Living in Style: A Guide to Historic Decoration and OrnamentWhat is the difference between the 'Gothic' and 'Gothic Revival' styles? How can you tell an lonic column from a Doric column! To understand the many ways in which the British have decorated and furnished their homes, you must learn the language, which can be baffling to the lay person. Oliver Garnett guides the reader through the complex world of historical styles and ornament, drawing on examples from the unrivalled group of houses now in the care of the National Trust. First, he examines some of the broader stylistic issues: what do we mean by style? How is it created, disseminated, exploited, revived and reinterpreted? He then looks at some of the key 'building blocks' of style-the types of ornament that you will encounter most frequently in a historic building. Finally, he provides thumbnail sketches of the stylistic labels that have traditionally been applied to British interiors, from "Tudor" to "Modern Movement." Many of these labels conceal as much as they reveal, but the way that they have been creatively misunderstood by later designers is all part of the story of style. |
Common terms and phrases
Abbey acanthus anthemion arabesque architect architecture Art Deco Art Nouveau artists Arts and Crafts Attingham Park Baroque Bedroom Berrington Hall Boulle Britain British Buckinghamshire building cartouches carved ceiling chimneypieces Chinese Chinoiserie Chippendale classical colour column Corinthian Cotehele country houses Crace craftsmen Dining Room Doric Drawing Room Earl early Egyptian eighteenth century Elizabethan English engravings Entrance Hall Etruscan fashion fireplace frame French frieze furnished furniture Georgian Gothic grotesque Hall in Norfolk Henry inspired Ionic Italian Jacobean Jacobethan John Kedleston Kent Kingston Lacy Knole London Long Gallery Louis XIV luxury Lyme Park marble Marot marquetry Morris motif murals National Trust Neo-classicism Nostell Priory opposite ornament overmantel painted Palladian panelling pattern pattern-books pieces pilasters plasterwork Pompeian porcelain portrait Powis Castle Pugin Queen Regency Renaissance Robert Adam Rococo Roman scrolls staircase strapwork style Sudbury Hall surviving swags taste Thomas Tudor vases Victorian Vitruvian scrolls Waddesdon Manor wallpaper walls Walpole William Wyatt