Often on Ebay you will see a term "Eastlake Furniture". Often people will erroniously claim that it was manufactured by Eastlake. Charles Eastlake was an Architect and designer whos is best known for a book 'Hints on Household Taste'. In this book he advised that the Roccoco Style was no longer fasionable and that one should look for furniture where form followed function. Essentially Eastlake advocated simple solid, unvarnished furniture with abstract, rather than naturalistic decoration.
Many unknowlegeable sellers will often represent that furniture was "built" by Eastlake however there is no evidence to suggest that Eastlake ever produced or manufatured any furniture. He did do some drawings in his book for his suggestions. Some high end American furniture amnufactuturers built furniture based on this "style" such as Kimbel and J. Cabus, Daniel Pabst, and Herter Brothers..
Hoewever while Eastlake advocated quality construction, much furniture that people call "Eastlake" today was mass produced less expensive Victorian Era furniture produced for the average household and was not produced at a level of quality that he would have ever endorsed.
Buyers should always look carefully at any claim that furniture was manufactured by Eastlake and should be skeptical of anyone claiming to have Authentic Eastlake furniture of furniture attributed to Eastlake or an appraisal identifying the furniture as done by Eastlake. No knowlegable appraiser would ever state that any furniture was 'manufactured' by eastlake.
We have been sellers of Victiorian Furniture for over 20 yrs and work as a Historic Restoration Consultants and interiod designers to owners of Victorian Homes and regularly contribute to several online newsgroups for Victorian Enthusiasts.
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