Motifs of the Revival: Owls
Owls were a common motif in the Arts & Crafts movement.
The association of owls with wisdom is peculiarly modern and Western, though it goes back to Greek mythology. (The owl was a symbol of Athena, goddess of wisdom, and of Athens, a city noted for scholarship.) Perhaps it is the birds’ ability to see in the dark that suggests an end to ignorance? In many cultures, however, owls have historically symbolized darkness, bad omens, and death. Early Christians associated the birds with mourning and solitude.
This changed during the Victorian period of the 19th century, when owls found their way even into nursery rhymes (“The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea . . .”). Lamps and andirons were decorated with owls; the birds came to be associated with libraries and learning.
The depiction of owls was just as prevalent during the Arts & Crafts movement. Nature’s flora and fauna universally inspired the decorative arts in this period.
Owls appear in watercolors, ceramics, printed wallpaper and fabrics, and embroidery. They may be rendered faithfully (the Great Horned Owl easily distinguished from the Screech Owl and the Snowy Owl), or they may be stylized, as in British designer C.F.A. Voysey’s delightful designs.
Patricia Poore is Editor-in-chief of Old House Journal and Arts & Crafts Homes, as well as editorial director at Active Interest Media’s Home Group, overseeing New Old House, Traditional Building, and special-interest publications.
Poore joined Old House Journal when it was a Brooklyn-brownstoner newsletter in the late 1970s. She became owner and publisher and, except for the years 2002–2013, has been its editor. Poore founded the magazines Old-House Interiors (1995–2013) and Early Homes (2004–2017); their content is now available online and folded into Old-House Journal’s wider coverage. Poore also created GARBAGE magazine (1989–1994), the first unaffiliated environmental consumer magazine.
Poore has participated, hands-on, in several restorations, including her own homes: a 1911 brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and a 1904 Tudor–Shingle Style house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she brought up her boys and their wonderful dogs.
