High Point Furniture Market - The Fantasyland of Furniture
The Disneyesque world turns back the clock to the Yesterdayland of 18th-century France, England and America. Craftique's Biltmore Collection is mostly French, as are Harden's Louis XVI additions to the Forbes Collection. William E. Poole's newly architected classics at Hickory Chair are English-inspired, but distinctly different from E.J. Victor's primarily English side of Newport. Stickley stays stateside with the Historic Williamsburg Reserve Collection, but moves to turn-of-the-last-century Mission era in celebrating its first century with additional Craftsmen pieces. And, Thomasville visits early 20th-century French Deco in a new Hemingway chapter.
Complementing these structure were exotic animals, – in prints, leather finishes and hair-on-hide leather. There's even a touch of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean' in an excursion with Councill Craftsmen to the West Indies, and with Lexington Home Brands to the Bahamas with Tommy Bahama. Bassett's Chris Madden and Norwalk's Joe Ruggiero circle the globe for inspiration in new collections imprinted with their distinct HGTV personalities.
Sleek lines of mid-century modern and slightly formal contemporary are covered with organic fabrics, with minimalist designs in natural materials.
Since it opened in 1895, Biltmore House, constructed by George W. Vanderbilt III, has been one of America's castles. Much bigger than the one at Disneyland. Still privately owned by a direct descendant, it occupies over four acres of floor space with 250 rooms. And that's a lot of furniture.
Henredon sachets into the Deep South for its American Revival Natchez Collection, which adapts 19th-century American Greek and Rococo Revival designs. Which means that the Southern Planters were an affluent bunch who could afford the best. And what they wanted was flamboyant, freewheeling detail with serpentine shapes, beautiful and fancy veneers, elaborate feet, and as much carving as they could induce a cabinetmaker to apply. Henredon uses historically correct mahogany as well as figured ash burl and marble tops.
The Revival period marries 18th-century French and English design to 19th-century American Empire and English Regency. The result is surprisingly fresh with a hint of contemporary. Upholstery fabrics are textured – chenilles, boucles and silks – in neutral shades to complement the visually textured wood grains.
Even farther South, Councill Craftsmen adds a different element to its historic New Orleans Collection.
The new look uses solid mahogany with an antiqued, slightly sun-bleached finish on heavily carved pieces with tiger maple, rosewood, English yewwood and other fancy veneers. Upholstered pieces are covered in vintage fabrics and special leathers. One leather is silk-screened with the original charter for New Orleans when the Spanish ruled it. The history of the City that Time Forgot is woven into the very fibers of the collection.
Tommy Bahama takes Lexington Home Brands island hopping, for people who believe that life is one long weekend. Forget those annoying workaday weekdays. Billed as a "sophisticated casual" look, if these pieces were clothes, they wouldn't all be sportswear. Some would be cocktail dresses and tuxedoes. The attitude is 19th-century island with reeded detailing, vintage fabrics and warm finishes.
Bernhardt's Caneel Bay also embraces harmony of design realized in natural elements like wood and woven leather and rattan. This living room, dining room and bedroom collection is sculptured, and, is, as are almost all things natural, asymmetric. Design motifs like swaying sea grasses and sweeping curves celebrate elemental simplicity. It's more a way of life than a way of decorating.
Jackie Hirschhaut of American Furniture Manufacturers Association