The Antique Victorian Furniture Blog

Have a look at this article from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, about a Victorian chair designed by Christopher Dresser.

The article explains that the chair represents a good example of the changes that took place in the latter half of the 19th century. Interestingly, advocates of the “modern” design considered previous designs, with their excessive, deeply carved decoration not only hard to clean but downright immoral! You can see in the photo of this chair the simple, shallow incisings that characterized much of the furniture of the later Victorian era.

Another intriguing aspect of this short article is its discussion of the friction between Dresser and his famous contemporary Charles Eastlake. Perhaps you didn’t know this, but Dresser called Eastlake “the apostle of ugliness” even though the two of them agreed on many principles. They both disdained heavily carved ornamentation and both stressed functionality.

Evidently though, Dresser was even more interested in functionality than Eastlake, or at least perceived himself that way. He declared that a well-designed chair permitted its user to sit with confidence, unlike those of contemporary designers, including Eastlake himself.

Note the Egyptian and botanical influences in the design of this particular chair. Click here for the article.

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