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Victorian Furniture

Tabor Bedroom Set

Started by Wayne Mason · November 12, 2007 · 2 posts

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Victorian Furniture thread on victorianforum.com · started November 12, 2007 by Wayne Mason · 2 posts · discussion in 2007.

A number of the designs that decorate this set are copied from Modern Gothic Ornaments which was published by Ernst Plassman in 1875, New York City. In particular, the fox and owl panels are from plate XXII amd the bats come from plate XI. It's likely that other motifs also…

Wayne Mason #
A number of the designs that decorate this set are copied from Modern Gothic Ornaments which was published by Ernst Plassman in 1875, New York City. In particular, the fox and owl panels are from plate XXII amd the bats come from plate XI. It's likely that other motifs also come from this publication; a side-by-side comparison could confirm this. It's not surprising that a cabinetmaker used Plassman as a resource - that's how pattern books were used. This information doesn't help identify the shop this furniture came from, but gives some insight into how furniture was designed. Selecting elements from different sources and combining them was not uncommon and a library of pattern books would have been assembled by a manufacturer and referenced by the design department year after year. A reprint of Modern Gothic Ornaments was published by Stemmer House in 1981.