THE PARLOR AND DRAWING ROOM, CIRCA 1880

"The comedy was that so many of these rooms were alike"...A.E.Richardson

Who can not recall the huge, towering bouquets of dried grasses in gaudy china vases on the mantel; the numerous family photographs on the walls, in a bleak margin of ghastly white, enlivened, perhaps, by a coarse chromo given as a premium by the vapid periodical that is piled up in back numbers on the table ; the ugly horsehair or brocatelle sofa; the tapestry carpet, combining all the colors of the rainbow ; the showy curtains of coarse lace ; the "fairy basket," filled with artificial flowers, suspended somewhere ; the hideous plaster busts of popular men ?
The entrance hall of such a house is usually furnished with oilcloth and a map of the United States; the best bedroom has a "cottage set," fearful with highly colored flowers and gilding, and the other bedrooms have whatever they can get. Crocheted mats and tidies, of all sizes, shapes, and denominations, overrun everything, like weeds ; and it is quite possible that such works of art as cone frames and wax flowers under glass are added to the other things that should not be. In all this melange there will probably not be a single growing thing, nor a bit of the woods near by, to give a touch of nature.
From, How to Furnish a Home by Ella Rodman Church, 1882

But here I must protest against fluffy wool mats scattered about the tables, antimacassars of lace, worsted, or other work hung loosely over the backs of the chairs and sofas, velvet-covered brackets, with useless fringe fixed on with brass-headed nails, on which too often are placed trumpery bits of Dresden or other china, in the shape of dogs, cats, or birds. The wool mats and velvet-covered brackets are nothing but traps for dirt and dust, while the loose antimacassars are an endless source of untidiness and annoyance.
From, Decoration & Furniture of Town Houses by Robert W. Eddis, 1880

Church and Eddis were two highly regarded decorationg authorities of their age, Mrs.Church being American, Mr. Eddis, English. Decorating advice from both countries is interchangeable. One finds the same “ do’s and don’t’s” on both sides of the Atlantic.
Most of this article is repeated from their books as they were written. Again, you’ll see that in some cases woodwork was painted in others, not.
On the question of a chair rail or dado in the drawing room, it was felt by some, generally, that the drawing room should not sport a dado. Cabinets, bookshelves and other unequally sized furnishings would look better against a wall decorated as a single unit rather than against one cut in two by the dividing dado. A frieze, however, would be good addition. Of course, the dado or no dado ruling depended in the size and proportions of the room in question.

1882 parlor mantle



One drawing-room in a large house was described this way, ….“a rich and effective treatment of the wall would be with a low panelled dado of dark black, with a delicate inlaying of ivory-toned ornament, the doors and general woodwork being painted to match, the general wall surface painted bright warm-coloured golden yellow, and powdered all over with a flower pattern or diaper of a darker tone of golden brown, the frieze being coloured in a delicate vellum or ivory tone, with arabesque or figure decoration in black, the cornice treated with delicate shades of brown and green, and the ceiling slightly tinted to match the frieze”. It should also be noted that when black was used, it was often advised that it be a matte finish, not a glossy one.

More descriptions of drawing rooms from this 1880 period follow, from Mr. Eddis’ book.

I saw lately a drawing-room of a newly built so-called Queen Anne house, in which the whole of the lower portion of the walls was covered with a good golden yellow pattern paper, the woodwork painted a vellum or cream-coloured white and varnished, and the frieze formed m decorative plaster-work in very slight relief, like Adam's work; the ceiling formed after similar designs, and all slightly tinted like Wedgwood ware. The general appearance was bright and cheerful, and the low tone of colour throughout formed an excellent contrast to the Persian rugs, marquetry furniture, blue and white china, and other decorative objects in the room.

Drawing-room, about 28 ft. by 18 ft, .and 14 ft. high.Adam's ceiling, in low relief, tinted in ' Wedgwood ' colouring ; the cornice relieved in somewhat stronger tones ; the walls hung with ' brocade' paper of pale Indian blue, divided by pilasters of'Adam's' arabesques, painted in quiet tones of brown, warm greens, and russets, with carved medallions in each. Dado and woodwork of quiet cream tint, with line ornaments in drab and gold.

Drawing-room, 30 ft. by 18 ft., and 13 ft. 6 in. high.The plain ceiling was divided into three, and ornamented with plaster enrichment in low relief, very lightly tinted, and slightly relieved by gilding, cornice picked out to harmonise with the walls. The walls hung with crimson ground ' brocade' paper, with a pattern in very dull white and gold ; the dado and woodwork black and gold, with margins of rich maroon, next the gilt mouldings of the panels.

Small drawing-room or boudoir, 12 ft. high. Flat ceiling, panelled out with a painting about 8 ft. by 4 ft. in centre, with low relief ornament outside this. The whole room panelled 9 ft high, with pale wainscot oak; the space above this hung with embossed
leather paper, with pattern in gold, and colours of a light dull green tone. Curtains, silk and wool tapestry. Floor, oak, rather darker than walls, with Oriental carpets. Furniture, dark mahogany; the coverings varied to some extent. A few water-colours hung on the oak panelling; chimney-piece carried up in light oak, with arrangement for bronzes, statuettes in side niches, and spaces for china.

Another decorative treatment of a small drawing or music-room would be by panelling the lower portion of the walls with a deal dado, delicately painted in yellowish pink or blue, and covering the general wall surface with a golden-toned paper, arranged in panels to suit the proportion of the room, with painted and stencil arabesque patterns on the dividing spaces ; the frieze treated with good figure or ornamental enrichment of canvas-plaster or papier mache' in low relief, painted white, with a groundwork of reddish gold or Bartolozzi engraving tint. The floor might have a border of light ebony and maple or boxwood parquet, with a low-toned Persian carpet in the centre, with easy lounges or divans all round the room for rest and comfort, the centre space being left clear of furniture, so as to allow of ample room for guests passing through to other rooms, or to congregate, whilst listening to song or music. Or the general tone of the wall surface may be of a bright bluish drab-coloured pattern paper, with a frieze of small yellowish diaper pattern, the woodwork throughout being painted in brighter tones of blue, with mouldings and stencil decoration on white, like Wedgwood china.

COLOR OF WALLS AND CEILINGS ETC.
In the following excerpt, the author refers to the decoration of earlier, beautifully decorated Adams period ceilings in Britain. Otherwise, the information is also applicable to the US. I’ve seen similar suggestions in American decorating books from the last quarter of the century.

“It is a somewhat difficult matter in most town houses, where the ceilings are generally plain, and bordered by cornices of inferior design, to treat them with any amount of colour. In houses of the date of Adams, the ceilings have generally some very delicate enrichments all over them, either flowing or arranged in patterns very slightly raised. Whenever these occur, it is well to treat them almost like Wedgwood ware, with, say, light tones of pink, green, grey, or buff, in very delicate tinting ; but where the ceiling is quite flat, it is desirable to tint it a light tone of grey or cream colour, to get rid of the extreme glare of pure white. Next, the cornice, a simple distemper pattern, of a darker shade of the same colour, will often be found effective and useful, or one or two simple lines with stencilled corners. The tinting of the cornices must materially depend upon their design and contour; if plain moulded cornices, they may be tinted in one or two shades, the lighter tones being always at the top or next the ceiling, and gradually darkening off to the wall decoration.”
….Eddis

The following is from Mrs. Church’s book.
White ceilings and white woodwork should only be used with a light colored wallpaper, but a slight amount of color in the whiting would give the ceiling a more agreeable tint that stark white. If the woodwork in a room is pine, and must be painted, then any nuetral light color would be agreeable and preferable to plain white. It should never be grained to imitate richer woods as the graining is never very good and it tends to peel in spots over time leaving a blotchy effect. Pine could also be shellacked and varnished, but most people preferred to have it painted.

A French pearl-gray, a warm stone-color, a pale buff, a delicate green, are all beautiful for parlor walls. The faintest suspicion of pink, like the inner lining of some lovely sea-shells, is both pretty arnd becoming, and will go well with most things in the way of furnishing. A frieze of flowers and butterflies would not be inharmonious with this tint; and a dark, almost invisible, green dado, divided, perhaps, by narrow gilt panels, would bear a lighter green in furniture covering. Pale lemon-yellow is a pleasing tint, or a fuller apricot-yellow is very effective, especially with black wood-work. In speaking of the color of a room it is not meant that the walls must be of one single tint, but reference is made to the predominating hue, which exists even when pattern and coloring are complex.

A pale, dull sea-green goes admirably with a rich crimson or Indian red ; a pale, dull red with deep green ; but they must always be of very different intensity to look well together, and are always difficult to mingle pleasantly. Turquoise ….mixes very sweetly with a pale green ; ultramarine, being a red-blue…… is horrible with green. Pure pale yellow is a very becoming color, and will harmonize with purple; with blue, the contrast is too coarse.

As lovely a drawing-room as we ever saw in point of color was carpeted with gray felt with a deep dark-blue bordering ; the lounges and chairs were covered with chintz in the most delicate shade of robin's-egg blue….and the remainder was of wicker-work and black lacquer; the heavy pieces of furniture were in black lacquer and gilt; the curtains were of snowy muslin under lambrequins of chintz ; and the rest of the room was made up of vases, tripods, cups, pictures, flowers, and sunshine, till it seemed to overflow with harmonious color…

Somewhere in the sea of reading a parlor was described that lingers in the mind a warm, glowing, cheerful room, but not in the least glaring ; and, still rarer virtue, it was not expensive. The carpet was in two or three soft shades of red in a mossy pattern ; the walls were cream color with broken red lines in the corners; the curtains were crimson of some twilled material that hung in soft folds. But the furniture, two low sofas and one or two lounging-chairs, was covered with raw silk in rich Oriental colors ; and light chairs and tables broke up all appearance of stiffness. A lovely swinging lamp, with a wine-colored globe shade, hung over the reading-table ; and it was supported by a gilt, triangle, which was also the shape of the candlesticks on the mantel. Here was crimson judiciously used, and yet in sufficient force to make a deliciously inviting apartment
….Church
The following is a description of a wallpaper, from Eddis.


The general tone is a warm creamy yellow, with wall-flower pattern diaper (or diamond) of golden brown, in harmony with the yellow ground; the whole brightened up by the powdering over of the pale pinkish-toned petals or leaves, falling, as it were, from the sprays of almond flowers in the frieze. This frieze with its delicate blue ground and well-coloured sprays, with swallows flitting in and out, forms an exceedingly good contrast with the lower paper, when divided by a simple painted deal moulding or picture rail, painted golden brown and varnished, as suggested in the illustration.



FLOORS

I've mentioned quite a bit about floor treatments and coverings in other articles, so I won't repeat it. What was written stands true in the 1880 drawing room. I did however, want to relay this short paragraph written by Mrs. Church.
"It must be admitted that many sensible people are quite opposed to uncarpeted floors, and especially to stained floors, on the score of their showing dust and every footmark, as well as the roughness and inequalities of the boards, when not made for this particular purpose."...people liked their wall to wall carpets.
A carpet and accompanying border from 1882


THE FIREPLACE

The usual mantel-piece is a shelf of white marble, …… and the sooner this cold, unsuggestive surface is decently buried out of sight the better. A plain covering of any kind that harmonizes with the other draperies is a great improvement; and this should reach the bottom of the slab beneath the shelf, and be finished with a fringe. Most elaborate mantel coverings are wrought with crewels, and silks, and applique ; but these are not always in good taste, and should be well considered, before venturing upon them, in connection with the other furnishings. The latest fashion is for wooden mantel-pieces, ….In the parlor the mantel is usually surmounted by mirrors, but shelves for holding vases and other bric-a-brac are admissible. The shelves may be covered with cloth, in colors to harmonize with the drapery of the room if preferred. In Fig. 17 we give an example of treating a mantel-piece with lambrequin and back piece supported by rings on a pole. Vases and plaques standing against the drapery have a good effect. The screen and hanging cabinet in the engraving are from objects exhibited in the rooms of the Society of Decorative Art in this city.

figure 17


FURNITURE
The following advice is from Mrs. Church
A sofa should, if possible, turn toward the fire, so that its occupant may have his face toward the cheerful glow. At the same time, a little wicker-work tableblack and gold, if you willmay hold a lamp for reading.


As to chairs, a couple of good, well-stuffed easy-chairs…….arranged so as to look toward the fire, ought to be sufficient for luxury while six or eight little ebonized and cane-bottomed gossip chairs are the simplest and prettiest "occasional" furniture one can have. The gossip chair has a curved back which exactly fits the natural curve of the body, and the seat slopes gently downward and backward so as to give the best possible support with the least angularity or awkwardness.
With these pretty little clean cane seats, a black wicker-work chair, two easy-chairs, and a sofa, you should have enough places for family and guests in a quiet household.
The ugliest piece of furniture that can be put into the parlor is a piano ; the cottage, or cabinet shape, is tolerable, because less prominent, but the dark, clumsy, obtrusive structure in general use is a perfect nuisance in a small room, and should be gotten as much out of the way as possible. An irregularly shaped room with recesses is delightful for this purpose, if any of them will accommodate it; and, if there are two rooms, let the piano by all means be placed in the farther one. A handsome cover will clothe its dreary aspect with a little beauty, and its loud sounds will be sweeter from the enchantment lent by distance. Some parlors are all piano and carpet; but such apartments can in no sense of the word be called "living-rooms."
For furniture covering,………Raw silk is an excellent material ; and there are many woolen and other stuffs. The soft, pretty cretonnes of endless tints and styles are charming for a cottage parlor, and also for a city one that may be treated as such. The curtains should be of the same material, while a carpet of plain brown felt with a bordering of green, and a mantel-cover of some brown material embroidered with roses and leaves, would make a cheerful room.
A screen also affords good opportunity for the display of home skill in embroidery.



A cabinet is usually a handsome piece of parlor furniture…..This is the proper receptacle for all sorts of dainty and fragile things : choice bits of china, carving, or engraving, the numberless little treasures that one picks up along the path of life, and that one does not like to see carelessly handled.
Many parlors as well as purses will not admit of a large piece of furniture … and the small hanging cabinets are both pretty and convenient. These may be made by an ordinary carpenter of common wood, and ebonized at a comparatively small expensethe two little doors painted, if one can paint, in birds and flowers, with a little gilding judiciously added. Where painting is not to be had, panels of Indian red oilcloth decorated in various ways or pieces of embroidery can be used instead. Small, hanging shelves without doors, and a railing across the top, will make a very good substitute.


Marble-topped tables have very justly been stigmatized as parlor tombstones; and the simplest cover is preferable to one of these cold, polished surfaces. A crimson table-cover gives a warm, bright look to a room ; and the effect is heightened by making it long enough to touch the carpet. What a rich, warmly tinted picture is made by the "Cloth of woven crimson, gold, and jet".

Parlor tables are of various shapes and sizes ; and, whatever may be said to the contrary by those who condemn center-tables, a goodly sized round table with a crimson cover on it, and on that a handsome lamp, emitting a soft, steady light, and two or three new books and magazines, looks cozy and delightful, and as though the room was really lived in and enjoyed. A small upper cover, being in fact a square formed of small squares of white linen and drawn work alternately, saves the crimson cover as well as the eyes, and can be laundried as often as necessary.
Small corner tables with fancy covers are useful for five-o'clock tea, and, where this is not indulged in, for a great many other purposes, besides being exceedingly pretty and "helping to furnish." Very cheap ones can be bought, made of walnut or of ebonized wood, and apparently well made; these, with the tops covered and fringed, are quite unexceptionable. Felt, velveteen, canvas, satin, are all used for this purpose, and embroidered as fancy dictates.

Brackets, pictures, knickknacks, give a home look to a room ; but, with abundant means, there is such a tendency to overload in these matters that some are disposed to resort to the opposite extreme.

MIRRORS AND PICTURES

Large mirrors in quiet frames, a walnut frame with a gilt line of from a quarter to three eighths of an inch in the middle of the molding, and with perhaps a slight ornament at the corners, is recommended as having a richer effect than a gilt frame. Mantel mirrors are always handsome ; but a long, narrow one in the pier is a by-gone fashion belonging to heavy gilt cornices and immovable window draperies. Small, ornamental mirrors are almost as decorative as pictures, and may be hung in any part of the room.
The subject of pictures is one which opens a wide field for discussion ; and bare, indeed, are the walls that have not two or three of these ''counterfeit presentments" to relieve their bareness.
The next two art works mentioned by Mrs. Church must have been displayed in many a parlor.
What pleasure is there, for instance, in contemplating that dreary engraving, " The Death-Bed of Washington," or " Queen Elizabeth signing the Death-Warrant of Essex"?

I believe the engraving mentioned may have been based on this painting done in 1851

And here is Queen Elizabeth signing the death warrant of Essex


Yet there are rooms where these are the most cheerful adornments of the Avails. Neither is a picture made up principally of figures in black coats capable of giving the pleasure that a picture should give ; and many dismal representations of an historical character that are fondly supposed to be embellishments cast a gloom over country parlors, and depress the casual visitor.
Many valuable paintings, especially those of the Spanish and French schools, are no better, but rather worse : who, for instance, wishes to see portrayed on the wall the very unpleasant manner in which Cato committed suicide, or the details of a dissecting-room ? A picture that treats of a revolting or gloomy subject, if designed for a mural ornament, should be discarded as not answering the purpose for which it is intended.
Oil paintings are handsomer and more valuable than any other kind of pictures ; but fine oil paintings can only be secured at a price that places them quite beyond the reach of the majority.
Paintings in water-colors, some of which are expensive enough, may often be found at moderate prices by those who understand buying such things ; and, as a rule, they are better suited to moderate rooms than more pretentious pictures in oil. Colored pictures are bright and cheerful-looking, and their moderate use is very effective in a quiet parlor. Steel engravings, on the other hand, are somewhat depressing from their somber tone, and require the neighborhood of warm hues in walls and hangings to be thoroughly pleasing.
Engravings and photographs of the works of the old masters, or of any paintings that educate the eye, are always desirable ; and the low price at which really fine works of art may be purchased brings them within the reach of nearly all who care for such things.
The latter class of pictures look even worse side by side with water-color sketches than do the water-colors with oil paintings; "the print looking cold and harsh beside the water-color sketch, and the sketch seeming unreal and gaudy by the side of the photograph." It is also advised never to hang glazed drawings, when it can be avoided, opposite a window. " The sheen of the glass reflects the daylight and annihilates the effect of the picture behind it."
The frame of a picture should always be subservient to the picture itself, and, except in the case of oil paintings, it is better to have it of noticeable plainness. It should be substantial, but not wider than is absolutely necessary for a look of strength, a slight frame around a heavy picture being particularly objectionable. A walnut frame, with straight lines and a little gilding in the middle of each of the sides, or one of eboriized wood treated in the same way, has an appearance of quiet elegance; and very suitable
frames for engravings and photographs can be made of common pine, painted or covered with velvet.
Steel engravings and water-colors can not, like oil paintings, be framed with the frame close to the picture, and a space of white paper usually intervenes, which commonly makes an ugly and inharmonious spot on the wall. This can be avoided by first having the picture mounted in a passe-partout with a mat of gray or some neutral tint, and then placed in a frame. The required space around the picture is thus secured, while the objectionable expanse of white is avoided.
On the hanging of pictures we are told that, " to see them with anything like comfort or attention, they should be disposed in one row only, and that opposite the eye, or, on an average, about five feet six inches from the floor to the center of the canvas. A row thus formed will make a sort of colored zone around the room; and though the frames themselves may vary in shape and dimensions, they can generally be grouped with something like symmetry of position, the larger ones being kept in the center and the smaller ones being ranged on either side in corresponding places along the line." The cords used to suspend them should match the general coloring of the room ; wires, which have been so much in fashion, give an uncertain look to pictures, as though they had no visible means of support.

WINDOW COVERINGS
Finally a few window covering suggestions from Mr. Eddis
In the lower sitting-rooms of most town houses it is necessary to have some sort of lower screen or blind, to render the rooms fairly private from the gaze of too curious passers-by. For this purpose all kinds of contrivances have been carried out, from the old wire-gauze blind, with its general dirty and dingy look, and everlasting painted ornament of Greek fret or honeysuckle border, to the curious twisted cane inventions, which are bad in design, and infinitely too spotty and strong in colour to be pleasant accessories in any room, in which artistic decoration of any kind is thought of. Instead, therefore, of these coarse and unsatisfactory arrangements, I suggest that either a pattern of good diaper (note, by this is meant a piece of prettily embellished cloth hung in a triangle, or draped over a simple rod, point downwards.)or good ornament, be done on the lower portion of the window-glass, by the ordinary means of embossing, or that a second sheet of glass containing the pattern which may be done in slight tints be fixed on the inside face ; or, better still, have blinds of what is called jewelled glass in square quarry lights, or good figure or flower decoration in leaded glass, either done in outline, and stained in delicate tones of yellow, or worked out in good stained glass of various colours ; these can be made to any height, and fixed inside the sash so as to be easily removed for cleaning purposes....Blinds fixed to the sashes in this way may be objected to, on the ground that the sash weights will have to be altered to carry the extra weight of the blind, and that when the lower sash is opened the use of the blind is practically done away with ; but the first objection may be got over at the price of a few shillings per window, and if flower-boxes are fixed on the sills outside, made of ordinary zinc, with blue and white tiles inserted in the front, at a cost of from 205-. to 30^. each box, not only will the latter objection be done away with, but the bright and cheery look of low shrubs in winter, and many-coloured and sweet-scented flowers in summer, will add materially to the pleasantness of the room.
I am quite aware that I am offering no new suggestions in these remarks on blinds and flower-boxes. I am simply advocating their much greater use. For, beyond the pleasure to yourselves in the pleasant outlook upon bright flowers, the colour of the tiles and flowers would be grateful spots of life and colour in the dreary monotony of our town streets. All this kind of arrangement will be found much better than the ordinary frame blinds, which are fixed with bolts to the sash-beads, and are troublesome to take down and often in the way, especially when flower-boxes are set outside as I have suggested.
....Eddis




Decoration & Furniture of Town Houses: a series of Cantor lectures delivered before the Society of Arts, by Robert W. Eddis, 1880


How To Furnish a Home, by Ella Rodman Church, 1882

More pictures are available at
http://picasaweb.google.com/grazhe

IN THE VICTORIAN DRAWING ROOM

If you’ve read the other articles, pertaining to color and design, that related what the critics felt was right or wrong, well, this is a slice of real life.

The drawing room, or as it was sometimes known in America, the reception hall, was the center of the house, it showed your status, your gentility, your good taste. It was not the living room of today, that role was filled more by the Victorian dining room. Decorating the drawing room was treading a fine line. You did not want to live ‘below your station”, that would be very bad, very damaging. On the other hand, you didn’t want to be seen as trying too hard, that could be worse. You wanted your room to be ‘handsomely furnished’, but not ‘showy’. Not living up to your income was bad, trying too hard was worse, and living above it was the greatest sin of all.
Charles Darwin’s granddaughter wrote about her aunt and uncle; “They were well off and lived in style and comfort; but it was neither for the style nor the comfort that Aunt Sara really cared. Her religion was Duty, and it was her duty to her position and her class to live like that. It was Right, for instance, for people of
her kind to keep a carriage and horses. This was not a manner of speaking: she truly felt it a Duty.” In Charles Dickens’s book OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, a character says….”we have come into a great fortune, and we must do what’s right by our fortune; we must act up to it“.
You were expected to spend a certain percentage of your yearly income on home furnishings, the more you made, the higher your percentage should be. Of course, it’s like buying a diamond engagement ring. They say you should spend X% of your income to buy your sweetie a ring. There are some who do and some who say “ are you crazy?”
Another interesting point was that a man was expected to provide his bride with a fully furnished house equal to her parent’s home. This is why so many men put off marriage, they just couldn’t afford it. A couple might court for years while the prospective groom kept trying to make more money.

In the beginning of the Victorian era the things they bought to fill their drawing rooms, or as they were more often known in America, the parlor, or best parlor, were ………sofas, ottomans, upright chairs and easy chairs, stools, ladies’ writing desks, console tables, work tables, sewing tables, occasional tables, and screens. And the must-have, the round drawing room table. Chairs were getting heavier and more comfortable, coil springs were appearing. Easy chairs were either standard or ladies’ chairs, which were smaller, had a more upright back, and had lower arms to accommodate full skirts. Also, the furniture they bought generally lasted the rest of their lives. Their children would remark how long lasting and ugly they were.

In the 1860’s and 70’s men began writing about home design. This was a signal that it had become a serious subject. There wasn’t good taste or bad taste, it was just right or wrong. A writer of the day said; “..let us not consider what is handsome or effective or taking to the eye, but what is suitable to the husband’s position.”
Charles Dickens’s granddaughter, Gwen Raverat wrote about her family; (which had a slightly different order of preference ) “ When they bought an armchair they thought first of whether it would be comfortable, and next of whether it would wear well; and then, a long way afterwards, of whether they themselves happened to
like the look of it.

Design experts began to condemn imitation finishes, such as a varnished paper that was meant to look like marble and was rather widely used. There were many articles written on the subject of “gross shams and vulgar imitations “, “shams of all kinds are to be objected to” ,”If you are content to teach a lie in your belongings,
you can hardly wonder at petty deceits being practiced in other ways.” But people seemed to be buying quite a few of these sham, veneered articles. You could get plaster stag heads, painted to look like the real thing, and put them up to give your room a baronial air.

In small English terrace houses the front door opened into a small hallway that led to two rooms that were often linked by a wide doorway so they could open into one another. The back room was generally a family used room, for dining or any other daily activities. The front room was the drawing room or parlor, which was kept only forthe best furnishings. In a larger town home, the drawing room would take an entire floor, usually the English first floor, or in American terms, the second floor. The ground floor, or American first floor would be for the dining and morning rooms. This was apparently done so that guests could proceed gracefully down the stairs, by rank, to dinner. The set up in an American city row house would be similar. By the way, the front door generally opened into a hallway or vestibule.
Vestibules were widely used in the Victorian era, on both sides of the ocean. They kept the cold air from rushing through the house every time one opened the door. In a middle class American row home, you might have a parlor or drawing room in the front, then a dining room with a back parlor, or family sitting room behind it.

The ideally decorated drawing room changed over time, but they were high ceilinged rooms and usually rather long, and always had the best household furnishings in them. At one point it was exceedingly stylish to use a lot of ‘drapery’ and bows. Some people carried this to excess.. An American visitor, looking for rooms in London was appalled by what she saw, “….the flower pots were draped, and the lamps;
there were draperies round the piano -legs, and round the clock; and where there were not draperies, there were bows…… the only thing that had not made an effort to clothe itself in the room was the poker, and by contrast it looked very nude.” H.G.Wells remembered the lower middle class sitting rooms of his childhood,” ….something was hung about or wrapped round or draped over everything. There was bright-patterned muslin round the gas-bracket……round the mirror over the mantel, stuff with ball-fringe along the mantel…..”. Mrs.Panton, an interior decoration pioneer, who wrote many books on the decoration and proper upkeep of the home, suggested that the piano (a Victorian drawing room necessity ) might be coveredwith serge, felt or damask “….edged with an appropriate fringe….which thus makes it an excellent shelf for odds and ends of china and bowls of flowers.” The music stool could be covered with fabric and sheet music stored in a cupboard with a cloth covering it with ornaments “scattered” on top. If one had a grand piano, “..a good arrangement in the bend” would be a big palm in a brass pot or stand or a table with plants and books and a couple of chairs placed in a “conversational manner” with another stool in front of them with yet another plant on top. “This gives a very finished look to the piano” .. A couple of years later she suggested that an upright piano be turned so it’s back faced the room, and it be covered with a curtain hanging from a rod across its back. A piece of Japanese embroidery
could be placed on top, some framed photos, a cup for flowers and a few ornaments..

No one wanted to be thought of as old fashioned. They seemed to be constantly wanting to redecorate because the furnishings of the past looked so ugly and dated. At the same time, no one wanted their stuff to look brand new, that would be so vulgar. What a dilemma. By the way, one of the biggest crazes to hit came in the 1890’s. It was the ‘cozy corner’. They’d set up a niche with small sofas, cushions ,
draperies, knick-knacks, stools…whatever would fit into the space. This was found on both sides of the Atlantic, and continued in the US in a slightly different look into the 20th century by adding many cushions and shawls and perhaps a hanging brass lamp and renamed a Turkish corner.

A Mrs. Haweis told of an unfortunate man who tried to join his partner in order to take her in to dinner. He crossed the room……”knocking over the chair next to him, and arriving at his destination with a fringed antimacassar neatly fastened to one of his coat buttons. He then backed into a small table, on which stood some books and photographs, and only saved this, to send another spinning; this time smashing the whole concern and depriving me of my pet flower-holders. …But the worse was yet to come; in one heroic effort to get away from the scene of the disaster he backed once more into a ‘whatnot’ full of china .” Her solution was not to get rid of her clutter, but to be sure that the tables and objects upon them were solidly
weighted and anchored from then on.


In some lower middle class their drawing room or parlor was used by the family only on Sundays. What they did there might differ widely family to family. There was a religious revival in the early 19th century both in Britain and the United States. Changes came about because of its influence. In England in the 1850’s the Lord’s Day Observance Society began to lobby for a total shutdown of all public civic life on Sundays. They did manage to get Sunday postal service stopped for a few months. What was successful was their mission to close “ national properties” on Sundays. Parks, museums and zoos were closed. Concerts were forbidden, bands were no longer allowed to play on Sunday.. Those who were well off could still find ways of entertaining themselves, but the working class, who had one day a week to enjoy themselves and the fresh air were forbidden to. In 1854 a booklet was published that illustrated the things that most people would consider acceptable, but that the
Sabbatarians wanted to prevent ; family walks in the park, excursions on the river, fish dinners in Greenwich. The author pointed out that the Sabbath society, by preventing music, dancing and fireworks and other entertainment ensured that the day would be devoted by many to ‘decorous hard drinking”.
In the 1890’s Gwen Raverat’s family could not play cards, sew or knit, not because her parents felt that it was wrong to do these things on Sunday, but that it set a bad example for the maids. On the other hand Sunday was approve for being “at home” to visitors, never mind that the servants had to come home after their half day off and clean up.

The gloomy Sunday was a reality, however, for many Victorian families, even those who were not particularly religious, just because it was at the time the “proper” thing to do. In one not especially religious family, for example, all entertainment after church was forbidden , and even reading could only be from appropriate religious material, or books that had stories to improve your moral fiber. There were even separate toys that were saved only for Sundays for the younger children. One of these commonly seen was a Noah’s ark with animal figures. One little boy was reproached by his slightly older brother for un-Sunday conduct. He made a stable with his animals instead of properly marching them up the ramp two by two into the ark in the acceptable manner.

As people became more prosperous, and manufacturing methods improved, toys became more common in middle class households. Weekday toys were so much more interesting than Sunday toys.. On Weekdays you could play with toy soldiers and little horses with removable harness and little carts with filled with tiny wooden planks. There were rocking horses and horses on wheels that you could gallop down the street. There were barrel organs that you put punched metal cards into that played music.. There were dollhouses and toy theaters, tea sets, dolls and dolls furniture, toy bricks, pull toys and reins. I even saw an ad for these reins. They were leather, one child would be the horse and the other the driver. A magic lantern was a magnificent Christmas gift the children of one family received, with over 100 slides from pictures of cathedrals to comic drawings.

Not only were children getting more toys, but the adults were gaining more possessions themselves. Their drawing rooms contained things like lamps, footstools, fire screens, candlesticks, clocks, mirrors, workboxes, sewing boxes, figurines of all description, paintings, etchings, drawings, photographs, drapery, china, ceramics, mineral displays, fossils, boxes, fans, feathers, wax fruit, plants, stuffed animals (The kind that go on the wall) , scrapbooks, books, albums, pressed flowers, magic lanterns, birdcages, fern cases, aquariums, trays, musical instruments, vases, cushions, stereopticons, ink wells, table covers, antimacassars, doilies and mats. Not to mention the things the lady of the house may have made herself, like the framed floral display made out of human hair. No wonder it took hours to clean a drawing room.



a hair wreath, the black hairs came from a horse's mane

Some interesting points to remember about some of the dangers of the Victorian era. Wallpaper…..many colors were produced with the use of poisonous dyes. Green papers were especially dangerous, as were lilac, pinks, some blues and ‘French gray’, they all contained arsenic. This was one reason why a “change of air” was so beneficial to invalids. They were slowly being poisoned at home, then taken to the seaside, where they would start to improve, but when returned to their poisonous environment, they would sicken again. Clothing also contained arsenic. In 1862 there was an article in The Times on how to detect arsenic on fabric by using a drop of ammonia, but the test never caught on. In the 1890’s women were still being warned about arsenic in their clothing.

To help keep dirt and airborne infection from entering the house in good weather through open windows doctors recommended that curtains be replaced with blinds, known in America as shades. Stained glass and leaded glass windows became popular because you could get rid of window coverings, yet have privacy. In spite of health concerns, many still preferred window coverings. One might have lace or muslin
curtains topped with heavier draperies and perhaps a swag, plus Venetian blinds or roller blinds or shades. The sun was usually kept out because the dyes used in that era were susceptible to fading.

Fireplaces and mantles were prime areas for decorating in the drawing room. They would put ornamental screens in front of them in summer, in winter too for that matter, if there was no fire in the grate. A common way of decorating the ‘hole’ was with paper curls. One woman described the long silver paper curls in their bedroom grate. There was even a lesson printed in a decorating book of how to cut up muslin into strips, with fringe, and spread it gracefully over the hearth. As for the mantle, the simplest decoration might be a mantle clock flanked by candlesticks with a few ornaments. Remember also that a large mirror was invariably placed over the mantle. A common way to make room for all the bric-a-brac was to enlarge the mantle
with a board, draped with fabric and then another structure of shelves, brackets, etc. would be built up on top.

Middle class and up women who had a staff of servants had a great deal of leisure time which they filled by doing all sorts of fancy “work”. They made more hand embroidered slippers, spectacle cases and watch cases , etc. than they knew what to do with. They decorated their homes with them, gave them as gifts, sold them at church bazaars…… There were instructions on how to make decorative guitars out of
cardboard and silk scraps, beaded pen wipers, that of course could never be used to wipe the nib of a pen because they were covered in beads. There were ornamental frames for matchboxes. An interesting point was that a great many of the things these women made were totally useless. A very commonly made gift throughout the era was a pincushion. Sometimes it would be downright huge and decorated with patterns and sentiments made out of hundreds of pins. Of course, you wouldn’t dare actually mar its loveliness by sticking a random pin in it.

A craze that swept 1850’s Britain, and probably the USA was Pteridomania, or fern collecting. Women would buy and collect all sorts of varieties of ferns. They would buy glass cases to grow them in, books to write lists in of what kind of ferns they had. They would make spatter pictures, a sort of reverse stenciling, or perhaps wreaths of pinecones, seeds or acorns. Below you can see illustrations of some Victorian ladies' handiwork.



a bouquet of spring flowers and grasses


a cone wreath


a spatterwork design to be used for cushions, screens, portfolios, etc.


a firescreen