Eastlake Gay Chairs (set of 4)

The Eastlake Movement was a nineteenth century architectural and household design reform movement started by architect and writer Charles Eastlake (1836–1906). The movement is generally considered part of the late Victorian period in terms of broad antique furniture designations. In architecture the Eastlake Style is part of the Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture.

Eastlake’s book Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details posited that furniture and decor in people’s homes should be made by hand or machine workers who took personal pride in their work. Manufacturers in the U.S. used the drawings and ideas in the book to create mass-produced Eastlake Style or Cottage furniture.

The geometric ornaments, spindles, low relief carvings and incised lines were designed to be affordable and easy to clean; nevertheless, many of the designs which resulted are artistically complex.

The word “gay” arrived in English during the 12th century from Old French gai, most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanic source.

For most of its life in English, the word’s primary meaning was “joyful”, “carefree”, “bright and showy”.

By the end of the 20th century, the word gay was recommended by major style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex. At about the same time, a new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world. In the Anglosphere, this connotation, among younger speakers, has a derisive meaning equivalent to rubbish or stupid (as in “That’s so gay.”). In this use, the word does not mean “homosexual”, so it can be used, for example, to refer to an inanimate object or abstract concept of which one disapproves. This usage can also refer to weakness or unmanliness. When used in this way, the extent to which it still retains connotations of homosexuality has been debated.

A meme  is “an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.

Lee Harvey’s style of blinding Eastlake furniture with modern day memes and keeping the hand-done theme is truly provoking and unique!

Check out more work by Lee Harvey in the Portfolio Page.