К ЭТОМУ ТЕКСТУ ПРИДУМАТЬ 5 ВОПРОСОВ НА АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ С ПЕРЕВОДОМ НА РУССКИЙ Medieval attitudes towards design were still very much present in the workshops of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is a temptation for example, to think of a rushlight holder as a typically 'craft' object. The temptation is increased because the rushlight itself is no longer part of our own technology, having been replaced by the electric light bulb. However, if one looks at the holder itself without prejudice, one sees that it is in fact very well designed for its purpose, which is to hold a burning rush dipped in tallow in a safe and stable fashion. For a modern industrial designer, handed the same problem, would be hard to find a better basic solution, and rushlight holders in fact vary much less among themselves than the whole vast range of modern table lamps, which are solutions to the problem of holding a bulb so that the light it gives will be effective and fall in the right place. Eighteenth-century design philosophy was in many respects very close to that professed today. Designers excelled in devising plain but practical forms,with just enough ornamental detail to prevent dullness The George II walnut commode is basically a plain rectangular box. But its rectangularity is relieved both by the waist moulding under the top drawer and by the bracket feet. These are especially important visually as they link the chest firmly to the ground, without making it seem heavy. Modern designers have been unable to surpass plain Georgian furniture of this type. Metalwork in precious metals could, by contrast, be extremely ornate for reasons of ostentation and to show how much the craftsman-designer appreciated the fine quality of the material he was using. Yet a great deal shows extreme functional simplicity. The first English teapot, which dates to about 1670, is made of silver and looks more like a coffee-pot to twentieth-century eyes. But it shows an admirably direct use of material. A kettle on a stand,of about 1710–20, is almost equally plain. It is only in the curving cast feet of the stand that a little Baroque exuberance breaks out. Eighteenth-century concern with visual style led to the issue of numerous pattern-books for the guidance of furniture-makers and their patrons. It would,however, be idle to pretend that there are no differences between eighteenthcentury design attitudes and our own. The eighteenth-century household possessed many fewer machines than a contemporary one, and these machines were often of a type now completely obsolete. Few modern households consider a spinning-wheel to be a necessity. A standard mid-eighteenthcentury example is sturdily constructed of wood, following a design, which had evolved over a long period. The turning on the legs and on the spokes of the wheel reveals the maker's love of ornament – something that would be less individually expressed at the present day. A somewhat later spinning wheel, designed for a more elegant setting, is cleaner in line – but the fact that