I usually shorten the title of one of my favorite early 19th century magazines to Ackermann’s Repository, and present here mainly its fashion entries. The full title, in fact, is (depending on the year) some variation of The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics. And it is truly a repository, a storehouse of all manner of things.
Each month's issue of about sixty pages contained a remarkable range of material. Along with considerably more literature—serial fiction, essays, poetry, etc—than we’re accustomed to seeing in today’s women’s magazines, Ackermann offered his readers glimpses of the hottest new styles in interior design and architecture.
From the October 1817 issue:
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FINE ARTS
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ARCHITECTURAL HINTS
Plate 18.—A GOTHIC COTTAGE
This building is suited to a small family, and would make a very convenient parsonage-house to a living of moderate income: it consists of a parlour, dining-room, and library; a kitchen, scullery, larder, &c. on the ground floor; and of four chambers and a dressing room on the bed-room floor. The design is picturesque in its effect; and if executed with a judicious attention to the forms of the doors, window, ceilings, &c., it would be come a very simple and neat example of domestic Gothic architecture. It is intended that the roof should be covered with tiles, but great care should be taken that they are from some other building, and have lost the offensive glare that red tiles always possess when new, for such a colour would be fatal to the pleasing effect of the building.
The gothick cottage was promoted in the US by Andrew Jackson Downing. A street in my town is named for him. He is a signal figure in American House Architecture.
ReplyDeleteAh, flashback to my history of architecture classes (thank you, Prof. Jordy)! This reminded me of A.J. Downing, too, as well as Calvert Vaux. His "Villas & Cottages" was incredibly influential in shaping American vernacular architecture, and Gothic cottages much like the one above remain a fixture in small towns all across America. Anyone know if the style was as popular in England?
ReplyDeleteI love this Gothic cottage! Lovely to know the date, as I had always thought this style was a decade later.
ReplyDeleteOooh! I can haz house?
ReplyDeleteI love the insistence on used tiles for the roof, rather the way people today want old bricks for their paths.
ReplyDeleteSusan pointed out to me that cottages like these appear in coastal New England, but they are an extremely rare species in my Industrial Era part of the world, so I found this cottage enchantingly different. As a writer, of course, I was delighted to see a floor plan—and yes, I'd like to live here, and I would even look for old tiles—much harder to find in NE than old bricks.
ReplyDeleteThis is downright lovley! I woul live here also. Maybe we live on the same country lane and visit each other for tea time. Thanks for the dreamy post.
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