There are many references to Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) being forgotten and neglected. But to be fair: she died in the middle of the war and after the war there was so much else to think about. Although it is indeed shocking that it has taken nearly eighty years - eighty! - for her to be 'rediscovered'. Yet this is true of so many of our writers. Here is an excellent piece about her in the Art Newspaper. This marionette, called King Stag: Stag, dates from 1918. It's at the Museum für Gestaltung, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zurich; 

The Sophie Taeuber-Arp exhibition is only on (at Tate Modern) for the rest of this week but there is a catalogue for anyone who has not made it there or cannot in the next few days. She was yet another unsung genius, aren't we horribly familiar with these? This is a c.1920 embroidery. The sense of colour and design is rather overwhelming.

And the best - the Shaker rocking chair.

The beauty and simplicity of these stacking boxes are without parallel. This picture came from a good article in the Financial Times about a new Shaker Museum being built in Chatham, New York.

As a Persephone reader pointed out, the Shakers would have loved our books' grey uniformity and sparseness but hated the content! Yet their ideology is in all our homes in a small way. Who doesn't have a table somewhat like this? It's 1800-25, made by the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing ('Shakers') Mount Lebanon, New York, cf. this article by Nicholas Vincent about Shaker furniture at the Metropolitan Museum website.

The genuine Shaker style, except they would not have used the word style, it was just how they lived, was sparse and simple – no comfortable sofas for them. But in so many ways it was admirable and we should all emulate it. Perhaps we do so without realising it, for example the Shakers would undoubtedly have approved of grey Persephone books.

This week the Persephone Post celebrates Shaker furniture: timelessly beautiful, unfussy, our absolute favourite. And influential! There is an Ercol chest of drawers, available from John Lewis, very like this actual Shaker piece. Cf Britannica here about: 'furniture designed for the religious colonies of Shakers  founded in America in the last quarter of the 18th century, characterised by austerity of decoration and truth to materials. Deeply dedicated to ideals of communal living and asceticism, the Shakers designed and constructed  furniture that reflected their belief that to make a thing well was in itself an act of prayer and their conviction that the appearance of a thing should follow upon its function. Each item was fashioned solely to serve its intended use, and all superfluous decorations, such as inlays and moldings, were eliminated.'