| The "Anglo-Japanese" Style introduced the delicate and ageless simplicity of Japanese design into a mid-19th century world full of ponderous historical revivals. Associated with the "Aesthetic Movement," which was championed by luminaries such as Oscar Wilde and James McNeil Whistler, the style first took root in England in the 1860s and spread quickly to America over the next two decades.
The popularity of "all things Japanese" became a mania in the 1880s on both shores. American Eastlake interiors of this period typically were influenced by the Anglo-Japanese style through ebonized "art" furniture, stylized flat patterning in fabrics and wallpapers, the trademark motifs of the sunflower and lily, and a unique color palette inspired by Japanese woodblock prints.
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