| Description |
xii, 215 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm |
| Contents |
Cheap, Quick, and Easy: Introduction -- 1. Stone for the Masses: Concrete Block in the Early Twentieth Century -- 2. Embossed Facades: Ornamental Sheet Metal -- 3. Artful Interiors: Metal Ceilings and Walls -- 4. Fashion Floors: Linoleum, Its Predecessors and Rivals -- 5. Good Impressions: Embossed Wall and Ceiling Coverings -- 6. Grand Illusions: Other Faux Materials -- 7. Substitute Gimcrackery: Aesthetic Debates and Social Implications |
| Summary |
In this study, Pamela H. Simpson examines the architectural materials that proliferated between 1870 and 1930. As Simpson shows in fascinating detail, rockface concrete blocks, pressed metal imitations of stone, linoleum "marble" and "parquet," and embossed wall coverings made available to the masses a host of ornamental effects that only the wealthy could previously have afforded. But, she notes, wherever these new materials appeared, a heated debate over the appropriateness of imitation followed. Were these materials merely tasteless shams? Or were they economical, durable alternatives that democratically extended the possibilities of ornamentation? Far from being in "bad taste," she concludes, these new ornamental forms reflected modernism, democracy, and progress - some of the most deeply held values of the period |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-210) and index |
| Subject |
Building materials -- History.
|
|
Substitute products.
|
|
Synthetic products.
|
| LC no. |
98025486 |
| ISBN |
1572330376 (cloth : alk. paper) |
|
