Rustics Style [antikvár]

{ ANTECEDENTS Rustic style did not originate in North America. Nor is it a product of the twentieth century. It could Ije said that rustic style goes back to our earliest ancestors. In the forests, plains, and savannahs of prehistory early humans lived by their wits and used handmade implements; they kept souvenirs of their hunts and their adventures; they mounted the horns of the great beasts they slew on the walls of their huts. Eventually, to avoid lying on the damp earth or sitting on uncomfortable rock, they made beds and chairs from saplings and the limbs of mature trees. When tools evolved sufficiently to cut wood more precisely, they fashioned tables and storage furniture from planks sawed from lengths of tree trunks. In time, the furnishings of homes became much more sophisticated. Cities grew up and from Ancient Egypt to modern times, a wide range of styles in furnishing and home decor developed. To some extent, humankind lost its connection with the earth. But the out-of-doors and natural objects held their interest for us. Pets and gardens of various kinds remind us of our connection to the earth. We often vacation in glorious mountain environments and relax by clear waters. Nature calls deeply to our spirits. And some among us keep hints of nature close by in the form of home furnishings and decoration, whether wc live in densely populated modern cities or in a rural setting. More than twenty-five-thousand log cabins are built in North America every year. The Japanese import more than ten thousand log homes each year. Rustic lodges, camps, and cabins have sprung up or have been restored from an eadier life all across America and Europe. Magazines such as Country Living, Architectural Digest, and many other publications feature rustic settings of the grandest nature on their monthly pages. Rustic style is a way of living, and it remains a part of many of us. The earliest documentation of rustic furnishings comes from thirteenth-century wood block prints from China. Shown in various prints are several different kinds of tables and chairs fashioned from the roots of trees and with bases of tree stumps. Of course, for centuries, people on all the continents lived with what we would now call rustic style furnishings. The Scandinavian Vikings in their Mead Halls, Africans in their nuid-brick huts, Eastern Europeans in their Boheniian hunting lodges, and countless other groups over time used natural materials