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A characteristic of the late 19th Century was the Art Nouveau style (known in Germany as Jugendstil and in Italy as Stile Liberty, a reflection on the famous London store Liberty & Co.). However although there was much discussion and writing about this style, very few houses could afford to indulge. Most households of the upper classes were styled in a dense and dark style based heavily on historical ideas, which had been adapted for mechanical manufacturing processes that were developed in the nineteenth century.
The dominating English styles at this time were imposed by the ideals of the family house, this is because the greater houses had over the past one and a half centuries collected many items, filling the rooms with chairs and trinkets which covered all available spaces. A similar style had developed in France, and is often referred to as "Bric-a-brac-o-mania" Here was the first time that widespread collecting of antiques took place, instead of mainly a scholarly pastime.
The early 20th century was the start of the arts an craft movement where a multitude of publications appeared which initially supported the Art Nouveau style, but also incorporating other styles such as Tudor, Dutch or middle eastern. These publications allowed designers to gain international reputation, for example Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
During the early years of the century many in the household furnishing trade had adapted traits of Art Nouveau to produce cheaper items. However Art Nouveau started to go out of favour by 1905, and by 1910 was uncommon. The use of period furniture had come in favour, to depict the aspects of period design
Much interest in the adaptation of historic styling to suit modern requirements was apparent. An interest in the plain styled rooms of the late eighteenth century was shown (which had been previously ignored in favour of the more cluttered an decorated designs). Other elements that were brought together for the popular styles were from the Arts and Crafts use of simplicity together with high quality workmanship and materials. This started to shift the emphasis from ornamental to simple high quality furnishings. A popular notion in the early part of the 20th century was that of the frieze, acting as a centrepiece normally with relief work horizontally around it, a popular style of frieze was the "crown".
The 1920's were an unusual time, with the recovery from the Great War having a great influence in the styling of the homes. The regarding of interior decorating as a branch of fashion started to gain acceptance as magazines such as Vogue stared to publish articles about the subject, which resulted in faster changes of style and the suiting of decoration to suit the "lifestyle". Grand styles scaled down for modern life, to avant-garde styling were employed, which all tended to create modern interpretations of past styles. Outside influences also became important, such as the demand for original Chinese wallpaper, which became in great demand, which resulted in reproduction of the designs taking place. This is also true of many other pieces. The great demand for these particular pieces resulted in only a few being able to employ them, and so other sources such as Baroque, Regency or Victorian were used. Another possibility was the total abandonment of the collection of antiques and instead perusing modern styles.
