The Modern Home
The Immorality of the Antique
IT 13- not to be hoped that many who read the title of this article will be prepared to endorse its implications, but I hope • that some. at least will Iasi with me for alittlelonger and meet what may perhaps be a new point of view. To the rich con- noisseur who is in a position to furnish his house with real works of art there is nothing to be said : if his taste and judge- . ment be sound and his purse long he will be able to surround himself with things of undoubted beauty. My business hem is rather with the ordinary home-maker who says : " I like antiques ; they scene to me more beautiful- -and they are certainly more homely than anything else. Of course, I'm not an expert—though my friends tell-me I have a bit of a flair for such things. Why shouldn't I buy thein ? " So far as . flair is concerned,' I could wish that all such might read Mr. Ceseinsky's book.* They will learn that the writer, after a lifetime spent in learning all that he could learn about English furniture froth Gothic to Sheraton (and in writing several large t books which are standard works on their subject), has gathered " some little knowledge of clocks, old silver, Chinese porcelain and the like, but has learned enough to know that he would not trust to his unaided judgement in the belying of the two latter for his own collection." They will get a glimpse of the ',immense amount of knowledge that an expert with any real claim to the title must possess : there are nearly thirty different kinds of mahogany alone, more than half that number of - -Walnut, and some ten varieties of oak—and on his ability to recognize these, the method of their cutting, and even the 'age Of the tree from which they. were cut, the expert's. verdict
; must often depend. He must also have an exhaustive know-
- ledge of practical cabinet-making and a very considerable know-ledge of history. In all these things he must excel the professional faker, who spends his whole life at the game and tyho reads every new book on the subject to see which of his tricks have been finned but and must therefore be abandoned. Possessors of "flair" can safely be-left for Mr. Cescinsky to deal withas also those who are ingenuous enough to believe. n the Worth of dealers' guarantees, thOugh giVen id complete good faith. I propose to concentrate on aesthetic and socio-
logical considerations. . .
If. we could view our surroundings with minds purged of the. sentimental reverence for the antique which is so much a part of them, we should find exquisitely funny the spectacle of it board of directors deciding whether their new premises should be built to resemble a Greek temple or an Elizabethan mansion. But—what concerns us here—should we find many of the ordinary furniture- antiques beautiful in theinselves ? It is extraordinarily hard to say at first, obsessed as we arc by the belief that the antique,-if it be old enough; nast always possess a certain beauty ; but my own view is that we should not, To the Victorians of taste, who must be held more or less responsible for starting the craze for-antiques; almost anything was beautiful in comparison with the stuff their own age was producing; we, who haVe not all of us perpetuated their mistake in looking to the past for inspiration rather than to the future, have the advantage of truer standards by which' to judge, and, judged so, a great.deal of antique furniture will be found wanting. It may be possible to create round it a sentimentally pretty old-world atmosphere, but in itself it is not beautiful.
I would ask all those who may • be hesitating whether to furnish " modern " or " antique " to view the question with minds as clear and impartial as possible (no easy task !) and then to see if the modern does not possess greater beauty. as well as greater comfort. They will lose the joy of the chase which is so great a part of hunting for antiques, but they can take their chance of spotting a winner among modern de- signers—no less fascinating a game. And they can feel that they are helping their age to get somewhere. One has only to imagine a world living entirely in the past to be struck by the absurdity of the situation. It is high time that antique's
were left to the very rich or the very simple. - •
M. Bomerniunc.
* The Gentle Art of Fat:ittg Furniture.; By Herbert. Qeseinsky.
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