…Gothic Revival Is Put To Bed…
Gothic Revival Is Put To Bed
Gothic Revival Style Goes From Buildings to Furniture
Shown in The Horticularist, March 1847, this Gothic Revival residence, built on Staten Island, was designed by A.J. Davis. Downing identifies this dwelling as Tudor Gothic as the term "revival" would not have been used during the actual revival. The editor considered this a "simple" dwelling.
In the early 19th century the Gothic Revival aesthetic was popularized in America by early arbiters of taste such as Andrew Jackson Davis and Andrew Jackson Downing. While first brought to fore in England as a revival, A.J. Davis, the eminent architect, designed buildings of all sorts in the Gothic Revival style, primarily working in New York, but also employed through numerous projects all over the then much smaller United States. Originating professionally in horticultural pursuits, A.J. Downing diversifying first to Landscape Architecture, later to Domestic Architecture, eventually to furniture and the list goes on and on…, all of which was crowned by his interest in “taste” as a general subject matter. In the pages of his periodical, Horticulturist: Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste, a publication meant for the American middle and upper classes, he carried the torch for a greater interest in the Gothic Revival taste in both architecture and furniture as an almost moral consideration geared to affect all of society.
Early 19th Century Lithograph of a High Tester Bed in the Gothic Revival Taste. The view shows pattern details in margin above the beautiful colored rendering.
This specific design for a bed most likely precedes both Davis’ and Downing’s influence on American taste and the illustration was probably published in England. Nevertheless, it, like a building of that period, has a distinct architectural feeling. We find that Gothic Revival furniture is really among the most identifiable to the “untrained eye” as it so much resembles religious architecture and is used in such buildings even now, that it is popularized in that light. On the other hand, furniture of that style and era can be a most pleasing and expressive in the most modern of contemporary interiors.
Even though these designs and styles have long since been “put to bed,” we think it high time for a revival…
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