Category Archives: Designer’s Alphabet

onder – as in a sense of wonder. Most children have it, but adults let it slip away like wind driven clouds. You may experience wonder peering through a microscope, yet it isn’t something you can pin down and dissect. … Continue reading →

is for urn. This is an example of cross pollination between furniture, architecture, and related decorative arts. The urn or vase form goes far back into pre-history in the ancient world from the clay vessels used for the for a … Continue reading →

ansu, a name covering a wide range of traditional Japanese storage chests. Often associated with portable movable furniture, tansu chests developed into specialized forms for use on merchant ships, carrying swords, lock boxes for securing valuables, as well as storing … Continue reading →

ector, also called by the French, the compass of  proportion. Sectors were the pre-industrial equivalent of a slide rule or a modern calculator. Prior the 19th century, geometry was the dominant means of resolving mathematical problems and the sector was … Continue reading →

is for Running Dog, also called a Vitruvian Scroll. A running dog is a continuous pattern like a wave or geometric layout usually adorning the flat surface of a frieze. Carved running dog patterns show up in endless variety on … Continue reading →

erdix, also known as Talus or Calus. A Greek mythological figure, the nephew of Daedalus a skilled craftsman. Perdix apprenticed to Daedalus and under his tutelage was credited with the invention of the first saw fashioned from the backbone of a fish. He … Continue reading →

Louis Majorelle (1859 – 1926) a French furniture designer and manufacturer, and leading figure in the Art Nouveau style. Classically trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His designs feature an organic theme often incorporating flowing plants and flowers … Continue reading →

is for Inigo Jones, b 1573, d 1652 – England’s first prominent architect. Jones had far reaching impact on furniture design by the fact that the ideas he unleashed impacted Briton and everything she touched for over 150 years. Before … Continue reading →

is for Paul Iribe (1883 – 1935), a multifaceted and prolific illustrator and designer in the decorative arts. His furniture designs spanned the end of the Art Nouveau and the beginning of the Art Deco movements. This chest above reflects … Continue reading →