Selling Home Furnishings: A Training Program
by Roscoe R. Rau · English · Gutenberg #49384 · 601,878 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Selling Home Furnishings: A Training Program
Author: Roscoe R. Rau
Walter F. Shaw
Release date: July 7, 2015 [eBook #49384]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELLING HOME FURNISHINGS: A TRAINING PROGRAM ***
[Illustration: SELLING HOME FURNISHINGS
VOCATIONAL DIVISION
BULLETIN NO. 216
Federal Security Agency U.S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION]
* * * * *
Vocational Division Business Education
Bulletin No. 216 Series No. 14
* * * * *
SELLING HOME FURNISHINGS
A Training Program
Prepared by
ROSCOE R. RAU, Executive Vice President and Secretary
National Retail Furniture Association
and
WALTER F. SHAW, Regional Agent, Business Education Service
U. S. Office of Education
* * * * *
FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY _Paul V. McNutt_, Administrator
U. S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION _John W. Studebaker_, Commissioner
* * * * *
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1941
* * * * *
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C.
Price 75 cents
CONTENTS
Page
FOREWORD v
UNIT I. THE SALESMAN AS A BUSINESS BUILDER
Specialized selling of home furnishings as a career 3
Increasing sales and earnings 5
Fundamentals for good selling 8
The daily check-up--A perpetual inventory 10
UNIT II. TECHNIQUE OF SALESMANSHIP
Sale objectives 17
Starting the simple sale 17
The all-important interview 20
Three general considerations for closing sales 23
Meeting the customer 24
UNIT III. SALESMANSHIP APPLIED
How to demonstrate values 29
Contrast in buying methods of women and men 35
Enriching your vocabulary 40
Hidden factors that increase sales 42
UNIT IV. STYLE AS A SELLING FACTOR
Significance of style 49
Period styles from Renaissance to Early Colonial 50
American styles 70
Using style appeal in selling 74
UNIT V. FURNITURE WOODS--THEIR ORIGIN AND USE
Value and price in relation to home furnishings 83
Principal furniture woods 85
Making the most of wood structure and its appeal to the
eye 86
Importance of craftsmanship 92
UNIT VI. SELLING SLEEP EQUIPMENT
Selling equipment to meet customer's needs 107
Mattresses and springs 112
Pillows 123
Studio couches and sofa beds 126
UNIT VII. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF INTERIOR
DECORATION
Interior decoration as a selling method 131
Emotional values of light, color, line, and proportion 133
Color management in decoration 139
Principles of furniture arrangement 141
UNIT VIII. FLOOR COVERINGS AND FABRICS
Drapery and upholstery fibers and fabrics 153
Floor coverings 159
Selling coverings for other floors 171
Use of ensembles in selling 172
UNIT IX. FURNISHING THE LIVING ROOM, HALL, AND
DINING ROOM
Furnishing the living room 179
Distinctive hall furniture 186
Securing hospitable dining room atmosphere 190
Ensemble selling 196
UNIT X. FURNISHING THE BEDROOM, SUNROOM, KITCHEN,
AND BREAKFAST ROOM
Furnishing the bedroom 205
Furnishing the sunroom 214
Equipping the breakfast room and kitchen 217
Final emphasis for alert salespersons 221
UNIT XI. ACCESSORIES THAT MEAN "PLUS" SALES
Lamps and lighting 227
Pictures and mirrors 232
Wall decorations 235
Plastics enter the home furnishings field 237
"Do's" and "Don't's" for the salesperson 241
APPENDIXES
A. Glossary of terms 247
B. General reading list 250
C. A suggested teaching outline for a group leader 252
D. The leading furniture woods 255
E. Common rug terms 263
F. An advertising check list 265
G. Fivefold selling plan for floor coverings 266
H. Color and style in modern advertising copy 267
I. Check list for planning a store-wide promotion 269
J. Ready reference index 271
FOREWORD
This bulletin has been prepared for use by those who seek
self-improvement as members of a group engaged in the study of home
furnishings and how to sell them agreeably, intelligently, and
competitively.
More than $2,500,000,000 is expended annually in this country for home
furnishings. Under present conditions the layman cannot become an
expert on the multitude of things he has to buy, and he must purchase
many articles more or less blindly. Since much structural detail is
hidden from view, the integrity of the dealer is more than merely an
advantage--it is a necessity. There are hundreds of interesting and
vital facts concerning home furnishings which consumers may learn from
retail dealers and members of their sales organizations and which, if
they become generally known, will result in greater discrimination and
economy in buying and will be reflected in more charming, suitable, and
comfortable furnishings in the home.
This bulletin presents at once _opportunity_ and _challenge_ to those
who sell home furnishings:
_Opportunity_ to those who see furniture as a symbol of achievement
and distinction. These hear the call to bring beauty out of drab
surroundings, and to shape the visible garments of life, and even life
itself, making it finer, richer, and a thing of greater worth.
_Challenge_ to those who in selling home furnishings must be conscious
of the wide extension of education in the home furnishing art, the
rapid improvement in the general taste and specific knowledge of the
customer, the tendency to shop in the large centers, the increasing
number of small decorators, and the trend to furnished rooms and
apartments.
For the convenience of users of this bulletin, the subject matter has
been arranged in the form of units, each of which is intended to be
made the basis for a minimum of 2 hours discussion and study. With each
unit is a set of stimulating questions and a brief reading list. A more
detailed reading list will be found in the appendix. This bulletin,
hence, may serve as a short unit course for those who can spare time
for no more than 8 or 10 group meetings. Certain groups may prefer
not to follow the units in the order suggested and to concentrate for
a longer time on such important topics as period furniture, interior
decoration, the furniture woods, or various room arrangements. For
these, selected material may be used for short unit courses in
specialized fields. For instance, the last five units, taken together,
may serve many salesmen of home furnishings as a basic course in the
art of interior decoration.
Attention also is called to the grouping of subject matter to
accommodate those who may wish to use this bulletin for reference
purposes and in sales meetings called by the management. The individual
salesman who uses this material in such a manner will be aided in
building up a body of related and organized knowledge which may have
application any day in his work with his customers.
At times the text makes generous use of the personal pronoun. This has
been done deliberately with the thought that there should be present in
every meeting of a group a feeling of comradeship and personal loyalty
to a common cause. Hence, at times the text employs the pronouns "we,"
"our," "you," and "yours," to replace the more formal terms, "the
salesperson," the "retailer," or "the representative of the store."
Especial acknowledgment is due Rosalie Flank, style authority and a
former director of advertising and public relations for the American
Furniture Mart, for many contributions to, and much valuable criticism
of, the last five units, which deal with problems of interior
decoration. Most of unit XI, which discusses "Accessories and Facts
That Mean 'Plus' Sales," and section D of unit III, "Hidden Factors
That Increase Sales," were prepared by her. To Frier McCollister,
representing the National Association of Bedding Manufacturers,
credit is due for much of the material in unit VI, "Selling Sleep
Equipment." The authors also have consulted freely Clark B. Kelsey's
"Furniture--Its Selection and Use," National Committee on Wood
Utilization, United States Department of Commerce, and "The Road to
Higher Earnings" issued by the National Retail Furniture Association.
The authors gratefully acknowledge contributions and assistance in
editorial reading and criticism from Marie White, agent, Home Economics
Education, U. S. Office of Education, Washington, and William J.
Cheyney, vice president, National Retail Furniture Association, eastern
office, New York, N. Y. Others who assisted in the preparation of
special material for this training program are:
Helen Arms, stylist, John M. Smyth Furniture Co., Chicago, Ill.
Smith Cady, director, Home Furnishings Industry Committee, Chicago,
Ill.
Charles E. Close, secretary, The Veneer Association, Chicago, Ill.
Burdett Green, secretary, American Walnut Manufacturers
Association, Chicago, Ill.
Chester K. Hayes, executive director, Household Science Institute,
Chicago, Ill.
Phillips A. Hayward, Chief, Forest Products Division, Bureau of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Washington, D. C.
Leo J. Heer, managing editor, National Furniture Review, Chicago,
Ill.
J. P. Kramer, advertising department, Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Co.,
New York, N. Y.
George N. Lamb, secretary, Mahogany Association, Inc., Chicago, Ill.
Kenneth Lawyer, State supervisor for distributive education,
Springfield, Ill.
Robert B. Palmer, advertising manager, Duff & Repp, Kansas City, Mo.
A. M. Sullivan, director for vocational education, Board of
Education, Chicago, Ill.
Jay Van Den Berg, Van Den Berg Bros., Grand Rapids, Mich.
Illustrations, charts, and tabulations have been reproduced with
permission of the American Furniture Mart; The Merchandise Mart;
American Walnut Manufacturers Association, Chicago, Ill.; The Floor
Covering Advertising Club, New York, N. Y.; Grignon, furniture
photographer for the American Furniture Mart; Henri, Hurst, & McDonald,
Inc., advertising, Chicago, Ill.; Home Furnishings News Bureau,
Chicago, Ill.; Institute of Carpet Manufacturers of America, New
York, N. Y.; Delmar Kroehler, president, Kroehler Manufacturing Co.,
Naperville, Ill.; Mahogany Association, Inc., Chicago, Ill.; National
Association of Bedding Manufacturers, Chicago, Ill.; National Committee
on Wood Utilization, U. S. Department of Commerce, Washington; National
Furniture Review, Chicago, Ill.; National Retail Furniture Association,
Chicago, Ill.; The Seng Co., Chicago, Ill.; U. S. Department of
Commerce, Forest Products Division, Washington, D. C.; and The Veneer
Association, Chicago, Ill.
Special acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for
permission to quote from one or more of their publications:
The American Home, editorial department, New York, N. Y.
Dodd, Mead & Co., Inc., New York, N. Y.
Frederick J. Drake & Co., Inc., Chicago, Ill.
House Beautiful, New York, N. Y.
J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
The New York School of Interior Decoration, New York, N. Y.
The Seng Co., Chicago, Ill.
This Bulletin has been prepared at the direction, and under the
supervision of B. Frank Kyker, Chief of the Business Education Service,
U. S. Office of Education, Federal Security Agency.
J. C. WRIGHT,
_Assistant U. S. Commissioner for Vocational Education_.
Unit I
THE SALESMAN AS A BUSINESS BUILDER
Specialized Selling of Home Furnishings as a Career
Increasing Sales and Earnings
Fundamentals for Good Selling
The Daily Check-up--A Perpetual Inventory
[Illustration:
Photograph by Grignon.
Figure 1.--Contemporary French grouping is expressed in this attractive
chair with natural finished wood frame, tufted back, and rust figured
beige damask upholstery. The combined lamp stand and plant table is a
modern favorite.]
SELLING HOME FURNISHINGS
Unit I.--THE SALESMAN AS A BUSINESS BUILDER
SPECIALIZED SELLING OF HOME FURNISHINGS AS A CAREER
Selling home furnishings at retail is one of the most pleasant and
fascinating of occupations. It is clean work, physically agreeable,
mentally stimulating, and free from deadening routine. Moreover, it
is a growing field with limitless possibilities. True, there always
will be malcontents who proclaim that the people of America are losing
interest in their homes, that restless excitement is their god. Facts
indicate, however, that our people are turning their thoughts and
aspirations, in increasing measure, to the enduring satisfactions of
the home.
MODERN METHODS ARE DESIGNED TO MEET CHANGING CONDITIONS
All available data on buying habits indicate that selling methods
should be revised to meet the buyer's interest as it shifts from what
furniture is to what furniture will do. This is a logical development.
For many years American women have been influenced by the cleverest
advertising in the world to desire and to buy finished products on the
basis of performance and with little or no concern as to how they are
made. To these women, rugs, chairs, tables, and lamps are parts whose
interest depends chiefly on how they are combined with other parts
to form harmonious wholes. According to a number of comprehensive
surveys, three out of every five women who are interested in furniture
are concerned chiefly with its effect in making their homes more
attractive. If this is true, those who sell home furnishings must have
a sound knowledge not only of their merchandise but also of the art of
arranging and combining that merchandise to insure comfort and beauty
in completely furnished rooms.
This specialized selling of home furnishings as a career, therefore,
means mastery of the art of interior decoration. If interior decoration
be defined as the sum of the processes by which a home is made
beautiful to look at and comfortable to live in, then all who sell home
furnishings must understand style, design, materials, and construction.
Every furniture salesman who consistently maintains a high sales
volume as a result of his own skill will be found to employ the methods
of the interior decorator whether he adopts the professional title or
not.
[Illustration: Figure 2.--A suggestive progress-program for those who
sell home furnishings which may be modified in terms of situations.
Promotion steps are shown on five training levels of increasing
difficulty and responsibility.]
The fighter who carries a punch in one hand only will lose a good many
bouts. The carpenter uses a ripsaw for one operation and a crosscut for
another. The salesman is in precisely the same situation. He always
can make some sales merely by showing furniture and quoting prices.
He always can make more sales by a skillful presentation of style,
design, materials, and construction. But in order to build a personal
following and to sell to the highest possible percentage of his
customers the largest possible amount of merchandise, he must become a
competent adviser in the creative processes of home furnishings.
Figure 2 is a diagram of an educational program which, starting with
preparatory training in the early years of the secondary school,
continues through a period of cooperative part-time training which
combines education in the school and on the job, until full-time
employment assures continued opportunity to study progressively on
three training levels of increasing difficulty and responsibility.
Mastery in ability to sell home furnishings implies adequate
understanding of materials and selling techniques acquired at each of
these training levels.
INCREASING SALES AND EARNINGS
There are three ways by which one can increase his sales and earnings:
1. Increase the daily average number of customers waited on.
2. Increase the average percentage of customers sold.
3. Increase the average volume of each sale.
INCREASE THE DAILY AVERAGE NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS
In order to increase your daily average of people waited on, you must
_(a)_ arrange to secure customers for the otherwise idle hours of the
day; and _(b)_ develop the ability to speed up the selling process,
which will enable you to sell to more people during the active hours.
_(a)_ To secure customers for the otherwise idle hours of the day,
begin with the "lookers" and your "call trade." The woman who has been
planning what is to her an important purchase frequently will want to
consult her husband or a friend in whose judgment she has confidence.
If you have been successful in creating real interest in your
merchandise, it will not be difficult to make an evening appointment,
obviously as a means of saving the time of the husband or the friend.
When you suggest an early or late appointment you may readily promise
exceptional service. You will be assured of the individual attention of
your group under conditions removed from the confusion of regular store
traffic. If the appointment is during the early morning hours or during
evening hours, it will be easy to group the pieces as they are to be
used and thus show them as they might actually look in the home.
Then, too, you always will have some sales under way or coming up with
old customers, and in many cases you can, by acting in advance, arrange
appointments which will occupy otherwise empty time, thus leaving the
more active periods of the business day open for routine selling. Time
which cannot be spent with customers should be devoted to developmental
work.
_(b)_ Among many ways to speed up the selling process are the following:
1. Get down to business, and stay there. Much time is wasted both
before the sale is made and afterward in purely extraneous
talk, not calculated in any way to advance the sale or build
confidence. Within the limits imposed by courtesy, confine the
conversation to the business in hand. And don't yield to the easy
temptation to talk about yourself.
2. So far as is possible, eliminate the element of guesswork in
showing merchandise. Find out enough about your customer's room
and what is in it, and about her tastes and plans, to enable you
to avoid confusion and resistance, and to cut down the amount of
time spent in showing goods there is no chance to sell.
3. Be sure that your appearance, manner, and language are such as
to inspire quick confidence. This will make it unnecessary to
spend too much time in demonstrating the fitness and value of
your merchandise. Alertness, faultless courtesy, and unfeigned
interest in the customer's comfort and convenience are vital.
4. Know your stock, including the small occasional pieces whose
location is often shifted, so thoroughly that you can go directly
to any piece you want to show. In a sale involving several
articles, particularly if they must be shown on different floors,
plan and route the selling process to eliminate unnecessary
movement, and if the display is made during regular store hours,
try to close the sale somewhere above the first floor, with its
noise, confusion, and beckoning suggestion of the open door.
INCREASE THE AVERAGE PERCENTAGE OF CUSTOMERS SOLD
Much of our study will be directed toward discussing methods for
increasing the percentage of sales made to customers waited on.
Everything is important, and every improvement in equipment will help.
Doubtless what is most needed is more knowledge, which we can acquire;
more patience, which we can force ourselves by a sheer effort of the
will to summon and employ; and more energy, which we can and will
develop in the degree that we recognize and desire its rewards.
INCREASE THE AVERAGE VOLUME OF EACH SALE
Trade Up Consistently.
The first requirement of one who would increase the size of individual
sales is that he shall trade up consistently. Obviously, this does not
mean that the salesmen should disregard prudence and common sense and
try to sell a $100 article to the buyer who can afford to spend only
$50 or $75, nor does it mean use of high-pressure selling methods. It
does mean that he should develop the ability to estimate the buyer's
tastes, means, and real needs, and to present elements of value in his
merchandise other than price.
Ten years ago a woman who made a shopping tour through 12 department
and furniture stores reported that 8 out of 10 salesmen quoted the
price of every article immediately, with strong emphasis upon its
low price. A number of salesmen mentioned the wood and finish of the
article, quoted the price with the usual comments, and stopped--their
entire stock of ideas apparently exhausted by this effort. This same
kind of selling is still too prevalent. Today's emphasis upon service
for specific needs rather than upon low price to build sales volume has
given us an ever-increasing number of salespersons who understand that
it is foolish to start a sale from the bottom, foolish to assume that
no one desires or can afford to buy good things, and not only foolish
but dishonest to discuss furniture of poor quality and low price in
terms which fairly could be applied only to better quality and higher
price.
Suggest Related Merchandise.
A second and extremely important way to increase the size of your
average sale is by the skillful suggestion of related merchandise.
A great many persons buy home furnishings only when they need them as
a physical utility. Quite naturally, they get along with the minimum
number of pieces and buy for the lowest prices consistent with their
ideas of desirable quality.
To be prepared for this type of emergency or "suggestion selling" each
salesman should work out for himself, with the help of other salesmen,
and by wide reading of trade journals, magazines, newspaper articles,
and books in his field, a list of articles in the home-furnishings
field which naturally belong together. These lists of "naturals" should
be memorized for ready recall at any moment.
"Specials," modern accessories, new designs in small occasional pieces,
when advertised to the public, lend themselves to a suggestion-selling
program used in connection with a carefully selected call list. In
suggestion selling, emphasis should be upon the quality of charm or
fitness to be added to a particular room, with the furnishings of which
the salesman already is familiar.
Sell More Than Utility and Price.
Those who buy furniture for satisfactions other than utility naturally
buy--insofar as their means will permit--whatever pieces they believe
to be necessary in order to insure those satisfactions. It is clear
that salesmen in order to sell to this type of customer must be able
to arouse the interest of these utility and price buyers in other
satisfactions.
To do this, they must be able to sell something more than furniture.
They must sell on the basis of the enticement of comfort and cushioned
ease, the lure of beauty, the appeal of smartness and style. They must
sell distinction, the acclaim of friends and guests, the pride and
pleasure of the children, and the joy of living in an attractive home.
Does this tend to provoke a skeptical smile from those who have been
selling furniture for years? Well, let those smile whose earnings have
been wholly satisfactory. As for the others, let them remember that
in diminished volume is told the story of those who consistently have
attempted to sell furniture as nothing more than furniture and who have
stolidly ignored the power of imagination and sentiment in quickening
interest and deepening desire.
FUNDAMENTALS FOR GOOD SELLING
Sales experts are agreed that it is impossible to formulate a selling
plan that will apply to all salespersons. There are no magic words to
be spoken in the presence of potential buyers that will cause them to
call loudly for an order blank and reach for a fountain pen. There are
certain fundamentals which will help a man to become a better salesman.
BE TACTFUL
Webster defines tact as "a nice discernment of delicate skill in saying
and doing what is expedient or suitable in given circumstances."
Tact is one of the most valuable assets in salesmanship and must be
exercised at all times. Many sales of home furnishings have been lost
in discussions with a prospect who was inclined to be belligerent.
Under no circumstances enter into an argument. You have heard the
well-known axiom, "Win an argument and lose a sale." The fact that you
have sound sales arguments to use in presenting your sales story does
not mean that you must argue with the prospect to prove your point.
Explain tactfully your side of the story and, if your statement is
questioned, try to prove it. But rather than enter into an argument
about it, pass on to another point, and, if necessary, refer later to
the point in question from a different angle.
DON'T INTERRUPT AND DON'T EXAGGERATE
Some salesmen are so anxious to tell all they know about their product
that unquestionably they develop a habit of interrupting a prospect
every time he speaks. This reflects adversely on the salesman; often
it prevents the prospect from telling of the features particularly
liked or the real objection to the proposition. When your prospective
customer starts to speak, listen, and above all, when answering a
question, don't exaggerate. Many a sad failure in selling has resulted
from an exaggeration of facts to the point where the prospect will not
believe anything the salesman has said.
BE SINCERE
Sincerity breeds conviction and if you are convinced of the statement
you make, your attitude will go a long way in making your prospective
customer believe your story. Know your product and its advantages; be
sincere and enthusiastic when you are presenting them. Be natural. It
will pay.
DON'T TALK TOO MUCH
All have known salesmen who have talked themselves out of sales. This
is a fault common to many. Some types evidently believe that if they
talk fast enough, do not permit the prospect to bring up objections or
say anything, and put the pen in the prospect's fingers and get him to
sign on the dotted line, a good sale has been made. The day for this
kind of selling is gone. Today's buyer wants information and she wants
a chance to think about that information after she gets it. Make your
statement about your product and let your customer think about it. Be
careful not to bury one important sales feature by showering several
more on top of it before the customer has had time to decide on the
merits of the first. Give your customer an opportunity to ask questions
and express her opinion. Often, if allowed to talk, the prospect will
sell herself.
BE READY TO ANSWER OBJECTIONS
An objection or reason for not buying may be real or it may be merely
an excuse. In any event, the salesman must be able to answer it
effectively in order to close the sale. If the customer raises an
objection, be sure you understand it. Don't jump at conclusions as to
what the objection is going to be. After you understand it clearly,
repeat it. Sometimes when an objection is repeated the customer
immediately can see for herself that it is not a valid objection.
POINTS TO REMEMBER IN SELLING
Salesmen interested in fundamentals will do well to remember four
points of value in selling:
1. Talk to your customer as though she knows about the product but
explain everything as though she knew nothing about it.
2. Treat your customer with unfailing courtesy.
3. Assume that she is able financially to buy anything on the floor
even if her general appearance leaves room for some doubt. When
basic facts are established, suggest justifiable time-payment
plans as an arrangement she might prefer--but do this tactfully
since many women are sensitive about money and credit ratings.
4. Make your sales story complete. Tell it simply, directly,
earnestly, and honestly.
THE DAILY CHECK-UP--A PERPETUAL INVENTORY
Elementary fundamentals should be brought up time and again. You may
know you are beyond the stage where you need to be told to keep the
ears clean, the hair combed, the shoes polished, and suits pressed, but
there are some angles on this matter of keeping a perpetual personal
inventory which may be reviewed profitably many times. Consider the
advantages of a daily check-up.
Some women are inclined to trust to first impressions of appearance and
manner. A salesman may find it difficult and sometimes impossible to
win their confidence if there is anything in his appearance, manner,
language, or actions to detract attention or arouse prejudice. If these
important personal matters are neglected, it means reduced income
through the loss of some sales and an unnecessary loss of time in many
others.
One of the best ways to guard against these losses is to work out a
sort of perpetual inventory of your own good and bad points, and to
keep this inventory up to date, making a systematic check-up.
Certain principles as to proper dress for men in home-furnishing stores
of dignity have been established. One metropolitan store insists
that salesmen wear dark suits; black shoes always; white collars
either attached or detached, not necessarily starched; neckties, dark
preferably, and in harmony with the suit. This store never permits
removal of coat or vest even in summer. Many stores, however, permit
vests off in summer and supply uniform coats to all salesmen--dark palm
beach or similar material. Arbitrary rules without reason are worse
than none. The store mentioned above feels that the factors listed
as important simply conform to the laws of good taste in reflecting
the store to its clientele. No store can afford to tolerate slovenly
attire, shoddy language, or indifferent effort.
If, in good faith, interested salesmen will run through the following
list of questions before they go to work each morning for 2 or 3
months, they will find the results in increased sales unexpectedly
profitable.
APPEARANCE
Have I had the food, sleep, and exercise necessary to enable me to meet
all customers, even on the longest and busiest day, with energy and
enthusiasm?
Do I feel and look fit, alert, competent, and prosperous?
Is there anything to attract unpleasant attention to my hair,
fingernails, teeth, tie, or shoes?
MANNER
Do I meet all customers without reference to age, sex, or dress, as if
I were genuinely glad to see them and sincerely interested in serving
them intelligently and well?
Am I businesslike without being brusque? dignified without being stiff?
unvaryingly polite but never oily or servile?
Do I treat all customers with real courtesy, and none with cheap or
offensive familiarity?
Do I ever permit myself to look or act bored, tired, indifferent, or
sullen?
LANGUAGE
Is my voice pleasant?
Do I talk enough, or too much?
Do I talk carefully and well, without grammatical blunders or slang,
and with an adequate command of words, or do I stumble, use poorly
chosen words, and repeat myself until my customers are bored or
repelled?
ACTION
Do I slouch, or get into awkward and ungraceful postures, or sit on the
arms of chairs or sofas?
Do I play with a pencil, watch chain, or sales book, or jingle keys or
money in my pocket?
Do I ever show merchandise carelessly, as if it were of no value or
importance?
Do I ever get into an argument with a customer when there is the
slightest possibility of giving offense?
Whatever your present earning power may be, wide experience warrants
the belief that you can raise it appreciably by improving your present
rating in these factors which together give outward expression to your
personality as your customers see it.
QUESTIONS
_1. Do you think a salesman can be sincere and use "high pressure"
methods at the same time?_
_2. Do you feel you are doing a customer a favor or imposing on her in
urging her to come to a decision, particularly when grading-up?_
_3. A customer says: "I like this suite, but the price is a little more
then I'd counted on paying." What is the best way of handling this
customer to close a sale?_
_4. A customer says: "I've just about decided on this one, but I'd like
my husband to see it." What is the right way to handle this situation?
Should an attempt be made to close the sale then and there? What has
been your experience?_
_5. A customer is sold on a modern suite, and has her mother with her.
Her mother is not sold on modern furniture. How would you handle this
situation?_
_6. A customer wants an Early American bedroom, is apparently satisfied
with the suite, which happens to be birch, and asks: "Is it solid
maple?" How do you answer?_
_7. If the president of the First National Bank and his wife came in at
5:30 to look at a dining-room suite, how would you handle the first 5
minutes of the conversation?_
_8. Select a bedroom suite from the floor selling for $99 and one
selling at $179, and demonstrate the points of superiority in the more
costly set?_
SUGGESTED READING LIST
BOLLING, CUNLIFFE L. _Retail Salesmanship._ Sir Isaac Pitman &
Sons, Ltd., London, 1930.
The Spirit of Salesmanship, II, pp. 14-26.
Aptitude for Salesmanship, III, pp. 26-37.
Sales Demonstration, X, pp. 152-165.
KENAGY, H. G. _and_ YOAKUM, C. S. _The Selection and Training of
Salesmen._ McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, N. Y. 1925.
The Measures of Successful Selection, XI, pp. 215-249.
Mental Alertness Tests for Salesmen, XII, pp. 249-277.
Personality and Aptitude Tests, XIII, pp. 277-300.
Training Salesmen, XIV, pp. 300-319.
KELSEY, CLARK. _Furniture: Its Selection and Use._ National
Committee on Wood Utilization, United States Department of
Commerce. Superintendent of Documents, United States Government
Printing Office, Washington, D. C.
Budget, Buying Plans, Need, Utilities, I, pp. 1-19.
National Retail Dry Goods Association, 101 West Thirty-first
Street, New York, N. Y. 1935. Furniture Sales Manual.
PELZ, V. H. _Selling At Retail._ McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New
York, N. Y. 1926.
Personal Qualifications of the Retail Salesman, VIII, pp. 119-139.
How to Make Sales-Talk Effective, XI, pp. 185-215.
Sales by Suggestion, XVIII, pp. 293-313.
Following Up the Sale, XIX, pp. 313-315.
REYBURN, SAMUEL W. _Selling Home Furnishings Successfully._
Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York, N. Y.
SIMMONS, HARRY. _How To Get The Order._ Harper & Bros., New York,
N. Y. 1937.
Sales, Leads, Customers, I, II, III, V, VII, VIII, pp. 1-78.
STEWART, ROSS _and_ GERALD, JOHN. _Home Decoration._ Garden City
Publishing Co., Inc., Garden City, N. Y. 1938.
Buying Furniture, XII, pp. 219-230.
WHITEHEAD, HAROLD. _How To Run a Store._ The Thomas Y. Crowell Co.,
New York, N. Y. 1921.
Developing Organized Loyalty, XXI, pp. 253-265.
----. _The Business of Selling._ American Book Co., New York, N. Y.
1923.
The Mental Law of Sale, V, pp. 44-51.
The Salesman's Personality, XVIII, pp. 221-234.
How To Develop Personality, XIX, pp. 234-242.
Unit II
TECHNIQUE OF SALESMANSHIP
Sale Objectives
Starting the Simple Sale
The All-Important Interview
Three General Considerations for Closing Sales
Meeting the Customer
[Illustration: Figure 3A.--A block front Chippendale secretary. The
pulls are all pierced chased brass. The broken pediment is ornamented
by the unusual addition of a hand-carved leaf carving. The ribband back
chair has the cabriole ball and claw and leaf carving on the knees and
is upholstered in a hand-blocked tapestry.]
[Illustration: Figure 3B.--This copy of a Sheraton corner stand has
tambour sliding front drawers and a copper-lined plant container at the
back. The chair at the side is a Sheraton decorated armchair, in black
with gold decoration. The upholstery is green and ivory striped satin.]
Unit II.--TECHNIQUE OF SALESMANSHIP
SALE OBJECTIVES
When you start toward the display floor with a customer who has asked
for a particular article, you have--or should have--five objectives:
1. To close a sale, if possible, for an article of the best quality
warranted by the customer's needs and means.
2. To sell any additional merchandise in which you can arouse an
interest.
3. To make the sale in such a way that the merchandise will stay
sold, and the customer will become a loyal business friend.
4. To secure and record any information as to the customer's home
and tastes that may lead to possible future sales.
5. To do these things without wasting time so that you may get
another customer and repeat the process.
In order to attain these objectives you must gain the confidence of the
buyer, and here your success will depend upon what happens in the first
5 minutes. It is during these crucial minutes that the customer forms
the impressions which so often lead her either to bestow her confidence
or withhold it.
STARTING THE SIMPLE SALE
The experienced salesman is accustomed to form a quick judgment of
the customer and to base his opening procedure on that judgment. The
technique presented here is designed particularly to help this salesman
make large sales or handle small sales which may be expected to produce
future business.
Let us assume that your customer has not asked for an advertised chair,
and that there is nothing in her appearance or manner to enable you to
make a close guess as to her tastes and means. All you know is that
she is interested in an easy chair. Since she has not told you exactly
what kind of chair she wants, it is safe to assume that she doesn't
know. On the other hand, you may be certain she wants a chair to serve
some particular purpose of her own. The chances are that she has only
a vague idea as to the particular type of chair which will best serve
this purpose; you as yet have no idea whatever. Accordingly, you must
choose one of three methods for starting the sale.
THE HAPHAZARD METHOD
The first is to lead her through your stock in the hope that she will
see a chair that pleases her and buy it. This sometimes will happen,
and there are some customers--though few--who can be sold in no other
way. However, this method wastes so much time, and results in such a
heavy percentage of lost sales, that it should be your last resort. It
is open to three serious objections:
First, it will not help you win the customer's confidence. By
relinquishing all control of the interview, you forfeit her respect for
you as a competent adviser in the processes of home furnishing, and
become merely an order taker. If she happens to like your merchandise,
you are fortunate; but you can do nothing to influence her toward
liking it.
Second, no one can look at a great many different things, however
interesting and beautiful, without becoming confused and losing the
power of discriminating judgment. The woman who is shown furniture by
this undirected method is likely to become tired and certain to become
confused, and may be expected to decide to "think it over," "look
around," or "bring her husband."
Moreover, you cannot show many chairs, even by this method, without
making some comments about them. If you are like many salespersons you
will fall into the habit of describing half the pieces shown either as
the most beautiful, the smartest, the most comfortable, the latest, or
the best bargain. If this happens, any normally intelligent person will
suspect that you are either insincere or incompetent.
Third, if a sale results, it is likely to be at an unnecessarily
low-price level unless the question of credit limit is involved; and
in any event there will be no sale of additional merchandise, no
information of future value, no loyal business friendship.
THE HIGH-PRESSURE METHOD
You may decide to make a persistent and, if necessary, a high-pressure
effort to "sell" her something. This method, like the first, will
work with a limited number of buyers. However, it results in much
wasted time by reason of the high percentage of returns for credit
or exchange, and in ill-feeling and impaired confidence which over
a period of years make it difficult for the salesman to build up a
personal following among the buyers of his community.
As a matter of cold fact, this method of selling home furnishings has
caused the retailers an immense loss in public confidence, as well as
in money. Because of wrong selling methods, multitudes of women now
stay out of certain stores except on those rare occasions when they are
forced by actual needs to enter. Although these women want to buy, they
are afraid of being sold.
More accurately, they are afraid of being sold the wrong thing. Most
of the women who ask to see a chair or rug or other home-furnishings
merchandise really want something much more important to themselves,
although they do not tell us about it. They want beauty, comfort,
distinction, or social prestige. In other words, they want to buy
furniture as a means of making their homes more attractive; but their
past experience, or the experience of their friends, often leads them
to believe that the salesman will not really help them. To overcome
their hesitancy, they must be made to feel at the beginning of the
interview that no one is trying to sell them, or even to let them buy,
but rather that the desire of the salesman is to help them buy.
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The third possible course of action is based upon a study of the
customer's needs. The salesman will seek to discover the customer's
purpose in looking at easy chairs and then to show her the particular
pieces in stock which are best adapted to serve that purpose. He will
need information about the size, style, and coloring of the chair
required, and the amount that the buyer is able or willing to pay for
it. Do not, at the outset, ask for this information.
In selling home furnishings avoid questions which will force the buyer
to make definite commitments in advance as to her tastes or the amount
of money she is prepared to spend. In the first place, it is probable
that if she had fixed ideas on these subjects she would have told you
exactly what she wanted at once. If you force her by direct questions
to make a statement, she may feel impelled to abide by it later; you
thereby have placed yourself and your stock under an unnecessary
handicap.
In the second place you run the risk of annoying her, since few women
welcome a direct question at the beginning of a sales interview as to
how much they are prepared to spend. Finally, such questions may be
so clumsy and amateurish in technique as to under-mine a customer's
confidence in your ability. Your questions at the outset should be
directed toward determining her needs. If such questions are skillfully
put, she will welcome them as evidence that you are trying to help her
buy economically and intelligently.
THE ALL-IMPORTANT INTERVIEW
Upon leaving the elevator take your customer directly to an easy chair
which you know to be good-looking and comfortable, conservative both
in design and coloring, and neither your cheapest nor your most costly
quality. By choosing a conservative rather than an extreme style you
run no risk of impairing her confidence in your taste and judgment,
and by picking a piece in the middle price range you run no risk
of offending her if she is in the market for a costly chair, or of
alarming her if she is a buyer for a cheap chair. Moreover, you are in
the safe position of being able to shift ground in either direction
without loss of prestige. Don't ask her how she likes this chair,
and don't make any flattering comments on it. Merely say, in effect:
"I don't know how close this particular chair comes to what you have
in mind; but at least it is attractive and comfortable. If you care
to sit down in it for a moment, and to tell me a little about your
requirements, or about your room, perhaps I can save you the time and
trouble of looking at a great number of unsuitable pieces. Is the chair
for your living room?" If the answer is "Yes," proceed: "Then it will
of course have to fit in with your other things in that room."
At this point you may wish to draw up a small table and lay the
living-room floor plan[1] on it with the first page so placed that
the customer can easily see it. Then draw up a chair for yourself. It
is important to move with a poise and assurance which will cause the
buyer to know you are following the usual procedure. By the time you
are seated she will likely have read enough of the first page to be
interested and awaiting your next move.
OPENING THE INTERVIEW
In many simple sales it will be unnecessary to ask many questions, or
to enter the answers on the plan. Since you cannot know this at the
start of the interview, however, it is usually wise to show the plan,
even if you make no actual use of it. The effect of this procedure
catches interest, places the transaction on a more professional basis,
and helps create confidence in yourself and your store as skillful and
competent advisers in the selection of furniture.
[Illustration: Figure 4.--Room arrangement plan
NOTE TO SALESPERSON.--If you do not have a floor plan and have not
seen the room in question, take blank paper and pencil. Block in
window and door openings and location of "other" furniture. Then
proceed as suggested, recommending nothing that will not enhance the
attractiveness of the room for its particular use. Always date your
sketch; place upon it the name of your customer, and file for later
reference.]
If you decide to use the plan, spread it on the table, and say, in
effect: "This device helps us to serve our patrons who are interested
in buying furniture that will add to the comfort and beauty of their
homes. In your own case, for example, we have scores of chairs that are
good looking and that are good values. Yet, if you were to look at all
of them you would undoubtedly find that some are too large or too small
and that the great majority will not harmonize perfectly in design,
style, or coloring with the other things in your own particular room.
By using this device you can give me a clear picture of your room as
you want it to look. Then I can show you only such pieces as promise to
meet your requirements, and you in turn may select the one chair that
seems most suitable. Do you have a guest chair in mind, or one for the
special use of a member of the family? If for a member of the family,
the sex, size, and individual preference must be taken into account; if
for guests, the general decorative character of the room only.
"The new chair will be seen against the background of the walls and the
floor coverings, and as a part of the group to which it belongs. Hence,
we must be sure it will harmonize with these other elements. Your rug,
for example, is----?" Enter important information which is given on
the floor plan under the heading "Floor covering." Information needed
includes the type of rug (which may give you an idea of the buyer's
price level); coloring; and type of design (which will indicate to
you the characteristic features of the new chair necessary to insure
harmony). Then proceed in the same way with the walls, woodwork,
draperies, and principal upholstery fabrics.
If by this time your customer shows signs of impatience, you may wish
to say in effect that you can show her several chairs that will fill
the requirements admirably. Then go to work.
UTILIZING THE CUSTOMER'S ANSWERS
If, on the other hand, the buyer clearly is interested, ask for the
size of her room and for the description and location of her other
furniture, and block in the information on the floor plan, using
the method shown in the typical floor plan, page 21. Here the best
procedure is to start from the point of intersection of the 2 heavy
lines, or axes, and count in 4 directions, using the scale of ¼-inch
square for each foot. For example, if the room is 16 × 24 feet, count
12 squares from the center in both directions to locate the end walls,
and 8 squares in both directions to locate the side walls. When this
information is recorded you will get an idea as to the correct size and
proper location for the new chair. Be sure to locate windows and doors
accurately and indicate the exposure of the room with reference to the
compass points.
These preliminaries when completed will give a clear picture of the
room, a fair idea of your customer's price range, and a good start
toward her confidence. Thank her and introduce yourself simply by
saying, "I am Mr. Smith. If you are pleased by what I have shown you
today, I shall hope to see you again as other living-room needs arise.
May I fill in your name and address, so that this plan may be filed for
use when you are next in the store?"
USE JUDGMENT IN SHOWING MERCHANDISE
You must be guided by your best judgment. If you have reason to think
the customer has confidence in you, show first the particular chair
that you honestly believe is best for her purpose, introducing it with
a brief, pointed, and purely impersonal comment on its beauty, style,
and peculiar fitness for her own purpose. Don't use superlatives. She
may not like this piece well enough to buy it immediately, in which
case you will be seriously handicapped in trying to interest her in
another one. If, on the contrary, you do not feel assured of her
complete confidence, probably it will be wiser to show your second or
third best piece first, holding the best in reserve.
As soon as you detect signs of real interest in a chair, build up a
little group based on the principles of harmony which are stated and
illustrated in unit VII, page 142. In some cases a small table will be
enough; but usually it will be better to use a larger table, a lamp,
and often a small rug and a length or two of drapery fabrics, if you
stock them. The purpose of this procedure is to help the customer see
your chair as an integral part of her own room and to emphasize its
desirability as a means of making that room more attractive. If she
already has the pieces necessary to form a complete group when the
chair is added, select pieces as nearly like her own as possible. If
not, select pieces that harmonize perfectly with the chair. Don't tell
her that she ought to have these pieces. Merely show them without
comment, and defer any attempt to sell anything more than an easy chair
until after the chair has been sold.
THREE GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR CLOSING SALES
BE PREPARED TO CLOSE A SALE AT ANY POINT
Some salesmen make the serious and costly mistake of assuming that
every customer will be exacting and hard to sell, and that a large
percentage of them enter the store with no real intention of buying.
The really able salesman knows that this is not true. Under present
conditions the woman who enters a furniture store or department may
be presumed to have an active interest in furniture. When you have
found her real needs and offered her something that satisfies them,
there in an excellent chance that she will be ready to buy. If so,
take the order at once. Don't make the tactical blunder of showing
additional merchandise, or of completing all the steps necessary to
close a difficult sale. Many salesmen talk themselves out of a sale by
suggesting unnecessary alternatives. In other words, prepare carefully
and intelligently for the order, expect it, and take it at the first
opportunity.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION UNTIL YOU KNOW THE CUSTOMER'S BUYING MOTIVES
At the start of a sale it is safe to assume that the buyer is thinking
in terms of her own interests. Don't tell her that a given chair is in
the latest or most popular style until you know that she is interested
in the latest rather than the best style for her particular room. Don't
tell her that it is your best-selling number; or that Mrs. Jones just
bought a piece like it; or that you think, or the buyer thinks, or the
head of the house thinks it "wonderful."
DON'T QUOTE A PRICE--UNLESS YOU ARE ASKED FOR IT
As a general, but by no means invariable, rule, don't quote a
price--unless you are asked for it--until you see definite signs of
interest in the piece under consideration; and even then not until you
have prepared for it by a brief but convincing statement as to quality
or desirability. However, when you are asked the price of an article,
give it immediately and without apology or comment.
MEETING THE CUSTOMER
All first impressions and most sales start at the front door of your
store or department. For any lack of promptness and courtesy at this
point there will be a penalty.
Anyone who enters the store should be met immediately. If it happens
to be a customer, whether man or woman, a long delay for any reason
will be resented, and even a moment's pause to finish a conversation
may be regarded as an affront. It is impossible to overestimate the
importance of this matter, both to yourself and to your house. In
a competitive market few persons will buy from the man who treats
them discourteously, nor will they return to the store where they
have met with discourtesy if another store with better methods is
accessible. Moreover, one offended customer can do more damage through
word-of-mouth advertising than a thousand lines of newspaper space can
repair.
The visitor should be greeted with a smile, a bow, and the words "Good
morning" or "Good afternoon." Test both your smile and your bow before
a mirror and improve them if any improvement is possible. A genuine
infectious smile is literally a priceless asset. After this greeting
usually you will be told what is wanted. If not, after a slight pause,
ask: "May I show you something?" or "What may I show you?" _Don't_ ask:
"Can I help you?" "Are you interested in furniture?" "What can I do for
you?" or "Anything, today?"
For the purpose of illustration, suppose the customer is a woman who
asks to see a sofa bed. Don't ask her how much she wants to pay, or
even what sort of sofa bed she wants. If the stock is on another
floor it will be enough to say: "We will take the elevator, please,"
and indicate the direction. Do not precede her. Walk abreast, and,
if the aisle is crowded, drop behind. If she is carrying a parcel of
burdensome size ask her if you may have it.
Although many successful salesmen begin at once to draw out information
as to the customer's requirements, it is better practice to defer such
questions until you are in the presence of your merchandise and beyond
the possibility of noise and confusion. Whether it is wise to try a few
impersonal remarks, or to keep still, from the front door to the sales
floor, will depend upon your judgment of the individual customer.
QUESTIONS
_1. This unit discussed three methods of starting the sale. How would
you proceed to sell furnishings for the new clubhouse at the community
center?_
_2. What would you do to correct a wrong attitude toward use of certain
types of furniture in a living room?_
_3. A woman tells you that she cannot afford costly furnishings. What
steps would you take to show her that good taste is not necessarily
expensive?_
_4. Of what advantage is the study of advertising to the young man who
expects to become a furniture salesman?_
_5. What use should be made of dealers' aids furnished by the
manufacturer of products you are to sell?_
_6. Give five sources of information regarding prospects which a retail
furniture salesman may use._
_7. What should a good furniture salesman know about the history of his
firm?_
_8. Why is the excessive use of superlatives an indication of ignorance
of the article being sold?_
_9. (a) Of what value is a knowledge of competing goods? (b) How should
such knowledge be used?_
SUGGESTED READING LIST
(Most libraries will have other excellent books discussing retail
salesmanship and these should be consulted freely.)
ROLLING, CUNLIFFE L. _Retail Salesmanship._ Sir Isaac Pitman &
Sons, Ltd., London and Pitman Publishing Co., New York, N. Y.
1930.
Studying the Customers, VII, pp. 89-107.
Receiving the Customers, VIII, pp. 107-131.
Sales Persuasion, IX, pp. 131-152.
Methods of Increasing Sales, XI, pp. 165-186.
DE SCHWEINITZ, DOROTHEA. _Occupations in Retail Stores._
International Text Book Co., Scranton, Pa. 1937. (Study sponsored
by National Vocational Guidance Association and the U. S.
Employment Service).
Hiring, Training, Promotion, IV, pp. 41-65.
Hours, Vacations, Earnings, V, pp. 65-93.
JACKSON, ALICE _and_ BETTINA. _The Study of Interior Decoration._
Doubleday Doran & Co., Inc., Garden City, N. Y.
Furnishing the Home, XVI, pp. 351-388.
PELZ, V. H., _Selling At Retail._ McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New
York, N. Y. 1926.
The Psychology of the Retail Sale, III, pp. 19-31.
Studying the Merchandise, VI, VII, pp. 81-119.
Customer Types and Characteristics, X, pp. 159-185.
How to Meet Objectives, XIV, pp. 235-259.
Substitution Sale, XV, pp. 259-265.
RICHERT, G. HENRY. _Retailing Principles and Practices._ Gregg
Publishing Co., New York, N. Y. 1938.
The Retail Sales Process, XI, pp. 219-245.
Customer Service, XIV, pp. 295-311.
SIMMONS, HARRY. _How to Get the Order._ Harper & Bros., New York,
N. Y. 1937.
The Futility of Price Appeal, XI, pp. 97-106.
Buyer Slants on Selling, XIV, pp. 121-128.
WHITEHEAD, HAROLD. _The Business of Selling._ American Book Co.,
New York, N. Y. 1923.
The Buyer's Motives, VII, pp. 61-74.
The Customer, XIV, pp. 153-173.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Suitable floor-plan diagrams to aid in making unit sales are
available for any room in the house.
Unit III
SALESMANSHIP APPLIED
How To Demonstrate Values
Contrast in Buying Methods of Women and Men
Enriching Your Vocabulary
Hidden Factors That Increase Sales
[Illustration:
Courtesy of Merchandise Mart News Bureau.
Figure 5.--Useful because it can be placed behind a divan or against
a wall is this low eighteenth century cabinet for books, radio,
magazines, or bric-a-brac. Beside the cabinet is an eighteenth century
lounge chair, upholstered in rose and white striped satin.]
Unit III.--SALESMANSHIP APPLIED
HOW TO DEMONSTRATE VALUES
Old or young, rich or poor, we are much alike. What interests us is
what touches ourselves. When we make our choices we do not always
accept or reject things because of their intrinsic worth but because
they appeal strongly to the group of instincts, emotions, and habits
which just then is motivating the inner life and influencing decisions.
The salesman who is clever enough to present his merchandise in the
ways that appeal most directly and powerfully to these inner controls
enjoys a great advantage over one who lacks this ability.
KNOWLEDGE OF MERCHANDISE MUST COME FIRST
It goes without saying that this ability presupposes thorough knowledge
of the merchandise. This is fundamental.
A given rug which enters our stock from the receiving room may have 30
points of possible interest to buyers, but not all these points will
appeal to all buyers. Carefulness and system will enable us to pick and
emphasize the strongest points for each buyer _provided we know the
entire 30_. But if we know 20 only, or 15, or 10, no amount of skill
can save us from losing some sales.
Under present conditions it is extremely difficult to acquire full and
accurate knowledge of the merchandise we are called upon to sell, but
we can get this information now if we want it badly enough; we must get
it if we seriously desire to increase our earning power.
All possible information is important, because any part of it may be
necessary, in a given situation, in order to make a sale. We must
get this information wherever we can find it. In the case of a newly
arrived easy chair, for example, it may come from three sources:
1. _From personal inspection._--A cursory inspection will tell us
that the chair is a medium-size piece, slenderly and gracefully
proportioned; with open padded arms; loose cushion seat; a back
of pronounced rake; cabriole front legs with carved claw feet;
covered in a small-figure reseda green damask; and priced at
$85. We should be able to identify its style, and the tag may
indicate the name of the manufacturer.[2]
A more careful inspection will tell us that the exposed wood
is solid mahogany, finely finished; the front legs skillfully
carved; all legs with a degree of curvature that eliminates
danger of breaking under strain; frame corner-blocked; seat
springs set on webbing, or steel frame, with a dustproof bottom
of cambric; loose cushion of spring construction; and the
covering a close-woven, wear-resisting fabric with silk warp and
cotton waft.
2. _From the buyer or manager._--
_a._ Name of manufacturer, in order that we may be governed in
making statements about this chair by our general knowledge
of his line, as to quality of materials, skill of workmen,
and inspection standards, and also in order to use the name
in cases where we believe that it will have prestige value.
_b._ _Details of concealed construction, including frame_;
method of springing; build-up of seat, back, and arms;
stuffers used; strength of fiber and color in the covering.
_c._ Information as to whether the piece can be duplicated, and
if so, at what price and in what time; also as to whether it
can be supplied in other colors, or in other materials, and
if so, location of samples, method of figuring price, and
time required for delivery.
_d._ Historic source of the design, and any interesting
information as to its fashion value, gained by the buyer at
the markets.
3. _From books and magazines._--
_a._ The historical background of the style to which the chair
belongs, and the most effective methods of developing its
style appeal.
_b._ Types of rooms and color schemes with which it can be used
harmoniously.
Equally comprehensive information is necessary for all other
items in your stock. Without it the percentage of purchasers
that we can be sure of reaching with a key appeal will be
reduced, and our earning power correspondingly limited.
SELLING MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION
Assuming that we have acquired adequate knowledge of the materials
and construction of our merchandise, how are we going to use it
effectively. We suggest a few general principles as guides to sound
practice:
_Both materials and construction normally are factors to be employed
in closing a sale, but not in opening it._--If you went into a store
and asked to see a pair of shoes and the salesman, seizing the first
model at hand, assured you that it was made of tanned box calf, with
waterproof soles, cork filling, and tacked insoles, by a process
involving more than 150 separate operations, all of which made it a
wonderful value at $8.50, would you tell him to wrap up a pair? Hardly.
Neither materials nor construction would interest you until you were
comfortably fitted with a shoe that satisfied your ideas of style and
color, and at a price within your buying limit.
When a customer asks for an advertised article and seems pleased with
its appearance, the demonstration of its value can start at once. In
any other situation it must wait until you find something with which
she is pleased.
There are those who appear to believe that selling is a game in which
the object is to beat down the customer's opposition and make her buy.
In dealing with customers of any type above the most unenlightened,
this idea always has proved a boomerang.
_In talking materials and construction, preserve a sense of relative
values._--When we say about a $35 chair everything that properly could
be said about one priced at $65, our customer either believes or
disbelieves us. If she disbelieves, the sale is lost. If she believes,
our chance to get more than $35 of her money is lost. Even if we leave
out of account the basically important matter of business honesty, it
is unwise to overstate the values of any article. In a well-managed
furniture store every article possesses points of merit sufficient to
sell it on the basis of what can be fairly claimed for it. To claim
more, whether intentionally or through ignorance of the facts, is to
deceive our customers, and--inevitably--to cut down our sales volume.
_Demonstrate the value of all merchandise under serious consideration
whether you believe it to be necessary or not._--Many sales of
advertised articles or merchandise chosen on the basis of its
decorative appeal can be closed without discussion of materials or
construction. As a safety-first measure, these factors should be
mentioned somewhat carefully after the order has been booked. Sometimes
a customer will buy an article in complete good faith, and yet within
the next half hour will start shopping in other stores to see whether
or not she has bought wisely. Even more important is the fact that in
every case the new purchase, when delivered, is subject to inspection
and criticism not only by members of the family but also by neighbors
and friends. Some of this criticism is bound to be adverse, and unless
we have taken the precaution to build up an unshakable confidence in
the excellence and value of our merchandise there may be a telephone
order to come and get it, or at least a loss of goodwill and future
patronage.
These precautionary build-ups can of course be brief. For example, if
you have sold a bedroom suite on the basis of appearance only, it will
be enough to say in substance: "You have bought this suite because of
its beauty and style, which will continue to delight you always. But
before you leave I want you to realize that these fine qualities rest
on a foundation of sturdy construction. This dresser, for example,
is * * *."
_Contacting the "I'll-buy-later" prospect._--There is always the
chance that the sale can be closed. A woman's statement that she is
not yet ready to buy is in many cases merely a "defense mechanism"--a
psychological device to serve as an excuse to leave if she senses that
high-pressure selling effort is being applied. It is possible that if
we answer, in effect, "Please don't think of yourself as a customer,
but rather as a valued guest of the store. This is not a busy hour for
me, and while you are here I hope you will let me show you some more of
the new things, which are particularly interesting this season," we may
be able to develop the confidence and desire necessary to effect a sale.
If we fail to do this, we can at least see to it that the customer
leaves with a clear impression of the value of the pieces she has been
considering. If this impression is sufficiently clear and deep she may
come back. Otherwise, in all likelihood, she will not.
_The shopper in a hurry._--Many of us habitually make little or no
effort with the customer who enters with the warning "I am in a great
hurry," or "I have just a moment to look around today, and will come
back later when I have more time." This is a mistake. Such statements
may or may not be entirely true. In many cases they are another
form of defense mechanism--a way out, prepared in advance. In other
cases, they are merely a form of exhibitionism--a native desire to
appear important. Such customers, properly handled, often can be held
indefinitely, with the average chance to make a sale.
_Price important in judging value._--Those who sell are rightfully apt
to think of value as the total sum of a number of costs. While this
method of evaluation is not fundamental economically, nevertheless
our opinions often crystallize when we view the cost records. Our
customer, however, is dually interested in what it costs to make and
distribute what we sell her and in what our product means to her
through its uses in her home. The merchant's, and hence the salesman's
obligation, is to satisfy her that the price she pays is in strict
conformity with the actual reasonable costs of making and delivering
the goods. Simultaneously, however, we must teach her how our product
will fit into her home, the satisfaction it will give her, the use it
will stand through the years, in order that she may correctly weigh her
satisfaction against her cost and reach a final conclusion as to her
purchase.
This does not mean, of course, that the price should be stated first,
but simply that it must be stated at the time it becomes important in
the mind of the buyer. Assuming a skillfully conducted preliminary
talk, this will normally be _after_ an article has been tentatively
accepted on the basis of appearance, and fitness, but _before_ the
beginning of a serious effort to close the sale.
_Avoid resistance, and answer unspoken objections._--Use of the "How
do you like this?" type of question sets up unnecessary hazards
of resistance and should be avoided. The same is true of positive
assertions not susceptible of immediate proof, and also of statements
which tend to suggest inner doubts.
If you say of a certain sheen-type rug, "This rug, in pattern and
coloring reproducing one of the celebrated Isphans of seventeenth
century Persia, is woven of a special brand of imported oriental
wools, by methods which give to its deep, close pile almost unlimited
durability, plus this rich, velvet-like softness and luster," you
add to its value without setting up a possible source of resistance
to unspoken objections. But if you say, "The construction of this
rug makes it the best value on the market," you cannot prove your
statement, which may serve to remind the buyer that other stores are
offering special values, or that her friend is enthusiastic about a rug
bought recently at Blank's.
_Unproved assertions destroy confidence._--Suppose you are trying to
sell a table with mahogany-veneer top and red gum legs. To call it a
mahogany table will lose the sale immediately, if the customer knows
woods. To say that it has a mahogany-veneer top and mahogany finish gum
legs may suggest to the buyer that a veneer is a poor substitute for
solid wood, and that gum cannot be desirable if it must be finished to
look like something else. To ignore the whole matter of materials and
construction and to try to sell the table on its beauty and fitness
alone may cause the customer to wonder just what you are trying to
conceal, which will mean loss of confidence in yourself and your
merchandise.
The wise course is to tell the entire truth about the piece in
a perfectly matter-of-fact way designed to avoid any invidious
comparisons of woods or processes. For example: "This table whose
design and coloring you so much admire is as sturdy as it is good
looking. Following the practice of some old eighteenth century
cabinetmakers, the maker of this piece has combined several woods.
Those used in the top are built into the modern five-ply construction,
which brings out the full beauty of grain of the mahogany upper
ply, ensures freedom from any danger of warping or splitting, and
provides the strength of steel. For the legs he has used the beautiful
straight-grained red gum of the South."
It is a costly folly to try to sell one material or process by
condemning another. We show a table, for example, and speak of "solid
American walnut" as if no other wood or construction were worthy of
consideration; and 5 minutes later, finding that we have misjudged her
price level, we stammer and stumble over an attempt to convince her
that plywood is an acceptable substitute.
These are the dangerous devices of mental laziness. When a customer
asks us if mahogany is better than birch, or Axminster carpets better
than velvets, or solid construction better than veneer, a positive
answer is misleading. We certainly should know that mahogany, like
birch, varies in excellence according to the individual board; that
some Axminsters are better than some velvets, and vice versa; and that
the construction is best which best meets the particular requirements
of design and purpose, in furniture precisely as in shoes or ships.
The fact is that everything used in making home furnishings of worthy
quality has stood the test of time, and therefore is interesting and
desirable in its own right. If we cannot make it seem so to customers,
we have not learned enough about it.
_In selling materials and construction, repetition is needed._--We must
be governed by the results of our preliminary talk in picking out for
emphasis the particular points which promise to be of interest to each
customer. Having made these points, we sometimes need to repeat them,
in varying language and in different parts of our sales talk. Moreover,
we must never forget that many things which are as familiar to us as
the multiplication table are strange to our customers, and therefore
difficult to remember.
We know, for example, that concealed differences in construction
may make one easy chair worth twice as much as another of identical
appearance; that in sliced walnut veneers, figured woods may cost 5 or
10 times as much as plain; but most buyers do not know such things.
Accordingly, if we merely state such facts, but fail to groove a
memory channel by one or more repetitions, there is an excellent chance
that even the customer who wants and can afford good things will look
elsewhere, completely forget what we have told her, and buy a cheaper
article in the honest belief that she is getting something equally
good. _What too often happens is that in building up the value of our
merchandise we fail to fix the facts in the customer's mind._
_Treat merchandise carefully, and show it under the most favorable
conditions._--It is self evident that valuable merchandise must be so
handled as to imply that it is of distinguished excellence.
_Respect in handling inspires respect._--A woman will not buy an
article unless and until she has identified it with herself--conceived
of it as belonging to herself, and in her own home. Suppose that we are
showing her a length of drapery fabric. If we crush it, or handle it as
if it were calico or cheesecloth, or chance to step on it _before_ she
makes this unconscious identification with herself, she will think less
of it; if _after_, she will think less of us. Either reaction will be
harmful.
In departments using rug racks, often it is necessary to remove a rug
and show it on the floor before the sale can be closed. If we do this
in a way that permits the piece to fall in a wrinkled heap on the floor
we will not damage the rug, but we will hurt the buyer's opinion of it.
A shrewd salesman will ask his customer to walk on the rug; but he will
not walk on it himself.
The same care applies to showing furniture. It is folly to jerk a
drawer violently, or pound a table or dresser top, or thump the seat
of an easy chair, or sit on the arm of a sofa. Such actions reveal
an awkwardness and lack of poise which one does not associate with
good homes and their furnishings. Then, too, your customer, if she
is seriously considering a purchase, thinks of you subconsciously as
pounding her table or sitting on the arm of her sofa.
Similar care should be given to the language with which you
characterize or describe your merchandise. Many an automobile salesman
has lost a live prospect because he insisted on calling a beautiful car
a "job." "This stuff," or even "these goods," may lose the sale of a
fine damask. Wrong inflection in phrases like "It is veneered," "This
is a cretonne," often is fatal.
CONTRAST IN BUYING METHODS OF WOMEN AND MEN
WHO BUYS THE HOME FURNISHINGS?
In this bulletin the buyer of home furnishings is referred to as "she."
This is done partly for simplicity, and partly because most buyers are
women.
As a matter of fact, men do play an extremely important part in
the purchase of home furnishings, and they are likely to be the
determining factor in large sales. This is so much the case that clever
salesmen and decorators frequently try to get the man involved even
in the earlier stages of a large sale, while many highly successful
oriental-rug men make no serious effort on a sale of any importance
until the man is actively interested.
_Accurate percentages impossible._--Such data as we have indicate that,
in the purchase by average-income families of the kinds of merchandise
carried by furniture stores, 5 percent or less of the buying is done
by men alone, 50 percent or more by women alone, and the remaining 40
percent by men and women together.
The percentages, which are of approximate accuracy only, vary widely
with different classifications of merchandise. Women probably buy from
75 to 85 percent of all curtains, draperies, mattresses, and pillows;
men alone buy considerably more than 5 percent of lamps, refrigerators,
and small electric appliances; and men and women together buy from
60 to 70 percent of room-size rugs and the more important items of
furniture.
WHY FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE VITAL
These figures indicate that women have some part in considerably more
than 50 percent of all sales in our business. There is reason to
believe that they initiate fully 85 percent of all sales. This means,
among other things--
1. That we must expect and be set for competition and delayed sales
in the majority of cases, because three women out of every four
shop in more than one store before buying furniture.
2. That we must conduct every interview with a woman shopper in a
way calculated to influence her to return in case an immediate
sale cannot be made. This will demand--
_a._ Prompt and skillful service, with every effort to save
her time; because women of the intelligent classes in recent
years have come to attach great value to their shopping time
and to resent any waste of it as a result of inefficient
salesmanship or store service.
_b._ Careful attention to those elements of salesmanship
discussed under "The daily check-up," unit I, p. 10, because
women are strongly influenced by first impressions, and in a
competitive market rarely return to the salesperson who made
an unpleasant first impression.
_c._ Belief that "high-pressure" selling is a mark of
inadequacy both in the salesman and the firm he represents.
The customer of today is rightfully resentful of it,
although it is true that some seem to react positively to
it. Intelligent selling is marked by efficiency in fitting
merchandise to a customer's desire and need, coupled with an
understanding of her capacity to purchase without financial
strain, and readiness to offer the best value commensurate
with these limitations.
_d._ Convincing demonstration of the value of merchandise under
consideration, even in cases where we are morally certain
that there will be no immediate sale; because in the absence
of such demonstration there will assuredly be no later sale.
This is a point at which many consistently fail, with an
enormous total loss in sales as an inevitable result.
3. That salesmen and merchants alike discard any smug conviction that
"our old customers will always come back to us when new purchases are
under consideration," and must turn to the development of an efficient
follow-up system. The repeat purchases of old customers are not as a
rule sufficient to assure the continued success of any retail business.
Surveys in 1940 show that 60 percent of the home furnishings customers
of the country shift to another store for their "next" purchase. This
does not mean that they never return to the original establishment. It
does show the need for salesmen and merchants to keep in touch with
those whose confidence they have once developed. Properly handled, the
customer likes the friendly follow-up and unquestionably it affects her
shopping habits.
DEALING WITH WOMEN CUSTOMERS
While generalizations on human motives and thought patterns always are
dangerous, a few observations are set down here for consideration.
As buyers of home furnishings, women are in general more conservative
in matters of price than men. Women's traditional role has been that of
the conserver, rather than of the earner. Her attitude in the furniture
store is due partly to this fact, partly to the fact that under present
conditions she feels that a larger measure of personal and social
satisfaction is to be gained by expenditure in fields other than home
furnishings. Her capacity as family purchasing agent compels her to
keep constantly in mind a wide range of immediate and future needs, and
to plan the division of her dollar on that basis.
Women are more interested in details than men; more inclined to
postpone decisions; more indirect in their thinking; more responsive to
appeals based upon instinctive and emotional reactions; less attentive;
and less responsive to complete-explanation sales talk.
Women respond more strongly than men to appeals based upon time saving,
efficiency, durability, quality, and the guaranty of performance, and
far less strongly than men to appeals based upon family affection or
sympathy. Appeals to elegance or modernity make a stronger appeal to
men than to women.
Women respond more quickly to appeals made to their dislikes than to
their likes, but with men the case is reversed. This fact, coupled with
woman's habit of indirect thinking and her reluctance to go on record,
makes questionable the use of the "yes-channel" method of selling which
is often successful in dealing with men. The theory is that by asking
questions to which the logical answer will be "yes" in the earlier
stages of the sale, you groove the way for a final "yes." It is good
theory, but fails with women buyers.
For the same reason the habit of repeating the question "How do you
like this piece?" or "Isn't this beautiful, desirable, etc.?" is
dangerous. Women do not like to be cross-questioned, or forced to
declare themselves. Their inner response to a "don't you like" question
is likely to be destructively negative, no matter what they may choose
to say out loud.
Women respond more directly and strongly to the appeal of color than do
men, and less strongly to the appeal of line and form. They often have
strong prejudices against certain colors, certain types in texture,
pattern, and proportion. These the salesman must uncover skillfully and
avoid in showing merchandise.
The buying psychology of a woman naturally is influenced by her age,
social position, experience, and income. On the upper levels of
intelligence and income women buy much as men do. They are interested
in "reason why" talk; their thinking is direct and their decision
prompt. On the low levels we find women who, however shrewd in buying
foodstuffs or clothing, have had little experience in the purchase of
furniture and floor coverings. Lacking both taste and knowledge, these
women often are childishly credulous. They buy on the basis of easy
terms and what is to them eye-appeal, and have little or no concern
with what would constitute value in the upper levels.
RECENT SURVEY REVEALS NEW VIEWPOINTS OF VITAL INTEREST[3]
Seeking to eliminate guesswork in designing a 1940 line, the Kroehler
Manufacturing Co. conducted a Nation-wide survey on consumer
furniture-buying habits. In 49 cities 1,817 families of all classes and
age groups were interviewed in their homes. By virtue of scientific
statistical sampling and complete coast-to-coast geographic coverage
the survey should correctly represent the typical viewpoint of no fewer
than 26 million people and more than 6½ million families. Since the
Bureau of the Census shows that 51.2 percent of our families own their
own homes, approximately one-half of these interviewed in the survey
must have been home owners. Because three-fourths of our people live
in one-family dwellings, about three-fourths of those interviewed must
have been thus housed, and one-fourth lived in apartments conforming
likewise to census specifications.
The summary of the survey's results provides a basis for analyzing
buying habits and style preferences. But more important to us here,
the study developed certain inescapable conclusions for all those who
actually sell home furnishings.
_Fewer than one-third had bought their last furniture at the same store
from which their last previous purchase had been made. Two-thirds went
elsewhere._
Why this huge turn-over?
Is it because furniture stores and departments, as a whole, fail to do
constructive selling?
Is it the result of dissatisfaction with previous purchases?
_Thirty-three months elapse between major furniture purchases of the
average family._--A lapse of nearly 3 years between large furniture
purchases is astonishing. The Chicago Automobile Trade Association says
the average family buys an automobile every 2 years--not because the
car is worn out, but because of model changes. To increase furniture
purchases dealers must put more emphasis on style changes through
better display, better advertising, and better merchandising.
_Over one-half of all furniture buyers shopped more than one store
or department._--Better selection, better floor display, and better
selling might have converted many shoppers into buyers in the first
store. What happened there?
_Fewer than 10 percent of actual buyers simply bought to replace
out-of-style furniture._--Furniture lined up in ranks along aisles
like wooden soldiers, and advertising which shouts nothing but price,
will not motivate purchases.
_Six out of ten customers wait until they are in the store before they
choose a style._
Floor displays that confuse will not help.
Drab window displays will repel.
Doubting words will not highlight lovely furnishings.
ENRICHING YOUR VOCABULARY
Ability to talk well is an invaluable asset to the salesman of home
furnishings. It will not take the place of a winning personality, or
of energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge; but it will raise any or all of
these factors to a higher power, and make them vastly more productive.
An unpleasant voice, stumbling and hesitant utterance, faulty grammar,
and a narrowly limited vocabulary are serious handicaps.
Even in small and ordinary transactions, and in dealing with customers
whom you might not suppose to be observant, careful choice of words
is highly important. Avoid slang, bad grammar, and careless habits of
expression because these will not help you with any customer, while
with many they will arouse a sort of intellectual contempt likely to
result in sales resistance. How often do we meet with salespersons
whose only descriptive words seem to be: Nice, swell, smart, grand,
slick, gorgeous, elegant, stunning, pretty, and lovely.
It is particularly important to avoid the easy habit of using the same
few words over and over again for description or characterization.
Many of us, without the least realization of what we are doing or
its probable effect will assure the same customer that 10 pieces in
succession are beautiful. That certainly will not increase her desire
to buy; but it may well diminish her confidence in us as intelligent
and discriminating guides to such a purchase. A varied vocabulary is a
wonderful asset in selling.
_Training to use a wider range of words._--It is easy to form the habit
of using a wider range of words since we know the words already, and
nothing is required but practice in employing them. And it is highly
important, because in order to make sales of any importance, we must
first sell ourselves, and _language_ is a close third, at least, to
_appearance_ and _manner_ as a means to customer confidence. With many
buyers it comes first. A few lists of words are set down here in the
hope that they may prove of some value:
An _article_ may be beautiful, handsome, good looking, lovely; or
of charming, pleasing, delightful, satisfying, smart, modish,
stylish, or fashionable appearance; of flawless, superb,
appealing, moving, striking, notable, gorgeous, picturesque,
distinguished, colorful, or exquisite beauty.
Its _design_ may be sturdy, staunch, vigorous, structurally sound
or adequate, impressive, stately, dignified, chaste, delicate,
dainty, refined, simple or of a charming simplicity; ornate,
ornamental, elaborate, highly decorative; with trim, smart,
or graceful lines, in good, rare, or perfect taste; of great,
unusual, or rare distinction.
Its _surface_ may be ornamented, embellished, adorned, decorated,
garnished, arrayed, or beautified with ornament that is
intricate, gem-like, jewel-like, or of exquisite, or finely
wrought detail.
Its _lines_ may be straight, direct, strong, vigorous, virile,
incisive, clean, forceful, masculine; curved, soft, luxurious,
graceful, gracious, suave, sinuous, yielding, flowing, or
feminine.
Its _colors_ may be rich, vivid, brilliant, gorgeous, glowing, gay,
stimulating, inspiring, exhilarating, cheerful, flushed, clear,
unfaded; soft, sober, mellow, softly blended, quiet, restrained;
polychromatic, many colored, a rich mosaic of color; its color
scheme, smart, in today's mode, direct from Fifth Avenue;
popular, intriguing, refreshing, satisfying, or delightful.
Its _texture_ may be fine, smooth, satiny or satin-like, velvety
or velvet-like, lustrous, glossy, caressing; vigorous, open, or
rough.
It may be comfortable, comfort-giving, restful, reposeful,
soothing, inviting; give an impression of ease, easy comfort,
cushioned ease; invite rest, repose, or relaxation.
These words will be especially useful in the process of "high-lighting"
or introducing a piece with a brief characterization designed to
enhance its value before the serious work of selling it is undertaken,
as in the phrase, "Here is an armchair of _flawless beauty_," employed
in introducing the Chippendale chair.
Technical terms, provided you explain them almost immediately, are
effective. To speak of the cabriole or the term leg, the Spanish or the
bun foot, the saltire or the silhouette stretcher, or of marquetry,
_vernis martin_ (pronounced, roughly, ver-nee mar-tang) _bombe_ fronts
or _varquenos_ will not harm you with any customers, while with many it
will serve to intrigue interest, deepen appreciation of the importance
of furniture, and add to your own prestige as a man who knows the
details of his business.
SUGGESTIONS FOR BUILDING YOUR VOCABULARY
Any salesperson in the home furnishings field will find it convenient
to adopt some simple plan of acquiring the expanding vocabulary which
always is an asset:
1. Purchase a book of synonyms. Take an article you are to
offer for sale, for instance, an armchair. Try, first, to use
correctly a dozen different descriptive words which apply to this
particular armchair. Then take the idea of _design_ or _texture_
or _surface_ of this armchair and add a list of 10 to 20
adjectives which might well be used in discussing this chair with
a customer. You may depend upon it--she will prefer, "Here is an
armchair of flawless beauty" to "Here's another pretty number."
2. _Read_ descriptions of latest offerings shown at the furniture
markets; _study_ closely the choice of words in presenting
illustrations of special thumb-tuft carpeting, a drop-leaf table,
wing chairs, any simply styled grouping; _use_ these newly found
friends exactly, confidently, and constantly in your own selling
procedures. Practice! Practice!
3. Give close attention to the diction of others who have achieved
vocabulary masteries beyond your own. Seek ever to acquire a
facility in expression which will impose no handicap to you at
any step in your sales procedure.
4. Subscribe to one or more trade journals in the home furnishings
field and cultivate the habit of selecting for study those
articles which will add something to your steadily growing
vocabulary, and enhance your appreciation of the power of words.
HIDDEN FACTORS THAT INCREASE SALES
Since ancient times, the sense of touch and the sensation of feel
have been important factors in the buying and selling of practically
all commodities. To see a piece of smooth satin partially sells a
prospective customer, but to feel its soft texture in her fingers makes
the luxury of the fabric a reality, something to own and cherish which
will enhance her loveliness, and this hidden value, expressed in the
sense of touch, is usually the factor which makes the customer buy
better merchandise than she might have considered and which climaxes
the sale.
In selling home furnishings, the hidden value revealed by touching the
piece under consideration is extremely important. Fine furniture which
has been hand rubbed has a luxurious feeling which is as soft as satin.
Only by rubbing your fingers over a lovely finish can you appreciate,
to the fullest extent, the exquisite fineness of a hand-rubbed finish.
Feeling the smooth pull of a drawer which slides properly on its
guides, tracing the design of inlaid marquetry with the fingertips,
searching for rough spots in drawer interiors with sensitive fingers
and caressing soft-textured upholstery fabrics with the fingers all
vividly bring to the attention of the customer the quality and true
hidden beauty of the piece under consideration, which may not have been
discernible to the naked eye. The sensation of feel should be made to
augment the sense of touch whenever possible, but salespersons should
bear in mind that a woman's hand is extremely sensitive and the sense
of touch should first be brought into action before the sense of feel;
for example, let us suppose a woman is considering a rug, which has
a particularly fine texture. Invite her first to feel the texture of
the rug beneath her fingers; have her compare this feeling with a less
expensive rug so that she may mentally compare the difference; then
ask her to step on the rug. Get her to feel the luxury of it under
her foot; bring to her attention the spring of the wool, the comfort
of stepping into the deep pile and other factors which excite the
sensation of feel. You will find these powerful factors not only in
helping her decide upon a better rug but in assuring her that she is
getting quality for her investment.
[Illustration:
Courtesy Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Co.
Figure 6.--The feminine touch.]
When selling upholstered pieces, always have the customer sit in the
chair or on the sofa. Ask specifically if it is small enough, or if she
thinks it will be large enough, for her husband or whoever is to use
the chair. Stress the comfort angle; notice if she can sit gracefully
in the piece and whether or not she has difficulty in getting up, once
seated. As she touches the fabric bring out facts about the texture and
the weave. (See fig. 6.) As she experiences the various reactions she
is silently selling herself and only suggestions on your part which
help her to recognize the various sensations of touch and feel are
necessary.
Bear in mind in all phases of selling home furnishing, whether the
customer is considering a chest of drawers, a chair, rug, lamp, or
cigarette box, getting her to touch it to get the "feel" of the article
and to try it for comfort, luxury, restfulness, or other sensations are
potent hidden factors in better selling.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
_1. How will a knowledge of the processes of manufacturing of an
article enable the salesman to explain its wearing qualities, its
price, its sanitary qualities, its fitness for a particular location
within a room, and its appearance?_
_2. What types of information may a home furnishings salesman get from
a public library?_
_3. What sources of merchandise information are available to you and
how familiar are you with them?_
_4. What five kinds of special information are needed by retail
salesmen?_
_5. What steps do you take systematically to acquaint yourself with the
correct descriptive words and phrases currently used with newly arrived
merchandise?_
_6. There is a vocabulary of suitable words and phrases for use when
showing furniture to all types of customers. The same words are not
equally effective with all customers. What plan or device do you use in
making a wise selection of these descriptive words and phrases?_
_7. Make a list of words which under any ordinary selling situation you
would never use._
_8. Why is the excessive use of superlatives an indication of ignorance
of the article being sold?_
_9. For each of the following make a statement which involves the
opinion of a recognized authority:_
_Reading lamp._
_Glowing colors._
_Floor coverings._
_Glass curtains._
_Telephone stand._
_Wallpaper._
_Armchair._
_Pictures._
_10. In the light of the discussions in this unit, what profitable
work may a retail salesman attend to when not actually waiting on
customers?_
SUGGESTED READING LIST
ARMOLD, PERRY B. _The Road to a Sale._ The Armold Sales Training
Institute, Los Angeles, Calif. 1935.
The Human Element in Business, IV, p. 67.
Putting "Biz" in Business, V, p. 88.
DUNCAN, DOROTHY. _You Can Live in an Apartment._ Farrar & Rinehart,
Inc., New York, N. Y. 1939.
Furniture--and Stuff, IV, pp. 84-111.
HAYTER, EDITH FLETCHER. _Retail Selling Simplified._ Harper &
Bros., New York, N. Y. 1939.
Habits and Your Job, XV, p. 111.
Poise in Selling, XVIII, p. 124.
The Customer and the Merchandise, IV, p. 21.
IVEY, PAUL W. _Successful Salesmanship._ Prentice-Hall, Inc., New
York, N. Y. 1939.
Know Salesmanship, VIII, pp. 19-25.
A Rug Salesman Who Was Success Minded, Section 3, p. 28.
Know Your Merchandise, II, Sec. 4, pp. 36-67.
Build Good Will, XII, Sec. 34, pp. 450-463.
RICHERT, G. HENRY. _Retailing Principles and Practices._ Gregg
Publishing Co., New York, N. Y. 1938.
Customers, X, pp. 199-219.
Merchandise Study, XII, pp. 245-273.
VAN BRUSSEL, EMILY. _Behind The Counter._ D. Appleton-Century Co.,
Inc., New York, N. Y. 1938.
The Colonel's Lady and Judy O'Grady, II, p. 8.
What Is This Thing Called Merchandise? III, p. 31.
Good-by, Caveat Emptor, V, p. 72.
WALTERS, R. G. _Fundamentals of Salesmanship._ South-Western
Publishing Co., Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio. 1932.
The Salesman's English, V, p. 69.
Know Your Goods, VII, p. 101.
The Demonstration, XV, p. 231.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] This is a matter of store policy. Some stores believe that they
gain more than they lose by suppressing the name of manufacturer.
[3] This summary prepared with permission of Delmar Kroehler, president
of the Kroehler Manufacturing Co., Naperville, Ill., and Henri, Hurst,
and McDonald. Inc., 520 North Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. (1939).
Unit IV
STYLE AS A SELLING FACTOR
Significance of Style
Period Styles from Renaissance to Early Colonial
American Styles
Using Style Appeal in Selling
[Illustration:
American Furniture Mart Photograph by Grignon
Figure 7.--A directoire piece in lacquer and gold, upholstered in a
rich gold and green brocade fashion, this interesting stool. An ideal
hall piece, the ornate stool lends itself to an interesting setting
when used with the lovely Duncan Phyfe mirror and mirrored glass wall
sconces. The mirror has a dull green panel across the top--the lyre
and laurel branches appearing in a deep green and gold. The arabesque
Axminster rug has a tracery leaf design in sculptone effect. It is a
greyed green tone.]
Unit IV.--STYLE AS A SELLING FACTOR
SIGNIFICANCE OF STYLE
Salespersons frequently find it necessary to deepen a customer's
appreciation of the fitness and beauty of a piece by the presentation
of one or more additional selling features, of which the most important
are construction or technical excellence, attractiveness of materials
or finish, and beauty of design or style.
This should do two things:
1. Enhance the value of your merchandise.
2. Enable you to reveal technical or artistic knowledge which will
increase the customer's respect.
There is no fixed or logical order for the presentation of these
various selling features. Many salesmen begin with construction, but
this often is a mistake. There is reason to believe that more women are
interested in materials than in construction, and more in style than in
materials.
_What style means to you._--Style is a powerful buying motive of great
and growing importance in furniture. Most of us attempt to use the
style appeal only in connection with period furniture. Most women, on
the other hand, identify style with fashion. They think of style in
decoration as substantially the same thing as style in dress; that is,
as something smartly harmonious and in the accepted mode.
Unquestionably we must develop the power to capitalize on style as our
customers understand it.
The successful salesman also must be able to exploit style in the
historic or period sense. The history of furniture is a selling tool of
immense value, whether we are trading upon high, medium, or low levels.
The sections which discuss the more important period styles contain a
mass of highly condensed information. All of this information and much
more will be necessary to the man who wants to reach the higher levels
of his profession, but just how much of it you will need to remember
and organize for your present work is a matter to be determined by
yourself. The first thing to do is to read it through carefully two or
three times in order to get the broad outlines of the subject. After
that study more carefully those parts of the section on "Period styles
from Renaissance to early colonial," page 50, and "The American style,"
page 70, that can be related to your own merchandise. Make use of the
suggested reading list at the end of the unit, page 79.
_Glossary and reading list._--Many terms used in the section on "Period
styles from Renaissance to early colonial" are uncommon and not widely
understood in the furniture trade, although they are freely used in
books and magazines which deal with the home furnishing art. These
terms are defined in the glossary included in the appendix, pages 247
to 249.
PERIOD STYLES FROM RENAISSANCE TO EARLY COLONIAL
Furniture is and always has been a utility and an expression of human
ideals. In order to understand period furniture and to talk about it
with convincing enthusiasm we must be able to see beyond it to the
people who created and used it.
For our purpose, we confine this summary to the historic period
beginning about 500 years ago, which covers the development of
furniture as we know and use it today. Speaking broadly, the social
trends during this period were from insecurity to security; from
despotism to political liberty; from austerity to luxury; and from
simplicity and few wants to sophistication and multiplied wants.
Accompanying and expressing these social changes we find corresponding
changes in architecture and decoration. The trends are from homes of
fortress-like construction to homes easily accessible and amply lighted
by low windows; from immense rooms with high ceilings to small rooms
with low ceilings; from massive, heavy forms and thick proportions to
small, light forms and slender proportions; from the austerity and
virility of straight lines to the softness and femininity of curved
lines; from strong dark colors to soft light colors; from vigorous,
open textures to smooth, close textures; and from a few types of
furniture to the extraordinary variety of today.
_Most period furniture was designed for the rich and powerful._--We
must remember that most of the historic styles were expressions of
the life of the court and the aristocracy. Period furniture was made
by great artists, and often was elaborately ornate, sumptuous, and
enormously costly. The metal mounts alone on the cabinets made for the
mistresses of Louis XV, for example, cost far more than the ground,
building, and complete furnishings of an ordinary American home.
The essence of these styles is to be found in their line, proportion,
color, and texture. We can adapt them to machine production and mass
distribution. We sell these reproductions or adaptions for what
they cost in a machine age. But we can add to their desirability by
explaining their aristocratic ancestry. Thousands of customers enjoy
the sentimental satisfaction that comes with the knowledge of style
and period sources and even the anecdote plays its part in giving
merchandise its full measure of value in use.
_Europe before the Renaissance._--When the Roman power was broken in
the fifth century of our era, Western Europe was given over to anarchy
and darkness. In the beginning of the feudal period, the great barons
with their families, retainers, and dogs, lived in bare fortresses or
one-room castles. The floors were of dirt. The lord and his lady had a
great bed, two chairs of state,[4] and a few hutches.[5] The retainers
had stools on which to sit, and ate at a great table made by laying
hewn planks on trestles.
By the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 a measure of
civilization had been achieved. A great love of color developed with
the age of chivalry. The period of the Crusades (seven attempts during
the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries to recover Jerusalem
and the Holy Land from the infidels) brought the knights of Western
Europe into contact with the developed arts of Sicily and the far more
luxurious life of their Saracen enemies, and the returning crusaders
brought back great quantities of the rich and colorful fabrics of the
East.
That tremendous out-flowering of the human spirit which we call the
Renaissance (French for rebirth) started in Italy in the fourteenth
century; it grew there in full vigor in the fifteenth, attained to
its maturest powers in the sixteenth, and sank to its decline in the
seventeenth. The whole era was a time of great achievement. The New
World was discovered and explored, learning was revived and extended,
international trade was developed, and masterpieces were created in the
arts, which still stand among the greatest monuments of human genius.
The ideas and decorative practice of the Italian Renaissance quickly
spread to the west, where they overcame or fused with the existing
Gothic, resulted in the Renaissance styles of Spain, France, Flanders,
Holland, and England, and started the long course of development
which has created the immensely rich heritage possessed by lovers of
furniture today. In studying the decoration of this first period, we
must remember that the construction of rooms adapted to the comfort,
privacy, and intimacy of modern life was an eighteenth century
development. Life was lived in the public eye and in rooms of state.
The apartments of the palaces were large, the ceilings high, and the
furniture sparse and designed for its decorative value rather than for
use and comfort.
THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
It is customary to divide this era into three periods; the Early
Renaissance, characterized by a rich simplicity and a dignity almost
austere; the High Renaissance, by a showy but restrained magnificence;
and the Late Renaissance, by a baroque magnificence over-ornate and
unrestrained.
During the first period, walls were chiefly in rough plaster, bare
save for tapestries or panels of damask or brocade, or finished with
a smooth coat decorated with colored frescoes; ceilings were largely
in dark woods, cross-beamed, and with the heavy beams and corbels
ornamented in color; and floors were of stone, tile, and marble. There
was some use of oriental rugs, and a free use of rich decorative
textiles.
During the high or middle period (about 1500-1550) many of the rooms
were rich with pattern and color. Walls were in colored marbles, or
covered with frescoes and gilding, or with gorgeous brocades, Genoese
velvets and tooled and gilded leather; ceilings frescoed and gilded;
floors paved with many-colored patterns in gleaming marble.
Furniture of the period was straight-lined, rectangular, and of dark
woods. Carving, in low relief and in the round, always was employed
with a fine sense of the value of contrast with plain spaces. Gesso
ornament, gilding, and painting were much employed, and the panels of
chests and other pieces often were decorated by the greatest artists.
Chairs of the period were of _(a)_ the rectangular type, with or
without arms, with high or low back, and with or without upholstery;
_(b)_ the curule, a sort of four-legged camp stool with back, sometimes
of metal and with fabric seat; and the ~X~-type, adapted from ancient
Greece and Rome, called in Italy Dante and Savonarola chairs. These
chairs of wood or metal often were made to fold, and later became
popular in England.
Tables included the single-slab refectory type; draw tables of the same
construction used today; pedestal tables with round, square, hexagonal,
and octagonal tops; and a variety of writing tables with a front box
or drawer section which could be lifted for writing. The larger tables
were supported by heavy turned legs with stretchers near the floor, or
by trussed or columned end supports connected by a stretcher, often
arcaded.
[Illustration:
_Painted Commode_
18th Century Venetian
_"Dante" Chair_
Italian Renaissance
_Armchair_
Italian Renaissance
_Armchair_
Spanish Renaissance
_Armchair_
Italian Renaissance
_Vargueno_
Spanish Renaissance
_Table_
Spanish Renaissance
Figure 8.--Italian and Spanish styles (1400-1759).]
Beds, which were usually set on a dais or low platform and always
richly embellished, included the heavy four-poster with canopy; the
four-poster with low posts and no tester, with or without footboard;
and the paneled type with head and foot board and no posts.
Chests, chiefly bridal chests (Italian: Cassone or cassoni in plural),
were a most conspicuous feature of Italian decoration.
Credenzas, which served either as buffet or console, were wall pieces
about 4 feet high and of varying length. Other forms included the
armadio (French armoire, a large cupboard or cabinet for linens), small
cupboards, chests or drawers, desk, benches, and stools.
Renaissance ornament was enormously rich. The forms, taken chiefly from
classical antiquity, included the acanthus leaf, human and chimerical
figures, cherubs, scrolls, foliage, flowers, swags, rosettes, and
drapery festoons. Velvets were used largely for upholstery, with
brocades, brocatelles, damasks, needlepoint, and leather, and strong
rich colors were used throughout as would be expected of so vigorous an
age. Strong reds, blues, and greens, set off by gold, were the favorite
hues.
Although a long period of decadence followed the High Renaissance
much beautiful work was done in eighteenth century Italy. Furniture
was chiefly of walnut, mahogany, and many highly figured woods, with
carving, painting, bone inlay, pietra dura, marble tops and ornamental
metal mounts the favorite methods of embellishment. The painted
furniture, particularly that made in Venice, is of interest to us
today, and is used in suites for bedroom and breakfast room, and as
occasional pieces in other rooms. In using this furniture today it is
unimportant to attempt to reproduce the historic backgrounds.
THE SPANISH RENAISSANCE
Spanish interiors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries differed
sharply from contemporary rooms in Italy, France, and England, chiefly
by reason of old Moorish art and custom, which the incoming wave of the
Renaissance was not strong enough to wash away.
Old Spanish decoration is characterized by a severe dignity, relieved
by concentrated masses of strong colors and by a wide variety of
ornamental forms. Furniture of the period was straight-lined and
rectangular and chiefly of walnut, mahogany, chestnut, oak, and pine.
Carving, straight and spiral turning, inlay of ivory, bone, ebony,
colored woods, tortoise shell, silver, and bronze, often with outlines
in black and vermillion, and ornamental iron work were the principal
means of embellishment. Elaborate and beautiful mounts of iron and
brass were common.
Chairs, though not common, included both the curule and rectangular
types, the latter with or without arms and with or without upholstery.
Other varieties included carved and straight spiral turned legs;
Spanish scroll, bell, ball and bun feet; carved, splat, and arcaded
backs; and wood, flat upholstered, and squab-cushioned seats. Beds were
large, and mostly of the arcaded headboard type. Tables were mostly of
large size and rectangular.
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE (FRANCIS I, 1515-47; HENRY II, 1547-59)
French Gothic art early began to give way before the constantly
widening flood of Renaissance art which flowed in from Italy. The
transition was practically complete when Francis I was crowned, and
less than 50 years later, under Henry II and his Italian wife Catherine
de Medici, the richly ornate yet restrained style of the French
Renaissance was fully formed. The style is too palatial for adaptation
to American homes.
The French Styles.
_1. Louis XIV (Louis Quatorze[6]), 1643-1715._
Louis XIV surrounded himself with the airs and trappings of majesty.
Furniture of the period was formal and dignified, and for the most
part, massive. It retained the straight lines characteristic of the
earlier styles, but with less of angular harshness.
Walnut was chiefly used for exposed parts together with oak, chestnut,
ebony, pine, and sycamore. Many exotic woods were used for veneers
and inlay. Caning was common for seats and backs. Every known form of
embellishment was employed, including carving, chiefly in the acanthus
leaf, shell, cartouche, cupid, ram's head, and other classic motives.
Louis XIV Furniture.
Chairs of the most characteristic type were rectangular, with high
broad backs having a top straight or slightly rounded at the corners,
back and seat solidly upholstered; legs term-shaped (term: A four-sided
pillar, usually tapering toward the bottom), carved, and under-braced
by Gothic or saltire cross stretchers; arms as long as seat, and
usually straight and upholstered. Other seating included the _sofa_
or _canapé_,[7] the _chaise longue_, and the _bench_, _tabouret_, and
_stool_.
Upholstery fabrics were exceedingly rich and gorgeous, Gobelin and
Aubusson tapestries, silk velvets, damasks, and brocades being chiefly
used. Furniture was upholstered _en suite_, a common arrangement
including one sofa, two arm chairs, and nine stools or _tabourets_.
Etiquette prescribed the use of _stools_ by most members of the
court, and prudence demanded it of the ladies, who at this time wore
hoop-skirts, so enormous that they couldn't sit in an arm chair. All
furniture was placed against the wall, with the center of the room left
clear.
The old-fashioned four-poster bed with drapery belongs here. Most
fashionable was the _lit d'ange_ (bed of the angel), canopied but
without posts, which was of enormous size and always richly carved and
embellished.
While tables were of many kinds and sizes, the rectangular shape with
term legs was most characteristic. _Screens_, either one-panel or
folding, were used in most rooms, and _mirrors_, _pedestals_, and _tall
clocks_ became common, in addition to such older forms as _armoires_,
_commodes_, _cabinets_, and _desks_.
The colors of the period were fairly dark and strong, with crimson,
green, and gold still favorites; some new and lighter colors became
popular; among them aurora--the yellowish pink hue of the dawn--flame,
flesh, and amaranth.
_2. Louis XV (Louis Quinze)[8] 1715-74._
Great-grandson of the old king, Louis XV was but 5 years old when the
latter died, and for 8 years Philippe of Orleans governed as regent.
Louis XV was too young to continue the constant round of formal
receptions, and state functions. Court life turned from the great
salons to the smaller apartment and the boudoir. Furniture became
smaller and more dainty; the hard and virile straight line gave place
to the soft and feminine curved line; and dark colors to light and
delicate tones. Pale tints of rose, blue, green, and yellow were the
favorite colors.
An extraordinary variety of cabinet woods was used--among them walnut,
mahogany, oak, rosewood, cherry, violet, and tulipwood. Embellishment
included carving; ornamental veneers; marquetry; plaques of porcelain;
painting in ivory, soft yellow, gray, or sea green with fine lines of
white, gold, or color; and lacquer, which became immensely popular.
Louis XV Furniture.
The chairs, all curvilinear, with and without arms, upholstered or
caned, include the _fauteuil_[9] or _large armchair_; the _bergere_, a
_smaller armchair_ with solidly upholstered arms and often with loose
cushions; the _causeuse_ (the word means talkative, chatty), an easy
arm chair; the "_confessional_," large winged chair, often with a high
seat matching a large tabouret and put together to form a _chaise
longue_, and many others.
[Illustration:
_Table_
French Renaissance
_Armchair_
Louis XIV
_Writing Desk_
Louis XV
_Armchair_
Louis XV
_Armoire_
Louis XIV
_Commode_
Louis XV
Figure 9.--Early French styles (1500-1750).]
Beds were as varied as the chairs. Alcove and _sofa_ or _boudoir beds_
were favorites, the latter having headboard, footboard, and back.
_Four-poster canopy beds_ were common, and were sometimes made of iron,
draped. Another fashionable favorite was the _day bed_, often with a
fabric-covered headboard, and placed with either head or side against
the wall.
Among the multitude of tables were many of elliptical and other
curvilinear shapes; the _crescent_ or _kidney writing table_; the
_powder table_, which we have lately revived after more than 150 years;
and the _ladies' work table_. The _chiffonier_, a small piece with
drawers, came into use about 1750, as did the _corner cabinet_ and the
_wall shelves_, now known as hanging _book racks_.
Present-Day Practice.
Louis XV furniture is used often in the drawing room or dining room of
important American houses, where a suitable background will be ensured
by the architecture.
Most of us, however, have occasion to sell it only for bedroom use.
_3. Louis XVI (Louis Seize[10]) 1774-94._
Louis XVI, grandson of Louis XV, was married at 15 to Marie Antoinette
of Austria. He was popular for some time, but was swept aside by the
French Revolution in 1789 and was killed on the guillotine.
The style which bears his name (sometimes known as the style of Marie
Antoinette) was in reality fully formed before his accession to the
throne. It resulted directly from a wave of enthusiasm for the delicate
type of classic ornament revealed by the excavations at Pompeii and
Herculaneum, which were discovered early in the eighteenth century. The
Adam style in England came from the same source.
The furniture of the period returned to straight lines and rectangular
shapes, with curved lines freely employed but not dominant.
A great variety of cabinet woods was used, fashionable favorites,
including mahogany, walnut, sycamore, and satinwood. Carving,
architectural moldings, marquetry, figured veneers, lacquer, painting,
and porcelain inlays were the usual methods of embellishment. Much
furniture was painted.
[Illustration:
_Bed_--Louis XVI
_Armchair_
Louis XVI
_Armchair_--Empire
_Armchair_
French Provincial
_Bed_--Empire
Figure 10.--Later French styles (1750-1815).]
New Types of Furniture.
Among the new chairs was the _voyeuse_ (vwä-yûz), a lyre-back armless
chair with the top rail upholstered as an elbow rest, and used by
dandies who bestrode it backward in order not to crush the tails of
their coats. Favorite beds included the _sofa_, usually upholstered
with damask or brocade, and supporting at the four corners a light open
frame bearing a small canopy; and the _day bed_ with or without back.
During the period the _tea table_, _breakfast table_, and _extension
dining table_, with four, six, or eight legs, came into common use.
The Directoire[11] (1795-1804) and Empire (1804-15) Styles.
After France had rid itself of royalty and aristocracy through the
Revolution, under the direction of the painter David a new style was
created; it was "made and molded of things past." Inspired by the
classic Roman decoration, it was known at the time as the "antique"
style and today is known as the Directoire. (See fig. 7.)
The Directorate was succeeded in 1799 by the Consulate, with Napoleon
as First Consul, and the Consulate in 1804 by the coronation of
Napoleon as Emperor. Style trends were continuous; for our purpose it
is enough to discuss briefly the style known as the Empire _(l'Empire)_.
It is of interest because of its influence upon American furniture of
the Federal period.
Furniture was for the most part rectangular, massive, and architectural
in design, but curvilinear in Roman and gondola chairs, and in many
beds and sofas. Legs included the straight term form; round, either
plain or carved; rectangular and turned outward at both front and back
as in the chair illustrated (p. 59); flat truss supports and winged
chimerical figures for tables and beds. Feet included the paw, ball,
scroll, often with leaf shoe.
Mahogany was the favorite wood, with some use of rosewood, walnut,
oak, and yew, and with a wide variety of materials for inlay. Carving,
veneer, paint, turning, and gilding on metal or carved wood were usual
methods of embellishment. Tapestry, damask, satin, brocade, velvet, and
worsted damask were used for upholstery, with fringes and gimps common.
The French Provincial Styles.
"French Provincial" refers to furniture made in the French provinces,
by local craftsmen and usually of local woods, in close reproduction of
the styles dominant at the court. The styles which were widely copied,
and which resulted in the most graceful and charming pieces, were those
of Louis XV and Louis XVI. (See fig. 1.)
THE ENGLISH STYLES
Because England was ruled by four dynasties--English, Scotch, Dutch,
and German--English furniture reveals the effects of a series of strong
foreign influences.
The Elizabethan Style.
With the accession of Elizabeth (1558) the English Renaissance was
firmly established. Rooms of the period were paneled in oak with
small rectangular panels, plain or carved, and usually carried to the
ceiling; ceilings in ornamental plaster (parge), or in beamed-wood or
open-timber construction; and windows large, with leaded casements
separated by mullion. Most important rooms had oak-plank flooring;
there was considerable use of oriental rugs, then known as "Turkey
carpets." Many rooms still had dirt floors strewn with rushes, which
were changed but twice a year, with such results that the Englishman of
the period called his floor the "marsh," and kept his feet off it when
possible by use of chairs and tables with low, solid stretchers.
Oak was the dominant furniture wood, with some use of elm, beech, yew,
pine, and Scotch fir, which was called "deal," and valued highly.
Carving, mouldings, and paneling were used for ornament, with marquetry
for panels in walnut, ebony, rosewood, pear wood, cherry, yew, and
holly.
Furniture was massive, architectural in character, straight-lined, and
rectangular.
The beds, which were used only by the great, were the most important
article of furniture. They were of great size with a high headboard
supporting a very heavy cornice, the other end of which was borne by
posts set at the lower corners and often detached from the bottom of
the bed.
The Jacobean Style (1625-1685).
This style evolved directly from the Elizabethan, with the development
of new forms of furniture and increased use of upholstery. When, at the
Restoration in 1660, Charles II returned from France, he brought back
something of the French taste and the French desire for luxury.
[Illustration:
_Draw-top Table_
Elizabethan
_Armchair_
Elizabethan
_Armchair_
Late Jacobean
_Chair_
Late Jacobean
_Gate-leg Table_
Jacobean
Figure 11.--English styles (1560-1690).]
Oak remained the principal furniture wood, with walnut fashionable
after 1660. Furniture design, strongly influenced by Flemish practice,
tended to increasing slenderness and grace. The melon and acorn bulb
legs remained in favor for several decades; were superseded during the
Commonwealth by spiral turning; and in turn gave way to the scroll, or
Flemish legs characteristic of Charles II furniture. Chair backs became
high and narrow, and were of the ladder type or caned, carved, or
upholstered. Chair backs were raked, and later in the period the back
legs of chairs--at first perpendicular to the floor as in Elizabethan
practice, were bent outward to counterbalance the rake of the back.
Stretchers continued to follow frame line, but were gradually made
lighter, set a little higher, and turned. Toward the end of the century
the front stretching was raised, widened, and carved with a cresting
and ~C~-scrolls, as were many of the chair backs.
_Gate-leg tables_ and _day beds_ appeared early in the period--the
latter usually caned, and with a sloping head and without footboard or
back. The _couch_ took the place of the settee, and was made first with
the squab seat, and after the Restoration with the same construction
and ornament as the arm chair. _Sofas_ were made like the high-back
upholstered chairs, with arms solidly upholstered. _Tall clocks_ and
_wall clocks_ appeared, and many _small stands_.
The Style of William and Mary (1689-1702).
James II, last of the Stuart kings of England, was followed by the
Dutchman William of Orange and his wife Mary. These names stand for a
rich but confused style which marks the transition between Old English
practice and the Dutch style, fully developed a few years later in the
reign of Queen Anne. Architectural backgrounds were lighter and richer,
and the walls were often covered with velvets, damasks, and brocades in
large baroque patterns, or with papers in Chinese designs.
Walnut was the fashionable wood, but oak, elm, pine, chestnut,
pearwood, cedar, and painted beech were used, with marquetry of many
woods, plus bone and ivory. Furniture was rectangular in outline, with
a free use of curves. Carving was used for the legs and backs of many
chairs, but flat panels were embellished with veneers, marquetry, and
lacquer. Furniture legs were mostly turned, of trumpet shape and with
bun feet, though the Dutch cabriole legs, with pad feet and a single
shell carved on the knees, were not uncommon.
William and Mary brought from Holland the vogue for Chinese ornament.
Everyone collected porcelain and drank tea; new types of cabinets,
small chairs, and occasional tables appeared in profusion.
The Style of Queen Anne (1702-14).
The style of Queen Anne persisted, with unimportant changes, throughout
the reign of George I. It was less magnificent and impressive than
preceding styles, but lighter, more graceful, and more comfortable.
The walls were often paneled, but in deal rather than oak, either in
the natural color or painted, and panels were frequently embellished
with high-relief carving. For un-paneled walls, cheap printed cotton
fabrics largely replaced the sumptuous materials of the previous
style, while many walls were covered with wallpapers in landscape
or mythological subjects, or in imitation of veined marble or wood
wainscots. Ceilings were painted as in the Stuart period. Windows were
increased in size, and hung with figured velvets, satins, damasks, and
chintzes.
Lacquer continued to be vogue, and was used on _cabinets_, _screens_,
_occasional tables_, and _chairs_. Carving and painting--in black and
gold, red, blue, and green with gilding--were favorite methods of
embellishment. Caning was common. For upholstery needlepoint, figured
and plain velvet, and damask were chiefly employed.
In this style curved lines supplanted straight lines for the first
time in England. Cabriole legs were almost universal; chair backs
were high and narrow, with open framing and a fiddle splat, usually
plain but sometimes simply carved or pierced. Chair-back crests and
the legs of most furniture were ornamented with a carved shell which
reached England from Italy by way of Holland. High curved stretchers,
connecting front and back legs only and tied at the middle by a single
cross stretcher, were in general use but sometimes omitted.
The _love seat_ became an important piece of furniture at this
time, and was usually made with a double chair back, six legs, and
upholstered seat. _Dining tables_ were of the _gate-leg_ type, usually
of elliptical shape. _Tallboys_ became common, and contained from six
to nine drawers.
The Georgian Era.
Georgian England produced the decorative style created by Robert Adam,
and the individual furniture styles of Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and
Sheraton.
EARLY GEORGIAN FURNITURE
The development of English furniture between 1715 and 1727 is of little
interest save to the expert. The period was a time of lowered taste.
Mahogany, introduced from the West Indies as a curiosity about 1710,
became within two or three decades the dominant cabinet wood.
THE CHIPPENDALE FURNITURE STYLE
There were three Chippendales, all cabinetmakers. The second, Thomas
Chippendale (born 1710; died 1779), came to London with his father in
1727 to open a shop. By 1735 the firm was prospering, and 15 years
later Thomas Chippendale was a great success. As is usual with men of
genius, however, he was undervalued by his contemporaries; and it was
not until a hundred years later that he came to be recognized as the
greatest furniture designer of his race.
[Illustration:
_Settee_
William and Mary
_Armchair_
Chippendale
_Chair_
Late Queen Anne
_Armchair_
Chippendale
_Wing Chair_
Queen Anne
_Armchair_
Chippendale
_Cabinet_
William and Mary
Figure 12.--English styles (1690-1760).]
Chippendale served the world of fashion, observed and followed style
trends closely, and successively developed the Dutch, Rococo, Chinese,
and Gothic styles. He lost popular favor when the classic revival, led
by Robert Adam, became the dominating influence about 1762, and much of
his time thereafter was spent in executing work for Adam, who designed
furniture for houses but did not make it. Taking the period from 1727
to 1765, Chippendale's career as a designer took the following course:
1725 Dutch mode, with early Georgian heaviness. The chairs had
bandy legs, ball and claw feet, broad seats and fiddle backs,
carved and sometimes pierced. Gradually the proportions were
refined, a shorter and squarer back with rounded corners was
developed, and the splat was replaced by a richly carved member.
1735 Dutch influence yields and blends with the French styles of
the Regency and Louis XV, resulting in more slender and graceful
proportions and a free use of Rococo ornament.
1745 French influence predominant, with floral and Chinese lattice
detail gradually introduced and the Chinese influence growing
stronger. Lightness of effect sought after, and achieved by means
of pierced work.
1755 Chinese influence stronger, waning after 1760. Between 1750
and 1760 he developed the Gothic style, sometimes blending it
with Chinese motives.
For ornament Chippendale used mahogany and depended upon carving,
of which he was a great master, set off by gilding, japanning, and
lacquer. He made furniture for every purpose, including _mirror_ and
_picture frames_, _girandoles_, _pier tables_ and _brackets_, and
_china shelves_ and _cabinets_ (see fig. 3.) Doubtless his _chairs_ are
his most significant creations. His chair backs fall into three classes:
1. "Splat" or upright center bar, passing from plaint splat to
jar shape pierced and carved with scrolls and foliage, and
culminating in the elaborate ribbon back.
2. "All-over" patterns, covering in equal fashion the whole of the
back, and characteristic of his Chinese and Gothic designs.
3. Ladder-back or horizontal rails.
Chippendale made a free use of colorful textiles for both squab seat
and upholstered pieces, employing tapestries, worsted damask, Spanish
tooled leather, and close-stitch embroidery.
THE ADAM STYLE
The classic revival, discussed under the French style of Louis XVI,
was initiated in England by the Scotch architect, Robert Adam. He was
appointed architect to the King in 1762; designed many important homes
for private owners; and with his brother James, under the firm name of
The Adelphi (Greek for brothers), carried out an extensive program of
fine residence construction in London. Robert Adam died in 1792.
Adam designed everything that went into his houses, including the _fire
grates_, _girandoles_, _upholstery_, _carpets_, and _furniture_.--He
was not a cabinetmaker, but the furniture made to his designs by other
men--including Chippendale and Hepplewhite--was called Adam furniture.
The Adam style perfectly reveals the classic qualities of fine
proportions and symmetrical balance, combined with a delicacy strongly
influenced by Pompeian decoration. Walls were paneled and painted, with
paneling and cornice enriched by painted compo ornament. Ceilings were
in relief, designed from a center to fit the room with the motives
repeated in the floor coverings.
Adam furniture was in mahogany, satinwood, and painted wood. This
was embellished with low relief carving, narrow moldings, inlays of
exceptional delicacy and beauty, and painted decoration. Forms were
basically rectangular, but softened by a free use of curves. Chair legs
were straight and tapering, square or round, and plain, fluted, reeded,
or carved. Chair backs were square, round, elliptical or shield-shaped,
upholstered or filled with carved wheel, lyre, urn, or other ornament.
_Console tables_ and _cabinets_ were often of semielliptical shape,
and _sideboards_ frequently were formed of two pedestal cabinets,
surmounted by _knife urns_, and connected by a _shelf table_.
THE HEPPLEWHITE FURNITURE STYLE
George Hepplewhite (or Heppelwhite--both spellings are used) was
a designer and cabinetmaker whose proclaimed purpose was to unite
elegance and utility in furniture. His work was in the neoclassic
style; was very strongly influenced by Louis XV and Louis XVI
decoration, and by the work of Robert Adam; and enjoyed a great
popularity from 1785 to 1795. Hepplewhite died almost at the beginning
of his vogue, and his business was carried on by his widow, Alice,
under the firm name of A. Hepplewhite & Co.
Hepplewhite's furniture was distinguished by lightness, refinement, and
elegance. It was chiefly in mahogany or satinwood, with cheaper woods
employed as a base for painting or japanning. Carving and marquetry
were employed for embellishment, with the ornament drawn from the same
sources as that of Louis XVI and Adam, but with special emphasis upon
wheat ear, garrya husk, and three-feather Prince of Wales' plume.
[Illustration:
_Sideboard_
Hepplewhite
_Settee_--Sheraton
_Armchair_
Hepplewhite
_Chair_--Adam
_Armchair_
Sheraton
_Side Table_--Adam
Figure 13.--English styles (1760-1800).]
Except for his furniture which used the cabriole legs and Rococo
ornament of Louis XV, Hepplewhite employed the straight tapering leg,
square or round, and plain-fluted or reeded, with straight, collard, or
spade feet. Chair backs were most characteristically of shield shape,
filled with carved styling, urns, the feather back, or the interlocking
heart form. These backs were supported by a construction of the back
legs, and were not attached to the seats. Front legs (except in the
case of the cabrioles) were perpendicular to the floor, while back
legs curved outward to balance the rake of the back. Console cabinets
were often semielliptical, and sideboards were rectangular except for
concave curves near the ends.
For covering, Hepplewhite insisted upon silks and satins, and he was
especially fond of narrow stripes. He often designed or selected the
draperies used with his furniture and chose the narrow stripes of plain
lines and serpentine pattern of the French styles, as well as designs
of ribbons, festoons and tassels, shields, circles, and garrya husks.
THE SHERATON FURNITURE STYLE
Thomas Sheraton (born 1751; died 1806) was the last of the great
English furniture designers. He was strongly influenced by Louis XVI
and Adam designs.
Sheraton was not a money maker, although, in addition to cabinetmaking,
he worked as a drawing master, preacher, author, and publisher.
However, he was a great cabinetmaker and a great designer, unsurpassed
and probably unequaled by any man of his race in the making of
_cabinets_, _secretaries_, _sideboards_, _dressers_, and _tables_. (See
fig. _3a_, p. 16.)
He used mahogany for dining-room, library, and bedroom furniture; and
rosewood, satinwood, and painted furniture for the drawing room. Inlay
was his favorite method of embellishment, with turning, some carving,
ornamental veneering, and painting. His ornaments included swags, the
star, cockleshell, fan, and disk.
Notwithstanding its apparent delicacy, Sheraton's furniture was
structurally sound. The legs were very slender, usually round but
sometimes square, tapered, and often reeded. Some of his later pieces
have spiral-turned legs. The feet were inconspicuous, usually spade or
straight and collard. Chair backs were characteristically square, with
a central panel rising slightly above the top rail, and the lower rail
kept the back well up from the seat.
For upholstery Sheraton used plain, striped, and flowered silks, and
gold and silver brocades. He was especially fond of blue as a color,
three of his favorite schemes being in blue and white, blue and black,
and very pale blue and yellow.
The Hepplewhite and Sheraton styles are similar and cannot always be
distinguished without careful study. Sheraton used more underbracing,
and his sideboards have convex instead of concave corners. Beside the
characteristic difference in chair backs, Hepplewhite pulled his seat
covers well over the apron, while Sheraton permitted a part of the seat
frame to show.
AMERICAN STYLES
The early colonists came from England to Virginia, New England, and
parts of Pennsylvania; from Holland to the Hudson River country and
Delaware; and from Germany to parts of Pennsylvania. The little
furniture brought with them, as well as the ideas upon which they
proceeded to build and furnish their homes in the New World, were
representative of the common houses of the small towns and countryside
of their native lands. (See fig. 45, see page 212.)
The interest in Early American art is now so widespread, and the sales
of Colonial furniture so great, that every salesman should have sound
working knowledge of the subject. Many books are available, a few of
which are mentioned in the reading list. One of the most useful is _A
Handbook of the American Wing_ of the Metropolitan Museum[12]--a book
every furniture store can well afford to own.
THE EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD
The earliest New England houses were solid but simple and primitive.
Walls were of whitewashed rough plaster or of wide molded boards, which
were used vertically to form partitions; ceilings of wood, with exposed
joists resting upon heavy supporting beams; and floors of plank.
Furniture was of Jacobean type, some of it brought from England,
but for the most part made here from oak, pine, maple, and other
native woods. The forms were few and simple and included _cupboards_,
_chests_, _trestle tables_, and _chairs_ of the turned or wainscot
types. Most furniture was left unfinished. Later there came the _chest
of drawers_, and chairs of the Cromwellian and Carolean types, often
with spiral turned legs and scroll feet, and either caned or with seats
and backs upholstered in needlework.
Near the beginning of the eighteenth century the open-construction
rooms began to give way to complete interior finish, with paneled
walls. The American form of the _Windsor chair_ which reached its
highest development at about this time, was mostly of hickory because
of the adaptability of that wood for bows and spindles.
[Illustration:
Courtesy Merchandise Mart News Bureau.
Figure 14.--Harmony in periods in rugs and furniture is shown by this
figured Axminster, accurate reproduction of an old floral hooked rug
shown with Early American. The design is red, rust, and green on wood
tones, harmonizing with the green of the ivy in the wallpaper pattern,
and the rust of the draperies.]
THE LATE COLONIAL PERIOD
By 1750 the production of good furniture was well under way, with
designs based upon Early Georgian models, and 10 years later, in the
period of the strongest Chippendale influence, the fine homes of the
Colonies were filled with very distinguished furniture of American
design, of which the _highboy_ is a perfect example.
The Adam influence appeared here shortly before the Revolution.
Sheraton and Directoire models were adapted and combined by Duncan
Phyfe of New York, who shares with William Savery of Philadelphia the
distinction of creating some of the finest American furniture.
THE FEDERAL PERIOD
The work of Duncan Phyfe belongs to this period, and it is supposed
that the White House was first furnished by Thomas Jefferson with
furniture of that style. Destroyed by the British in 1814, the White
House was rebuilt and furnished by James Monroe in 1817 with Empire
originals imported from France. This style, as modified in the United
States, with its heavy, classic ornament, and gilt mountings, remained
dominant until it was replaced by the ungraceful and ugly adaptations
of the style of Louis XV which appeared in Victorian England and were
copied here.
THE MODERN STYLE (L'ART MODERNE)
"Modern art" is a term used to include aspects of present-day practice
which depart widely from traditional or conventional models. It
regards period styles as survivals of a past, dead and gone. Avoiding
mere prettiness, it seeks dominant simplicity through elimination of
ornament on structural forms, and an adaptation of design to function
as complete as that revealed by today's motor car or skyscraper.
Literally, it is streamlined for comfort and beauty in the modern way.
Broadly speaking there are two modern developments in functional
furniture:
1. There is a _classic-modern_ development deeply rooted in
tradition but adapted to the needs of today.
2. There is a _functional-modern_ development which, forsaking the
past, is giving us a fresh, practical angle in furniture design.
Both developments seek comfort, simplicity, and beauty in all ways.
The simplicity features of functional furniture are triumphs in finish
and in structure. Surfaces are flat and smooth without applied
ornament. The completed pieces are sharp and vigorous in outline,
perfection in finish, with long continuous curves replacing the old
sharp angles. In the new metal furniture it is not uncommon to note
that the entire frame of a chair, settee, or table has been made from
a single length of metal tubing. Grace and lightness are natural
attributes of these flowing lines.
This contemporary furniture also achieves a sincerity which marks a new
high. Without ornamental features which characterize the classic-modern
development it is impossible to hide flaws in workmanship. Construction
accordingly is emphasized rather than concealed. There are no "fake
antique" effects about this functional furniture. No one is trying to
make these materials look like something else. Metal is called metal;
maple is maple; and neither, sparkling under a brown graining, pretends
to be walnut. Finishing processes continue to be used but they aim at
developing the individual grain, color, and texture of each species.
The following statement quoted from the April 1940, Bulletin of the
National Retail Dry Goods Association, is a forcible expression of this
viewpoint:
The majority of consumers interpret such expressions as "all
mahogany" or "genuine Honduras mahogany" or "all maple" or "all
walnut" literally, i. e., that furniture so described is made
wholly of mahogany or maple or walnut according to the wood
named. The National Better Business Bureau recommends that such
terms be applied only to those articles of furniture in which
all the exposed parts are made wholly of the wood named. If the
exposed parts are composed of more than one kind of wood such
article should be described by the names of the principal woods
used, viz, "mahogany and gumwood," "walnut and gumwood," not by
such description as "combination mahogany," and "combination
walnut." Also it is recommended that furniture employing veneered
construction be frankly described in advertising as "veneered."
To achieve the finish and structural beauty of functional furniture
the modern craftsman works with various materials. The whole world is
bringing to the markets choice cabinet woods to be used in producing
hitherto undreamed-of effects. Magnolia, amboyna, bubinga, macassar,
satinwood, narra, makore, padouk, and thuya--these are familiar names.
Glass--clear, white, and colored--has won acceptance as a structural
material. Aluminum, stainless steel, and chromium plate are popular.
Cork veneer with its velvety texture and warm coloring is excellent
surface finish for wood furniture. Metal frames with veneer tops often
are shown in designs suitable for use as kitchen, sunroom, porch,
and even living-room furniture. Linoleum tops for tables and desks
afford variety in color. Various synthetic products are converted into
tops which have been proofed against heat and liquid stains, thus
popularizing them for cocktail and coffee tables. Colored lacquers
reminiscent of the orient have been appropriately used. Textile designs
which are largely depended upon to supply the necessary ornament for
rooms, employ the straight lines, acute angles, and whirling curves of
the futurists as well as natural forms drawn with little or no attempt
to representation. The end is not yet predictable, but there is much to
be learned now.
USING STYLE APPEAL IN SELLING
We may use style appeal in selling furniture of any quality except
the poorest to customers of any level of taste except the lowest. The
salesperson should have some appreciation of the importance and dignity
of furniture, and a fair working knowledge of the forms, materials, and
ornament of the several period styles.
HOW FURNITURE KNOWLEDGE IS SPREADING
We must remember three things:
1. All furniture is derived, however remotely, from earlier forms
and therefore can be identified with a style appeal.
2. American women have become style-conscious in matters of
decoration.
3. The home-furnishing art is studied in colleges and secondary
schools; books dealing with it are widely read; at least 25
million persons read national magazines which devote space to
it; hundreds of newspapers publicize it; powerful agencies are
actively engaged in widening popular knowledge of it.
WHAT SUCCESSFUL STYLE SELLING INVOLVES
In order to enhance the desirability of an article through an appeal
to beauty of design or style, we must cause the customer to see in it
something desirable which she has failed to see for herself. To do this
we must be able to notice this "extra something" ourselves, and to
convey a clear and interesting picture of our observations.
Many never see more than a part of the sales possibilities of what we
have to sell. Our merchandise is as common to us as an old shoe. We are
prone to forget that its forms are the result of age-long processes of
development, its ornament the heritage from an immemorial past. Often
we forget its romance, its quickening appeal to the imagination, its
promise as a way to richer and more stimulating life. To us a chair is
a chair, and a rug is just another rug.
You will sometimes find it effective in building up appreciation of a
fine machine-made rug to tell how much time would have been required
for weaving alone had it been made by hand. Count the number of tufts
per square inch; multiply by 144 to get the number per square foot;
then by the number of square feet in the rug, divide the total by
2,500--the average number of knots tied by a Persian weaver in a full
day's work--to arrive at the number of working days. Make a few of
these calculations based on rugs of standard weave and size at your
leisure, and remember the results for use when required.
To equip yourself to emphasize style in furniture, first go through
your stock carefully, and identify the style of all pieces that are
accurately reproduced or closely adapted from historic designs. It may
surprise you to learn how many pieces can be definitely assigned to one
of the historic styles.
The ideal way, of course, would be to have each piece styled and marked
by the manufacturer; this may come in time. Another way would be to
have the style names agreed upon by the entire sales force, after
discussion, and marked on the tags, so that everybody will be telling
the same story. But if no definite plan is used, study the stock by
yourself. After all, the man who wants to travel ahead of the crowd
must expect to do some pioneering, and you will be the one to profit.
Every clever oriental-rug man realizes the sales value of an
identifying name. He knows that women particularly like to know the
name or weave of a rug and any facts connected with its design, because
these things make them feel more assured in buying and give them
something to talk about pridefully to their friends.
In presenting your furniture under its historical names, be careful
not to make claims you cannot establish. They will expose you to the
ridicule of a well-informed buyer, of whom there are many.
Never say that a piece is a reproduction unless really it is. Say
that it is "in the style of" or "inspired by," or "derived or adapted
from," or "a present-day adaptation of," or "a twentieth century
interpretation of" the style to which you have assigned it. Having said
this, proceed at once to give it whatever additional importance or
value you can draw from your knowledge of the history, personalities,
or practice of the period. Do not lecture but try to dramatize your
merchandise.
The highest use of language is pure self-expression. Only your choice
of words and expression can give your customer kinship with what you
feel. An encyclopedia of information is not of itself complete customer
service when you are dealing with style, period, color, harmony, and
satisfaction.
DRAMATIZE YOUR MERCHANDISE
Suppose, for example, that you want to sell an ordinary loose-cushion
sofa in blue velvet, with machine-carved cabriole legs, rolled arms,
and straight-lined back with curved ends.
It is easy to say, "Here is a handsome, well-made sofa in blue velvet.
Just the right thing for your room; the price is $95."
But it is almost as easy, and in many cases far more effective, to
say, in substance: "This, as I understand it, is what you may have in
mind. There is nothing striking or extreme about the design. Notice the
graceful curves of the cabriole or f scroll legs, which are completely
adequate to hold up the heavy body; note how those same curves are
echoed in the arms and suggested in the back, so that the whole piece
reveals harmonious lines. This sofa expresses the quality of repose
which makes it so important in the properly furnished modern home."
Or, suppose you have a reproduction of a Chippendale ladder-back
chair. With 9 possible buyers out of 10, it would be foolish to try to
sell such a piece through the bald statement that it is a beautiful
Chippendale chair.
A better approach would be as follows: "Here is an armchair reproduced
from one of Chippendale's masterpieces. If you will set it off by
itself you will see its extraordinary grace and harmony of line. In
this piece we have Chippendale's conception of the ladder back--a
very old form of chair expressed in flowing curves which descend
rhythmically from top rail to floor. As a chair it is perfect--staunch,
thoroughly comfortable, and enduring; it is even more desirable as a
work of art. Anyone may well be proud to own it."
This language is not intended to be "stilted." If delivered casually,
with no thought of reciting a memorized paragraph, or of delivering a
set speech, these ideas will be effective in sustaining interest while,
informally, you direct attention to other features. "High-lighting" or
dramatizing your merchandise is as difficult as it is necessary when
one must guard against failure by enhancing the desirability of the
merchandise.
STYLE APPEALS BASED ON PERIOD DECORATION
Your description should not be left to chance or to the inspiration of
the moment. Think them out at home or in your free time in the store,
and plan just how and when you will use them.
These "high lights" may be based upon history, beauty, and sentiment.
To illustrate:
Bedroom Suite Adapted From the Style of Louis XVI.
_History._--"In this suite we have a reflection of the last of the
great decorative styles developed in France under the Bourbon Kings.
Louis the Sixteenth was king of France when our forefathers signed the
Declaration of Independence. There was great gratitude and admiration
for France in those days, which inspired the importation of a good
deal of furniture of this style for the statelier homes of America.
Washington bought some of it for Mount Vernon, and Jefferson for
Monticello."
_Sentiment._--"This suite called Louis XVI, named for an era made
brilliant by the later courts of France, is reminiscent of the days of
Marie Antoinette. Lovers of style and beauty the world over have for
decades, even centuries now, looked back to the days of the last lavish
escapades of the French courts whenever there is a resurge of the human
appetite for the ornate, gilded opulence of color and design that you
see characterized in these pieces."
_Beauty._--"In this suite we find the slender proportions, fine lines,
chaste ornamental forms and delicate grace of the style of Louis Seize.
See how skillfully the strength and dignity of these pieces is insured
by the straight vertical lines of the frames, and their effect of soft
and luxurious ease by the curves of the top rails and mirrors."
Cabinet, Chest, or Dining Suite Adapted From Style of the Italian
Renaissance.
_History._--"This piece was certainly made in America, and it may have
been made within the past 2 months--it is new in our stock. Yet in
every line and detail it recalls to us the great age of the Italian
Renaissance, when the New World was being discovered and explored, and
the Old World made over for the development of modern life."
_Sentiment._--"Women, of course, counted greatly during the Italian
Renaissance; but they did not dominate the design of furniture as they
do today. Note the virility of this design--its straight, vigorous
lines, its solidity and strength, its unyielding angles, and its
simple, sparse ornament."
_Beauty._--"There are times and places when delicacy and daintiness
fail to please. For the room that has such a place nothing could be
more appropriate and satisfying than this cabinet, designed in the
virile spirit of the Italian Renaissance. There is a beauty in straight
lines, in strong and noble proportion, in rich dark coloring."
These tabloid statements are of course to be regarded as suggestions,
not as models. Make up your own, couched in your own language, and
based upon your own merchandise and your own customers. But do not
assume that this sort of thing cannot be done in your store and with
your customers, or that it is old-fashioned, and of no value. It must
be done at certain times if we want to sell furniture in volume and on
other bases than utility and price.
TWO CLASSES OF EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMERS
In making a style appeal based upon period decoration you will
occasionally encounter customers who belong to either of two classes,
both small, but important enough to merit brief mention--
1. Those who express contempt for modern machine-made furniture.
2. Those who have no use for period design and often for the whole
matter of style.
Nothing will be accomplished by argument. But the one who scorns style
probably does not carry that idea over into his purchase of clothing
for himself or of the automobile he drives. In dealing with this type
of customer it may be worth while to point out that the machine at
least has enabled us to reproduce the truly beautiful pieces of the old
masters with their full beauty preserved and to make them available
to people of ordinary means. Certainly society could not support the
immense number of craftsmen that would be necessary to make good
furniture by hand.
Nor is it a question of paying more for style. When one chooses
well-styled furniture it is true that he pays for materials and labor,
but he gets in addition the distinction that comes from rich historical
associations, and aristocratic lineage.
QUESTIONS
_1. How would you make a style appeal based upon period decoration to a
customer who professed contempt for modern machine-made furniture?_
_2. What steps would you take in selling a reproduction of the
Chippendale splat-back chair?_
_3. What are the characteristics of the four outstanding furniture
periods known as the French, Early English, Georgian, and American?
(Consider each period from the viewpoint of historic date, lines,
proportions, woods, upholstering fabrics, and modern use)._
_4. Why may Sheraton, Hepplewhite, and Duncan Phyfe furniture be used
together?_
_5. What is meant by the following: "Modern arises from the fact that
its designers are neither bound by traditions of the past nor wedded to
the present, but move alertly up and down the centuries--combining the
old and the new--with a refreshing disregard of dynasties and dates?"_
_6. To what extent is streamlining, now an accepted feature of kitchen
equipment, appearing in metal and wood furniture?_
_7. Contemporary furniture finds expression in honest construction.
Construction is emphasized rather than concealed. In what ways would
you say_ sincerity _was the most revolutionary characteristic of
contemporary furniture?_
_8. What has been contributed in domestic comfort by the idea of
interchangeable unit furniture?_
_9. What unusual service features are afforded by the sectional sofa?
Is this trend likely to become "fixed" as a furniture emphasis or is it
merely seasonal?_
_10. Where are the great furniture manufacturing centers in the United
States? Where and when are our big furniture style shows held? By whom?_
SUGGESTED READING LIST
BURROWS, THELMA M. _Successful Home Furnishing._ Manual Arts Press,
Peoria, Ill. 1938.
Basic Periods of Influence, I, pp. 15-45.
Reference Appendix, pp. 123-133.
FALES, WINNIFRED. _What's New in Home Decoration?_ Dodd, Mead &
Co., Inc., New York, N. Y. 1936.
Period Furniture, VIII, pp. 150-174.
GOLDSTEIN HARRIET _and_ VETTA. _Art In Every Day Life._ The
Macmillan Co., New York, N. Y. 1925.
Furniture Arrangement.
Harmony, p. 21; Proportion, p. 57; Balance, p. 83; Emphasis, p. 141.
KIMBERLY, W. L. _How To Know Period Styles In Furniture._ Grand
Rapids Furniture Record Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. 1912.
KOUES, HELEN. _How To Be Your Own Decorator._ Tudor Publishing Co.,
New York, N. Y. 1939.
Period Characteristics in Furniture, II, pp. 12-25.
Furniture Arrangement, IV, pp. 37-49.
POWELL, LYDIA. _The Attractive Home._ The Macmillan Co., New York,
N. Y. 1939.
The Modern Style, pp. 104-113.
The Country Home, pp. 113-120.
SEAL, ETHEL DAVIS. _Furnishing The Little House._ Century Co., New
York, N. Y.
Foundations in Good Furniture, V, pp. 79-96.
On Dress Parade Behind The Scenes, XII, pp. 185-200.
STEWART, ROSS _and_ GERALD, JOHN. _Home Decoration._ Garden City
Publishing Co., Inc., Garden City, N. Y. 1938.
Elements of Traditional Styles, XIV, pp. 249-305.
United States Department of Commerce, National Committee on Wood
Utilization. Furniture: Its Selection and Use. 1931.
Part III, pp. 75-98. United States Government Printing Office.
WHITON, SHERRILL. _Elements of Interior Decoration._ J. B.
Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 1937.
Period Decoration and Furniture, III, V, VI, VII, pp. 91-233.
Taste, Style, and Fashion, XXI, pp. 627-647.
Furniture Arrangement, XXIII, pp. 665-681.
WRIGHT, AGNES FOSTER. _Interior Decoration for Modern Needs._
Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York, N. Y. 1917.
VII, pp. 107-165.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] For thousands of years the chair was a symbol of state and dignity,
and not an article for ordinary use. Common people were not permitted
to sit on chairs, and few of the great lords were permitted to sit on
chairs in the presence of the king. The chair did not become common
until the sixteenth century; before that, chests, benches, and stools
were used.
[5] These hutches, or small chests, held the clothing, personal
belongings, and materials for the mass when the baron was en route from
one castle to another, and were carried on the backs of pack mules.
From this rudimentary beginning all modern forms of case goods have
evolved.
[6] The French "qu" or final "que" as in "baroque," is pronounced like
"k." The accent is always on the final syllable.
[7] The French "e" and "et" are pronounced like "a."
[8] Pronounced Kănz.
[9] Pronounced fo-tuh-ye, the "uh" having almost an "r" sound as in
"burn," the final "e" practically silent.
[10] Pronounced "sehz," practically the English word "says."
[11] Pronounced dē'rĕk-twär.
[12] A Handbook of the American Wing; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, N. Y., 1928. Price $1.
Unit V
FURNITURE WOODS--THEIR ORIGIN AND USE
Value and Price in Relation to Home Furnishings.
Principal Furniture Woods.
Making the Most of Wood Structure and Its Appeal to the Eye.
Importance of Craftsmanship.
[Illustration:
Courtesy the Veneer Association.
Figure 15.--Variety in Veneer Slicing.
1. Flat cut--American walnut, two-piece matched.
2. Crotch--Avodire.
3. Stump-wood--American walnut, four-piece matched.
4. Quarter--African mahogany, mottled and fiddleback.
5. Rotary--Ash (Tamo).
6. Burl--Maidou, two-piece matched.]
Unit V.--FURNITURE WOODS--THEIR ORIGIN
AND USE
VALUE AND PRICE IN RELATION TO HOME FURNISHINGS
The materials in a piece of furniture, and the way those materials are
put together, affect not only its appearance, but also its durability
and behavior in service. Appearance and durability both help to
determine value. They are factors which usually influence a customer
toward or against a purchase. But the customer, unaided, cannot be
expected to see and appreciate these factors at their true importance.
Therefore a sound knowledge of materials and construction, plus ability
to use that knowledge effectively, is essential to the salesperson who
wants to take the road to higher earnings.
Every sale is a process of weighing one satisfaction against another.
Those who buy from sheer necessity compare price against price, or
price against terms. Those who buy for any other reason weigh price
against value.
Do not forget that price and value are by no means the same thing.
A low price does not automatically constitute, from the customer's
viewpoint, a high value. The _price_ of an article is fixed by the
dealer. The _value_ of that article is fixed by the buyer, since it
depends, not upon what the article costs to make or what is asked for
it, but upon what it is worth to her.
Except for the confirmed bargain hunter, no buyer will buy anything, at
any price, unless she believes that it will add to her satisfactions.
On the other hand, few persons will buy anything, however satisfactory,
unless they believe it to be worth the price. It follows, as a
fundamental rule of salesmanship that _price is almost never the first
consideration in the mind of the buyer, but that it is almost always
the second consideration_. For this reason, few sales can be completed
without a demonstration of value.
YOUR OWN BUYING HABITS
Study your own buying habits, and you will see that you seldom make a
purchase on the basis of _price_ alone. Always you consider _value_.
Consciously or otherwise, you compare the satisfaction you hope to gain
against the price you are asked to pay. You like a bargain, but you
recognize that low price, by itself, does not constitute a bargain.
TWO STAGES IN SELLING
The buying habits of the great majority of your customers are no
different than your own. People generally will not buy a piece of
furniture at any price unless they first believe, of their own
initiative or as the result of your efforts, that it will afford them
satisfaction, for their own use. Having found such a piece, they still
will refuse to buy it until they also become convinced that _its value
measured in terms of their own satisfactions, equals or exceeds the
price_.
Thus the average sale consists of two stages:
First, helping the customer find the merchandise that meets her
needs and satisfies her tastes, at the price she can afford to
pay (not, necessarily, the price she desires, expects, or has
expressed a willingness, to pay).
Second, convincing her that the article is a good value for the
price.
A prevalent fault among even experienced furniture salespersons is the
failure to deal adequately with the first stage--that of finding out
what the customer wants. With interior decorators and many drapery
salespersons the second stage--demonstration of value--is more often
neglected. Moreover, much business is lost by men who reverse the
logical process, and begin their demonstration of the value of an
article before their customer has tentatively accepted it as adapted to
her own needs and tastes.
On the other hand, innumerable sales are sacrificed through reliance
upon mere assertion of value, or upon discounts or marked-down prices,
with a consequent failure to deliver, at the end, a convincing
demonstration of value. In such a demonstration construction and
materials will occupy the spotlight.
CONSTRUCTION LESS INTERESTING TO WOMEN THAN MATERIALS
American women are not too much interested, as a rule, in the
construction of the articles they buy. This is not because they regard
sound construction as unimportant, but because they have been taught to
take it more or less for granted. Their chief concern in any product
lies in what it will do for them, and they do not care a great deal
about how that result is insured. An analysis of magazine advertising
will reveal the fact that construction is rarely used as an advertising
appeal; a count of several current issues indicates about 1 case in 20.
There is a much wider interest in materials, including furniture woods
and the floor covering, drapery, and upholstery fabrics; though even
here the primary concern of the great majority of buyers is with the
effect of these materials upon their homes and themselves rather
than with the materials as such. According to an industry survey, 6
women out of 100 have no interest in furniture; 61 are interested in
it primarily as a means of making their homes more attractive; 16 are
chiefly interested in furniture woods; 14 in style or appearance; and 3
in construction.
HOW THIS ATTITUDE OF MIND AFFECTS OUR INTERESTS
The widespread disposition of women to take construction and materials
for granted tends to reduce emphasis upon quality, forces prices
toward unnecessarily low levels, and cuts down volume and profits. It
encourages the production of poor merchandise, thereby undermining
public confidence in furniture and furniture dealers.
A sound knowledge both of materials and of construction will help
demonstrate the superior value of more costly merchandise when such
merchandise lies within the customer's buying power. This knowledge,
properly used, will of course enable sales to be speeded up, a larger
number of customers to be waited on, and a larger percentage of sales
to be made. Even when the salesman is emphasizing woods and fabrics,
the materials of which home furnishings are made, he must win the
customer's confidence in the quality of construction, the craftsmanship
with which these materials are put together, if he would effectively
minimize what to him is price resistance.
PRINCIPAL FURNITURE WOODS
In all periods of high civilization men have felt a deep interest in
the furniture woods. The sheer beauty of these woods, their association
in sentiment and legend with the noble trees of many lands, their
never-ending, never-repeating variations of figure and shading, the
romantic stories of their journeyings by ship or caravan from the far
ends of the earth--these things always have delighted men and women of
taste.
Undoubtedly they who sell furniture know too little about the furniture
woods, talk too little about them, make far too little use of their
powerful appeal to the eye and the emotions. If they can learn to know
them intimately, and to regard them, not as merchandise merely, but
as something fine and nobly beautiful, they cannot fail to inspire
widespread admiration and desire for ownership.
A LIST OF THE LEADING FURNITURE WOODS
In appendix D, page 255, will be found a brief account of leading
furniture woods. Most of these woods are used today, and many of them
will be found in your stock. Ours is an age which takes great delight
in colorful and beautifully figured woods. An astonishing variety of
new species has come into comparatively recent use as the result of
exploration in Africa, Australia, and the more remote and difficult
areas of Central and South America. Salespersons are strongly urged,
through this and other sources, to become familiar with the leading
furniture woods in order to possess the background necessary to arouse
appreciation of the beauty, distinction, and rarity of the woods used
in furniture manufacture and to convey an adequate sense of the time,
skill, and expense necessary to make these lovely woods available in
strong and enduring form for the modern home.
[Illustration:
Courtesy the Veneer Association.
Figure 16.--Veneer slicer: Note the finished slices in the middle
foreground and the tremendous length of the log--the full length of the
slicer (16 feet). Working with amazing speed, this slicer frequently
requires the attendance of three operators at the same time.]
MAKING THE MOST OF WOOD STRUCTURE AND ITS APPEAL TO THE EYE
As is well known, trees grow in diameter by the addition of new layers
of wood, one of which forms just under the bark each year during the
life of the tree. If growth is rapid, these layers, which are known as
_annual rings_, will be relatively thick; if slow, they will be thin.
In warm climates the growth of many trees is almost continuous, the
fiber relatively uniform, and the annual rings very slightly marked.
In cold climates growth is rapid in spring and summer, but almost
ceases in winter, and the annual rings are sharply marked. The wood
produced first in each year is frequently different from that produced
later in the year, so that a distinction is drawn between the early
springwood and the later summerwood. In such cases a cross section of
the tree trunk will show a number of concentric annual rings whose
number is equal to the age of the region of trunk cut. In certain kinds
of trees, for instance, species of pines and leaf-shedding oaks, after
the wood has attained a certain age, it darkens in color, so that when
a crosscut of a 100-year-old part of the trunk is taken, the darker
older central wood contrasts as _heartwood_ with the surrounding pale
_sapwood_.
All hardwoods contain a multitude of long continuous water-conducting
tubes termed _wood vessels_; in cross section they are often visible
to the naked eye as _pores_. In woods like oak and ash these pores are
easily visible in cross section as minute holes, and in longitudinal
section as fine grooves, which are often accentuated by furniture
makers through treatment with a dark filler. In woods like maple and
gum the pores are too small to be seen without a microscope.
Oak, chestnut, ash, and elm are conspicuous members of the ring-porous
group of hardwoods, so called because one or more rows of large pores
are formed at the beginning of each annual ring. Walnut and mahogany
are diffuse-porous because the pores, though plainly visible, are more
nearly uniform in size throughout the annual rings.
In addition to the annual rings and pores, traversing the wood at right
angles to the fibers are thin stringlike structures that run from the
outside of the wood radially inward toward the pith. In some woods
these rays are too minute to play a part in the visible figure of the
wood, while in others, notably the oak, they are conspicuous, and in
quarter-sawed boards produce the effect known as silver grain or flake.
These are the _medullary rays_. For more detailed information about
wood structure, consult any reliable encyclopedia.
These variations in structure, plus variations in coloring, constitute
the physical basis for the innumerable charming effects which expert
wood workers are able to create for the furniture lover. _Some of these
effects can be produced in solid wood; others in veneer only._ They
result from four general methods of cutting:
Plain sawing, or cutting more or less with the grain at right
angles to the rays.
Quarter-sawing, or cutting across the grain, parallel to the rays.
Transverse sawing, or cutting in a direction neither flat nor
quarter, but between them.
Rotary slicing, in which the knife or the veneer lathe follows the
lines of annual growth, but cuts across them irregularly to yield
a striking effect of wavy lines and parabolas.
The interest of furniture buyers lies in the beauty, durability,
romantic appeal and prestige value of the various woods, and not in the
technical processes by which their individuality and fine qualities
are brought out. However, a few facts concerning the various types of
figures are here set down for possible emergency use.
VENEER AND PLYWOOD
[Illustration: Flat Slicing
Quarter Slicing
Half-Round Slicing
Rotary Slicing
Figure 17.--Slicing illustrated.]
"The art of producing and using veneers dates back to the earliest days
of civilization," says the Encyclopedia Britannica.[13]
Although we do not know when and where the art of veneering was
invented, there is no doubt that it had reached a high development in
Egypt 3,500 years ago. It was practiced by the ancient Babylonians and
Assyrians, by the Greeks, and particularly by the Romans, who used it
not only in furniture-making but also in door frames and panels. There
is a record that Cicero, celebrated Roman orator, paid for a veneered
table of citrus wood a sum equivalent to $20,000 in gold.
When the ancient European civilization gave way to the Dark Ages,
the art of veneering was temporarily lost, only to be revived in the
form of inlays during the Renaissance. True veneering did not become
common in Europe until after the middle of the seventeenth century,
when a new type of saw was invented which would divide a plank into
thin sheets. As an early result of the discovery of the New World and
the sea route to India and the East, many rare and exotic woods were
carried to Spain, Holland, France, and England and used as veneers
and inlays in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--among them
mahogany, satinwood, amboyna, kingwood, rosewood, tulipwood, amaranth,
harewood, and vermillion. The art of veneering reached the point of
technical perfection during the reign of Louis XIV, and ever since
that time it has been practiced by most of the great cabinetmakers
in all countries; except of course, in the case of the carvers, of
whom Chippendale is the outstanding example. Most of the magnificent
furniture of France, that of the Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and Adam styles
in England, and the really distinguished furniture of the late Colonial
and Federal periods in America, made a free use of veneers.
The whole process of making veneers, from the selection of a tree in
some far corner of the globe to the finished plywood, is a long and
exacting one which demands the technical knowledge of scientists,
engineers, and chemists as well as the taste of the artist.
[Illustration:
Courtesy The Veneer Association
Figure 18.--Showing the construction of seven-ply plywood. The grain of
each layer is at right angles to that of the adjacent ply.]
Briefly, we can say that the logs must be transported, studied
carefully in order to determine just how to secure the most beautiful
effects from the wood, usually soaked or conditioned to soften the
fiber, and sliced or sawed into sheets of veneer, which are afterward
dried carefully. This is a work for specialists, and is usually done
at established veneer mills. At the furniture factory the sheets must
again be carefully studied, matched, clipped, taped, glued, and built
under a pressure of 200 to 300 pounds into the finished plyboards.
A single tree may yield 500 board feet of lumber or the same number of
surface feet 1 inch thick. Cut into thin face veneers this same tree
would yield 10,000 square feet or 20 times as much in terms of surface
area.[14]
ADVANTAGES OF PLYWOOD
Technically, plywood is the product resulting from three or more
layers of veneers joined with glue, and usually laid with the grain
of adjoining plies at right angles. Almost always an odd number of
plies are used to secure balanced construction. The outside plies are
called faces, or face and back. The center ply is called the core, and
intervening plies, laid at right angles to the others, are called cross
bands. Plywood is a device for combining lightness and great strength
with freedom from the tendency to warp and split.
Modern engineering, chemistry, and machinery have brought the
production of plywood to a point of perfection where it is as strong,
weight for weight, as steel. It is wood engineered for beauty,
strength, and economical application. Its peculiar excellence, as
contrasted with solid wood, results from equalizing the normal
internal stresses of the wood by running alternate layers in different
directions. In standard five-ply construction, widely used for good
furniture, the two outer and the middle ply, or core, have the grain
running in the same direction, while the second and fourth plies, or
cross bands, have the grain running at right angles to that of the
others. Plywood was produced by the Chinese thousands of years ago,
and is found in the furniture of the ancient Egyptians. Yet it has
taken modern ingenuity plus engineering and chemical skill to develop
a product capable of meeting the large scale but exacting requirements
of today--a product now used on land, in the air, and on the seas.
Plywood was not produced by machinery, and in commercial quantities,
until about 50 years ago, when plywood factories were started in
Russia. Ninety percent of all wood furniture manufactured today is of
veneer and plywood construction. It is used in the interest of economy,
strength, flatness, and beauty, not only in cabinet and furniture
making but also in residence and office building, coach-building and
various engineering industries, including aviation. Plywood offers
maximum strength in all directions combined with minimum weight.
BOTH SOLID AND VENEER AVAILABLE IN WOOD FURNITURE
Some persons adamantly insist that to be truly good quality, furniture
must be solid, built wholly of one wood. While many experts insist
that this view is untenable, those who insist upon it should, of
course, buy solid pieces. To do so will frequently involve denying
themselves the full beauty of the fine graining which normally can
be had only in veneer. The salesman and the industry should jointly
educate the customer that good veneer is not only with us to stay, but
is used in some of the best furniture made anywhere in the world and
that good American veneer has lasting qualities in addition to its
value in bringing to the average home graining and finish that can
never be obtained in furniture made from solid wood.
SELLING VENEERS WITHIN PRICE RANGES
[Illustration:
Courtesy American Walnut Manufacturers Association.
Figure 19.--Location of cuttings in tree body. Not every tree has a
stump that can be cut into beautiful stumpwood. Fine crotches are
much rarer and burls so precious that the choicest burl veneers, when
mounted and matched for use in furniture, are worth more than their own
weight in sterling silver. All other figure types are cut, by varying
methods, from the long trunk.]
The price range of veneer varies directly with the ready availability
of the species, its color and figure, and its working and finishing
qualities. Some veneers cost 20 times as much as others, and certain
of the rarest and most beautifully figured sheets are literally worth
their weight in silver. Well known commonly used species may be either
high priced or inexpensive, depending upon the desirability and current
demands for that figure.
To illustrate, American walnut may vary exceedingly in price. Taking
the cost of the finest burl as 100 percent, crotch walnut might cost
57 percent as much; stump wood and figured long wood, 30 percent; and
plain long wood approximately 5 percent. These percentages represent
only the finest of each of these particular figures.
Therefore, instead of calling a suite "walnut" as if that is all there
is to be said, it would be wise to point out that it is made of a
particularly desirable piece of walnut, both rare and costly because of
its fine figure and color. The same type of reasoning may be used in
speaking of mahogany, maple, oak, and other beautifully figured cabinet
woods.
IMPORTANCE OF CRAFTSMANSHIP
Furniture making is one of the oldest of human industries. For
thousands of years it remained a craft industry. The transition to a
machine industry began about 100 years ago. Since then, and especially
within recent years, the use of machinery has been developed to a point
of extraordinary efficiency. It is this fact alone which makes good
furniture so low in price today. Indeed, were it not for the machine,
most persons would have little furniture, and that of the crudest kind.
[Illustration: Figure 20.--Shows the names of the parts of a chair.]
And yet it would be inaccurate to think of furniture as an impersonal,
machine-made product; craftsmanship is still basically important in
furniture making, and will remain so always. From 50 to 60 different
and highly specialized machines are used in a modern factory making
desks, chairs, and tables, and these machines perform all purely
mechanical operations with amazing speed and more than human accuracy.
Yet at every stage, from the selection of the woods to the final
touches in the finishing room, the taste and accumulated skill of
expert craftsmen are imperative. In the making of upholstered and reed
furniture, machinery plays a subordinate part, and the skill of the
craftsman is and always will be the dominant factor.
QUALITY OFTEN CONCEALED
Furniture making employs many materials and many processes. In every
one of these materials and processes there are wide differences in
excellence between the worst and the best. All of these differences are
accurately known only to the manufacturer because they are concealed in
the finished product. Many of them are known to the expert salesman.
Few are known to the consumer who buys furniture too infrequently to
become informed on concealed values, and naturally is disposed to base
a judgment of value on the two obvious factors--eye appeal and price.
As a result sales volume, to say nothing of public appreciation of
furniture, is unnecessarily low.
MODERN FACTORIES BUILD CONCEALED VALUES INTO MANY PRODUCTS
It is obvious that all the operations of preparing wood, routing it
through the factory, synchronizing the many processes, and eliminating
waste can be performed most efficiently and economically in a modern
plant and under the control of scientific knowledge and engineering
skill. Factories so operated, therefore, may build into their product
concealed or special values which are passed to the consumer in the
form of lower price, quality for quality. These concealed values
actually may take several forms; they may be concerned with materials
and processes, or with construction and design. Although their service
value is readily understood, their actual presence in any particular
piece of furniture is not so easily determined by the inexperienced
salesperson or the infrequent purchaser.
USE OF WOOD FREE FROM DEFECTS
When wood reaches the factory from the sawmill in the form of dimension
lumber it contains some imperfections, among them rotted or discolored
heartwood, stained sapwood, season checks, splits, knots, worm and
grub holes, and decayed tissue. The more or less complete rejection
of all defective lumber naturally affects production costs, and the
use of perfect lumber in the unexposed parts of a piece of furniture
constitutes a concealed value.
USE OF WOOD WITH CORRECT MOISTURE CONTENT
In wet lumber, wood cells will contain moisture in amounts ranging
from 30 to 100 percent of the weight of the woody fiber itself. If a
considerable percentage of this moisture is permitted to remain in the
pieces which are used for building furniture, a disastrous shrinkage
will result. Kiln drying the wood to secure the ideal moisture content
and to free it from internal stresses requires time, expense, and great
skill. Construction cost can be reduced by slighting the process.
Accordingly, perfectly conditioned wood constitutes a highly important
concealed value in good furniture.
[Illustration:
Figure 21.--A shows a dowel. The spiral and longitudinal grooves permit
the escape of air, and prevent air pockets in the glue. B shows the
mortise and tenon, another method by which wood parts may be joined
together with a fair measure of security. In both dowel and mortise
and tenon construction the use of good glue is essential. The glue is
applied to the portion which is inserted in the socket.]
CHAIRS, TABLES, AND CASE GOODS HAVE CONCEALED VALUES
The points of concealed value in chair and table construction include,
among others:
1. Choice of wood.
2. Method of shaping legs.
3. Method of building solid seats and tops (joinery; character of
glue; and time spent in the clamps).
4. Character of joints (boring; mortise and tenon; kind, number,
and position of dowels).
5. Use of corner blocks, braces, and stretchers.
6. Character of veneers, inlay, carving, or other ornament.
7. Technical skill of the machine operators and assemblers.
8. Care in sanding to ensure fine finishing.
Important points concerning the legs, tops, and end panels of cases
are substantially the same as for chairs and tables. Standard five-ply
for the tops of cases and standard three-ply for the end panels is the
usual but not the universal practice. Other points include:
9. Construction of corner posts--solid wood to the floor, or with
the turned legs separately made and doweled to the bottom of the
posts, which cheapens but weakens construction.
[Illustration: Figure 21a.--C shows how a chair post is joined to
the chair rails. Central figure is the chair leg; beneath it is
a corner block; at either side are the rails with holes bored
in them, as well as in the leg, to hold the dowels. The holes
in the corner block are for screws. D shows how the joint looks
when assembled. The pieces fit snugly and are braced to prevent
pulling apart, the corner block augmenting the dowel joint.]
10. Method of framing--solid framework above, between and below the
drawers, with tongue and groove joints and three-ply veneer panel
dust bottoms, or some cheaper method; frames "dadoed" (rigidly
recessed) into the ends, and end panels dadoed into the legs,
or some cheaper construction; shelves dadoed into end panels
and also doweled into legs, and back doweled into legs, or some
cheaper method, as nails or screws.
11. Drawer construction, including type of plywood; type of
joint-dovetailed joints front and back, which is the best
construction; lock joint (cheaper, but not nailed); nailed joint,
still cheaper; butt joint (also requiring nails, the cheapest and
poorest joint); drawer bottom dadoed into sides and ends, and
supported by triangular rubbed-in blocks, or some cheaper method;
center slides; perfect or less than perfect fitting.
UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE
Here the construction is almost completely concealed. The customer sees
only the exposed portion of the frame and the covering and, except in
the case of advertised goods, knows no more about the construction and
concealed values of a piece than is told her by the salesperson.
Years ago much upholstered furniture was imported from a famous
factory in London. It was costly, but vastly comfortable and of great
durability. Yet when a piece was "taken down" it was found to contain
far fewer springs, tied with fewer knots, than was the case with
American goods of the same general price range. This indicates the
folly, in the case of upholstered furniture, of setting up measures
of excellence based upon exactly standardized practice. What applies
to plywood or dowel joints does not necessarily apply to spring
construction.
CONCEALED VALUES IN UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE
In general, the points of concealed value in upholstered furniture
include:
1. The frame, which in the best construction is of clear, tough,
dry hardwood, with properly glued and doweled joints, and
necessary reinforcing blocks.
2. The springing, including foundation for the springs; number and
character of springs; type of twine and number of knots per coil;
skill of operator and speed at which he is compelled to work;
presence or absence of spring edge.
3. Spring covering, including weight of burlap; method of attaching
it to the frame and to the springs.
4. Stuffing: Double or single method; use of excelsior, tow, fiber,
moss, cotton, or curled hair, alone or in combination.
5. Springing of back and arms.
6. Loose cushions; spring or down construction.
7. Skill and care of the workman; inspection standards for
materials and labor.
REED FURNITURE
In the book _Tropical Nature_, A. R. Wallace, after describing the
great trees of the tropical forest, says: "Next to the trees themselves
the most conspicuous feature of the tropical forests is the profusion
of woody creepers and climbers that everywhere meet the eye * * *.
They twist in great serpentine coils or lie entangled in masses on the
ground."
In such a forest grows Calamus, the rattan palm, whose slender stem
often attains the enormous length of 600 feet. From Calamus is obtained
the basic material employed in making reed furniture. It comes from
the tropical forests of the East Indies after it has been passed
through several primitive processes by native workers. In this country
it is prepared in the forms of cane, rattan, and reed for weaving;
maple frames are designed and built; the weaving is done by American
craftsmen.
Points of excellence include skillful preparation of the raw materials;
sturdy construction of the frames, including bracing; and skill in
weaving. Unhurried work means better construction but higher cost, and
is thus an element of value.
THE APPEAL OF FINISH
The appeal of finish is so potent as to require little demonstration.
Most customers are quite willing to accept wood finish, as they accept
dyestuffs or rayon, as one of the mysteries of chemical science. The
results speak for themselves. No one thinks the less of an old Cremona
violin because the secret of its varnish is known.
The story of modern chemistry is in fact more romantic than all the
tales of the Thousand and One Nights, yet people generally speaking
cannot be stirred by it. Tell them how the old craftsmen of Gothic
Europe, hundreds of years ago, stained oak planks a beautiful rich
brown by burying them for weeks or months under manure and you will
interest them deeply. Tell them how American craftsmen, a generation
ago, got the same results with the fumes of ammonia and a leaden vault
and you will barely hold their interest. Tell them how other craftsmen
today squirt a preparation of coal tar and water from one spray gun,
and a preparation of wood pulp or old rags from another to finish fine
furniture, and they will probably cancel the order.
In the late sixteenth century, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and other
cabinetmakers employed a process of staining, or rather of softly
bleaching fine woods through the action of decomposing salts of
chromium, followed by French polishing with oils and waxes. True
varnish, a solution of resins in hot oils, was discovered in America
in the middle nineteenth century, and achieved an immense popularity.
Modern lacquer, which is totally unlike the Oriental lacquer, is a
twentieth century discovery which combines gun cotton (nitrocellulose)
with butyl alcohol, a byproduct in the manufacture of acetone.
WOOD FINISHING
The salesperson should learn that honest construction and careful
finishing of a piece of furniture often count for more than the kind
of wood used. Beautiful wood, however desirable it may be, is never the
chief source of value. No piece of furniture is really completed until
it has been given an appropriate and artistic finish.
What May Be Expected of a Finish.
There are at least three characteristics of a good wood finish.
1. _Appropriateness._--The finish should be adapted to the needs
which the piece is meant to serve. The polish of a piece of wood
should not hide the beauty of the wood but should enhance it.
Furniture should never make itself obtrusive. If furniture is
noticeable, its artistic quality is usually to be questioned.
2. _Serviceability._--The finish must protect the surface against
the most common difficulties encountered in furniture finishing,
such as bleeding, blistering, blooming, blushing, checking,
caking, grain raising, bubbling, pitting, livering, and sweating.
3. _Beauty._--Good finish should retain the characteristics of the
wood rather than destroy their identity. Usually the natural wood
needs to be softened and enriched to produce the most pleasing
effects in keeping with its different nature and traits.
Beauty of finish depends to a great extent upon knowledge of how a
surface should be prepared and the skill which is used in carrying out
approved practices. The workman who understands the structure of wood,
its mechanical and chemical properties, and has the right tools and
equipment for preparing the surface, is not likely to use poor methods.
He will understand that great care is required to produce a smooth
surface on a piece of wood; that coarser defects of an improperly
finished surface under the microscope reveal undreamed-of roughness
on a carelessly scraped or inadequately sanded piece of wood. Also
he will know that for permanence of finish and lasting qualities of
construction, the wood must be properly seasoned and remain in a proper
shop-dry condition during the entire construction and finishing periods.
Reasons for Staining.
Wood in its natural tones does not usually harmonize with textiles and
wall colors.
The coloring often brings out unsuspected qualities and beauty in the
wood itself, due to--
1. The reaction of the stain upon cells of the medullary rays;
2. Its effect upon the mass of wood fibers; and
3. Its greater absorption by the open pores or broken cell cavit
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