The word, gracious, comes from the Middle English word, gracious, which originally meant, “having received divine grace”, from the French “graceius” meaning the same, and from the Latin “gratiosus“ meaning enjoying favor, agreeable.” Its first known use was in the 14th century.
As regular readers of Hadley Court know, the 3 hallmarks of Hadley Court are Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions. Today on the blog, I thought it would be fun and interesting to define the etymology of the word “gracious”, to share a bit about the history of French curves with you, and to give you an idea for a new family tradition based on timeless design. If you saw Leslie Hendrix Wood’s own post *A Taste of Europe* over the weekend, about her recent family vacation to Paris and Salzburg, you will see that she loves French curves.
Do you remember using a set of French curves as drafting tools if you are a designer? Perhaps you still do?
So many forms we’re familiar with today in furniture and interior design were originally developed using French curves, like this gorgeous 1820’s era sofa constructed out of white pine, tulip, ash and cherry from the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection that is on display at Yale University’s Art Gallery.
Many of the rare books from England and France at the Bienenstock Furniture Library in High Point, North Carolina, which contains the country’s largest collection of rare books on furniture and furniture history that is free and open to the public, also contain examples of furniture made using french curves.
Where did French curves originate? Noone quite seems to know, but a fascinating online hunt for the answer to that question led me to learn that a German, Ludwig Burmester, designed the drawing tools we know today as *french curves.* Furthermore, it seems it was the country of manufacturing of the original tools made of wood, France, that led them to be called “French* curves.
Further reading led me to find out that, “Curves were employed by draftsmen for centuries; the majority of these curves were circles, but some were “free-form.” Those are curves arising from applications such as ship hull design to architecture. When they had to be drawn exactly, the most common tool was a set of templates known as French curves. These are carefully designed wooden curves and consist of pieces of conics and spirals.
Conics and spirals are abundantly found in nature.
The 53rd plate from Ernst Haeckel’s book, Kunstformen der Natur { 1904 }
A tiny close up of a natural spiral
French curves, coming as they do from natural forms, continue to be as popular today in the decorative arts and architecture as when explorers were first guided by nature and the stars to explore our world.
Are you looking for a family vacation that will help your children learn about our miraculous universe and the connections between the shapes in the sky, and the shapes in their homes, schools and play spaces? Have you considered visiting the world famous McDonald Observatory, located in West Texas, not far from where Leslie Hendrix Wood practices design in Midland? The McDonald Observatory is a division of the University of Texas, Austin, where Leslie’s daughter, Amy, will begin her freshman year of college this fall.
Your children might enjoy the Observatory’s *star parties*, one of which is pictured below. Maybe a yearly visit could become a new family tradition?
Recently, UT’s Board of Regents authorized a 50 million dollar expenditure for the McDonald Observatory to be part of building the world’s largest telescope, the Magellan Telescope, to be completed in 2020.
Does one of your children yearn to explore our universe?
A picture of a constellation from our Milky Way from the world famous Hubble Space Telescope, below, shows what those early explorers most likely saw, which more than likely influenced the use of the beautiful french curves we all admire now in gracious interiors like…
this one of the the Tulip Stairs at the Queen’s House in Greenwich by Inigo Jones. This was the first centrally unsupported stairs constructed within the first wholly classical building in England.
And another close up of the famous Tulip Stairs, utilizing the french curve and the spiral.
And lastly, the most precious natural curve and spiral of all…
for
The Team At Hadley Court
Leslie Hendrix Wood, founder
Decorator
Chancellor Interiors
Midland, Texas
Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.
We invite you to please enter our #Timeless Design Giveaway here, https://hadleycourt.com/giveaway and subscribe to our giveaaway partner Gabby Home’s blog here, and to follow Gabby Home on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram here, here,here, here and here and to subscribe to Hadley Court here and to follow Hadley Court on
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THANK YOU!
Star and space images courtesy of
http://spacetelescope.com + http://hubblesite.org
