The Decorative Arts Deconstructed

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2001 by Alfred Mayor

Denis Diderot did it first in his magisterial Encyclopedie in which, as this worthy successor states, "the clear beam of the Enlightenment was shone on the gloom of the medieval workshop, dispelling many of the mysteries that surrounded the crafts." The plates from the earlier work are used frequently as illustrations in this dictionary of materials and techniques in the decorative arts. As Lucy Trench, the chief editor of this book, writes: "Much of the 18th-century technology that Diderot depicts has continued to this day in the hands of specialist craftsmen, while the clarity, elegance and precision of his plates are unsurpassed by any modem photograph or computer drawing."

Diderot lamented the difficulty of coaxing skillful but tongue-tied artisans to part with their secrets. Fortunately modern conservators are more articulate, and six of them are among the ten contributors to this dictionary. The others are three scientists and an art historian. The bias of the book is toward the decorative arts of the West, but Eastern materials such as lacquer and jade are not neglected. One of the great shortcuts to this sort of nuts-and-bolts book is the longevity of techniques and the enduring similarity of tools over millennia. Thus the cabinetmakers of ancient Egypt and the artisans in Viscount Linley's shop in London would have no difficulty comparing notes, and glassblowers at their glory hole would be doing about the same thing in 50 B.C. as at Orrefors, Sweden, today.

The section devoted to brick notes that the origin of brickmaking is unknown but that sun-dried bricks were found in Neolithic buildings at Jericho, which is such a long pedigree that we need not search for the first brick Fire gilding of metal, while not as ancient as brickmaking, originated in China in the fourth century B.C. The technique spread to Rome in the second century A.D. and remained in use until the invention of electroplating in the nineteenth century, despite the toxicity of the mercury fumes burned off in the process. Nowadays if you must have mercury gilding, you will have to travel to Nepal and the FarEast.

The neutrality of phrasing that characterizes the best dictionaries occasionally gives way to emphasis, as in the entry on French polishing. It is called "a deceptively simple technique, which requires great skill and experience." So far so good. The entry goes on: 'Various proprietary products are sold as French polish, unusually consisting of an alcoholic solution of shellac resin with a variety of additives intended to ease application or increase brightness. True French polishing is executed using only a pure solution of best shellac in alcohol. It is applied with a fine lint-free rubber in the form of a pear-shaped pad made from a square of cotton padded with pure cotton wool. The surface of the rubber is kept barely moist and occasionally lubricated with a little linseed oil to prevent sticking." Woe to he who tries to cheat by using a proprietary product, although the temptation is powerful if you have ever made a hash of the real thing.

Fumed oak is made dark by exposure to ammonia. This is accomplished either in an airtight "fuming box" with a window so one can check the color, or by exposing the wood in a cow barn Paste, which at its best can pass for diamonds and other gemstones, is made of borosilicate of potassium and lead with small additions of alumina and arsenic. It is not quite as basic as the ammonia in a cow barn, but the ingredients are hardly as glamorous as the end product.

Many entries are unexpected, such as "Sewing machine," perfected in the United States in 1846; "Formica", "Freestone," for which the entire entry is "a term used to describe a sedimentary stone which can be worked equally well across and along the bedding planes"; and "Steel See IRON."

Other entries are encyclopedic in their sweep, such as more than ten pages about wood that defines the material and how it has been worked through the ages. There are many and useful cross-references to plywood, medium-density fiberboard, dovetail, japanning, and so forth. The essay is a tour de force of compression and concision only matched by its counterpart, "Woodworking tools."

It is difficult to imagine anyone in the field of the decorative arts, be it maker, restorer, curator, user, or collector, who should live much longer without this wonderful book.