Some thoughts on Aesthetic Curtains

(Some information on window hangings, in response to a question on the message board at Rare Victorian and cross-posted there. -TPR)

My profile quote here at The Peacock Room is by William Morris: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful;" this philosophy very concisely expresses the prevailing sentiment regarding hangings (for both windows and doors) during the rage for "aesthetic" or "artistic" interior design. The elaborately draped curtaining arrangements of the middle decades of the 19th century were vividly described and condemned by Charles Locke Eastlake in Hints on Household Taste:

The absurd fashion which regulates the arrangement of modern window-hangings cannot be too severely condemned, on account both of its ugliness and inconvenience. Curtains were originally hung across a window or door, not for the sake of ornament alone, but to exclude cold and draughts. They were suspended by little rings, which slipped easily over a stout metal rod – perhaps an inch or and inch and a half in diameter. Of course, between such a rod (stretched at the top of the window) and the ceiling a small space must always intervene; and, therefore, to prevent the chance of wind blowing through in this direction, a boxing of wood became necessary, in front of which a plain valance was hung, sometimes cut into a vandyke-shaped pattern at its lower edge but generally unplaited. As for the curtains themselves, when not in use they hung straight down on either side, of a sufficient length to touch, but not sweep the ground.

Now, observe how we have burlesqued this simple and picturesque contrivance in our modern houses. The useful and convenient little rod has grown into a huge lumbering pole as thick as a man’s arm, but not a whit stronger than its predecessor; for the pole is not only hollow, but constructed of metal far too thin in proportion to its diameter. Then, in place of the little finials which used to be fixed at each end of the rod, to prevent to rings from slipping off, our modern upholsterer has substituted gigantic fuchsias, or other flowers, made of brass, gilt bronze, and even china, sprawling downwards in a design of execrable taste. Sometimes this pole, being too weak for actual use, is fixed up simply for ornament—or rather, let me say, for pretentious show – while the curtain really slides on an iron rod behind it. Instead of the wooden boxing and valance, a gilt cornice, or canopy, is introduced, contemptible in design, and worse than useless in such a place; for not only does it afford, from the nature of its construction, no protection against the draught behind, but, being made of thin sharp-edged metal, it is liable to cut and fray the curtain which it crowns. The curtains themselves are made immoderately long, in order that they may be looped up in clumsy folds over two large and eccentric-looking hooks on either side of the window. The result of this needless and ugly complication is that in a London house the curtains are seldom drawn: dust gathers thickly in their folds, the stuff is prematurely won out, and comfort as well as artistic effect is sacrificed to meet an upholsterer’s notion of ‘elegance.’ ¹

Eastlake and other tastemakers, pundits and critics of the artistic reform movement advocated that in form, curtains should be simple, and hung "honestly" with rings (preferably brass) on a pole (either of brass or wood, with turned finials or metal caps on either end), allowing them to be drawn and withdrawn as needed; additionally, the prevailing opinion was that curtains should not be of such length as to "puddle" on the floor or be looped up; rather they should hang straight down, touching but not "sweeping" the floor. Such curtains, it was generally held, could be made by any housewife, without the expensive services of the upholsterer. (I will note here that photographs of the period show that the advice to not pull back or loop up curtains was ignored at least as often as it was heeded.) Despite this opinion, simplicity in curtains did not mean that fully dressing a window was uncomplicated! A fully hung window of the time could include:

• Either shades of holland (linen), fluted silk, burlap, or jute in cream or buff, or slatted (venetian) blinds, especially if the window was not shuttered;
• Transparent “glass curtains” of lace or muslin (a very fine, lightweight cotton cloth, much like modern voile). Muslin under-curtains were often embellished with embroidery or lace, either applied or inset. Both lace and muslin curtains could be of white or another natural shade such as tinted in “the fashionable yellow-brown with tea or coffee”, or colored in a tint harmonious with the room’s color scheme; around 1880 a fad developed for black lace curtains. Lace and muslin curtains of all colors could be lined or not, depending on the effect desired, with the exception of black lace curtains which, it was recommended, should always be lined ¸ with “any color or shade of color in harmony with the rest of the room decorations”.
• The principal or “side curtains,” either flat or simply pleated panels. They could, if desired be pulled back with cord or a coordinating cloth band, but it was not recommended that they be looped up or draped and swagged to the sides. It was generally advised that the pole from which these curtains depended should be mounted either just above or at the very top of the window casing, although illustrations of the time sometimes show the brackets set at the top of the window opening.
• Infrequently, and not especially fashionable, a lambrequin or valance, hung, as the side curtains, with rings from a pole. This should be a straight panel (not scalloped or otherwise shaped), and en suite with the side curtains. Most often the valance took the form of a shorter drop between widely spaced side curtains… an example of this style can be seen in the restored parlor at “Glenview,” the John Bond Trevor house at the Hudson River Museum.

In hangings as with Aesthetic furniture, the simple form was regarded as a canvas for surface ornament: patterned fabric, such as the large-scale printed floral designs of Morris; damasks; exotic imported silks and patterned plushes; embroidery, as advocated by the South Kensington Royal School of Art Needle-work (in England) and Candace Wheeler of Associated Artists and the Decorative Arts Society (in the U.S.), in silks or crewel; woven stripes; and especially horizontal bands, which often echoed a tripartite dado-fill-frieze wall division. To capture the light, metallics - bullion thread and metal “spots” or "spangles" (sequins) - or even crystal beads could be sewn to window and door hangings, a decorative device that was lampooned in a satirical “report” on the latest offering in “the finer classes of furnishings”:

…and oh! What are those? Two silk plush curtains hang from a brass rod in a far dark corner. At first they were invisible, but my guide has cunningly thrown a flash of light upon them. They are a beautiful shaded wine color, turning from a deep dark red to a faint pink. Running over them in an artistic manner are many beautiful hand-embroidered roses, connected by slender branches. The centre of each flower seems to be aflame. Jets of light twinkle in its petals.
“Incandescent lights’, I suppose,” I remarked.
The manager laughed.
“Examine them,” he said.
I walked over to the curtains and lifted them nearer to me. The flaming jets were diamonds, big and pure. Even as I held them they broke out into a hundred flashes of brilliant color.
“I don’t suppose,” said the manager, “that this craze will become very common, but it has already been introduced by some of our money princes. …. There are $25,000 worth of diamonds in those curtains. We have to employ a man who does nothing but watch this room.”²

Even without the luxury of diamonds, the range of fabrics used for hangings ran the gamut from homely and utilitarian "stuffs" such as denims, burlaps (or "Manila cloth") to flannel, cretonne, India mull, waste silks, serge, sheetings and linen to damasks, velvets and brocades; Candace Wheeler and the Cheney Brothers silk works even developed specialty fabrics for embroidered hangings. But the type of fabric was less important than how "artistically" it was employed and how well it contributed to the balance and "harmony" of the overall decorative scheme. The ideal room, to the Aesthetic eye, was one that, through a careful utilization of color, reflectivity and a delicacy of pattern, read not as individual elements – walls, ceiling, floor, hangings, furniture – but as a harmonious whole, every aspect complimenting and enhancing another, and no aspect drawing too much attention. In her 1986 essay “Surface Ornament: Wallpapers, Carpets, Textiles and Embroidery,” Catherine Lynn wrote that

The much-favored gold and silver in patterns on walls and the sheen of silk on fabrics stretched across furnishings reflect light, increasing the impression that the two dimensional plane of ornament is superficial, without supporting mass. Indeed, such details of drawing and coloring assured that in a fully patterned room of the 1880s there could emerge very little sense of architectural structure or weight. The artful eye savored the illusion that even the walls were fragile films of nothing more than that precious, shimmering thing, ornament. ³

Periodicals such as Harper’s Bazaar and The Art Amateur; A Monthly Journal Devoted to Art in the Household regularly published patterns and instructions for embellishing curtains, in addition to articles detailing the wondrous and artistic hangings made for exhibitions and for the wealthy and famous. Wool (serge), Bolton sheeting (cotton or linen) and various silks were the fabrics considered most suitable for embroidering.

Occasionally, writers did give specific advice as to the appropriateness of a specific fabric for one room or another, such as when Harriet Prescott Spofford opined:

There is really a great latitude allowed in the choice of curtains, the desirability of drapery being so strongly recognized that almost any drapery is countenanced. Thus, it is not unusual even in elegant drawing-rooms to see curtains of a cretonne that harmonizes with the other furnishing, or of embroidered muslin alone. Still, it is desirable, of course, if the drawing-room is begun upon any scale of richness, to carry it out thoroughly; and curtains of satin, of silk damask, and silk rep, with under-curtains of lace or of delicately wrought muslin, are the window drapery best suited to a drawing-room whose furniture is covered in choice stuffs. Velvet is more suitable for the library, when that also is richly furnished: it is really too heavy for the light character that is usually considered appropriate to the drawing-room fittings.⁴

but in general, it was felt that artistic effect (and to some degree, economy) were the primary considerations when choosing hangings for a room’s windows and doors.

That curtains were no longer to be “constructed” and fixed into a permanently draped position meant that great care did have to be taken with how a fabric would hang. According to Suggestions for House Decoration in Painting, Woodwork, and Furniture, published in 1877,

Now the chief beauty of any drapery should be looked for in the folds into which it naturally falls. In choosing a material for curtains this should never be forgotten; provided you have a colour which harmonises with the other colouring of the room, and provided you have also a material which falls naturally into soft and artistic folds, your curtains, (however simple and inexpensive) are sure to be successful. On the other hand, no number of other good characteristics, such as beauty of design or pattern, will compensate for the loss of this quality. ⁵

A cloth that was too stiff or heavy would not naturally fall into graceful folds, and neither would one that was too lightweight and insubstantial. However, cloth of the latter variety could be supplemented by the addition of lining and inter-lining, which provided not only the weight and body required to hang properly, the linings also added thickness for insulation, and to increase opacity, a critical consideration when drawing curtains was a tool to deter the fading of carpets and furniture. ⁶

While some writers felt that vertically striped curtains could give the illusion of height to a low-ceilinged room, the general consensus was that vertical (or “perpendicular”) stripes should be avoided, as “they seldom have a pleasing effect, for they carry the eye mounting up to an uncomfortable height where there is nothing to gratify it” ⁷ and “stripes are continually being concealed in the folds, or else cut in two, and so their value lost or impaired.” ⁸

Stripes instead, it was advised, should be horizontal, for “The decoration of the curtain by bands across the stuff, not by vertical stripes, has everything to recommend it – oriental usage (almost always a sure guide in decoration), and the fact that it is always to be reckoned on to produce its pictorial effect, since the bands cannot be hid, no matter how many folds the curtain makes.”⁹ Wider bands of a complimentary or contrasting color were also recommended. Such bands could be left plain, or embroidered and then appliquéd to the curtain, with perhaps, “narrow borders of stitches where the bands are sewn on to the curtain, or with woven braids or laces, as the upholsterers call them.”¹⁰ The “correct” number, width and arrangement of these bands was at the whim of the decorator or homeowner; several bands, of varying or the same color, with the top one at dado height, bands of the same width near both the lower and upper edges of the curtain, a single deep band at the hem… all these were acceptable arrangements. It was also suggested that:

Another and very good style for curtains is to put on a dado of another material or color. The depth of this dado should be determined with regards to the walls of the room; if they have a dado, that on the curtains should be nearly the same height; if the walls have a division high up, with a frieze above the patterned paper, the curtains will probably look better in another style. For a large and lofty room, the broad band of a darker color on the curtains looks very well; it should be of a darker shade of the same color as the curtain, or at lest harmonize with it, as a warm brown with a deep red will often do. ¹¹

So a wealth of advice and inspiration was readily available to most homeowners regarding artistic window curtains. Certainly ready-made curtains could be had from retailers and through mail-order sources, but those with a claim to an “Aesthetic temperament” would have taken great pleasure and pride in devising unique and artistic curtains for their home… artistic and useful curtains:

If the room has as many windows as most American parlors have, (the curtains) should be swung easily on large, or at least see-able rings; and these rings should move easily upon substantial rods so that the curtains may be pushed far back on dark days, and brought well together when the light is strong. Curtains have primarily a twofold office—to regulate light and to shut out draughts. Whatever ornamentation there may be must be based on the idea of utility, or it becomes meretricious. While the curtains, and indeed all window draperies, must be made to harmonize with the decoration scheme in the room, there must be a thought of the fact that they are always in the shadow during the day, and always in the full artificial light and night. They are subject to the test of shadows, and hence must be full in color, and being subject to the test of strong yellow light at night, the colors must never be crude. They should be made of such a color that, as they fall on the side of the window, they will harmoniously frame the bit of landscape that is seen outside.¹²

---

1. Eastlake, Charles Locke. Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and Other Details. London: Longman and Greens, 1869.
2. “Will Luxury Go Farther? Diamonds Used for the Decoration of Curtains!” The Washington Post, May 8, 1887
3. Lynn, Catherine. “Surface Ornament: Wallpapers, Carpets, Textiles and Embroidery.” In Pursuit of Beauty, Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Rizzoli, 1986.
4. Spofford, Harriet Prescott. Art Decoration applied to Furniture. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1878
5. Garrett, Rhoda and Agnes Garrett. Suggestions for House Decoration in Painting, Woodwork, and Furniture (Art at Home series). London: MacMillan, 1877
6. Excellent step-by-step instructions for sewing traditional interlined and lined curtains can be found in The Complete Book of Curtains and Drapes, by Lady Caroline Wrey, and The Ultimate Curtain Book, by Isabella Forbes.
7. Glaister, Elizabeth. Needlework (Art at Home series). London: MacMillan, 1880
8. Cook, Clarence. The House Beautiful: Essays on Beds and Tables Stools and Candlesticks. New York: Scribner, Armstrong and Company, 1878
9. ibid
10. Glaister
11. ibid
12. “Art in the Home.” The Independent ... Devoted to the Consideration of Politics, Social and Economic Tendencies, History, Literature, and the Arts, August 30, 1883

List of Illustrations:

"Mr. W.H. Vanderbilt's Bedroom" (detail), Artistic Houses: Being a Series of Interior Views of a Number of the Most Beautiful and Celebrated Homes in the United States. New York: D. Appleton, 1883-1884;

"Window-Curtains and Curtain-Rod (drawn by C.L. Eastlake)," from Charles Locke Eastlake, Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details (1868);

Our Morris/Reformed Gothic bedroom, inspired by the master bedroom at the John J. Glessner House, Chicago, IL;

"Interior - Morning Room" by Louis Comfort Tiffany, frontispiece to Constance Cary Harrison's Women's Handicraft in Modern Homes (1881);

Drawing-room at Glenview (John Bond Trevor house), Yonkers, NY, c. 1880;

"Consider the Lillies of the Field" portieres, 1879
Candace Wheeler (American, 1827-1923)
Cotton embroidered with wool thread and painted, wool borders; 74 1/4 x 44 1/2 in. (188.6 x 113 cm), 73 x 45 1/2 in. (185.4 x 115.6 cm)
The Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut, Gift of Mrs. Francis B. Thurber III, 1972
www.metmuseum.org;

"Embroidered Velvet Curtain, with Japan Lilies," from Mrs. T. W. (Maria Oakey) Dewing, Beauty in the Household. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882;

Library, George Kemp house. Decorated by L.C. Tiffany and Associated Artists. From Artistic Houses: Being a Series of Interior Views of a Number of the Most Beautiful and Celebrated Homes in the United States. New York: D. Appleton, 1883-1884;

Library at Ballantine House, Newark, NJ; after restoration;

Library designed by L.B. Wheeler, Plate 17 from Tuthill,William Burnet, Interiors and Interior Details: Fifty-two Large Quarto Plates, Comprising a Large Number of Original Designs of Halls, Staircases, Parlors, Libraries, Dining Rooms, &c. ... and a Large Collection of Interior Details Suited to the Requirements of Carperters, Builders and Mechanics (W.T. Comstock, 1882);

Dining-room, William T. Lusk house house. Decorated by L.C. Tiffany and Associated Artists; from Artistic Houses: Being a Series of Interior Views of a Number of the Most Beautiful and Celebrated Homes in the United States. New York: D. Appleton, 1883-1884;

"Curtain with Dado," Fig. 10 from Elizabeth Glaister and Mary S. Lockwood, Art Embroidery (1878, published by M. Ward, London);

Figure No. 60, from Clarence C. Cook, The House Beautiful: Essays on Beds and Tables, Stools and Candlesticks. (1878)