Domestic Doyennes: Purveyors of Atmospheres Spoken and Visual

Author: John C Turpin Year: 2006 (Intimus printing; original: "Domestic Doyennes: Purveyors of Atmospheres Spoken and Visual," In.Form: The Journal of Architecture, Design, and Material Culture, vol. 3, 2003, pp. 42–54; published by the Kruger Collection in conjunction with the Interior Design Program of the University of Nebraska; © The University of Nebraska, reprinted by permission of the publisher; excerpts of original pp. 42–49) Source type: chapter (the Intimus: Interior Design Reader selection, eds. Mark Taylor & Julieanna Preston, Wiley, 2006, pp. 368–375, with the editors' headnote and the article's own Notes section, pp. 373–374, printed in full; excerpts of the In.Form article's pp. 42–49, with five elision markers — "(… p 44)", "(… p 46)", "(… p 47)", "(… p 48)", "(… p 49)" — recording where the Intimus reprint cuts the original) Raw file: raw/chapters/turpin-2006-domestic-doyennes.md

Summary

Turpin's essay argues, in the editors' headnote formula, that "the art of conversing and the art of living are, according to John Turpin, linked through the need for expression" and that "the tangible design of such spaces is revealed to be equally manufactured and contrived as the temporality of conversation that occurs within it" (p. 368). Opening from Peter Quennell's epigraph — "Between conversation and civilization, the art of talking and the art of living, there has always been a vital link" — the essay builds on J.B. Priestley's neglected 1926 insight that certain dialogues are "atmosphere creating," exchanges whose proximity and confidence "create an implied space," words themselves "but extra shutters and curtains and blazing coals and cushions." Its historical spine runs from the seventeenth-century French salon — born as alcove or ruelle, given "architectural proportions" by Madame de Rambouillet's Chambre Bleu, its inclusion/exclusion re-engineered by salonnières who made etiquette "a political tool for social advancement" — through the Victorian drawing room, "a more affordable choice" than the salon, where "both their interiors and manners were highly manufactured," conversation turned staccato and anomalous, and the room became "the grandest of stages" on which being-seen outperformed being-heard, to America, where etiquette's regression and the suburb's isolation created the cultural void into which "the interior decorator" stepped — Elsie de Wolfe above all, who "would combine the ritual of entertaining and etiquette and the practice of interior decoration into a cohesive whole" and built a "room made for conversation" whose "numerous conversation centers, intimate in spirit," leave "no one chair isolated."

A note on the editors' headnote: the headnote supplies the reading's four load-bearing terms — conversation's link to living "through the need for expression," the "game-like aspects of conversation," the "aural spatial affect of conversations," and the double manufacture ("The tangible design of such spaces is revealed to be equally manufactured and contrived as the temporality of conversation that occurs within it," p. 368). It frames the excerpt the way the Teyssot and Troutman headnotes frame theirs: the editors' condensation of a thesis the body text demonstrates case by case.

A note on the elisions: five marked cuts — after the salon-failure passage (original p. 44), after "etiquette bestowed the power" (p. 46), after the roving-eye passage (p. 47), after "Enter the interior decorator" (p. 48), and after the conversation-centres passage (p. 49, the excerpt's end) — elide the original article's pp. 45, 47–48, and 49–54. What is lost is the article's closing movement (pp. 49–54, five pages of the original's ten), where the argument presumably reaches its modern conclusions (see Open Questions).

Key Claims

The founding equation (Quennell's epigraph): "Between conversation and civilization, the art of talking and the art of living, there has always been a vital link" (Quennell, epigraph, p. 368). Conversation and the art of living are not adjacent accomplishments but one link: talking well is living well, and both are civilization's index.
The expression thesis (the essay's ground): "If examined closely, Quennell's quote speaks of a phenomenon that is critical to human existence: the need for expression. Whether verbal or physical, humankind has continually devoted significant time and energy to the process of self-expression" (p. 368). Self-expression is not a decorative surplus but a critical human need — and it has two channels: conversation (direct human interaction) and decoration (the stage for its performance).
The ritual thesis (Kasson, quoted): "the protocols of conversation is one example of a ritual that establishes the structures by which individuals define one another and interact, defining social identities, social relationships, and an individual's perception of their social reality" (Kasson 1990, p. 4, quoted p. 368). Conversation is a ritual apparatus that manufactures social identities and social reality — not a medium through which pre-existing selves communicate.
The etiquette-and-decoration thesis (Grier, quoted): etiquette and decoration "express the progress of civilization; both [are] … a way of choosing language that reflects the presence of some cultural framework for organizing many kinds of human experiences" (Grier 1988, p. 1, quoted p. 368). Etiquette and decoration are languages — parallel codes, one spoken, one visual, both selecting from a cultural framework.
The paired thesis: Kasson and Grier "support Quennell's views by identifying how human expression, whether through direct human interaction (conversation) or the stage for its performance (decoration), are intimately tied to each other and the development of a culture" (p. 368) — the essay's central pairing: conversation as performance, decoration as stage.
Priestley's implied space (the essay's theoretical ancestor): "correlations have been made between verbal communication and the notions of space. In his 1926 essay, Talking, John Priestly categorizes certain types of dialogue as 'atmosphere creating.' He posits that various aspects of a verbal exchange help define an experience that in some ways creates an implied space" (pp. 368–369). Talk makes space: the conversational exchange generates a spatial effect without walls.
Confidence as spatial projection: "the proximity of individuals during a conversation may evoke the feelings of an intimate space as the participants reveal information of a sensitive, personal nature. By choosing to confide in a specific individual, the speaker projects an aura of security onto the event" (p. 369) — intimacy as an architectural effect produced by disclosure; the confider is the space's architect.
Words as furniture (Priestley, quoted): "Such words as we use shall be but extra shutters and curtains and blazing coals and cushions" (Priestley 1926, p. 14, quoted p. 369) — the sentence that carries the essay: speech as the interior's additional envelope, hearth and upholstery. "These allusions of a warm, comfortable interior environment are equated with the similar effects of an intimate verbal exchange" (p. 369).
The research gap and the primary question: "Since Priestly's publication, little scholarship on the relationship between conversation and the environment has surfaced. This article will attempt to revive Priestly's discussions by asking a primary question: Is there a relationship between the ritual of conversation and the art of decoration?" (p. 369).
The salon's spatial origin: "In the first half of the seventeenth century, a new exclusive space developed for the nurturing of the elite culture. Originally referred to as an alcove or ruelle, today it is known as a salon. Here, conversation created its own social space with carefully marked boundaries as French women began redefining the criteria for inclusion and exclusion into the strata of the social elite. The vehicle for change would be the restructuring of etiquette" (p. 369). Conversation created its own social space — the room-type is the ritual's product, not its container.
Etiquette's political genealogy: "The history of etiquette as a well-defined entity begins in Renaissance Italy with the development of a new literary genre, the courtesy book. The Florentines regarded the art of civility as a branch of rhetorical theory. From these rather philosophical beginnings, etiquette eventually evolved into a political tool for social advancement and control in seventeenth-century France. Ambitious courtiers manipulated courtly politics during the reign of Louis XIV… Through refinements in social conduct, courtiers meticulously refashioned their social selves" (p. 369). Etiquette: from rhetoric (Florence) to political technology (France) — conduct as self-refashioning.
Faret's exclusion of the military (the salon's gender mechanism): "In 1630 Nicholas Faret altered the design of human relations by rejecting the military metaphors of the past… With the exclusion of a male-only topic such as the military, Faret facilitated the participation of women in a new definition of elite sociability. Due to their 'natural' taste, women soon became proprietors of good manners and civility. As a result, the best social education emanated from cultivated women, the gatekeepers of elite society" (p. 369). Women's proprietorship of etiquette is built by subtracting a male topic — the salon opens when the conversation stops being war.
The salonnières' manufactured atmospheres: "During such encounters, French women like Madame Geoffrin and Madame Lespinasse maintained high levels of control over carefully selected participants. In these situations, the women created atmospheres both spoken and visual to ensure a successful event" (p. 370). Atmosphere here is an event-output — deliberately produced, in two media at once, by a hostess.
Architecture for conversation (the Chambre Bleu): Madame Rambouillet "gave architectural proportions to this new concept of exclusivity"; the Hôtel de Rambouillet's house featured "numerous relatively small, well-proportioned rooms, instead of the great hall and central staircase," a sequence of "ornately finished rooms" arriving at "the famous chambre bleu, whose intimate proportions and daring use of color established an elegant and fresh tone" — "waist-high painted and gilded panels lining its walls, which were hung with patterned blue tapestries encrusted with gold and silver. Paintings and Venetian mirrors hung on the walls. The focus of the room was the blue, damask-hung bed in the second alcove where the Marquis de Rambouillet reclined" (Anderson & Zinsser, quoted p. 370) — the first known salon, planned as a suite: small rooms, choreographed arrival, a blue room at the end of the sequence.
The analogy of design and conversation: "The physical design of the Hotel de Rambouillet with its architectural features facilitated movement between the rooms, creating a more unified interior space, with tall windows and doors offering the occupants enlarged exterior perspectives. Similarly, ideal conversation had to permit both a smooth pattern of movement between the participants and a broad view of the world outside" (p. 370). The plan is the conversation's diagram: circulation = turn-taking; windows = breadth of view.
The equality condition: "The art of conversation in the salon was unique in that nobles and scholars engaged on equal ground. Ideal conversation was possible only if all participants were confident of their equal standing within the group. Domination, dispute, interruptions and inattentiveness were not permitted. An atmosphere of peace and tranquillity was far removed from the sometimes-hostile engagements between the gentlemen" (p. 370). Ideal conversation is an equality-technology: it works only among the confident-equal, and it bans the gentleman's combat mode.
The salonnière's stake: "The salon would be considered a failure and that particular salonnière would lose her most valued position if the environment was not perfect" (p. 370) — the salonnière's power and her precarity are the same thing: the manufactured environment is her sole capital.
The feminine advantage thesis: "this new, distinct influence was significant in its retention of feminine qualities of tact, sympathy and mental alertness, as opposed to the masculine diversions of politics and letters. Without compromising the integrity of their gender, these women created a new position in society for themselves based on the ability to enhance human relations through controlled conversations. Thus, French women clearly aided in defining the cultural standards of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through their skilful manipulation of the interior environment and the ritual of conversation" (p. 370). The salonnière's invention is a position: gender-coded skill (tact, sympathy) converted, via the controlled conversation, into social authority.
England's manufactured stage: "Across the channel, nineteenth-century England set a completely different stage in which to socially interact. Both their interiors and manners were highly manufactured" (p. 371) — the double manufacture (rooms and manners) is the essay's structural claim in miniature.
The salon-to-drawing-room substitution: "The salon continued to slowly fuse itself with the culture of the English upper class, but without the emphasis on enlightened discussions occurring in France… The salon itself was not as popular as a room type. The drawing room was a more affordable choice. Here, participants focused on anomalous conversation with the sole intent of social and political advancement" (p. 371). The drawing room is the salon's cheaper, intellectually emptied successor — conversation without enlightenment, sociability as advancement.
The wife's legal burden: "The relations between men and women delineated roles based on a patriarchal system… a wife was legally bound to uphold the husband's social status. This was accomplished in two ways. The first was the presentation of the home. The second required the acquisition of new manners… failure in crafting a successful public image meant ostracism, ridicule and exclusion from sources of power and wealth; in other words, a swift social and political death for the husband" (p. 371). The home's presentation is the wife's legal duty and the husband's political life-support.
Female energy as the decor's cause: "since a woman should not be idle, she spent a considerable amount of time on more 'appropriate' tasks, including the furnishing and maintaining of larger houses… The profuse interior decor, with which the Victorian period is identified, was itself a product of all that female energy going into ornamenting the home" (p. 371). Victorian profusion is here given a social cause: the idle-but-not-idle wife's displaced labor, poured into ornament.
The guilt economy: "Due to the strong sense of guilt for such excessive expenditures, Victorian women justified the extreme opulence and extravagance by invoking the idea of social duty. Clearly, the women were experiencing conflict between social responsibilities and the religious teachings of the church. The women often applied self-imposed restrictions in order to soothe guilt. Ironically, such 'sins' were acceptable for women, but not for the men" (p. 371) — the display interior financed by a moral laundering operation: extravagance rebranded as duty.
The hostess's constitutional dependency: "Even though they were given the responsibility of hosting events to maintain the couple's social status, society refused to allow them to stand alone. 'The great hostess must be a wife or nothing. No hostess counts without a host'" (Guedalla, quoted p. 371). And: "the English ladies, much like the French madams, were considered to be the gatekeepers of society. Again, etiquette bestowed the power" (p. 371) — power delegated through etiquette, never owned.
The failure of English conversation: "Unlike the enriching discussions of the French salons, the English drawing rooms were filled with pretentiousness and vacuity. The goal was neither to offend nor inform. By subduing intellectual growth, the social elite defined their status more or less by simply being in each other's presence. The aura of elitism found expression on elaborate stages where the significance of the actors' visual performance surpassed their verbal utterances" (p. 372). The stage has replaced the salon: presence over discourse, the visual over the verbal.
Staccato conversation as atmosphere: "Staccato conversations permitted all present to participate in the creation of an atmosphere characterized by a 'false view of life'" (Wildeblood, quoted p. 372) — conversation degraded to rhythm: short exchanges whose only product is a shared, false atmosphere.
Mentmore's choreography of being seen: "the primary function of Victorian social events, to be seen. Impressive foyers… required guests to ascend to the Grand Hall, a pretentious metaphor communicating the superior status of the host and hostess. Upon reaching the level of the gala event, guests anxiously awaited their public announcement of arrival. After a momentary glance from other participants, the primary function of the guest had been accomplished. They were seen" (p. 372). The plan programs visibility: ascent, announcement, glance — the event's entire dramaturgy is optical.
The Lady's staged descent: "the Lady of the house often waited until her company had arrived so that they may witness her descent from the Grand Staircase axially aligned with the Grand Hall. The remainder of the rooms were arranged in a manner that permitted guests to mingle from room to room continuing their performance on the grandest of stages" (p. 372). The staircase is a stage and the axial alignment its theatre machinery — the hostess as the house's climactic apparition.
D'Orsay's rules and the roving eye: "Count D'Orsay's rules of conversation are supported by the stage set. For example, the avoidance of long stories in polite conversation prevents any one individual from being a point of focus. Conversation is to move freely and rather rapidly from one to another. In similar style, the Victorian interior is riddled with objects, each so spectacular in form and ornamentation that the eye of the guest is never permitted to rest. Unintentionally, the interior's demand for a roving eye may have lubricated the ritual of being seen as accidental glances imparted unintended meanings" (p. 372). The essay's structural rhyme: conversation's anti-focus rule (no long stories) and the interior's anti-rest rule (no resting eye) are the same design — decor engineered as the visual analogue of staccato talk.
America's etiquette vacuum and the decorator's entrance: America "realized the absence of a native hereditary aristocracy prevented the infusion of etiquette into a society whose masses were mainly middle class. Yet, the need for direction was becoming increasingly important. Women quickly took charge of the issue and were viewed as the principal guardians of decorum in the middle and upper classes"; by 1900 "basic etiquette regressed as the bustling American city interfered with ceremonious intercourse. An added obstruction was the exodus to the suburbs, which physically limited social interaction. Prior to the appearance of the likes of Emily Post and Lillian Eichler, a new professional arose to fill the cultural void and embrace the need for etiquette. Enter the interior decorator" (p. 372). The interior decorator is born from etiquette's failure: the profession enters history as decorum's substitute — with the city's bustle and the suburb's dispersal as the villains.
The etiquette-book datum (note 20): "In 1918, a prolific wave of publications on etiquette flooded the market. Between 1918 and 1945, over 140 books intended to educate the American public…; Eichler's Book of Etiquette (1922) sold over a million copies… Post's Etiquette (1923) reached over 65 million homes… For the first time in American history, etiquette was disentangled from the religious-based ethics of the past and now accepted as a generalized pattern of behavior designed to lubricate social intercourse" (note 20, p. 373) — etiquette secularized, marketed, and mass-consumed in the same decades the decorator profession professionalized.
De Wolfe's synthesis: "Clearly fueled by her views of etiquette, Elsie de Wolfe expounds her rules regarding entertaining and decorating… Within only a few pages, de Wolfe lays claim on both entertaining and decorating as female responsibilities. 'It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes, no matter how much happiness they may find there.' In the true spirit of the French madams and the Victorian ladies, Elsie de Wolfe would combine the ritual of entertaining and etiquette and the practice of interior decoration into a cohesive whole" (p. 373). De Wolfe is the lineage's synthesis-point: salonnière + Victorian hostess + decorator, the doyenne who fuses the conversation's ritual with decoration's stage.
The salon as decorating lesson (de Wolfe, quoted): "De Wolfe draws quite a few direct correlations between conversation and interior decorating and the manner in which they guide each other… She refers to the Hotel Rambouillet and how it was 'devised for and consecrated to conversation, a new form of privilege.' According to de Wolfe, while Americans use the terms 'drawing room' and 'salon' interchangeably, there is an appreciation for the term salon for its implication of brilliant conversation" (p. 373) — the salon's word carries the conversation's prestige into the decorator's vocabulary.
The room made for conversation (de Wolfe's formula): "'Your sense of the pleasure and meaning of human intercourse will be clear in your disposition of your best things, in your elimination of your worst ones.' From the standpoint of decoration, the atmosphere should be warm and inviting by utilizing textures, materials, color, lighting, and seating arrangements. In her own home on 55th Street in New York City, de Wolfe describes a 'room made for conversation.' 'In this drawing room there is furniture of many woods, there are stuffs of many weaves, there are candles and chandeliers and reading-lamps, but there is harmony of purpose and therefore harmony of effect.' Her formula is further developed through the arrangement of numerous conversation centers, intimate in spirit, such that no one chair is isolated" (pp. 373). Decoration's final test is conversational: the disposition of things must express "the pleasure and meaning of human intercourse"; the well-made room is a network of "conversation centers" where "no one chair is isolated" — furniture arranged as the seating-plan of talk.

Connections

Concepts: conversation (the essay's central concept, now paged: the art of conversing as spatial practice — conversation's aural spatial affect, its ritual structure, its equality-condition and its staccato degradation) · salon (the essay's founding institution, now paged: conversation's self-made social space, the salonnière's manufactured atmospheres, the Chambre Bleu's architectural proportions) · etiquette (the essay's vehicle and mechanism, now paged: etiquette as political technology, gatekeeping power, and the decorator profession's founding void) · atmosphere (the essay's title-concept, fourteenth register: atmosphere "both spoken and visual" — created by conversation itself [Priestley's "implied space"] and manufactured by the hostess, a register between the felt and the calculated) · The Drawing Room (the salon's English successor: "a more affordable choice," anomalous and staccato conversation, the Mentmore choreography of being seen) · Separate Spheres (the wife "legally bound to uphold the husband's social status"; the hostess who "must be a wife or nothing") · Gender and the Interior (women as "gatekeepers of elite society"; decor as "all that female energy") · The Decorative (decoration as "the stage for its performance" — the stage-metaphor grounding the editors' self-expression thesis) · Taste (women's "'natural' taste" as the basis of their civility-proprietorship) · Interiority (the aural register: the interior as what conversation's implied space produces, and the room designed around talk) · Domestic Interior ("Both their interiors and manners were highly manufactured" — the double-manufacture thesis) · Temporality ("the temporality of conversation" set against the designed interior's equal contrivance) · Respectability (the presentation-of-the-home duty; the guilt economy of Victorian display) · Interior as Biography ("It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes") · Scenography (the drawing room as "the grandest of stages," the actors' visual performance surpassing the verbal — the performance model's Victorian prehistory) · Practiced Place ("conversation created its own social space with carefully marked boundaries" — de Certeau's space-as-practiced-place in seventeenth-century form) · House Decorator ("Enter the interior decorator" — the profession born from etiquette's void) · Conspicuous Consumption (the Victorian opulence justified as duty; the guilt economy)

Authors: John C Turpin — the author · Mark Taylor & Julieanna Preston — the Intimus editors framing the selection ("the art of conversing and the art of living are… linked through the need for expression," p. 368) · Elsie de Wolfe — the essay's culminating figure, quoted five times from The House in Good Taste ("It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes, no matter how much happiness they may find there"; "devised for and consecrated to conversation, a new form of privilege"; the 55th Street "room made for conversation"; "harmony of purpose and therefore harmony of effect"). Cited without pages (see log): Peter Quennell — Affairs of the Mind: The Salon in Europe and America From the 18th to the 20th Century (New Republic Books, 1980), epigraph source; John F Kasson — Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America (Hill and Wang, 1990), p. 4; Katherine Grier — Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-class Identity, 1850–1930 (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988), p. 1; J Priestly — Talking (Jarrolds Publishers, 1926), pp. 10, 14; Quentin Skinner — The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (CUP, 1978), p. 14; Nicholas Faret — L'Honnête homme ou l'art de plaire a la cour (PUF, 1925); Bonnie Anderson & Judith Zinsser — A History of Their Own (OUP, 2000), pp. 103–4; Elizabeth Goldsmith — Exclusive Conversations: The Art of Interaction in Seventeenth-Century France (U Penn Press, 1988), pp. 44–6; Jolanta Pekacz — Conservative Tradition in Pre-Revolutionary France: Parisian Salon Women (Peter Lang, 1999), p. 125; Helen Clergue — The Salon (Knickerbocker Press, 1907), p. 3; Leonore Davidoff — The Best Circles: Women and Society in Victorian England (Rowman and Littlefield, 1973), pp. 39–40; Philip Guedalla — Bonnet and Shawl: An Album (Books for Libraries Press, 1970), p. 157; Joan Wildeblood — The Polite World (OUP, 1965), p. 76; Arthur M Schlesinger — Learning How to Behave (Macmillan, 1946), pp. 49–50; Count D'Orsay — his rules of conversation (unattributed source).

Debates: Ornament vs. Purity — the Victorian profuse interior as the gendered pole of the ornament economy: "profuse interior decor… a product of all that female energy going into ornamenting the home," with its guilt-economy and its roving-eye design, against the salon's conversational minimalism · Interior Design vs. Architecture — the profession's origin story told from the social side: the interior decorator enters as etiquette's substitute, the arbiter of atmospheres rather than of structures.

Related source notes: Suitability, Simplicity and Proportion (de Wolfe 1913/2006) — the essay's primary documentary source, quoted at length; Turpin supplies the social-institutional frame de Wolfe's excerpt lacks (the salon lineage, the Victorian drawing room, the etiquette vacuum) and reads her 55th Street drawing room as a "room made for conversation" · The Dining Room (Eastlake 1868/2006) — the same Victorian drawing room from the reformer's side: Eastlake's "green and gold-papered drawing-room" and walnut suite are the furnishing-code face of the pretentiousness and vacuity Turpin documents from the social side · Proximities (Taylor & Preston 2006) — the editors' self-expression thesis ("decoration as an inherent impulse of self-expression") grounded by Turpin's expression-theory: expression has two channels, conversation and decoration, and the stage metaphor names their relation · Structures of Atmosphere (Baudrillard 1968/2006) — the two pole atmospheres: Turpin's manufactured-by-hostess event-atmosphere against Baudrillard's calculated sign-atmosphere · From Wiener Kunst im Hause to the Wiener Werkstätte (Houze 2002/2006) — the salon as "a space in which women would socialize… hovering on the boundary between public and private" beside Turpin's salon as conversation's self-made social space · A House for Josephine Baker (Burns 1997/2006) — Turpin's "They were seen" (Mentmore's glance-economy) beside Burns's all-surface Baker: visibility without interiority as the gendered condition · Hearts and minds and dishwashers (Larson 2018) — the Victorian wife's presentation-duty as the Cold War housewife's ancestor: the home's presentation as the woman's burden of proof · Decorating Culture (Tang 1998/2006) — "It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses" beside Tang's sign-economy interior: the biography-claim and the sign-claim as the two readings of the decorated room.

Direct Quotes

"Between conversation and civilization, the art of talking and the art of living, there has always been a vital link." (Peter Quennell, epigraph, p. 368)

"Whether verbal or physical, humankind has continually devoted significant time and energy to the process of self-expression." (p. 368)

"the protocols of conversation is one example of a ritual that establishes the structures by which individuals define one another and interact, defining social identities, social relationships, and an individual's perception of their social reality." (John Kasson, quoted, p. 368)

"etiquette and decoration … express the progress of civilization; both [are] … a way of choosing language that reflects the presence of some cultural framework for organizing many kinds of human experiences." (Katherine Grier, quoted, p. 368)

"human expression, whether through direct human interaction (conversation) or the stage for its performance (decoration), are intimately tied to each other and the development of a culture." (p. 368)

"In his 1926 essay, Talking, John Priestly categorizes certain types of dialogue as 'atmosphere creating.' He posits that various aspects of a verbal exchange help define an experience that in some ways creates an implied space." (pp. 368–369)

"By choosing to confide in a specific individual, the speaker projects an aura of security onto the event." (p. 369)

"Such words as we use shall be but extra shutters and curtains and blazing coals and cushions." (J. Priestley, quoted, p. 369)

"Since Priestly's publication, little scholarship on the relationship between conversation and the environment has surfaced. This article will attempt to revive Priestly's discussions by asking a primary question: Is there a relationship between the ritual of conversation and the art of decoration?" (p. 369)

"Here, conversation created its own social space with carefully marked boundaries as French women began redefining the criteria for inclusion and exclusion into the strata of the social elite. The vehicle for change would be the restructuring of etiquette." (p. 369)

"Through refinements in social conduct, courtiers meticulously refashioned their social selves." (p. 369)

"Due to their 'natural' taste, women soon became proprietors of good manners and civility. As a result, the best social education emanated from cultivated women, the gatekeepers of elite society." (p. 369)

"In these situations, the women created atmospheres both spoken and visual to ensure a successful event." (p. 369)

"Passing through a series of ornately finished rooms, a visitor arrived at last in the famous chambre bleu, whose intimate proportions and daring use of color established an elegant and fresh tone. The chambre bleu had waist-high painted and gilded panels lining its walls, which were hung with patterned blue tapestries encrusted with gold and silver. Paintings and Venetian mirrors hung on the walls. The focus of the room was the blue, damask-hung bed in the second alcove where the Marquis de Rambouillet reclined." (Anderson & Zinsser, quoted, p. 370)

"Similarly, ideal conversation had to permit both a smooth pattern of movement between the participants and a broad view of the world outside." (p. 370)

"Ideal conversation was possible only if all participants were confident of their equal standing within the group. Domination, dispute, interruptions and inattentiveness were not permitted. An atmosphere of peace and tranquillity was far removed from the sometimes-hostile engagements between the gentlemen. The salon would be considered a failure and that particular salonnière would lose her most valued position if the environment was not perfect." (p. 370; elision "(… p 44)" follows)

"Without compromising the integrity of their gender, these women created a new position in society for themselves based on the ability to enhance human relations through controlled conversations. Thus, French women clearly aided in defining the cultural standards of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through their skilful manipulation of the interior environment and the ritual of conversation." (p. 370)

"Across the channel, nineteenth-century England set a completely different stage in which to socially interact. Both their interiors and manners were highly manufactured." (p. 371)

"The salon itself was not as popular as a room type. The drawing room was a more affordable choice. Here, participants focused on anomalous conversation with the sole intent of social and political advancement." (p. 371)

"The relations between men and women delineated roles based on a patriarchal system. Compared to the more liberated French women, the English ladies were not permitted as much self-expression. For example, a wife was legally bound to uphold the husband's social status." (p. 371)

"The profuse interior decor, with which the Victorian period is identified, was itself a product of all that female energy going into ornamenting the home." (p. 371)

"Due to the strong sense of guilt for such excessive expenditures, Victorian women justified the extreme opulence and extravagance by invoking the idea of social duty… Ironically, such 'sins' were acceptable for women, but not for the men." (p. 371)

"'The great hostess must be a wife or nothing. No hostess counts without a host.'" (Philip Guedalla, quoted, p. 371)

"Again, etiquette bestowed the power." (p. 371)

"Unlike the enriching discussions of the French salons, the English drawing rooms were filled with pretentiousness and vacuity. The goal was neither to offend nor inform. By subduing intellectual growth, the social elite defined their status more or less by simply being in each other's presence. The aura of elitism found expression on elaborate stages where the significance of the actors' visual performance surpassed their verbal utterances." (p. 372)

"Staccato conversations permitted all present to participate in the creation of an atmosphere characterized by a 'false view of life.'" (p. 372; Wildeblood quoted within)

"After a momentary glance from other participants, the primary function of the guest had been accomplished. They were seen." (p. 372)

"In opposition to the ascension of the guest, the Lady of the house often waited until her company had arrived so that they may witness her descent from the Grand Staircase axially aligned with the Grand Hall. The remainder of the rooms were arranged in a manner that permitted guests to mingle from room to room continuing their performance on the grandest of stages." (p. 372)

"Count D'Orsay's rules of conversation are supported by the stage set. For example, the avoidance of long stories in polite conversation prevents any one individual from being a point of focus. Conversation is to move freely and rather rapidly from one to another. In similar style, the Victorian interior is riddled with objects, each so spectacular in form and ornamentation that the eye of the guest is never permitted to rest. Unintentionally, the interior's demand for a roving eye may have lubricated the ritual of being seen as accidental glances imparted unintended meanings." (p. 372; elision "(… p 47)" follows)

"Prior to the appearance of the likes of Emily Post and Lillian Eichler, a new professional arose to fill the cultural void and embrace the need for etiquette. Enter the interior decorator." (p. 372; elision "(… p 48)" follows)

"It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes, no matter how much happiness they may find there." (Elsie de Wolfe, quoted, p. 373)

"In the true spirit of the French madams and the Victorian ladies, Elsie de Wolfe would combine the ritual of entertaining and etiquette and the practice of interior decoration into a cohesive whole." (p. 373)

"She refers to the Hotel Rambouillet and how it was 'devised for and consecrated to conversation, a new form of privilege.' According to de Wolfe, while Americans use the terms 'drawing room' and 'salon' interchangeably, there is an appreciation for the term salon for its implication of brilliant conversation." (p. 373; de Wolfe quoted within)

"'Your sense of the pleasure and meaning of human intercourse will be clear in your disposition of your best things, in your elimination of your worst ones.'" (Elsie de Wolfe, quoted, p. 373)

"In this drawing room there is furniture of many woods, there are stuffs of many weaves, there are candles and chandeliers and reading-lamps, but there is harmony of purpose and therefore harmony of effect." (Elsie de Wolfe, quoted, p. 373; elision "(… p 49)" follows)

"The art of conversing and the art of living are, according to John Turpin, linked through the need for expression. The social challenge, the demand for mental acuity and the game-like aspects of conversation are explored in this text via a discussion of late nineteenth-century French salons and English drawing rooms. Turpin's historical examination of this interior environment points to the aural spatial affect of conversations that are driven and influenced by the presence and interaction of company in such interior settings. The tangible design of such spaces is revealed to be equally manufactured and contrived as the temporality of conversation that occurs within it." (Taylor & Preston, editors' headnote, p. 368)

Open Questions

What sits in the elisions? Five marked cuts elide original pp. 45, 47–48, and 49–54 — half the article, including its entire closing movement after de Wolfe's conversation-centres. Does the original develop the America section (the decorator's rise, perhaps the arrowhead to a contemporary argument), and does the essay's answer to its primary question ("Is there a relationship between the ritual of conversation and the art of decoration?") appear only in the elided pp. 49–54?
The interior decorator's founding story: Turpin's "Enter the interior decorator" makes the profession the solution to an etiquette vacuum — a decorum-substitute born of urban bustle and suburban dispersal. How does this social-origin story change the discipline's self-history (the upholsterer-trade genealogy of Taylor & Preston, the Garretts' professional claim of Ferry's essay)? Is the decorator primarily a master of rooms or a manager of rituals — and which claim did the profession choose?
Is the "aural spatial affect" designable? Priestley's words-as-furniture ("extra shutters and curtains and blazing coals and cushions") equates speech with the interior's warm envelope — but can a designer design for the confider's "aura of security," or does the implied space exist only when talk achieves it? What would a room designed for brilliant conversation (de Wolfe's "harmony of purpose") look like in contemporary terms — and is "numerous conversation centers… such that no one chair is isolated" the concept's complete design manual?
The double manufacture: "Both their interiors and manners were highly manufactured" (p. 371) — is the manufactured interior the manufactured self's stage (decoration as etiquette's visual language, per Grier), or its rival (the room doing the talking the conversation refuses)? Which came first in the drawing room: the staccato conversation or the roving eye?
Atmosphere's two poles: Turpin's salonnières "created atmospheres both spoken and visual to ensure a successful event" — atmosphere as event-output, hosted, controlled, precarious. How does this performative atmosphere relate to the wiki's other registers (Böhme's staged atmospheres, Baudrillard's calculated ones, Solomon's wielded ones) — is the salonnière the historical type of the atmosphere-wielder Solomon theorizes, and does her precarity ("she would lose her most valued position") name the stakes atmospheric design still carries?
The gatekeepers' power: French women and English ladies are both "the gatekeepers" of their societies, power flowing through etiquette rather than from office. Is gatekeeping the interior's distinctive mode of power — authority exercised through inclusion/exclusion rituals in decorated rooms — and does de Wolfe's professionalization convert the gatekeeper's implicit authority into an explicit profession?
The visual/verbal inversion: in the salon, talk governs the room; in the drawing room, "the significance of the actors' visual performance surpassed their verbal utterances." What historical mechanism converts a conversation-culture into a spectacle-culture — affordability (the drawing room as the salon's "more affordable choice"), the middle class's arrival, or the loss of the equal-standing precondition? And is the drawing room's "false view of life" atmosphere the ancestor of the wiki's spectacle register?
America's substitution: if the suburb's dispersal and the city's bustle broke "ceremonious intercourse," did the interior decorator inherit a social function (assembling the dispersed) or merely its decorative residue? And what would Turpin's argument — written in 2003 — make of the digital salon (the group chat, the livestream): conversation's implied space without any room at all?