The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Furniture Finishing

Marble-top tables had twisted bronze supports, largely in animal forms, chairs, as for example, the "curule" type, were backless and like the numerous stools, were built low. Bronze or wooden couches, overlaid with colorful textiles, were important pieces among a people to whom dining was a long drawn out and highly pleasurable function. Their artisans understood veneering, carving, engraving, damascening, gilding and painting, for which purpose they used earth colors mixed in the white of an egg or other glutinous substance.

From the Romans we have a more virile, even warlike, scheme of decoration, notably the fasces, the sheaf of thunderbolts, the torch, the eagle, the laurel wreath and winged victory. All of these have been adapted by succeeding generations, especially by those imbued with the idea of conquest as during the French Empire under Napoleon the First when they were taken over wholesale by the artist David. Prior to this the newly excavated relics of Pompeii had drawn the Adam Brothers in England and the artisans of Louis XVI in France to employ these and other Roman motifs, but with far greater delicacy.

Since the life of the ancient Greeks was spent largely in the open, modern furniture of their inspiration is executed chiefly in outdoor pieces of natural cement or soft woods painted white. Of the latter the cheaper grades are finished with three or four coats of white lead and oil or first quality outside white prepared house paint; the more expensive grades are given two coats of flat white undereoater, followed by two of first quality long-oil white enamel. Both wood and undercoater should be sanded to maximum smoothness, end wood should be tightly sealed against moisture, and if cypress is used, the first coat should contain a percentage of benzole.

In sun room furniture the Greek note is carried out in flared legs, rounded cross-barred backs and painted decorations of profile medallions, lamps of learning or honeysuckle. The body color is shaded ivory, pale green or light blue, executed with paint undercoater and varnish, enamel or lacquer enamel.