When Buildings, Homes, Transportation and Everyday Things Were Also Art

We in the world of the 22nd Century are surrounded by the design ethic of ‘form should follow function’. Modern design of everything from the homes we live in to the automobiles we travel in to the everyday objects we live with have been designed almost totally for functionality with little if any view to any artistic elements. In the period from about 1870 to the Great Depression in this was not always the case. This was the age of invention and development of a wide range of consumer products - everything from homes (at least for the rich) to new products available, to transportation (cars, trains, airplanes) and the clothes the people living in those homes were wearing. It was an age of excess, but also of great beauty.

Below I have collected a sample of the way art was applied to homes, clothes, transportation and consumer goods the this period. At least for the rich.

Elevator in Vienna, designed by Otto Wagner in 1898

Blue Silk Ball Gown, New York, c. 1910

Facade Detail of the Palau Mornau, Barcelona 1908

Walking Dress, 1890’s

Sewing Set, 1890’s

Doll with Kitchen Set, 1870

Hamilton-Turner Inn Circa 1873 In Savannah, Georgia

Charles Over Mansion built in 1901 in Muncie, IN

Summer Dress by Hermès and Simca 8 Coupe Car. Photograph for "Rester jeune" magazine. Paris, May 1939.,Photographer Boris Lipnitzki( 1887 — 1971)

Art Nouveau Clocks 1900-1910

1883 Cape May New Jersey

Louis Comfort Tiffany, table lamp, 1897-1905

Woman drinking from a communal cup at a pump, 1899.

Teacup Trio, c1890

Wooden fruit cradle, art nouveau era.

The Gamwell House

Apartment in Paris c1900

Hale House, Los Angeles

Window at Horace Peck House

Maison Célèbre in Alameda, CA

Hôtel Solvay, Brussels, Belgium

Villa Görke, Leipzig, Germany

Evening Dress

Art Deco Mansion, West Palm Beach, USA

Art Deco Lake House

Art Deco Apartment Building - 1928

Bowl and 4 Piece Jam & Jelly Set - 1930s

Wall Art at Will Rogers High School, Tulsa, OK

A Bohemian Uranium Glass Perfume Bottle, 1930s

Art Deco Villa

Art Deco Wrought Iron and Gilded Metal Screen

Hall of Waters

Hall of Waters, also known as Siloam Park and Springs, is a historic building located at Excelsior Springs, Clay County, Missouri. It was first related to mineral waters discovered in the area and is now used as a city building.

1930 Delahaye Bugnotti Roadster

House 1886 New Orleans Louisiana

Art Deco Armchairs

House in Tel Aviv Built 1933

1937 Talbot Lago

Door Knocker 1890s

1930 Cadillac V16 Speedster Custom

La Villa Direckz, Belgium 1929

Ladies of Fashion 1890s

Antwerp Central Station - 1905

Landmark House in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Barillet House, 1900 Art Nouveau house in Orleans (France)

Illustration Poster of The Denver Zephyr Train

The Staircase By Paul Cesar Helleu

Watching the Horse Racing at the Auteuil Hippodrome in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, France, 1912.

Chrysler Building Detail, Opened in 1930 NYC

Claude Monet‘s Kitchen, Built 1883 Giverny, France

Sewing machine, 1867

Sleeping Car on the Orient Express

Art Nouveau Desk, 1902.

Voisin C27 Aérosport 1934

Sparton 457X Radio Designed by Walter Dorwin Teague in 1936.

Shelley Green Blocks Tea Set, 1930s

Chandelier by Frank Lloyd Wright

The Dana-Thomas house in Springfield, IL

Art Noveau bentwood and wicker armchair, 1910, France, by Clement Gelly & Cie

Usherwood, built 1936 Dorking, Surrey, England

Addison 2 "Waterfall" Catalin Art Deco Radio

Armchairs 1920s - 1930s

George D. Sturges House by Frank Lloyd Wright

It’s been more than 80 years since the completion of the historic George D. Sturges House, a Frank Lloyd Wright single-family home located at 449 North Skyewiay Road in Brentwood Heights. Considered a futuristic, architectural masterpiece, the George D. Sturges House is the only Usonian-style home, a design term coined by Wright, in Southern California.

Poster for the Orient Express

Dining Table on the Orient Express

Hôtel Le Belvédère du Rayon Vert Built between 1928 and 1932

1925 Round Door ROLLS ROYCE Phantom; designed by Jockheere Carrossiers Auto Body co., Belgium

Childs Peddle Car 1930s

Wrought Iron Door

Lined with stained glass windows depicting irises (Probably by Raphael Evaldre) and equipped with handles in lizard shape. Personal house architect Fran Hemelsoet, from Art Nouveau style 1902. Schaerbeeck,Brussels, Belgium.

1938 Talbot-Lago