This type of firm emerged in America after the Civil War. The Herter Brothers, founded by two German emigre brothers, began as an upholstery warehouse and became one of the first firms of furniture makers and interior decorators. With their own design office and cabinet-making and upholstery workshops, Herter Brothers were prepared to accomplish every aspect of interior furnishing including decorative paneling and mantels, wall and ceiling decoration, patterned floors and carpets and draperies.[6]
Illustration from The Grammar of Ornament (1856), by interior designer Owen Jones.
A pivotal figure in popularizing theories of interior design to the middle class was the architect Owen Jones, one of the most influential design theorists of the nineteenth century.[7] Jones first project was his most important - in 1851 he was responsible for not only the decoration of Joseph Paxton’s gigantic Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition, but also for the arrangement of the exhibits within. He chose a controversial palette of red, yellow and blue for the interior ironwork and, despite initial negative publicity in the newspapers, was eventually unveiled by Queen Victoria to much critical acclaim. His most significant work was The Grammar of Ornament (1856),[8] in which Jones formulated 37 key principles of interior design and decoration.
Jones was employed by some of the leading interior design firms of the day; in the 1860s he worked in collaboration with the London firm Jackson & Graham to produce furniture and other fittings for high-profile clients including art collector Alfred Morrison and the Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha.
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