Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)
Zsolt SOMOGYI: An Adaptable Applied Artist. Pál Horti's American Furniture
of these represented a source and an inspiration for American furniture designers. Unembellished, simply constructed furniture that serves its purpose and that is most often made from pine or maple without the use of machinery is still very popular in the United States. Characteristic are the Shaker pieces of furniture popular with the Arts & Crafts designers, for example the ladder-back chair, the trestle table and the chest of drawers with many drawers. Rocking chairs, too, were favored by the Arts & Crafts movement. Shaker furniture for seating purposes often featured the use of cane, matting or leather. 14 Although these closed communities did not attempt to win converts, their way of life, their material culture and their furniture may nevertheless have had the effect of a mission on the applied artists of the late 19 th century, and the name may refer to their Protestant origin. The connection with the Arts & Crafts movement is proved by geographical location also: the most important Amish and Shaker communities lived in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois, and it was this area that became the centre of Arts & Crafts in America. As did ethnographical research in Transylvania for creative artists of the Hungarian Art Nouveau, this 'pure source' in many cases yielded direct formal borrowings in American Arts & Crafts furniture. (It is interesting that Charles Limbert, who had links with Horti, founded one of his factories in Holland, Michigan. The name of this settlement likewise refers to the influence outlined above, namely to immigrants from the Netherlands.) That the pieces in the suites were given high numbers in the catalogue indicates that they did not belong among the factory's earliest products. However, if we are prepared to heed a particular sentence in the introduction of the catalogue ('Working in harmony with this idea [i.e. Arts & Crafts 5. Viennese Clock (no. 339.) from inheritance of Horti's widow. Private Collection, Budapest. Photo by György Kaczúr
