Form Follows Function

 

QUESTION: While I normally associated blonde furniture with the 1950s, I was surprised to see a chest at a recent antique show that the dealer said dated to the early 19th century. She referred to it as Biedermeier, after a design movement in Vienna. Austria. Can you tell me more about this style of furniture/? I’ve never seen anything like it. 

ANSWER: Biedermeier was a German-based decorative movement which spread throughout Europe from 1815 to 1848. The style’s name came from Ludwig Eichrodt and Adolf Kussmaul, who depicted the typical bourgeois of the period under the name "Gottfried Biedermeier."–"Gott" meaning "God," fried" meaning "peace," "Bieder" meaning "commonplace,"_meier" meaning "steward"—in their Fliegende Blatter (Pamphlets), a Viennese journal of the day. However, it wasn’t called Biedermeier until 1886, when Georg Hirth wrote a book about 19th-century interior design and used the word "Biedermeier" to describe domestic German furniture of the 1820s and 1830s.

Biedermeier furniture suited the modest size and needs of comfortable bourgeois households.  In middle-class homes, with fewer separate rooms, the concept of the Wohninsel, or "living island," became popular. This made it possible to perform a number of activities in one room—writing, sewing, music making—each characterized by different furniture.

The “living island,” or as it’s known today living room, usually included an ottoman, several armchairs and chairs upholstered in woolen material, sometimes in silk or damask; a round table, a mirror and where possible a glass-fronted case for silver and a piano. The less severe appearance of Biedermeier furniture led to a less formal arrangement of rooms as a whole. Flowers, screens, worktables and knickknacks of all sorts helped to give a sense of family life. The bourgeoisie began to form a personal style, thus creating what’s now known as interior design.

People arranged suites of furniture in the corners, creating areas for eating, chatting,  reading, and doing embroidery. Each had a sofa, table and chairs—the most numerous items created in the Biedermeier style.

Prior to 1830, Viennese cabinetmakers began using mahogany in their furniture, gradually replacing walnut. They gave their finished pieces a light finish, often applying matching stains and finishes to pieces made in walnut, pear wood, and Hungarian "watered" ash.

Cabinetmakers used boards to construct their pieces, which meant that they designed furniture to be seen from the front and executed its ornamentation, such as relief pillars, pilasters, and caryatids, with this in mind.

And by 1830 Viennese craftsmen no longer relied upon French, German, and Italian designers for inspiration. Instead, they used native products, creating pieces based on Directoire and Empire designs, showing a good understanding of form, balance and the use of ornament in gilded bronze.

Viennese cabinetmakers used mostly veneers over a soft wood frame. Inlay served as the main decorative element, featuring the patterned graining of walnut and often reduced to a light-colored border. Sometimes, craftsmen used black poplar or bird's eye maple and colored woods such as cherry and pear also became popular.

Biedermeier furniture makers used gold and black paint to decorate their pieces. They constructed drawers and their housings so perfect and fitted that, even today, when someone pulls out a larger drawer and returns it, the other drawers in the same bank are propelled forward by the force of air created. They also dovetailed, molded and finished drawer linings, making intervening partitions flush on top and paneled beneath.

Cabinetmakers also employed less expensive stamped brass wreaths and festoons rather than bronze for decorative effect and gilded wooden stars instead of the elaborate metal ornaments of the Empire style. Sometimes, they chose cheaper, new materials such as pressed paper.

No previous period produced such a wealth of different types of seating, with a myriad of variations on the basic scheme of four legs, a seat, and a back. From 1815 to 1835, Biedermeier craftsmen discovered that a chair could be given literally hundreds of different shapes. Upholsterers padded their creations with horse-hair and covered them with brightly colored velvet and calico. Pleated fabrics covered furniture, walls, ceilings, and alcoves.

By the 1840s the Biedermeier style became romanticized—straight lines became curved and serpentine; simple surfaces became more and more embellished beyond the natural materials; humanistic form became more fantastic; and textures became experimental.

An identifying feature of Biedermeier furniture is its extremely restrained geometric appearance. Some furniture took on new roles; for example, a table became the family table, around which chairs were set for evening activities. Or table tops could be placed against the wall in a vertical position. A portable piano had a drawer for sewing things, while the upper drawer of a chest of drawers might be converted into a writing desk.

Next to the secretary, the sofa was one of the most popular of Biedermeier pieces. Rectangular, with a high back and sides, sofas looked deceptively hard. In fact, their depth and solidity made them very comfortable.

Armchairs, too, became more comfortable as changing fashions permitted men to sit back and take their ease.

Secretaries were popular as more people wrote letters. While designs varied, most featured a central niche, a mirror, and secret drawers. Cabinetmakers also produced veneered cupboards, vitrines, and wardrobes. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Return to Toyland" in the 2024 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Choo Choo Chugging Around the Christmas Tree

 

QUESTION: Every Christmas since I can remember, our family has got out an old tine train set that belonged to my grandfather and set it up under the Christmas tree. It still runs and is in good condition. All we know is that the set was made by a German company named Märklin. What can you tell us about this company?

ANSWER: From the looks of your train, I’d say it dates from the 1920s or 1930s. At the time, these trains were more toys than authentic models. Their design reflects the boxy look of European trains rather than the sleeker, simpler lines of American ones.

As the 1930s dawned, the Great Depression forced millions of people out of work. Owning an electric toy train was the ultimate. Kids even loved observing the trains displayed in department store windows. What could be more rewarding to a young boy than to receive a model train for Christmas? But these little trains were expensive so were out of reach of many families. 

Manufacturers lovingly handcrafted the earliest toy trains, made prior to 1850, of shining brass to run on the bare floor. But by the late 1830's, a number of prosperous toy companies began producing toy trains.  Around 1856, George W. Brown, a Connecticut firm, produced the first self-propelled train made of iron and  coated with tin to prevent rust. A wind up clockwork motor drove the engine and carriages on plush Victorian carpets on straight or curved tracks.

In 1859, tin smith Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Märklin began producing doll house accessories made of lacquered tinplate. Although the Märklin Toy Company of Germany originally specialized in doll house accessories, It became known for its toy trains.

By the 1870's, the most popular trains were powered by steam. Utilizing alcohol or sometimes coal to propel. they duplicated the might and energy of their big, big brothers.

The tin toy makers in both Europe and the U.S. realized that profits could be made by selling toy trains to the masses and jumped on the toy model bandwagon. Early on, they set their sights on wealthier people by promoting their products’ snob appeal.

In 1891, Märklin began producing wind-up toy trains that ran on expandable sectional tracks and the following year created a sensation by making the first figure eight track layout. It also established a track gauge settings numbered from 0 to 4, which it presented that year at the Leipzig Toy Fair. These track gauges soon became international standards. Märklin began producing 0 gauge trains as early as 1895 and H0 scale in 1935. In 1972, the company rolled out diminutive Z scale trains, the smallest in the world in competition to  Arnold Rapido's introduction of N gauge.

Märklin’s owners noted that toy trains, like doll houses, offered the potential for future profits when, after the initial purchase, owners would expand by purchasing accessories for years to come. So, the company offered additional rolling stock and track with which to expand its boxed sets.

Electric trains became commercially successful by 1897 when the Cincinnati, Ohio, firm of Carlisle and Finch manufactured and sold a two-gauge unit for only three dollars, It also was the first to issue a model railway builder's instruction manual.

Many consider the years prior to World War I to be the "Golden Age" of quality model trains. As the war approached, manufacturers converted their factories to produce war monitions, rifles and replacement parts. The Depression that followed the war precluded many of these operators from coming back and many disappeared.

But Märklin continued producing toy trains until May 11, 2006 when Kingsbridge, a London venture capital company, took it over. The company filed for bankruptcy on February 4, 2009, but on February 5, 2010, after purchasing the rival LGB Company, announced it had returned to profitable state. Many consider Märklin's older trains highly collectible today.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Lady Luck" in the 2024 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Perfect Platter

QUESTION : For many American families, Thanksgiving has become a landmark holiday marking the beginning of the holiday season. It’s a time when family members begin planning the event as early as October. At the center of it all lay the traditional dinner, with its array of foods surrounding a plump brown roasted  turkey which sat on a grand platter, which had been handed down for generations. Can you tell me how these platters came to be, who made them, and why they became so popular?

ANSWER: Many families still use a large turkey platter. Though large but not very sophisticated, it often features a 22-inch pattern manufactured by Homer Laughlin. It’s got high sides and can hold a very large turkey, and by now it’s even got a few rim chips, but it’s part of the family.

The first turkey platters appeared in the early 1870s, when East Liverpool, Ohio, was the setting for the founding of several important American potteries due to the existence of raw materials such as clay, coal and natural gas. One of the largest and most successful, was the Homer Laughlin China Company, founded by brothers Homer and Shakespeare Laughlin in 1897. It went on to become one of the world's major producers of institutional china, including Fiesta ware. They based their holiday platters on several of their most popular dinnerware lines and decorated them with colorful printed transfers.

Thus, the same image often appeared on many of their turkey platters—a bird with its tail feathers fanned out fully, set against a rural farmyard background. The platters featured wide rims in Harlequin yellow and turquoise blue.

In the mid-1950s, a similar design appeared on Thanksgiving platters made by Taylor, Smith & Taylor, which the company sold to retailers to use as an advertising premium. 

In its "Historical America" series, Laughlin also produced an elaborate scene from 1621 called "The First Thanksgiving," transfer printed in rose pink and sold exclusively through F.W. Woolworth. The company also produced a similar "Bountiful Harvest" platter showing Pilgrims and Indians gathering and sharing food.

A somewhat scrawnier bird appears on platters and plates made by Southern Potteries Inc., a Tennessee firm formerly known as Clinchfield Potteries. It began in 1917 by producing commercial, semi-vitreous china tableware decorated with stock transfers. 

Its better-known trademark, Blue Ridge, debuted in 1932. By the late 1930s, it had switched from transfers to underglazed hand-painted decoration. Within 15 years, it had become the largest American producer of hand-painted china, with an annual production of 24 million pieces. Some of the firm’s top artists signed a limited number of special designs, and these are among the most coveted pieces for collectors. 

For example, there’s a wild turkey platter painted and signed by artist Mildred L. Broyles, depicting a standing, long-necked bird eyeing a bug, valued at over $2,000. Another, signed by Louise Gwinn called “Turkey Gobbler,” shows a bird in a woods and sells for over $1,750.

While Homer Laughlin and Southern Potteries dominated the market, there were several other companies, from California and elsewhere; that staked their own claims. Among these are platters produced by the Nelson McCoy Pottery Comapny of Roseville, Ohio, featuring a solid brown embossed relief of Tom Turkey, the Delano Studios of Long Island, featuring a soaring bird in flight, and the Hadley of Louisville platter, with its whimsical, schematic turkey in blue on vitrified stoneware.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Lady Luck" in the 2024 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

 

The Man of Tiles

 

QUESTION: Several years ago while browsing a semi-annual antique show in my are, I came across a beautiful ceramic tile. It wasn’t the kind you with which I might decorate the walls of my bathroom, but it was large and attractive, featuring.... The antiques dealer said it was by William De Morgan. I had never heard of him but purchased the tile anyway. Since then I’ve discovered a few other tiles by De Morgan which I purchased. Can you tell me about him and his work? I understand his work gained prominence at the turn of the 20th century.

ANSWER: William Frend De Morgan was a British potter and tile designer, as well as a   lifelong friend of William Morris, the founder of the Arts & Crafts Movement. He was born in  London, the son of the distinguished mathematician Augustus De Morgan and his highly educated wife Sophia Elizabeth Frend, both of whom supported his desire to become an artist. 

He entered the Royal Academy School at 20 but became disillusioned. He soon met Morris who introduced him to the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Soon De Morgan began experimenting with stained glass. In 1863, he tried his hand at pottery and by 1872 had decided to work only in ceramics.

He designed tiles, stained glass, and furniture for Morris & Company from 1863 to 1872. He based his tile designs on medieval ones, as well as Islamic patterns. This led him to experiment with innovative glazes and firing techniques. His most popular motifs were of fish and galleons, as well as "fantastical" birds and other animals. De Morgan designed many of his tiles to create intricate patterns when laid together.

In 1872, De Morgan set up his own pottery works in Cheyne Row in the Chelsea District of London where he stayed until 1881. It was there that he developed his 'red luster' tiles and vases decorated with rich majolica colors in what he called the Persian style, commonly known as Iznak. Iznak tiles were difficult to come by, but the more provincial Damascus tiles were readily available. However, De Morgan’s early efforts at making his own tiles were of varied technical quality. 

In his early years, De Morgan used blank commercial tiles. He obtained hard and durable biscuit tiles of red clay from the Patent Architectural Pottery Company in Poole. He also purchased dust-pressed tiles of white earthenware from Wedgwood, Minton, and other manufacturers but De Morgan believed these would not withstand frost. He continued to use blank commercial dust-pressed tiles which his workers decorated in red luster. 

But he developed a high-quality biscuit tile of his own, which he admired for its irregularities and better resistance to moisture. His inventive streak led him into complex studies of the chemistry of glazes, methods of firing, and pattern transfer.

De Morgan handpainted his first tiles on Dutch blanks using a pin-prick method. His workers transferred the outline to the tile by pricking the outline of the design through paper, then rubbed charcoal through the holes to mark the edges.

Eventually, De Morgan developed a paper transfer technique. Workers painted each tile design onto a thin piece of paper, often mounted on a glass frame to allow the light to shine through. They then painted the traced outline of the design from a master drawing placing the completed transfer onto the tile's top porcelain layer, then brushed the back with glaze. When fired, the paper burned away, and the remaining ash mixed with the glaze, appearing as tiny specks on the finished tile. The glazed reverse image fused with the tile.

De Morgan especially liked the look of Middle Eastern tiles. Between 1873 and 1874, he rediscovered the technique of lusterware found in Hispano-Moresque pottery and Italian maiolica. His interest in the Middle East tiles influenced his of design and color as well.

As early as 1875, he began to work in earnest with a "Persian" palette: dark blue, turquoise, manganese purple, green, Indian red, and lemon yellow, De Morgan’s study of the motifs of what he called "Persian" ware, today known as 15th and 16th-century Iznak ware, profoundly influenced his style, in which fantastic creatures entwined with rhythmic geometric motifs float under luminous glazes. Fan-shaped flowers and carnations, traditional Persian themes, that often decorated Perisan tiles made their way into De Morgan's designs. 

In 1882, De Morgan move his tileworks to Merton Abbey in south London, beside the Wandle River, where Morris had several large buildings. 

At Merton Abbey, De Morgan produced larger 8-inch and sometimes even 9-inch tiles, in addition to the 6-inch ones he had produced in Chelsea. Some tiles from this period were the green and red luster fantastic animals series. During this time, he developed high gloss glazes for which his tiles became famous. 

De Morgan moved his operation to Fulham in 1888. These tiles had deep backgrounds, with birds and animals, in turquoise and olive to emerald green colors. Also during this time, De Morgan spent his winters in Florence, Italy, for health reasons. He had his designs painted locally on paper, then sent the papers back to London where his workers placed the papers on the tiles, then glazed them, after which the paper burned away during  firing.

De Morgan left his business in the hands of the Passenger brothers and Frank Iles, who had been worked with him for 25 years. He went on to become a successful novelist.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Lady Luck" in the 2024 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Remembering the Fallen

 

QUESTION: Recently, I purchased an interesting medal and ribbon at an antique show that the dealer  told me was from the late 19th century. The medal, made of what seems to be white metal, hangs from a fairly well worn red, white, and blue silk ribbon and says G.A.R. 24th Encampment,  Boston, Massachusetts, 1890. Can you tell me anything about this? What was the G.A.R.?

ANSWER: You have a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Badge from one of the organization’s annual conventions, known as encampments. These encampments took place in different cities beginning in 1866 and ending in 1949. The First National Encampment convened in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 20, 1866 while the last or 83rd National Encampment took place in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 28, 1949. Sixteen members attended.

Dr. B.F. Stephenson founded the GAR in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, to advocate and care for Union Civil War veterans, widows and orphans. Brothers, fathers and sons had marched off from towns and cities in July 1861, proud, excited, and dedicated—most without a clue as to what they were getting themselves into. Over one million of them died—more than in all the other wars the U.S. engaged in up to that time. And those who did return were often maimed for life.

The GAR was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army, US Navy, Marines and Revenue Cutter Service who served in the Civil War. Linking men through their experience of the war, the GAR became one of the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, lobbying the US Congress to establish veterans' pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. It dissolved in 1956 when its last member died.

Veterans had developed a unique bond during the Civil War that they wished to maintain, a trusting companionship and a sentimental connection they kept by joining veterans' organizations. At the end of the Civil War the individual was inconsequential, and the U.S. Congress needed some prodding to enact legislation to take care of veterans. These veterans' groups were instrumental in getting appropriate legislation passed.

Though many veterans groups organized after the Civil War, the GAR became the most powerful. By 1890, it had 490,000 active members. Five U.S. presidents came from its ranks as well as many senators and representatives. At one time, no doubt due to the political pressure of GAR constituents, one-fifth of the national budget went to soldiers pensions. The GAR founded soldiers' homes for the permanently disabled and was active in relief work.

According to chroniclers of the 24th National Encampment in Boston, in 1890—from which this badge originated—the GAR had, by then, established orphans homes in seven states, preserved Gettysburg as a national battleground and given more than $2 million in charity to veterans and their families whether or not they were members of the GAR. For a time, it was impossible to be nominated on the Republican ticket without the endorsement of the GAR.

Civil War veterans controlled a lot in this country and had a strong political voice. Among other things, they used their political influence to see that Congress adopted May 30 as Memorial Day.

To honor the deceased, veterans would decorate graves of their fallen comrades with flowers, flags and wreaths, so people referred to it as Decoration Day. Although Memorial Day became its official title in the 1880s, the holiday didn’t legally become Memorial Day until 1967. In 1977, Congress moved Memorial Day to the last Monday of May to conform with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. In December 2000, Congress passed a law requiring Americans to pause at 3 P.M. local time on Memorial Day to remember and honor the fallen.

The tradition of having picnics on Memorial Day actually began on May 1, 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina. The Confederates had used the horseracing course there as a Union prisoner-of-war prison. When the war ended and the Confederates evacuated the grounds, a large group of former slaves re-interred the Union soldiers’ bodies who had died there and erected a white fence with a large arched gate, above which they mounted a sign, “Martyrs of the Racecourse.” When they finished, they broke up and moved to the infield to hold picnics. And thus began this national tradition.

Delegate badges from the GAR’s National Encampments have long been a collectible. First created after the 1883 encampment in Denver, Colorado, and handed out annually until the last Encampment in 1949 in Indianapolis—except in 1884 when there wasn’t any badge—these “ribbons of honor” were created and furnished by the city that hosted the event. They reflected the city itself, including local history and state symbols as well as an image of the current Commander-in-chief.

Badges came in several varieties. There were the official ones, commissioned by the host city and given to all delegates, past delegates and members of allied organizations, such as the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Women's Relief Corps and the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, as well as later, the Daughters of Union Veterans, and there were the semiofficial staff badges and souvenir badges. There were also testimonial badges, given to past Post officers at the end of their service period. These had horizontal rank straps with one or more stars on them and were often made of 14 or 18K gold and studded with diamonds.

In addition to the National Encampment badges, there were two-sided Post badges, with one side red, white and blue and the other in black with the words "In Memoriam," to be used when a member died. There were other unique Post badges as well, including those with a detachable metal top piece from which hung a large metal star or disk. And since Posts ordered new ones every few years, there are many variations in badges from each Post. Veterans wore Post badges to funerals, Memorial Day programs, and Fourth of July parades, among other events.

Some collectors specialize just in Department or state badges. Each state incorporated its flower, animal, or symbol into its badge design. So the Massachusetts badge featured a pot of beans, New Hampshire had a piece of granite on it, and Ohio badges had a picture of a buckeye. Each Department also had special delegate badges arid ribbons. The colors of ribbons, usually made from silk, varied, also. Department badges had red ribbons, Post badges had blue ribbons; and National badges always had a yellow/buff ribbon.

The Stevens Company of England produced the finest GAR ribbon badges, often referred to as Stevensgraphs. These portrait silks have extremely fine detail. Other companies, such as the B.B. Tilt Co.,. the United States Badge Co. and the Son of Paterson (N.J.) all made badges, but these aren’t as easily identified or as finely made.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Lady Luck" in the 2024 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.