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In this essay I argue for opening up South Asian historiography on the home to explore not just ideals of middle-class domesticity, but also the material goods and spaces of home lives. This helps to rethink class, as ideals of middle-class respectability were often worked out in buildings and through goods shared with lower classes, deploying caste hierarchies to articulate definitions of proper home life. At the same time, taking materials and spaces seriously allows attention to the role of men in shaping and experiencing homes, whether as designers, retailers, planners, or residents themselves. Drawing on the specific example of the iconic firm Kamdar Ltd. which created modern home interiors in mid-century Bombay, I argue that thinking through the materials of home allows attention to the global engagements of home life defined in class and caste terms, by men and women alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the network of palaces and gardens held by the Este family around Ferrara, Italy. Topics include the relation of dukes in the Este family to the gardens, interior decoration of their palaces with landscape paintings, and evidence of the design of the gardens from extant drawings.

When the northern Chinese city Tianjin was 'opened up' as a treaty-port after the Second Opium War in 1860, it had never produced a single carpet; by 1929, the city was exporting 180,000 pieces annually, more than any other Chinese city. Carpets were never indigenous to the Tianjin/Beijing region, but were imagined, invented and produced for export at the turn of the twentieth century. The history of the Chinese export carpet from idea to object reveals how tastes and styles aligned with global power and politics. At the height of nineteenth-century British imperialism, a broadly imagined Eastern aesthetic mixed Chinese porcelains with Japanese kimonos and Turkish carpets. With the rise of the nation-state in the twentieth century, distinctions among national styles became more clearly delineated, and the newly invented Chinese carpet became the centrepiece of Chinese-style interior design. From imagined Asian artefact to authentic Chinese commodity, the carpet is an example of how Chinese, European and American people used commodities to navigate uneven systems of global power to produce ideas of Chineseness, foreignness, tradition and modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the integration of architecture in interior designing and decorating practices. Topics include the interior designs from the mid-nineteenth century, the essence of architecture in textile claddings and arts, and the practices of interior designers in other fields such as graphic designing, fashion, and contemporary art.

This article addresses the attempts in Britain in the 1930s to integrate modernist aesthetics with the home. A number of initiatives during this period were directed towards improving both standards of living and the public's taste: arising from exposure to continental modernism (Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier) and with a fervent belief in the democratisation of the living space, innovators such as Wells Coates, Jack and Molly Pritchard, and Maxwell Fry sought to reinvent the home for the twentieth century. The results were often short-lived, and in some cases, abject failures. Yet the negotiations that these designers, architects, and visionaries made between high-minded aesthetics and the practicalities of quotidian British life reveal much about standards of taste during the 1930s. This article takes two case studies in detail: The Lawn Road Flats-the Isokon Building-in Hampstead, London, and the activities of the Design and Industries Association (DIA). In doing so, I chart the ways in which interior design developed in Britain during the decade before the outbreak of World War Two, and explore how small-scale, short-lived activities in this period laid the foundations for a flowering of new modes of living post-1945. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented that examines interior design, painting and politics in late Weimar Germany. Particular focus is given to how this relates to the work of the writer Alfred Döblin. Additional topics discussed include Modernism and the avant-garde in Germany, the work of the Russian painter Pavel Filonov and Döblin's insights on the relationship between art and architecture.

In early modern times, houses inhabited exclusively by men were far from unusual. In Rome, more than in other cities, clergymen at all levels in the Church hierarchy occupied apartments or entire palaces together with exclusively male relatives, staff, secretaries and servants. But in central Italy, exclusively male households were not unknown among craftsmen, merchants and notaries, too. Thanks to inventories, account books, documents prompted by disagreements and correspondence, the article investigates the many different looks men’s households had and the attitudes shown by their occupants with respect to furnishings and decorative objects. Although household management was one of the duties of the pater familias and, more generally, for every man – first-born or not, married or single – the pursuit of fine furnishings and of collections of small objects and pictures was proof of refined taste and customs and could contribute to the construction of a curial masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1538 the Nuremberg painter Paul Lautensack (1477/78-1558) wrote an open letter to Ursula Gundelfingerin, in whose house he had decorated a bedroom with paintings supposed to show the true meaning of the Bible. This text, in which he defended his paintings against the claim that they were incomprehensible, was printed in 1619 but hitherto ignored by scholars. It is here identified as the first known Programme, in which an artist explained his own creation (thus predating Vasari's Ragionamenti). The article reconstructs the lost scheme based on the Programme, contemporary Nuremberg interiors and Lautensack's manuscripts, especially Nuremberg,GNM, Hs. 3147. It explains its elements such as references to the Biblical text, alphabets, the Genealogy of Christ and images of celestial prodigies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socio-cultural perceptions towards madness in the 18th century maintained the madhouse as private and isolated. This contributes to the relative absence of historical records that would allow a thorough scrutiny of the 18th-century madhouse as a social, political and psychological residence. Yet, the surviving collection of material culture retained from Brooke House offers a unique opportunity to reveal contemporary ideologies regarding madness in the 18th century. Utilizing archaeological approaches in the analysis of the building and its interiors, this paper seeks to explore this unique building and its impact on residents, revealing experiences of the confined in 18th-century England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper uses the legal story of an interior design practitioner, Florence Karasik, as a basis for a broader discussion of the professionalization of interior design. The Karasik case will demonstrate three things: (1) that law, which is largely neglected in histories of professionalism, is an important barometer for shifting opinions about what it means to be a profession; (2) that everyday people, like Florence Karasik, had their own, popular conceptions of interior design as a profession; and (3) that popular and legal conceptions of the professionalization of interior design did not always align. The Karasik case, which disclosed a dynamic legal and popular conversation about what it meant to be a professional interior designer, highlights the increasingly decisive role the state would play in the second half of the twentieth century in determining the professional status of interior design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The Foundation for Interior Design Education Research (FIDER), founded in 1970 and now the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), was established to administer interior design accreditation processes in higher education across the United States and Canada. It was the first and only regulatory agency professionally recognized and in the public's interest. This paper examines FIDER's early growth from 1970 to 1990 through key actions in its Founding and Governance, Research and Development, and Accreditation Processes. Content of primary and secondary resources from CIDA archives were analyzed, as well as oral histories collected from leaders. Each action is assessed for its importance during the time and in context to FIDER's mission. A content analysis guided by minutes, significant publications, research reports, and press releases helped identify and clarify important and relevant information as it related to the FIDER/ CIDA history, capturing the main milestones. Documentation herein clarifies critical issues and changes that FIDER faced and offers insights into its evolution and status as an instrument of change in interior design education with contributions to the field's identity and professionalism. This history provides definitive stages to its growth, and substantiates key actions that afford its landmark status. Numerous goals are achieved and a model for specialized program accreditation matures with strong, professional, and equitable characteristics. A fervent and dedicated commitment to FIDER exists from those in education and the profession, and an international presence and more expansive agenda emerge with many more volunteers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the article within the issue is presented including interior designs based on the future, interior design and history, and political context of architect's professional commitment.

ABSTRACT In Western countries, the discipline of interior design has struggled to define itself from the beginning. One reason is that designing interiors is a multifaceted, layered, even interdisciplinary process. One has to deal with architectural environments as well as objects, with spaces as well as more ephemeral backdrops. Moreover, because designing interiors is not very different from certain everyday activities, interior professionals want to dissociate their activities from everyday decorating. Nomenclature has played an important role in trying to professionalize. By employing the term of 'interior architect,' professional practitioners have sought to insist on the distance that separates their work from everyday design practices. However, interior architecture has also wanted to avoid being seen as a subcategory of architecture. As a result, alternative terms have circulated, which have been equally question-begging. By means of a case study of one country's attempt to professionalize the practice of designing interiors, this essay will uncover how professional identities emerged and were labeled in postwar Belgian Flanders. We will show how different profiles, ranging from schooled interior architects to self-made domestic advisors and interior decorators, enabled practitioners to approach interiors differently and sometimes design in different ways. At the same time, we will investigate why the term 'Interior architect' was employed by all the profiles of practitioners. The historically and culturally specific case study will be framed against the internationally ongoing process of professionalization. The road toward professionalization in Flanders runs parallel to that in a lot of Western countries. The Flemish case is remarkable, though, in that issues of nomenclature and identity formation were already heavily debated, even taken to court, from the mid-1950s until the mid-1960s. While in North American and Australian educational programs and professional contexts, the gradual adoption of descriptions such as 'interior design' and 'interior architecture' is of more recent vintage, this process took place in Flanders already in the 1960s. With our historically early case study-the first Flemish interior design program dates back to 1946-we want to contribute to the ongoing international debate about the professionalization of the interior discipline as well as discussions on nomenclature and the complex relationship between professionals and amateurs. Through a historically and culturally specific case study, this article will show how different profiles, ranging from schooled interior architects to self-made interior advisors and interior decorators, enabled practitioners to approach interiors differently and sometimes to design in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the interwar period, the British home became the battleground on which a colour war was waged by interior decorators and theorists alike. All-white schemes, embodied in the work of Syrie Maugham, for example, were contrasted with interiors furnished with colourful printed textiles, which were said, by some interior decorators, to be better suited to adding personality and character to the modern British home. By the 1930s, printed textiles were also seen as a way of resuscitating a moribund national industry while responding to aesthetic developments occurring in countries such as France and Germany. This article seeks to uncover how colour, in the form of printed textiles destined for the home, was a primary agent in the definition and elucidation of a distinctly British sense of modernism in the 1930s, at the very moment when continental styles were making their way onto the island. Toward this end, the article turns its attention to the colour-soaked interior landscape produced and advocated by painter, designer and textile manufacturer Allan Walton (1892–1948), whose furnishing textiles were largely the product of collaborations with leading British painters who, for him, were the fulcrum in the renewal and growth of national industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how a Swedish wooden burgher house, the mid-1660s Burmeister House, was adapted over the course of 250 years to satisfy ever-changing expectations of thermal comfort. The investigation is based on the climatic conditions of the Nordic Region, where the issue of thermal comfort is crucial when attempting to understand the development of indoor environments. The article explores how spatlality, heating, and interior decor and furnishing operated and affected the inhabitants' experiences of indoor climate and thermal comfort. The results show that Burmeister House followed a general pattern of improvement, especially with regard to innovations in heating. Burmeister House ceased to be a private residence when it was restored and turned into a historic house museum. Rather than revealing its history, restorations carried out in the twentieth century worked to conceal or remove most of the building's more recent history. As a consequence, the house has become more difficult to use since it can no longer be efficiently heated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a discourse called Future Vision for designers and educators which was organized by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) from November 6 to 8, 2014. Topics discussed include evolution of interior designing, education standards higher education, and future value propositions.

This article examines the display of Gustav Klimt's Danaë (1907/08) in the last villa built on Vienna's Hohe Warte by the architect Josef Hoffmann, the Haus Ast (1911). The Danaës display in the Damensalon, or lady's room, of the house is a provocative staging, perhaps reminiscent of recent cinematic reimaginings of fin-de-siècle Viennese decadence. Despite their spatial complexity, Hoffmann's interiors as contexts of display for Klimt's paintings remain understudied; conversely, the amplified significance of Klimt's paintings when hung within Hoffmann's domestic architecture has received little attention. It is arguable that the domestic interior as a legitimate context for art's display has been written out of the historiography on Klimt, or perhaps, written off by it. Yet audiences in early twentieth-century Vienna were familiar with and appreciative of the bespoke display of Klimt's paintings within rooms planned by Hoffmann. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restoration of the Castle in Eszterháza was made between 1891-1896/1897 by the Viennese Company Friedrich Otto Schmidt. In course of the restoration work were furniture and wall revetments of the 18th century restored, complemented by modern pieces and also copies of the original luxury Esterházy-furniture were made. The reputation of the Company went established by the restoration of Fertőd castle in the whole Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy. In the 1896 Millenary Exhibition of Budapest the copy of a suite of rooms of the castle was on show. This was later not accepted by the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts in his permanent exhibition because Director Jenő Radisics has considered the Rococo style of the castle as a break with the organic evolution of Hungarian art and was also opposed by principles to the substitution of historical objects by copies. The Schmidt Company has exhibited 1898 in the Assembly Room of the Winter Exhibition of the Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie a so-called exact copy of the Apollo-Room of Eszterháza, really a series of copies of French Rococo luxury furniture. As a program of exact copy, this interior can be considered as a radical break with the former practice of Historicism. By this change a crisis was caused in the relationship of the Director Arthur von Scala to the Kunstgewerbeverein in Vienna and by the survival of Historicism also to the circle of the Secession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This research paper considers the history of a particular moment in the development of the interior decoration/design business. Although the history of interior design practice has been well charted as 'art/design history,' the business and professional history has been somewhat neglected, except for work on particular firms. The issues examined relate to four particular aspects. The first covers the distinctions between decorators, upholsterers, furnishers, and architects and how these differences were reflected in the work undertaken. Related to this is a brief examination of why many architects ignored interior work. Secondly, is the nature of the customer base and how it reacted in response to changing social and economic factors. Thirdly, there are the issues of marketing and promotion that were aimed at a much wider audience than architects would expect, and finally a consideration of the house furnisher as a foundation for the development of the professional interior decorator/designer. To address these issues, the paper offers an overview of the rise, maturity, and change of the house furnisher as the most important contributor to the supply of interior design/decoration advice and products in the second half of the nineteenth century. By taking case studies of important players in the field, the paper will consider why architects gave up their role as arbiters of taste in interior works, and how the house furnishing businesses took over. This is of some interest as it not only explores an issue that still remains in the interior design world-the notion of who controls the work, but also explores the nature and pre-history of professional interior design service providers in the period. Although the scope of this essay is potentially wide ranging, it is limited to the second half of the nineteenth century and focuses on London for its case studies. Through a consideration of primary sources, often using the trade press for commentaries, a sense of the contemporary issues is made. In addition, the recent work by scholars in the field is used to interpret the changes described. As a foundation for the subsequent development of a profession, the house furnisher had laid a number of ground rules. Apart from the issue of the control of work, they encouraged the development of specialized knowledge, and they recognized the importance of training and education, and to some extent, exercised control of access to the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an essay, the author considers the history of interior design as a significant thread within the broader history of design. More specifically, the article addresses the questions of the Who, the What, and the How of interior design history, taking into consideration the various people, products and processes involved in the field.

Up to this day, the painted wall hangings in the domed room of Trompenburg, the country seat of the seventeenth-century admiral Cornelis Tromp (1629-1691), have raised many questions. The four bay windows of this room contain fourteen strips of canvas with whole or partial depictions of ships. The way in which the ships are cropped at the edge in some of the paintings, has led some authors to suggest that the works were not originally created for this space. They suggested that the works were cut from larger paintings and assumed that they were installed in this room only after Cornelis Tromp had died. My discovery of an inscription on the stern of the ship called the 'Witte Olifant', revealed that the seascapes must have been painted in 1684 and that they were commissioned by Cornelis Tromp himself. Furthermore, the original position of the paintings will not have differed much from the present. Apparently, the ways in which the compositions are cropped would not have been regarded as peculiar in seventeenth-century interior decorations, but rather as playful. Also, the interruption of the depiction by the architecture of the room would have been less disturbing, since recent research has revealed that most of the architecture was originally painted a greyish-brown, instead of the current red-brown. This would have caused the canvases to seem like windows, providing a glimpse of a naval battle on the outside. Probably Tromp found inspiration for the decoration of this room in ships' interiors. A somewhat similar decoration can be found in a drawing of the interior of a ship by Pieter Jansz. Post. The works can be considered as a memorial of the heroism of Cornelis Tromp and his father, since the depicted battles played an important role in the lifes of either Cornelis or Maerten Tromp. In two of the four bays Cornelis paid tribute to his deceased father, by having battles depicted in which he played an important role. Stylistic comparison has resulted in an attribution of the canvases to the painter Aernout Smit (ca. 1641-1710), who employed a similar way of creating depth by overlapping vessels and by using atmospheric perspective. In addition, the rendering of the sky and water is identical with that in Smit's work, as is the simplified portrayal of the ships and the schematic depiction of the crew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT As a relatively new conceptual narrative, the history of interior design has various potential starting points. Thus far, interior design histories have followed either art, architectural or decorative arts histories in order to establish a coherent, progressive narrative that might both contextualize and frame possibilities for contemporary practice. While older historical surveys of the discipline typically located the origins of interior design in ancient civilizations such as Greece or Rome, recent historical surveys have followed an art historical convention in locating the origins of interior design in the Paleolithic caves of Europe. This paper contains a review of literature on the beginnings of interior design's historical narrative, as well as a reconsideration of the cave as a conceptual foundation for interior design theory and practice. The Paleolithic cave is here re-evaluated as both an historical origin that distinguishes interior design history from architectural and art history, and as a speculative, theoretical space rich with possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the interiors of housing used during the Great Depression in the mining community of the Rabbithole Springs Mining District in Nevada from 1929 to the 1940s. The author suggests that archaeological investigation of the remains of the four housing buildings reveals information about the domestic life of the community's inhabitants. Specific topics include the methodology of historical archaeology, the uses of various domestic interior spaces in Rabbithole Springs, the economic conditions of the inhabitants, and the remote nature of the buildings.

The beginnings of design histories are inconsistent. While industrial design histories tend to begin with European industrialization in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, other design disciplines claim a longer genealogy. Art, interior design and graphic design narratives each claim the Paleolithic caves in Southern France and Spain as their mythical birthplace: Altamira, Lascaux and/or Chauvet are used as a conventional starting point in standard textbook histories. A close analysis of the beginnings of several conventional design histories provides a starting point for addressing the cave's place in design history. While historical writing is rarely considered as a poetic practice, in this article, I will examine the poetic construction of the cave as a space for both the projections of contemporary ideas about design and, more importantly, the starting point of a narrative that anxiously binds progressive civilization to specifically European cultural roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reception of royal visitors in the Coudenberg Palace often offered welcome employment opportunities for the local artists. The royal courts service requested artists and artisans to decorate the reception rooms of the palace and to ensure the comfort of the important visitors. And so it was in July 1556, as a result of the farewell visit which Maximilian of Austria, son of Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and King of Bohemia, and his wife, the Infante Maria, paid to Emperor Charles V, who soon after was to depart the Netherlands definitively. Many painters and artisans were put to work on decorating the palace rooms and organising the festivities. The painter Simon van Nevele led a group of painters who worked at the palace over a period of six weeks. The court upholsterer Jehan Duchesne was responsible for hanging tapestries in the palace. With the carpet weaver and dealer Willem de Pannemaeker he cleaned and restored the various tapestries from the palace collection for the occasion. The embroiderer Gilles de Ville was requested to restore an old embroidered carpet with his companions. The four silver-plated legs of the large field bed, a gift from King Filips to the Infante, were taken on by goldsmith Antoine Le Comte. Maria of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Governess to the Netherlands, who closely followed the organisation of the royal visit, commissioned the glass painter Niclaas of Conincxloo with the general review of the palace's stained-glass windows. The above mentioned artists, worked under permanent employment for the court or were considered reputable by the courts services. Their cooperation in 1556 forms the basis of this article, to further illustrate, using information previously unknown, their artistic activity in Brussels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about a conference held in Wörlitz, Germany on September 24-26, 2009. Topics under discussion at the conference focused on the the history of interior decoration in England and in Germany. Presentations were given by international historians Heinrich Dilly, Christiane Holm, and Beate Söntgen.

The Triconch House at Aphrodisias is a large Late Roman peristyle house in the ancient city center. It has long been known as the Bishop's Palace because of its proximity to the cathedral at Aphrodisias, but this name is probably only accurate for the latest period of the building's history (ninth-12th centuries). The house is in the heart of a complex of civic and administrative buildings and is distinctive for its triple-apsed hall, or triconch. As it is preserved today, the site of the Triconch House reflects largely its fifth-century appearance. The architectural development of the site of the Triconch House mirrors the major phases of the history of Aphrodisias, from its emergence as a Hellenistic planned town in the second century B.C.E. through its heyday as a wealthy city of the Roman empire and its endurance as a Late Antique provincial capital to finally its contraction into a Christian village and pilgrimage site in the Middle Byzantine period. The triconch dining room is rare in the Greek East, but it and the plan of the Triconch House find parallels in form and function among the villas of the western provinces and townhouses of North Africa. This study is an examination of the Late Antique Triconch House—its architecture and interior decoration—within its local urban environment and the wider context of housing in the later Roman empire. It also presents an evaluation of the evidence for the identification of the building as a governor's and/or bishop's palace and for its identification in the Late Hellenistic/Early Imperial period as a gymnasium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Knoll Planning Unit (1943-71), the interior design service of Knoll Associates, was responsible for some of the most innovative corporate interior design of the post-war period. The Planning Unit was directed by Florence Knoll (born 1917,), who trained as an architect and designed buildings, interiors, furniture and textiles over the course of her career. Florence Knoll was part of a movement to professionalize interior design in America and played a key role in defining the new field of interior design. The offices she designed for the Planning Unit were distinguished by a humanized modernism which combined spare form with rich textures and vivid colour. They showcased the Knoll look, a recognizable combination of furniture, colours and fabrics that became the trademark of Knoll design. Through a combination of prestigious clients, astute promotion and skilled staff Florence Knoll and the Knoll Planning Unit turned tins corporate humanized modernism into a ubiquitous reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a brief history of fear of crime and its relationship to city building in Western civilization. Linking of society's insecurity to nostalgia for the past; Motivations for defensive urbanism; Efforts to diminish fear through design; Fear and urbanism from the Renaissance to the 1960s; Transformations in interior design and in building and city design.

This paper seeks to determine whether or not current history of interior design publications are flawed by embedded gender discrimination, thus devaluing the role of women in the development of the interior design profession. In order to reveal the extent to which women's achievements are marginalized, devalued or ignored, five texts that incorporate information on the history of the interior design profession will be analyzed using methods structured in feminist scholarship. According to DuBois etal. (T 985), the most common methods by which an author reveals gender discrimination include (T) the omission of women from the narrative, (2) the different value assigned to women'saccomplishments as a result of being viewed under masculine criteria, (3) the perpetuation of gender stereotyping, and (4) the language by which the subjects are described. The current literature on the history of the interior design profession is replete with evidence of gender discrimination. Women in the discipline of interior design are presented as being insignificant in the development of the profession. Instead, a masculine narrative of architects identifies a field dominated by women in number, but by men in perceived significance. In order to establish and understand the roots of interior design, the profession must add a feminine perspective on research. This in turn should assist interior design scholars in the development of a theoretical framework that acknowledges and disseminates the contributions of the early decorators. Otherwise, female interior design pioneers will continue to fall into anonymity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines extant collections of seventeenth-century household inventories from Leiden, Amsterdam, Haarlem and a group of small-town or rural areas in Netherlands. It is noted that the inventories will help explore the role and status of pictures in general, and still life in particular, within the larger context of Dutch material culture. The analysis involves some detailed caveats, but yields nonetheless a clearer picture, both on the anecdotal and on the statistical level, of patterns and ownership across various sectors of society and over time.

This article explores two characteristic aspects of Dutch interior design in the eighteenth-century. These include the suite connected by a porte-brisée and the built-in buffet used primarily for decorative purposes. The suite refers to a room that is connected to a room situated in front of it. Porte-brisée is a set of double doors in the middle of the wall of a suite. The evolution of the suite and that of porte-brisée are detailed. The eighteenth-century emergence of the ornate buffet built into a wall-panelling, usually in the form of a rather deep niche rounded at the top is detailed.

Presents information on how the idea of the artistic interior becomes entangled in class and gender politics in the 19th century in France, and how this social politics of taste was criticized by various novelists even as they also aided its dissemination. Details on home decorating in the 19th century; Examination of the concept `decoration interieure;' In-sight into the gender issues.

Focuses on the book `The American Woman's Home,' by Harriet Beecher. Description of chromolithographs as essential components in home interior decoration in 19th century America; How women accepted their roles as co-ordinators of home decorating during the nineteenth century.