Change of Pace: Discussion on Postwar Suburbs in America

Have you ever really thought about where you live and how it came to be? 

At a panel discussion (3.28.2011) entitled “History and Fate of the Postwar American Suburb” at the UW-Madison, WI, I got a new perspective on how a sense of place-and history -is so important to our perception of home.

Presenting the panel:

L-R, Arnold R. Alanen, Brad Murphy. Dianne Harris, Daina Penkiunas, Brad Murphy, Anna Andrzejewski

Moderator Anna Andrzejewski opened the discourse by posing several questions:

Anna Vemer Andrzejewski

As postwar suburbs become historical sites, both preservationists and city planners alike are asking:

What do we preserve?

How can we accommodate commercial development within these areas? 

How do we study these places and finally…

How do we live in them? 

Arnold R. Alanen provided the background.  

Arnold R. Alanen

Citing the popular movie Revolutionary Road in which Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio play a young couple struggling with the everyday monotony of suburban life, the movie’s inspiration was John Keats 1957 novel, The Crack in the Picture Window.  Per Alanen, “the ethos of over conformity at any price” was sweeping the country at this time.

While conformity was the name of the game, a great deal of anti-suburban sentiment existed.  Yet suburbs provided things that every American sought; an affordable home in a safe family centered neighborhood. The Levittowns of Long Island, New Jersey and Bucks County naturally played into the discussion.    

Early in the forum it occurred to me that race would become part of our dialogue. And it did as our central guest speaker Dianne Harris brought to the fore that these ordinary post war houses represented our race, class and identity. 

Dianne Harris

In fact the first studies of the Bucks County based Levittown were about the race riot that occurred as Daisy and Bill Meyers, the first African Americans residents moved in on August 20, 1957. The couple remained for five years but moved when Bill’s job was transferred to another area.

Levittown, PA - courtesy Wikipedia

Andrzejewski mentioned how her own experience of living in a suburb clashed with her preconceived notion. The private neighborhood chosen by her family allowed  little privacy as the prized suburban feature the picture window afforded her neighbors an unlimited view into their everyday life.

To wrap things up the question of “Where are we at this moment?” was posed. It was  mentioned that changes in individual perception of place, culture and history cannot be mandated.  However, it was more or less agreed that the past model has already been broken and the nuclear family changed with it. Just as additions to houses change the appearance from the original plans, contemporary families are made of different societal expectations which will help foster a more vibrant and diverse suburban life. 

 ...this panel helped all of us think about where we live, and why we live there:
 
--Dianne Harris, Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Art History, and History; Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
--Arnold R. Alanen, Professor Emeritus, Department of Landscape Architecture
--Anna Vemer Andrzejewski, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Program
--Kurt Paulsen, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
--Brad Murphy, Director, Planning Division, City of Madison
--Daina Penkiunas, National Register Coordinator, Division of Historic Preservation, Wisconsin Historical Society
 --Thanks also to Preeti Chopra for arranging  Dianne Harris' visit.


Hope you are sitting pretty wherever you live!

Theresa

Yummy Furniture and Design

theresamhs@sbcglobal.net

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About American Rococo

What's not to love about Rococo?

Today scholars call the colonial American adaptation of Chippendale inspired furniture Rococo, after the French Rococo made in the early to mid 18th century.  This French style was a great source of inspiration for all of Europe. (4) The American adaptation occurred in America later that century; from approximately 1750-1790 (5) and the term rococo was adapted in the 19^th century. (6) 

The English furniture industry drew much inspiration from this French style during its golden age.  So it is only natural that the French influence is illustrated in plates 19 through 23 in the Director where Chippendale named the illustrations “French Chairs”. (7) 

Plate XX in TG&CMD

The Rococo style incorporates foliate (plant-like) and nature based forms carved into the furniture. While not obvious on these two chairs, the balance is always asymmetric. So I've added an image of an 18th century mirror, or "glass" where the effect is more easily seen.

In the chairs frames notice the “S” shape of the front legs of both French Chairs chair in plate XX. (Fig 4)  Then compare them to the photo titled "Chippendale style ribbon back armchair" in my first blog post and find that the shape of the front legs of both chairs is very similar. These legs are called cabriole and the curve an “S” curve.  Simple!

Other influences of Chippendale style are medieval Gothic and Chinese architecture and furniture.(8) Examples of these styles are found in TG&CMD on plates CVI for Gothic and CXXXII-CXXXVII for Chinese.  These influences play a smaller part in the American rococo style.   

The blog chair’s main stylistic influence is the French rococo, one of my yummy favorites! 

Hope your chairs "Roc", 
Theresa
Yummy Furniture and Design
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Footnotes

4. Payne, Christopher, Sotheby’s Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture, Harper & Row, New York. 59

5. Kirk, John T. American Furniture, Henry N. Abrams, Inc. New York.  7

6. Payne, Christopher, Sotheby’s Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture, Harper & Row, New York. 59

7. Chippendale, Thomas, The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director, Dover Publications, New York, Reprint 3^rd Edition. Plate XX                                                    

8. Payne, Christopher, Sotheby’s Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture, Harper & Row, New York. 78

A Man of Yummy Inspiration

We will determine if the ribbon back chair is an original 18th century Chippendale style chair made using a plate from Chippendale’s book, The Gentleman & Cabinet Maker’s Director as its guide; or if it is instead a fake or reproduction produced in a subsequent era. 

Unabridged -1966 Dover republication-Third Edition 

 

An introduction to Thomas Chippendale and the furniture he made is next, but first let’s clarify “fake” furniture:

Simply put, furniture made in the time period original to a style’s first appearance is considered a true period piece.  That which is made after the period no matter how exactingly it is produced is then called a reproduction.  If the reproduced furniture is acknowledged to be a reproduction, that’s okay.  ...But if a person attempts to pass a reproduction as an original, then the item is a fake!

Now about Thomas; Mr. Chippendale (1718-1779) (1)was a cabinetmaker who produced furniture for a wide variety of clients in 18th century England. His style became famous and subsequently synonymous with the golden age of English furniture (1740 -1780) (2) even though he was but one manufacturer in a thriving industry of proficient cabinetmakers making comparably styled and equally executed furnishings. 
Chippendale and his widow published his book illustrating the furniture he made and the styles contemporary to his time. His pattern book, The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director was widely dispensed throughout Europe and the American colonies.  Cabinetmakers used the Director as a catalog to sell the items pictured to their clients.  At that time most furniture was commissioned rather than pre-made and sold at a store.(3)

(www.findagrave.com)

Chippendale outside the old Prince Henry's Grammar School in Manor Square, 

in his home town of Otley, near Leeds, Yorkshire

In short Chippendale's name became synonymous with this period of furniture because he published his design book. Little is known about Thomas Chippendale aside from the legacy of his work. His Director remains a seminal design text.

  
Theresa
Yummy Furniture and Design
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Footnotes 

1. Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director (Dover Publications, New York, Reprint 3rd Edition 1966) Back cover

2. John Kenworthy-Browne, Chippendale and his Contemporaries, London, (Orbis Publishing 1973) 3

3. Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, The 1772 Philadelphia Furniture Price Book, An Introduction and Guide, (Dept of Publishing, Philadelphia Museum of Art 2005) 17.
Kirtley explains that the name Cadwaleter (sic) and a brief description of a firescreen and frame was discovered on the inside front cover of the Price Book.  The Cadwaladers were known to have commissioned numerous pieces of furniture in Philadelphia in the 18th C. 
Joh T. Kirk, American Furniture, Understanding Styles, Construction and Quality, New York. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 115. Kirk explains that 18th c furniture buyers chose the different features to be incorporated into items they were purchasing. Thus the items were made to order.

Sitting Pretty...

The objective of this blog is to present information on period seating furniture in a format that is understandable and enjoyable to both scholars and non-scholars alike.

In short, to make furniture yummy for everyone, everywhere.

Weekly posts will be published on Monday and Tuesday, for now.

We will analyze the manufacturing, stylistic, material and other properties of the objects.  Through this process the objects will be dated to the period in which they were crafted.

It is often through the examination of the manufacturing techniques that we determine the origins of furniture.  Some objects have a mark to help in their identification.  Ceramicists may leave a stamped or written symbol; artists will sign their name.  Some furniture may be stamped and others may have a label, but through experience I have found that most bear no witness to the hands that made them.  Labels were removed by those who worked on them over the years or simply fell off. So, we must often look to manufacturing techniques for clues. 

Analyzing stylistic aspects are also important in period identification as we are not always at liberty to dissect the furniture we find.

The first piece is a Chippendale style ribbon back arm chair discovered in the Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin antiques shop Five Star Antiques. (Shown below.)

 Chippendale style ribbon back armchair

SHS photo

Some topics coming up:

• One from my home chosen for appraisal on Antiques Roadshow  - an early 19th century Empire sofa that was converted into a chair. (Can you imagine that?) 
• And an early 20th century Arts and Crafts chair found in a northern Minnesota cabin.  
• Yet another is a Victorian armchair that defies categorization into any one of the three prevalent styles of that period.  

Keep in mind, if it has four legs and a seat, it may not walk-but it might talk! 

Hope you're sitting pretty, 
Theresa
Yummy Furniture and Design
theresamhs@sbcglobal.net
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