~Regency Wednesday~ Fashionable Chairs in 1817

It's been a while since I posted and since much of my day is spent sitting, here is a look at some chair fashion for 1817. Enjoy! 

FASHIONABLE FURNITURE.

PLATE 14.—FASHIONABLE CHAIRS.

THE annexed plate represents chairs from the repository of Mr. G. Bullock, and they are designed for apartments of three different modes of building: the centre chair is intended for a Grecian library, that to the right of it for a suite of rooms in the Gothic style, and that on left for a book-room in a mansion built in the seventeenth century. Although the forms are good, and well adapted to the purpose for which they are designed, yet the materials with which they are composed, and the excellence of their workmanship, give an importance and value to them, that is not to be exhibited by a graphical representation.*

*Clipped from Ackermann's Repository, Aug 1817, p. 183. Get the Google e-book HERE. 

♥Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!♥

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~Regency Wednesday~ 1819 Window Draperies

How's this for a special treat? While perusing Ackermann's Repository (Dec 1819) I stumbled across this charming plate for Regency window draperies.

FASHIONABLE FURNITURE.

PLATE 35.—THREE DESIGNS FOR WINDOW-CURTAINS.

  AN ingenious artist will communicate to the commonest theme an inexhaustible variety of design: in doing this he must, however, give liberty to his ideas, which, if well instructed in the first instance, will never take their flight beyond the limits prescribed by fitness and true taste. The imagination so controuled is properly distinguished from fancy, which wantonly oversteps all limitations, and trespasses alike on the most sacred and on the profanest grounds of theory and practice; and hence the distinction between the works of an artist and of an amateur, as well in the higher departments of art, as in that of mere upholstery.

  The annexed subject presents features of perfect novelty, without a departure from its guiding principles. The centre draperies, in two colours, are composed for a Venetian or Palladian window: they are supported by a bow-like ornament, and by pilasters, to which the curtains are connected; the sub-curtains are also festooned by the bow, and guarded by a lateral transom, that passes from pilaster to pilaster. 

  The designs on the right and left are light and elegant: they should be composed of silk, and the sub-curtains of transparent materials richly embroidered: so executed, the delicacy of their combinations makes them suitable to a cabinet or boudoir. 

  For these designs we are indebted to Mr. Stafford of Bath.

*Image and description clipped from Ackermann's Repository, Dec 1819, p. 365. Typed description is taken verbatim from the above magazine clipping. 

♥Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!♥

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~Regency Wednesday~ Library Fashion, 1814

Clothing wasn't the only fashion important to Regency Society. For this week's post you'll find a fashionable set of furniture for the discerning Regency lady or gentleman's library. Personally, I wouldn't mind having this myself. ♥ 

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PLATE 6.—FASHIONABLE FURNITURE. 

THE chaste and elegant library table represented in the annexed engraving, is of a convenient form and moderate size, and is suited to an apartment of small dimensions: at the same time it exhibits that breadth of parts and greatness of design, which characterize most articles of modern furniture, and give a dignity heretofore unknown. The recess beneath renders it also extremely commodious for a writing-table, which was not the case with library tables formerly constructed. The chair is designed with equal attention to elegance and convenience, and made to correspond. They may both be formed of mahogany, with rings and ornaments of bronze; the shelves of the table will divide, so as to admit either a row of folios and octavos, or two rows of quartos. 

*Image and text clipped from Ackermann's Repository, 1814, p. 54. Full eBook can be found HERE.

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I had to look up the last few words in this description. I had no idea what they meant by folios, octavos, or quartos, though I did assume it had something to do with size since they mentioned them while discussing how many would fit. Simply: big books, medium books, and small books. lol

I imagine this is the type of table my heroine from Temptation would use as she pens her books. Something to consider... 

♥Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!♥

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~Regency Wednesday~ Kitchen Range

One doesn't think much about kitchens in Regency novels. It's rare that the kitchen features greatly, since most Regencies tend to focus on the upper floors of the grand residence and those who live there. 

In my research for a new WIP, I'm looking into the Regency kitchen, and for the purposes of this blog post, specifically the kitchen range. I've yet to find a picture of this invention, but I've attached a clip below of a description of this appliance, taken from The Ladies' Monthly Museum, Volume 11, page 226 (1820). (Funny thing, in one of my many research forays, I've seen the plate described here. Now, when I need it, I can't find it. Typical.)* 

And just for fun, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word range, in reference to a cooking stove, has been used since the mid-15c.

*Edited July 17 to add (taken from Monthly magazine and British register, Volume 46):

~Regency Wednesday~ 1815 Window Dressing

My upcoming release, Honor (click HERE* for more info on that), starts in the latter part of 1815. Here is a plate from the January 1815 edition of Ackermann's Repository, and the accompanying explanation/description.

Plate 2. FASHIONABLE FURNITURE. 

Library Window Curtain. 

It is a common defect in building, attributable to the tax upon windows, that a sufficient number of them are not introduced for the purposes of cheerfulness; and there are many rooms lighted by so few, and the dimensions of them so small, that not only an insufficient supply of light is admitted, but the windows are too narrow, and their dressings too circumscribed to form proportions suited to the apartments. The annexed plate represents a window of this kind, with the added architectural finishings, by which it is so increased as to have the proportion of a Palladian or Venetian one, and a design for a curtain suitable to it is introduced in a style adapted to a library or eating-room. It is a design very applicable to some rooms which have but one window in each.** 

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**Taken verbatim from Ackermann's Repository, January 1815, page 55.