired by the vibrant Fauvist paintings of Henri Matisse, Andre Derain and Maurice Vlaminck, which used contrasting tones and non-naturalistic colours.
Such movements were in turn influenced by the stylized, abstract forms of African masks and sculpture, which were widely collected and imported into Europe in large quantities at this time. Certain elements of Art Deco decorative arts, such as ceramic wall masks, show the inspiration of African art, while African figures featured as decoration on the ceramics of such potters as Rene Buthaud (1886-1987). Also around this time, black American culture in the form of jazz music was introduced into Europe from the USA; the jazz-inspired Revue Negre in Paris, featuring the black dancer and actress Josephine Baker, influenced the work of Buthaud and other Art Deco designers.
The taste for Oriental art was encouraged between 1911 and 1920 by the exotic stage and costume designs of Leon Bakst ( 1866-1924) for the Ballets Russes. These had a significant influence on the Art Deco style, and sparked a fashion for Oriental black-and-red colour combinations as well as lacquered furniture, metalwork, and objets d’art. One of the best exponents of the style was the Swiss designer Jean Dunand (1877-1942). Leading sculptors in France, such as Dimitri Chiparus 1880-1950), also produced figures of dancers in exotic costumes.

THE MODERN MOVEMENT
An alternative to the luxury Art Deco style developed mainly outside France, especially in Germany, during and after World War 1. Progressive artists, architects, and designers argued that the new era demanded good-quality, functional design for all; that new technology and machine production should be exploited fully;  and that form must be derived from function, Without unnecessary ornament.
This movement began in 1907 with the Deutscher Werkbund, an alliance of designers and industrialists. In 1919 the Bauhaus was founded in Weimar by the German architect and designer Walter Gropius (1883-1969); in 1925 the school moved to Dessau, and it was closed by the Nazis in 1933. Bauhaus members designed high-quality furniture, lighting, metalwork, and textiles for industrial production, using new materials, including plywood and tubular steel. Many designs, such as the tubular steel furniture by Marcel Breuer (1902-81) and the glass and metal lamps by Marianne Brandt (1893-1983), are still widely produced. Other Modernist designers of the period included Le Corbusier in France, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) in Finland, and Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) in the Netherlands.
Both the decorative and the Modern strands of Art Deco had a strong influence in the USA, where the style’s vibrant colours and rhythmic patterns expressed the optimism of a young
country that was also the world leader in the mass production of consumer goods. Designers including Paul T. Frankl ( 1886-19,58) and Donald Deskey (1894-1989) used materials also favoured by European Modernists, such as chrome-plated tubular steel. In the 1930s designers such as Norman Bel Geddes (18931958) and Walter Derwin Teague (1883-1960) began to develop their own distinctive version of Art Deco, known as “streamlining”.

Art Deco designers used an extremely wide range of  materials. Luxury manufacturers, including Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, Paul Follot (1877-1941), and the cabinet-makers Louis Sue (1875-1968) and Andre Mare (1887-1932), specialized in fine-quality pieces veneered in exotic woods such as amboyna and Macassar ebony, combined with ivory, shagreen, enamel, gold and silver leaf, and lacquer. Modernist and industrial designers, especially in the USA, showed greater interest in new materials such as aluminium, chromium, and tubular steel. Lavish cinema interiors were created relatively inexpensively from combinations of chromium, coloured glass, and painted concrete. Bakelite, a type of cheap, easily moulded plastic patented in 1907, was widely employed as a substitute for wood in such mass-produced items as radios.

In the 18th century, as the fashion for porcelain reached its peak, many porcelain factories were established outside Germany and France, the main centres of production. Many new factories were founded by arcanists, modellers, and decorators who exploited their knowledge of porcelain manufacture, moving from factory to factory throughout Europe. Unsurprisingly, most of the smaller European operations imitated the styles of Meissen and Sevres, although their wares sometimes display an interesting mixture of influences.
THE LOW COUNTRIES
In 1750 Francois-Joseph Peterinck (1719-99) established a factory in Tournai and, with the help of the arcanist Robert Dubois, produced soft-paste porcelain. The influence of Meissen in the tablewares can be seen in the moulded basket-weave borders and the spiral patterns around the rims of plates, while the decoration is more English-inspired. The specialities of Tournai were exotic birds and scenes taken from Aesop’s fables in underglaze blue, both of which were used at Chelsea and Worcester. Typical of Tournai, too, are landscape vignettes in puce or purple monochrome, surrounded by small sprays of flowers. The factory also made a limited range of galanterie – small decorative objects such as snuff-boxes.
Tournai produced a large range of figures and groups following contemporary French taste in their subject-matter, in particular pastoral scenes of shepherds and children by artists who had worked at Mennecy. The thickly glazed groups are painted in a pale palette or left in the white, but lack crisp modelling. Also typical of Tournai are figures and groups in biscuit porcelain, especially those on high rockwork bases around a central tree; groups like these were made at Derby.
Peterinck retired in 1796, and ownership of Tournai passed to his daughter Amelie de Bettignics (1757–after 1805). The factory continued making simple household wares, but no more figures, until the mid-19th century. Many 18th-century wares were sold undecorated, and were later painted at a porcelain factory in The Hague set up in 1776 by a German porcelain dealer, Anton Lyncker (1718-81). The Hague factory also made its own hard-paste porcelain wares, decorated in a manner similar to Tournai’s. Confusingly, both The Hague factory’s own products and the Tournai pieces that it decorated have the same mark; any soft-paste ware bearing an overglaze mark of a stork is likely to be (but by no means definitely is) of Tournai origin.
The first successful Dutch porcelain factor was established in Weesp, near Amsterdam, in 1757 by the Irish arcanist D. MacCarthy, who had been involved in attempts to manufacture porcelain in Copenhagen. This factory has a complex history of ownership. In 1771 it changed hands and moved to Oude Loosdrecht, and in 1782 moved to Amstel, near Amsterdam, where it remained until its closure in 1820. All the Dutch factories used a good-quality white hard paste with a clear glaze. Some small figures of putti holding salts were made at Weesp. At Oude Loosdrecht and Amstel, production was focused entirely on wares – mainly tea, coffee and dinner services. In both form and decoration
the wares are similar to Meissen and
other German porcelain.
SWITZERLAND
Most porcelain factories in Europe were established by aristocratic patrons who could afford luxury products; in Switzerland, where there was no monarchy, a group of prominent citizens established the first porcelain factory in Zurich in 1763. The factory initially made a soft-paste porcelain but switched to the production of hard paste c.1765.
Reflecting the demands of Switzerland’s dominant middle-class market, the bulk of Zurich
production was tea, coffee and dinner services. These generally followed German Rococo and Neo-classical styles, but the complex scrolled handles on coffee- and teapots were unique to Zurich. In terms of ecoration, the Zurich factory is associated with small pastoral landscapes in a palette dominated by blues and greens. Sortie exquisitely painted landscapes in warmer colours arc by Salomon Gessner (1739-79), 1739-79), one of the founders; unfortunately the enamels arc often flaky because the paint was applied too thickly. The colourful, naturalistic sprays of flowers familiar on 18th-century Meissen also featured at Zurich, although the flower sprays tend to be looser. Other kinds of decoration included a version of the Oriental banded hedge pattern, Usually in purple, and vignettes of birds on branches.
Almost 400 different types of figure igure and group were made, mostly in the late Rococo style. The famous Meissen series of the street vendors of London and Paris may have inspired the set of 42 street-
sellers called the “Cries of Zurich”. The finest figures were probably modelled by Valentin Sonnenschein (1749-1828), from Ludwigsburg, and, perhaps because of his influence, many Zurich figures resemble those made there. The factory closed in 1791, owing
to financial problems caused by competition from other factories and imports of inexpensive creamware from England.
SCANDINAVIA
In the 1730s several French
and German arcanists, including Christoph Conrad Hunger of Meissen
and Vienna, produced soft-paste porcelain
on a limited scale in Copenhagen. In 1774 the first hard-paste porcelain factory was founded there. Queen Caroline Matilda was the main shareholder of this factory; after her exile it was bought in 1779 by King Christian VII and styled the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory. A fine, white hard paste with a clear glaze was used to make wares mainly in a severe Neo-classical style, much influenced by Berlin, Vienna, and Sevres.
Cylindrical teapots and coffee-cups with angular handles, and trays with angled sides, are typically embellished with oval and cylindrical medallions enclosing landscapes, topographical views, or portraits in sepia, puce, or pink monochrome, surrounded with swags and coloured borders heightened with gilding. Botanical subjects were also popular, the most famous
example being the 1,800-piece “Flora Danica” service ( 1789-1802) that was probably made for Catherine the Great of Russia.
The factory declined in the early 19th century, but under the direction (1828-57) of Gustav Friedrich Hetsch it produced biscuit figures, notably those based on the work of the Neoclassical sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen. The factory enjoyed a renaissance when in 1885 the architect and painter Arnold Krug (1856-1931) was appointed artistic director. With new glaze technology, he introduced a revolutionary form of underglaze painting, using simple washes of blues and greys to produce an effect very similar to Japanese pottery. Johann Ludwig Eberhard Ehrenreich (1722-1803)
produced porcelain between 1766 and 178 at Marieberg, near Stockholm.
It initially used a soft paste for Rococo wares, especially spiral-fluted custard cups similar
to those made at Mennecy.
A hard-paste porcelain was
introduced from 1777.