Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1894 — FADS IN FURNITURE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FADS IN FURNITURE.

CHICAGO’S FACILITIES FOR THE EQUIPMENT OF HOME. Aa Antiquarian’s “Finds” in the Old Crescent City—Antique and Artistic Furnishings that Were Imported in the Luxurious South “Befo’ the War.” 0 O ' Things Oaa4nt and Cartons. The art of the Renaissance made a great change in architecture and the change was soon exemplified in furniture. Italy, under the Medicis, began, in fact, to refurnish the world. But restless fashion, which changes with the seasons, accepts no

permanent criterion even when it comes to elegance and comfort. Thus the beauty of form and perfection of detail noticeable in the furniture of the sixteenth century retrograded in the seventeenth all over Europe, when the framework grew heavy and the carving coarse

tnd gross. There was a revival of artistic industries in France under the first empire, when it returned to stiff classicalism. Fortunately the current tendency is to reproduce the elegant, graceful styles of Louis XYL Returning to a practical phase as It concerns us to-day. if one cares to know the largest furniture-making center on earth, it is well worth noting that Grand Rapids, Mich., is entitled to that honor; as for the largest exclusive furniture store in the world it is in the city of Chicago. Chicago, however, is so new that one never thinks of it as a repository for antiques, particularly as it pertains to furniture, yet in the flotsam and jetsam of the auction rooms one occasionally finds a.bit of curious furniture amid the cheap and tawdry assortment and general dilapidation. The expert searcher for the quaint, the curious, and the artistic unique is ever making fife way about quiet streets, studiously avoiding the thoroughfares where the spirit of trade throbs restlessly from dawn till dark; where the great windows dazzle with creations to captivate the eye of fashion; where the rush and roar of the great city jars upon the soul. With him the yesterdays and their associations possess a more potent appeal than their fevered speculations in the hopes and fears of the morrow. Passing down Hush street, at the southeast corner of Chicago avenue may be observed a home whose windows are filled with a medley of quaint ceramics, rare bronze candelabra, rusty old flintlocks that look as though they had been gathered by some cyclone collector, and left suspended like Mahomet’s coffin to amftze the passer-by. About the front door is a tangled fence of andirons and brass fenders, a big bronze lamp that looks old enough to have come from Pompeii, and a crazy-looking table that mischievous boys in the neighborhood occasionally loosen from its moorings and skate down the sidewalk. The sign on the outer wall states that this is the domicile of John F. Gepke, dealer in curiosities of a'l descriptions. The first curiosity you meet when you pass the nortal is Gepke himself. He has a shop-worn appearance in sympathy with the surroundings; affable and loquacious, with the politeness of a Frenchman and the shrewdness of a German, he appears to be absolutely guileless. But he was not born yesterday, as one soon learns when Gepke begins to discourse business or describe his ob jects de vertu. Scattefed about his room, in what might be termed artistic confusion, are carved chairs, highly ornamented tables, long graceful couches, an

vL fti **£ *’ { enormous bed whose carved posts reach the ceiling, quaint docks that have ticked for: a fcund re<fc yea rs, odd bits of china omate with arms and aristocratic tarnished candelabra, roity swords richly carved hilts, gihiss decanters, champagne glasses ahjd .furious ceramics. The whole atmosphere appears to be surcharged wJUi ,must, mellowness and antiquity! ? A thousand and one romances are associated with these objects, whiob in their titae have played an active part in the old palaces and plantations of the wealthy Southern people, ;, wßfo brought into their homds the best that Europe could furnish. ' Gepke, who is a cabinetmaker and a recent arrival in,'Chicago, ten years ago settled in New Orleans The result of the Exposition in that city inspired a fad for old furniture which he took as opportunity not to be slighted. All the money hq could rake and scrape together he promptly invested in old furnitare and the apparently dead surplus oflthe auction rooms. Then he began to carefully and systematically search in the poorer quarters pf the solid and indestructible furniture of the ante-war period had found lodging. He traveled far and near, visited old plantations, nja<?ri note of every sale and secured adl the souvenirs of artistle vahae that could be prccuied for a, spngl' Much of the furniture was in a very dilapidated condition, anmleas chairs, trembling tables, mirrorless "sideboards, crazy, curious old beds, battered, rusty and blistered through carelessness or by disuse, made a strange arid weird collection, but the buyer’s Judgment was vindicated , When it came to artistic repairing and renewing. Every bit of wood that he; secured was solid Santa Domingo mahogany. or hard oak richly veneered with mahogany. All of this furniture had been Imported from France to New Orleans long before the war, when the South was In its halycon day of,'prosperity and its artistic taste demanded the best of foreign Importations. During the troubled war times, and after the settled period of peace, modern ideas made encroachments, and the old furniture of the fathers was gradually abandoned in favor of the newer and more fashionable patterns. Much of it, considered merely as old lumber, was stored in garrets or given away to colored servants as useless, cumbersome, and antiquated.

There are miny l ' homes happily in New Orleans that were able, through great' dtrCss of trying circumstances, to • retain their rich quaint furnishings; but enough of it had gone adrift to "furnish employment to the wide-awake cabinetmakers and supply the people from the North who love the ; substantial and old-fashioned articles, massive but beautiful in {.their proportions, despite rough usage and tlie change of fashion. Gepke states that at one time he had over JGo four-pest carved beds. There is n'‘w in his shop a massive carved four-poster that General Lafayette occupied during his stay in New Orleans in On a card-table near by is an as-, tronomlcal clock, graceful in its proportions and Jnits working. It shows theTnovements of the sun, earth and moon, the circle of the zodiac, indicates kite fcidhth, day and hour, and rings tunes on the large, concealed musio-box in its base every half-hour. It was found in a garret of the house of Governor Komero, in St James parish. The sword of Gendfal St Clair bangs near by, and people interested in firearms will find the most curious example of the primitive repeating rifle. There are many other rare and curious objects to be found scattered

about this room that have more or less historical value. The will, howeverp'CoinmaDd quite as much attention, for it is woqdjerful to see what beauty can be brought from the pisi& {that look tyriy and unpromising enough before tne band

of the repairer begins to work the restoration. Much of the wood is 200 years old and over. When the repairer begins his work of resuscitation be goes carefullyfover the wood with a sharp steel scraper, removing all the varnish, stains of time' and scratches that deface the rich carving (for almost everj piece is orna-

mented). It is then sand-papered and filled. Broken bits of carving are replaced with old mahogany, carefully shaped to comply with the original design. After this it is polished and varnished, retaining the rich dark hue of age, and is quite good and sound for service as it was a century ago. The veneered mahogany in panel work is very rich, and even the solid carving takes a polish and looks exceedingly well, and is singularly free from the semblance of newness that appears In more highly polished and modern furniture. The long old sideboards have been very popular, particularly those with side curved panels, carved pillars and heavily carved top pieces. It is also stated that four-post beds have been ■very salable, as some of these weigh upward of 200 pounds, have posts from seven to eleven feet high, heavily carved, and are crowned with canopies. Old chairs are always in demand and they are now quite difficult to obtain. The greatest call is for tables. These are seen in great variety and are considered highly desirable, as the legs and bases are usually broad and free in their decorative treatment and are handsome centerpieces for modern furnished apartments. Bureaus, desks with the fascinating nest of concealed drawers, and carved front washstands are apparently popular as individual pieces. Many romances might be spun about these curious old pieces that once ornamented the chambers and drawing-rooms of the Southern nobility. Famous men and women, distinguished foreign visitors, and reigning beauties of the day have in times past lolled at ease in these chairs, reclined gracefully on these couches, long ago. Then through a long season of disuse the eld furniture lay in darkened garrets, when the troubled tides of war swept back and forth over the South, and again is it, by some natural or unnatural retrogradation, passed into the hands of the former slaves, and dusky dames 101 l lazily where their aristocratic mistresses once took their siestas. They tell sad stories of the “pinch of poverty” of the once wealthy owners, who tried to save them for their associations and have been compelled reluctantly to part with them for the bare necessities of life. And now they all are reclaimed again, revivified befitting their sphere as artistic luxuries, unique exemplification of the “survival of the fittest.” Charles E. Nison.

A HARPISCHORD.

IN ONE OF GEPKE’S ROOM.

AM OLD-TIME TABLE.

DETAILS OF DECORATION.