English Decoration in the 18th Century

by John Fowler, John Cornforth

Book by Fowler, John, Cornforth, John

288 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Robert Kelly]

This book really opened up a whole new world for me. I can't recall exactly when I bought it, probably at an antiquarian shop in the late 80s or early 90s. I found the scholarship meticulous, the story absorbing, and the insights priceless. Fowler and Cornforth, what a combination. In retrospect I feel like it was John Fowler's practical experience that fueled the solid, down to earth information in the book, meaning no disresprect to Mr. Cornforth, who had his own sets of talent; however, wallpaper did not seem to be his forte, whereas for Fowler, I think he probably needed to know about it from a very practical level during his many residential restorations, during which he began to use blockprints from Mauny, Zuber, and others.

[Charles]

It was a pleasure to read this book written by the Prince of Decorators, John Fowler, and John Cornforth.

Conveniently organized around various categories of interior design, the book starts out with a look at the state of things in the 17th century. John Fowler was a scholar as well, and he had an encyclopedic knowledge of decorating details often gleaned from paintings and engravings, since many of the original interior treatments were gone even before he was born. Even though the 17th century is more remote than the 18th, he calls it forth vividly and sets the scene well.

But not only could he tease out the intention behind certain details using his knowledge and the visual artistic evidence, he seems to have read every letter collection ever published, so when lacking the visual proof, he found references to 18th century practices of upholstering furniture, gilding moldings, and covering floors scattered throughout the epistolary record.

Like an academic, he is careful to cite his sources, which in addition to the letters and pictures, include "documents", his word for scraps or fragments of textiles, wall coverings, etc. The reverence with which he seemingly pulls out a document of Réveillon flock wallpaper as if to show us the subtlety of a drop pattern is something to experience.

But he is not after pedantry, rather he is seeking to impart a command of the feeling behind 18th century decoration, so that the work of modern restorers or decorators can take inspiration from the past without being hide bound to copy meticulously; instead he would have them interpret with respect, with an eye to modern needs and uses.

This was a pure pleasure to read, but one thing that would have made it go faster would have been page references for the images. Not only were images referred to as Figures but also color Plates, and not in sequential order to each other. And in some cases, he would include the reference to a plate or figure being quoted in another book that used similar numbering. Too late to do anything about this now, but a word of warning, and a free suggestion to any book designer who reads this.

[Alison]

Three to four stars rating, as this book is a little dated now with black and white modern photography.

It has very interesting text and is full of illustrations and would be a good companion to Charles Suarez-Smith's book with its more modern and diverse illustrations for the eighteenth century decorative interiors scholar.

There are some colour illustrations on occasional pages also.