The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-12

|"O Birmingham's great credit be 1t known, that in her midst lives a
 \ young man who has by sheer force of ability, talent and energy built for himself the inviable reputation of know ing practically all there is to know about house furnishing, it's artistic as we'll as it's practical side
 This young man is MT. Berney B. Love- man. whose taste is acknowledged to be unsurpassed in the matter of furniture, draperies, rugs. and decorations. MT. Loveman has made an analytical study of these things; he has reduced housefur- nishing to a science; he knows how to combine colors and produce the most pleasing effects; he has studied art, orien- talism, ceramics, and other lines which are substantial accessories to the practi- cal art of house furnishing.
 I chanced to chat with MT. Loveman recently about the newest things in furni- ture. We drifted into a discussion of many things including mahogany, Flemish oak. Mission, and other designs of furniture, which resolved itself into the question:
 What is the ideal home of today''
 MT. Loveman answered by saying:
 From time immemorial, the word home has never meant house. Home is not an object. It is feeling, an in- fluence. an atmosphere built largely by it's surroundings, it's fittings and its in mates. The stone hut of the ancient cave dwellers was a home. When the head of this hand-hewn rock domicile went forth and upon his return brought the hide of a long, hairy creature, cured it and threw 1t at the feet of his female for a floor covering, his home had begun. The hide was the beginning of comfort, beauty, and peace. Thus today, even after the mar velous and various changes that have come between the earliest habitations and modern dwellings, we go forth to bring the furnishings from the mart to our hearths. to bring things which combine the comfortable with the beautiful True today, however. as a rule the mistress of the home takes the initiative, not the master. but that is, indeed, her place.
 Many departures and evolutions of furniture and architectural designs have been brought about during the different
 
 the test of time'-due always to their hav- ing some art element of merit expressed in beauty of line dignity, true simplicity, color, carvings, bracings, turnings, or proper ornateness. Period styles in furniture and architecture were not origi- mated for modern commercial gain. Nearly all the good designs were influenced by the history and events affecting the To- cality of their origin. The Romans adapted much of the Grecian architecture after their Grecian conquest. Napoleon's con- quest of Egypt after the empire brought much of the Egyptian into the artisan ship of the French. This can be mo- ticed today in the details of Louis XIV furniture, where the idolized objects of the Egyptians form the nucleus of the carvings). The beginning of extensive commerce with the orient brought much of the Chinese feeling into the execution of the wonderful work of the foremost English cabinet makers"
 "The designs of the English masters he continued, ''the so-called Elizabethaii, Jacobean. William and Mary, the archi- tectural and art objects of the Renais- sance; the later English period furniture. patterned by Chippendale Sheraton. the Adam Brothers and Hepplewhite; the Dutch and Flemish contributions, and finally the colonial or early American additions, were all effected in their origin by some then existing conditions, even though 1t were just the whim of a king. There is no subject about which more can be said than that of home furnishings This is due mainly to the fact that a home can and should be fitted and ar- ranged according to the individual taste