How Understanding the Past Can Inspire You to Create the Future!

“How under­stand­ing the past can inspire you to create the future”
Prince Fred­er­ick Henry to Wendell Castle and Beyond

Presen­ter: Bruce M. Schuet­tinger PA-AIC ISFD

A discus­sion on the fact that through most of Western Cultural History, furni­ture styles followed the popular Art Move­ments of the time such as Gothic, Renais­sance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Clas­si­cal, and all their various revivals, etc. This phenom­e­non can also be seen in Eastern Cultural History to a lesser degree.

The first example of furni­ture that will be discussed is King Tutankhamen​’s Throne Chair 1330 BC, followed by Greek, Roman, Euro­pean Gothic, etc. This segment will be followed by an in depth discus­sion on a Dutch/​Netherlands Early Baroque Period jewel encrusted Cabinet on Stand made to honor Prince Fred­er­ick Henry in 1647. The signif­i­cance of this piece from strictly a deco­ra­tive perspec­tive is the wide range of mate­ri­als, colors, textures, specialty crafts­man, deco­ra­tive tech­niques, and elab­o­rate assem­bly utilized in its creation. This segment of the presen­ta­tion is to inspire the viewer to utilize other specialty crafts­men in their designs and creations in a collab­o­rate effort as well as to envi­sion all of the mate­ri­als and deco­ra­tive tech­niques at your disposal today, which could be used in the design and produc­tion of your furni­ture. The various furni­ture forms and how they relate to the cultures and activ­i­ties of the time and areas of produc­tion will also be addressed in this segment.

A brief discus­sion of our involve­ment with this piece and its conser­va­tion process as well as the conser­va­tion profes­sion as a whole.

Several other pieces of elaborate furni­ture will be shown to illus­trate again the vari­ance of deco­ra­tive tech­niques and mate­r­ial that can adorn a piece of furni­ture and enhance its beauty.

The journey through the history of furni­ture will continue from the 17th century through the 18th, 19th , and 20th centuries to include makers and design­ers such as Abram Roentgen, Charles Hornore Lannuier, Herter Broth­ers, E​’mile-Jaques Ruhlman, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Gerrit Rietveld. We will finish­ing with Studio Move­ment of the third quarter of the 20th century with Wendell Castle’s Arch Clock one of the 13 clocks he designed and built for a trav­el­ing exhibit enti­tled ​“Master­pieces of Time” that were exhib­ited at the Renwick Gallery
in 1985. The conser­va­tion of this signif­i­cant piece will also be discussed as will Wendell’s design influ­ences hear­ken­ing back to the Egypt­ian Dynas­ties of the 1500 BC. 

Finally a brief discus­sion on the current studio/​artist furni­ture being produced today and where the indi­vid­ual maker/​designer fits in.

There will be two ques­tion and answer periods during the presen­ta­tion allow­ing partic­i­pants to present their ques­tions as they relate to the presen­ta­tion at that point.

Learn more about Bruce’s conser­va­tion work as well as his personal work.