When Antiques Were Expected

In an episode of the third season of Mad Men, Betty Draper has an interior decorator redo the living room. Betty adds her own touch after spotting a fainting couch in the window of an antique store. The decorator comments on the addition saying “you’ve ruined the whole room. If you insist on keeping it, please don’t tell people I did this.” Then “We discussed this, antiques are to be expected.” I’m not sure the piece shown really is an antique. It would be difficult to work that look into most rooms outside of the ones they were designed for. The interesting thing is if we can believe the writers, this takes us back to a time when modernism had to beat off the consumer desire for antiques!