Furnishing the Old-Fashioned Garden: Three Centuries of American Summerhouses, Dovecotes, Pergolas, Privies, Fences & Birdhouses by May Brawley Hill (1998, Hardcover)

Key Details
Author:	May Brawley Hill
Language:	English
Publisher:	Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	0810933357
ISBN-13:	9780810933354

Size
Length:	160 pages
Height:	11 in
Width:	8.8 in
Thickness:	0.8 in
Weight:	36 oz

Publisher's Note
"Not only does [Grandmother's Garden] fill a black hole in American gardening history, it is a glorious piece of publishing."--MirabellaGardening has become America's favorite pastime, inspiring a tremendous interest in both antique and reproduction garden ornaments and furniture. May Hill, author of Abrams' widely praised Grandmother's Garden, returns here to early American gardens to trace three centuries of trellises, arbors, fences, summerhouses, and other outbuildings in the context of specific periods, places, and American garden styles.Hill draws on paintings, photographs, historical narratives, and personal recollections to create this unprecedented portrait of American garden architecture. From the practical 18th-century "necessary house" to 19th-century Neoclassical dovecotes and Chinese Chippendale benches, she describes the evolution of characteristic American motifs and crafts.Not surprisingly, many of these structures and forms remain appropriate and appealing, and today's home gardener will find them relevant to their own American garden.May Brawley Hill, an art historian specializing in American art with a special interest in gardening, has an old-fashioned garden in northwestern Connecticut, complete with traditional American garden structures.

May Brawley Hill returns to traditional American gardens to present the inventive outdoor structures that enlivened three centuries of garden making across the country. Furnishing the Old-Fashioned Garden is the first book to concentrate on the history of these structures, locating pergolas, summerhouses, dovecotes, and other outbuildings in the context of their specific period, place, and garden style. With evidence gleaned from American paintings, photographs, historical narratives, archival publications, and personal recollections, the author reveals which structures suit a weathered clapboard house, or a bungalow, or an adobe ranch, for example, and she explains the latest fashions in garden furnishings when these houses were first built. The result is a full-scale portrait of American garden architecture, as seen in town and country large and small, east coast to west coast.

Industry Reviews
"[I]f you come to this book looking for an exhaustive list and description of every garden structure, you will be disappointed. Still, given the dozens of examples from paintings, photographs, archival material, and historical narratives, the book is an invaluable resource for modern gardeners looking to recreate the past in their own backyards."
Traditional Gardening