Antique Hall Stands for Coats and Umbrellas
Wooden Hall Stands (for coats, umbrellas, etc.)
The hall stand is an interesting piece of furniture for sociological reasons as much as stylistic ones. What did the first hall stand look like Are there 18th century hall stands There are boot racks and planks full of pegs or nails from the 18th century but the hall stand in its form shown on these pages appears to be a 19th century development, something which grew along with the increase in halls in houses. For the 18th century cottage, there was rarely a hall. One simply fell down the front step into the living room, hitting one’s head on the beams. For the wealthier gentry, external clothes and hats would be taken away by a servant. No, it must have been the same, well-worn old Rise of the Self-Sufficient Middle Class, with its entrance hall or passage, where coats, hats, boots and umbrellas were parked, which gave rise to the need for this piece of furniture. Now the hall stand is gradually dying, too wasteful of space to compete with pegs on the wall, too profligate in providing for far too many umbrellas and walking-sticks made redundant by the motor car. The hall itself is under attack, shrinking and shrinking so as to provide more space allocation to the living areas within a house.
And yet one retains an affection for the old hall stand. Its ability to tear a sleeve if passed by in a hurry; its mirror, uselessly hidden behind coats hanging upon it; its metal umbrella trays, full of cigarette ash; its
cunningly-designed centre of gravity, so sure to allow it, when the last heavy coat was hung upon it, to tip forward and crush one beheath it; these are the things that one misses. And the sheer exposure of leaving a
good coat or umbrella open to view on the hall stand of a populous family house; the certainty that it or they would be missing when needed.
What really makes the hall stand a thing of the past is the modern desire for neatness and order. A hall stand covered in coats, mackintoshes, umbrellas and galoshes or wellies is a muddlesome, unlovely sight. The
clothes closet, with its hangers and the vacuum cleaner, has supplanted it. There has been a recent vogue in America to use wardrobes (q.v.) in place of a stand, thus hiding the offensive paraphernalia away and
causing yet another container shipping boom, this time from the old wardrobe market. The Habitat brigade have gone in for bright red bentwood stands (q.v.). The hall stand of seventy years ago is having a job to avoid the hatchet; mark this progression of them before they disappear, leaving only the odd survivor in the museums.
A hall stand which was produced in oak or mahogany, incorporating a broken pediment, finials and two cupboards either side of the umbrella stand. More 18th century in conception but typically Edwardian in its use of the bas-relief carved panels and, indeed, in that particular form of broken pediment, which was used on so many pieces of larger furniture. 1900-1915
A combination hall stand incorporating a broken pediment and a cupboard on bulbous carved `Elizabethan’ legs. A piece to meet the prevailing fashion for carved oak furniture, with lion masks, scrolled dolphin-like
objects and acanthus leaves all proclaiming the maker’s open-minded attitude to the use of motifs from widely different periods. The temptation to break this piece up for use as various bits of other pieces of furniture would be strong to the modern producer.
The influence of art furniture upon hall stands. A mahogany or walnut model with a gallery of turned spindles above the mirror and a tiled panel above the glove box. Alas, however, a broken pediment surmounts the whole, reverting to a classicism Collcutt and Godwin would not have liked. 1900-1915
A hall stand, available in oak, mahogany or American walnut, of slightly more developed form. The bevelled mirror has beaten metal panels over and above it and the front legs are turned.
A slignt genuflection towards the progressive movement here. Look at the flat top with its deep-set moulding; the hooped umbrella rail; the tapering frontal leg under the brush drawer. Art nouveau has had a look in.
The round bevelled mirror, though practical, is out of keeping with the shapes preferred by the art nouveau designers, however.
A bamboo hall stand in which the maker, confronted with a surplus of material, has joyfully cross-strutted the framing and added fanciful chinoiserie grilles around the mirror.
An oak hall stand with an oval mirror and a brush box, surmounted by a broken pediment on top. It is 6ft.9ins. high and the top pegs ensure that only the master of the house or a particularly lanky offspring can reach the hats parked up there. A wise precaution: many a Homburg has been smashed due to juvenile collisions with the hall stand.
A simple hall stand with a narrow mirror, a glove box and two umbrella holders, with metal trays. The fretted corner brackets are decorative, an attempt to disguise its appearance as a guillotine frame.
An oak hall stand for umbrellas, with a glove box or drawer. The carving is typical of late 19th/early 20th century `oakiness’ with a lion mask and scrolland-leaf forms. Now something of an anachronism and ripe for conversion into a console table of some sort.
fibo steel gold bracelet turquoise
beautiful hoop earrings 18kt yellow
pink gold ring with zirconia
pink gold ring with zirconia
ring alfieri st john
bliss pearl ring and beads
Tags: 18th century, Art Nouveau, century cottage, century development, cupboard, Mahogany, middle class, oak, STANDS, Walnut, Wooden