RUPERT CAVENDISH ANTIQUES

THE ART DECO STYLE

Ballroom designed in 1927 by

mile-Jacques Ruhlmann for
the Chambre de Commerce in
Paris

Art Deco was a popular international art and

design movement from about 1910, when Art
Nouveau waned in popularity, into the 1940s. It
was seen as elegant, glamorous, functional and
modern. The movement was inspired from
different styles like Neoclassicism, Biedermeier,
Cubism, Art Nouveau and Futurism. It influenced
architecture, furniture, design and industrial
design as well as paintings, graphic design,
fashion and films.
Its popularity grew enormously after the Paris
world exhibition of 1925, the 'Exposition
Internationale des Art Dcoratifs et Industriels
Modernes'.

Design mile-Jacques Ruhlmann

The revived interest in the style

started in 1966 when an exhibition
was held in Paris called 'Les Annes
'25'.
The term Art Deco was coined by the
British art historian Bevis Hillier in
his 1968 book Art Deco of the 1920s
and 1930s published by Studio
Vista/Dutton Picture books that was
the first major work on a hitherto
neglected style.
In the 1980s magazines like The
World of Interiors, House & Garden
and Architectural Digest showed
many period interiors as well as Art
Deco in modern settings.
The Victoria & Albert Museum's
highly acclaimed exhibition in 2003
explored how Art Deco represented
new values and responded to human
needs through the conscious
celebration of fantasy, fun, glamour
and commerce becoming the most
popular style of the 20th century.
Salon furnished with Ruhlmann furniture

New types of furniture appear like coffee tables

and cocktail cabinets that are products of the
new more informal lifestyle.
Designers like the Viennese Josef Hoffmann
(1870-1956) and Scottish Charles Rennie
Mackintosh (1868-1928) at the turn of the
century greatly inspired French Art Deco
designers.
The grand furniture with exotic dark woods and
inlays by French Parisian designers like mileJacques Ruhlmann (1879-1933) is in stark
contrast to Finnish designers like Eliel Saarinen
(1873-1950) who created light, airy interiors

with simple blond furniture.

Design Charles Rennie Mackintosh

In Scandinavia, Britain and the USA

it was often the simpler Art Deco
furniture that was most popular
during this period.
Paul Frankl (1886-1958) was one of
the most successful designers of Art
Deco furniture working in New York.
His best-known pieces were his
birchwood 'Skyscraper' bookcases
and cabinets.

Dining room in the president's house at Cranbrook

Academy of Art, Michigan, USA designed by Eliel Saarinen

At the other end of the spectrum

was Terence Robsjohn Gibbings
(1905-76) who created blonde
furniture described as 'Neoclassical
art modern creations'. Today it's the
simpler Art Deco that is most
popular being preferred to pieces
with elaborate inlays. An American
writer describing Scandinavian Art
Deco wrote: 'proportions are small,
comfortable and familiar, light woods
muted values of clear colours and a
general air of reasonableness have
made it a distinct style'.

A leading Finnish designer was Alvar Alto (18981976) who exhibited laminated birchwood
furniture at Fortnum & Masons in 1933.
Much of the best Scandinavian Art Deco furniture
was made in Sweden during the 1920s and
1930s and the style continued well into the
1940s (Sweden had the good fortune not to be
involved in World War II).
Josef Frank (1885-1967) who immigrated to
Sweden in 1933 escaping the Nazis created
handsome Art Deco furniture for the firm
Svenskt Tenn in Stockholm.

Design Paul Frankl

Cark Malmsten (1888-1972) was

Sweden's leading Art deco furniture
designer who worked closely with NK
(Nordiska Kompaniet) creating high
quality blonde furniture for major
projects such as the Stockholm Town
Hall (completed in 1923).
Design Terence Robsjohn Gibbings

The Swedish designer Axel Einar Hjort(18881959) was influenced by the French Art Deco
style but changed direction to the Modernist style
around 1930. Hjort designed the interior and the
furniture for the Swedish Pavilion at the
Barcelona Exhibition 1929. This attracted
considerable attention and led to a growing
international reputation as an innovative and
original furniture designer. In 1930 at the
Stockholm Exhibition Hjort exhibited twelve room
settings from luxurious suites to simpler
pinewood furniture.
Design Axel Einar Hjort

Today with Minimalism regarded as

pass the trend is to have a modern
interior with some antiques as a
contrast. As the simpler Art Deco
furniture goes brilliantly with modern
furniture often bringing elegance,
glamour and panache to what might
otherwise be a bland interior. This
has led to resurgence in the
popularity of Art Deco.

Rupert Cavendis
Design Alvar Alto

ART DECO Furniture and 1940s MODERNISM

Art Deco Cupboard c. 1930-1940

Click here to read about the
Art Deco style
Updated 23 February 2010

Art Deco Period

Alabaster Lamps

(Click on a thumbnail for a larger picture and a description)

Art Deco Style Carpets

This is a small selection of our carpets