http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com A WELL-TRAVELLED AESTHETIC Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:36:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Until the nineteenth century most poor people worked outdoors and were tanned and thus the rich wished to be pale.  In ancient Greece and Rome affluent women whitened their faces with white lead paint (with deadly consequences).  The fashion for pale skin continued among European elites until the early twentieth ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=267 My grandfather, who was a boy in the early 20th century, told the story of how his family rented a farmhouse in the French countryside. As they planned to stay for a few years, his father asked if he could install indoor plumbing at his own expense.  The farmer let ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=246 White Some people think that white is the absence of color.  But that is exactly what it is not! White is produced by combining all of the visible colors of light in equal proportions.  While blue is the most popular, since the early 20th century there has been no color ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=256 Since time immemorial people have had old furniture. But when did an old piece of furniture become a valued “antique”?  The short answer is during the latter half of the 19th century in Britain and in the 1920s in the U.S. It is no coincidence that an interest in antiques ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=238 Whoever coined the term “nothing succeeds like excess,” probably needed their decorator to rein them in.  Excess as a design principle rarely works -- whether too large, too many, or too bright.  But what constitutes excess?  It’s not easy to say because excess varies culturally, historically and by social class. ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=213 6th Screen by James DuncanStanding Mirror by James Duncan Representations of the Greek god Narcissus conventionally show him gazing at himself in a reflecting pool, the first mirror. (Narcissus by Caravaggio) The history of the mirror is a fascinating story of an object which has gone from being extraordinarily precious to absolutely ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=201 Trocadero Dining Table By James We all know that different cultures have different dining hours.  In Seville, many restaurants are packed with families at midnight.  The Spanish may be an extreme case, but if you go to a restaurant in Paris before nine in the evening, chances are that your only ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=190 “Oh, my God, real books!” a friend who is an interior designer observed ironically as he walked into my parent’s living room. “They’re academics,” I explained, knowing exactly what he meant. Unfortunately, a real library full of “real” books is all too rare these days. Quite apart from the pleasure ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=175 Bespoke Semi Circular Atlas Sofa by James Duncan Do you have a couch or a sofa? Some claim that they are not the same thing. Others think a sofa is simply an up-market couch.* But most Americans use the terms interchangeably. Actually the two terms have an interesting history, and so ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=151 Chains by James Stuart Duncan At the Milan Furniture Fair and in design magazines everywhere today we see the romance of the past. We see the return of Shaker furniture, steamer trunks and just about everything else, from 18th century French chairs to 1950s, 60s and 70s classics. Many of these ... http://blog.jamesstuartduncan.com/?p=141