Faux Bamboo Towel Rack

Found in the Loire valley in central France, this 20th-century French faux bamboo towel rack was turned in fruitwood with round ball finials, slender spindled rails, and small splayed feet, the wood worked on the lathe to mimic the joints and rings of bamboo. Faux bamboo was a French obsession through the second half of the 1800s - bamboo borrowed from Japan and Asia after Japonisme swept Paris, but local craftsmen carved it from cherry, beech, and walnut instead. Towel racks like this stood beside a porcelain washbasin in a French dressing room or bathroom, holding the linen hand towels that were the only towels for a hundred years. Sylvie sets it next to the bath with a stack of striped linen towels draped over the rails.