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FURNITURE
OF THE OLDEN TIME

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO

FURNITURE
OF
THE OLDEN TIME

BY
FRANCES CLARY MORSE

NEW EDITION
With a New Chapter and Many New Illustrations

“How much more agreeable it is to sit in the midst of old furniture like Minott’s clock, and secretary and looking-glass, which have come down from other generations, than amid that which was just brought from the cabinet-maker’s, smelling of varnish, like a coffin! To sit under the face of an old clock that has been ticking one hundred and fifty years—there is something mortal, not to say immortal, about it; a clock that begun to tick when Massachusetts was a province.”

H. D. Thoreau, “Autumn.”

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1926
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1902 and 1917,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped November, 1902. Reprinted April, 1903;
July, 1905; February, 1908; September, 1910; September, 1913.

New edition, with a new chapter and new illustrations, December, 1917.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

To my Sister
ALICE MORSE EARLE

Contents

List of Illustrations

FURNITURE
OF THE OLDEN TIME

Furniture of the Olden Time

INTRODUCTION

THE furniture of the American colonies was at first of English manufacture, but before long cabinet-makers and joiners plied their trade in New England, and much of the furniture now found there was made by the colonists. In New Amsterdam, naturally, a different style prevailed, and the furniture was Dutch. As time went on and the first hardships were surmounted, money became more plentiful, until by the last half of the seventeenth century much fine furniture was imported from England and Holland, and from that time fashions in America were but a few months behind those in England.

In the earliest colonial times the houses were but sparsely furnished, although Dr. Holmes writes of leaving—

“The Dutchman’s shore,

With those that in the Mayflower came, a hundred souls or more,
Along with all the furniture to fill their new abodes,
To judge by what is still on hand, at least a hundred loads.”

If one were to accept as authentic all the legends told of various pieces,—chairs, tables, desks, spinets, and even pianos,—Dr. Holmes’s estimate would be too moderate.

The first seats in general use were forms or benches, not more than one or two chairs belonging to each household. The first tables were long boards placed upon trestles. Chests were found in almost every house, and bedsteads, of course, were a necessity. After the first chairs, heavy and plain or turned, with strong braces or stretchers between the legs, came the leather-covered chairs of Dutch origin, sometimes called Cromwell chairs, followed by the Flemish cane chairs and couches. This takes us to the end of the seventeenth century. During that period tables with turned legs fastened to the top had replaced the earliest “table borde” upon trestles, and the well-known “hundred legged” or “forty legged” table had come into use.

Cupboards during the seventeenth century were made of oak ornamented in designs similar to those upon oak chests. Sideboards with drawers were not used in this country until much later, although there is one of an early period in the South Kensington Museum, made of oak, with turned legs, and with drawers beneath the top.

Desks were in use from the middle of the seventeenth century, made first of oak and later of cherry and walnut. Looking-glasses were owned by the wealthy, and clocks appear in inventories of the latter part of the century. Virginals were mentioned during the seventeenth century, and spinets were not uncommon in the century following.

With the beginning of the eighteenth century came the strong influence of Dutch fashions, and chairs and tables were made with the Dutch cabriole or bandy leg, sometimes with the shell upon the knee, and later with the claw-and-ball foot. Dutch high chests with turned legs had been in use before this, and the high chest with bandy legs like the chairs and tables soon became a common piece of furniture. With other Dutch fashions came that of lacquering furniture with Chinese designs, and tables, scrutoirs or desks, looking-glass frames, stands, and high chests were ornamented in this manner.

The wood chiefly used in furniture was oak, until about 1675, when American black walnut came into use, and chests of drawers, tables, and chairs were made of it; it was the wood oftenest employed in veneer at that time.

Sheraton wrote in 1803: “There are three species of walnut tree, the English walnut, and the white and black Virginia. Hickory is reckoned to class with the white Virginia walnut. The black Virginia was much in use for cabinet work about forty or fifty years since in England, but is now quite laid by since the introduction of mahogany.”

Mahogany was discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595. The first mention of its use in this country is in 1708. Mr. G. T. Robinson, in the London Art Journal of 1881, says that its first use in England was in 1720, when some planks of it were brought to Dr. Gibbon by a West India captain. The wood was pronounced too hard, and it was not until Mrs. Gibbon wanted a candle-box that any use was made of the planks, and then only because the obstinate doctor insisted upon it. When the candle-box was finished, a bureau (i.e. desk) was made of the wood, which was greatly admired, and as Mr. Robinson says, “Dr. Gibbon’s obstinacy and Mrs. Gibbon’s candle-box revolutionized English household furniture; for the system of construction and character of design were both altered by its introduction.” It is probable that furniture had been made in England of mahogany previous to 1720, but that may be the date when it became fashionable.

The best mahogany came from Santiago, Mexican mahogany being soft, and Honduras mahogany coarse-grained.

The earliest English illustrated book which included designs for furniture was published by William Jones in 1739. Chippendale’s first book of designs was issued in 1754. He was followed by Ince and Mayhew, whose book was undated; Thomas Johnson—1758; Sir William Chambers—1760; Society of Upholsterers—about 1760; Matthias Lock—1765; Robert Manwaring—1766; Matthias Darly—1773; Robert and J. Adam—1773; Thomas Shearer (in “The Cabinet-makers’ London Book of Prices”)—1788; A. Hepplewhite & Co.—1789; Thomas Sheraton—1791-1793 and 1803.

Sir William Chambers in his early youth made a voyage to China, and it is to his influence that we can attribute much of the rage for Chinese furniture and decoration which was in force about 1760 to 1770.

Thomas Chippendale lived and had his shop in St. Martin’s Lane, London. Beyond that we know but little of his life. His book, “The Gentleman’s and Cabinet-Maker’s Director,” was published in 1754, at a cost of £3.13.6 per copy. The second edition followed in 1759, and the third in 1762. It contains one hundred and sixty copper plates, the first twenty pages of which are taken up with designs for chairs, and it is largely as a chair-maker that Chippendale’s name has become famous. His furniture combines French, Gothic, Dutch, and Chinese styles, but so great was his genius that the effect is thoroughly harmonious, while he exercised the greatest care in the construction of his furniture—especially chairs. He was beyond everything a carver, and his designs show a wealth of delicate carving. He used no inlay or painting, as others had done before him, and as others did after him, and only occasionally did he employ gilding, lacquer, or brass ornamentation.

Robert and James Adam were architects, trained in the classics. Their furniture was distinctly classical, and was designed for rooms in the Greek or Roman style. Noted painters assisted them in decorating the rooms and the furniture, and Pergolesi, Angelica Kaufmann, and Cipriani did not scorn to paint designs upon satinwood furniture.

Matthias Lock and Thomas Johnson were notable as designers of frames for pier glasses, ovals, girandoles, etc.

Thomas Shearer’s name was signed to the best designs of those published in 1788 in “The Cabinet-Makers’ Book of Prices.” His drawings comprise tables of various sorts, dressing-chests, writing-desks, and sideboards, but there is not one chair among them. He was the first to design the form of sideboard with which we are familiar.

As Chippendale’s name is used to designate the furniture of 1750-1780, so the furniture of the succeeding period may be called Hepplewhite; for although he was one of several cabinet-makers who worked together, his is the best-known name, and his was probably the most original genius. His chairs bear no resemblance to those of Chippendale, and are lighter and more graceful; but because of the attention he paid to those qualifications, strength of construction and durability were neglected. His chair-backs have no support beside the posts which extend up from the back legs, and upon these the shield or heart-shaped back rests in such a manner that it could endure but little strain.

Hepplewhite’s sideboards were admirable in form and decoration, and it is from them and his chairs that his name is familiar in this country. His swell or serpentine front bureaus were copied in great numbers here.

His specialty was the inlaying or painting with which his furniture was enriched. Satinwood had been introduced from India shortly before this, and tables, chairs, sideboards, and bureaus were inlaid with this wood upon mahogany, while small pieces were veneered entirely with it. The same artists who assisted the Adam brothers painted medallions, wreaths of flowers or arabesque work upon Hepplewhite’s satinwood furniture. Not much of this painted furniture came to this country, but the fashion was followed by our ancestresses, who were taught, among other accomplishments, to paint flowers and figures upon light wood furniture, tables and screens being the pieces usually chosen for decoration.

Thomas Sheraton published in 1791 and 1793, “The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book”; in 1803, his “Cabinet Dictionary”; in 1804, “Designs for Household Furniture,” and “The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and General Artist’s Encyclopedia,” which was left unfinished in 1807.

“The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book” is largely taken up with drawings and remarks upon perspective, which are hopelessly unintelligible. His instructions for making the pieces designed are most minute, and it is probably due to this circumstantial care that Sheraton’s furniture, light as it looks, has lasted in good condition for a hundred years or more.

Sheraton’s chairs differ from Hepplewhite’s, which they resemble in many respects, in the construction of the backs, which are usually square, with the back legs extending to the top rail, and the lower rail joining the posts a few inches above the seat. The backs were ornamented with carving, inlaying, painting, gilding, and brass. The lyre was a favorite design, and it appears in his chair-backs and in the supports for tables, often with the strings made of brass wire.

Sheraton’s sideboards are similar to those of Shearer and Hepplewhite, but are constructed with more attention to the utilitarian side, with sundry conveniences, and with the fluted legs which Sheraton generally uses. His designs show sideboards also with ornamental brass rails at the back, holding candelabra.

His desks and writing-tables are carefully and minutely described, so that the manifold combinations and contrivances can be accurately made.

Sheraton’s later furniture was heavy and generally ugly, following the Empire fashions, and his fame rests upon the designs in his first book. He was the last of the great English cabinet-makers, although he had many followers in England and in America.

After the early years of the nineteenth century, the fashionable furniture was in the heavy, clumsy styles which were introduced with the Empire, until the period of ugly black walnut furniture which is familiar to us all.

While there have always been a few who collected antique furniture, the general taste for collecting began with the interest kindled by the Centennial Exposition in 1876. Not many years ago the collector of old furniture and china was jeered at, and one who would, even twenty years since, buy an old “high-boy” rather than a new black walnut chiffonier, was looked upon as “queer.” All that is now changed. The chiffonier is banished for the high-boy, when the belated collector can secure one, and the influence of antique furniture may be seen in the immense quantity of new furniture modelled after the antique designs, but not made, alas, with the care and thought for durability which were bestowed upon furniture by the old cabinet-makers.

Heaton says: “It appears to require about a century for the wheel of fashion to make one complete revolution. What our great-grandfather bought and valued (1750-1790); what our grandfathers despised and neglected (1790-1820); what our fathers utterly forgot (1820-1850), we value, restore, and copy!”

Since the publication of this book in 1902, many old houses in this country have been restored by different societies interested in the preservation of antiquities. These historic houses have been carefully and suitably furnished, thus carrying out what should be our patriotic duty, the gathering and preserving of everything connected with our history and life. Thus much furniture has been rescued, not only from unmerited oblivion, but from probable destruction.

CHAPTER I

CHESTS, CHESTS OF DRAWERS, AND DRESSING-TABLES

THE chest was a most important piece of furniture in households of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It served as table, seat, or trunk, besides its accepted purpose to hold valuables of various kinds.

Chests are mentioned in the earliest colonial inventories. Ship chests, board chests, joined chests, wainscot chests with drawers, and carved chests are some of the entries; but the larger portion are inventoried simply as chests.

All woodwork—chests, stools, or tables—which was framed together, chiefly with mortise and tenon, was called joined, and joined chests and wainscot chests were probably terms applied to panelled chests to distinguish them from those of plain boards, which were common in every household, and which were brought to this country on the ships with the colonists, holding their scanty possessions.

The oldest carved chests were made without drawers beneath, and were carved in low relief in designs which appear upon other pieces of oak furniture of the same period.

Illus. 1.—Oak Chest, about 1650.

Illustration [1] shows a chest now in Memorial Hall, at Deerfield, which was taken from the house where the Indians made their famous attack in 1704. The top of the chest is missing, and the feet, which were continuations of the stiles, are worn away or sawed off. The design and execution of the carving are unusually fine, combining several different patterns, all of an early date. Chests were carved in the arch design with three or four panels, but seldom as elaborately as this, which was probably made before 1650.

Illustration [2] shows a remarkable chest now owned by Mrs. Caroline Foote Marsh of Claremont-on-the-James, Virginia. Until recently it has remained in the family of D’Olney Stuart, whose ancestor, of the same name, was said to be of the royal Stuart blood, and who brought it with him when he fled to Virginia after the beheading of Charles I.

The feet have been recently added, and should be large balls; otherwise the chest is original in every respect. It is made entirely of olive-wood, the body being constructed of eight-inch planks. The decoration is produced with carving and burnt work. Upon the inside of the lid are three panels, the centre one containing a portrait in burnt work of James I. with his little dog by his side. The two side panels portray the Judgment of Solomon, the figures being clad in English costumes; in the left panel the two kneeling women claim the child; in the right the child is held up for the executioner to carry out Solomon’s command to cut it in two. The outside of the lid has the Stuart coat of arms burnt upon it. Upon the front of the chest are four knights, and between them are three panels, surrounded by a moulding, which is now missing around the middle panel. These three panels are carved and burnt with views of castles; and around the lock, above the middle panel, are carved the British lions supporting the royal coat of arms. The chest measures six feet in length and is twenty-four inches high.

Chests with drawers are mentioned as early as 1650, and the greater number of chests found in New England have one or two drawers.

Illus. 2.—Olive-wood Chest, 1630-1650.

Illustration [3] shows a chest with one drawer owned by the Connecticut Historical Society, made about 1660. There is no carving upon this chest, which is panelled and ornamented with turned spindles and drops. The stiles are continued below the chest to form the feet.

Illus. 3.—Panelled Chest with One Drawer, about 1660.

A chest with two drawers is shown in Illustration [4], made probably in Connecticut, as about fifty of this style have been found there, chiefly in Hartford County. The top, back, and bottom are of pine, the other portions of the chest being of American oak. The design of the carving is similar upon all these chests, and the turned drop ornament upon the stiles, and the little egg-shaped pieces upon the drawers, appear upon all. They have been found with one or two drawers or none, but usually with two. This chest is in Memorial Hall, at Deerfield.

A chest with two drawers owned by Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem, is shown in Illustration [5]. The mouldings upon the front of the frame are carved in a simple design. The wood in the centre of the panels is stained a dark color, the spindles and mouldings being of oak like the rest of the chest.

Illus. 4.—Oak Chest with Two Drawers, about 1675.

A number of chests carved in a manner not seen elsewhere have been found in and about Hadley, Massachusetts, and this has given them the name of Hadley chests. The carving in all is similar, upon the front only, the ends being panelled, and all have three panels above the drawers, with initials carved in the middle panel. The other two panels have a conventionalized tulip design, which is carved upon the rest of the front, in low relief. The carving is usually stained while the background is left the natural color of the wood.

Illustration [6] shows a Hadley chest with one drawer owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston.

Illus. 5.—Panelled Chest with Two Drawers, about 1675.

Carved chests with three drawers are rarely found in any design, although the plain board chests were made with that number.

Illustration [7] and Illustration [8] show chests mounted upon frames. Illustration [8] stands thirty-two inches high and is thirty inches wide, and is made of oak, with one drawer. It is in the collection of Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. Illustration [7] is slightly taller, with one drawer. This chest is in the collection of the late Major Ben: Perley Poore, at Indian Hill. Such chests upon frames are rarely found, and by some they are supposed to have been made for use as desks; but it seems more probable that they were simple chests for linen, taking the place of the high chest of drawers which was gradually coming into fashion during the latter half of the seventeenth century, and possibly being its forerunner. Chests continued in manufacture and in use until after 1700, but they were probably not made later than 1720 in any numbers, as several years previous to that date they were inventoried as “old,” a word which was as condemnatory in those years as now, as far as the fashions were concerned.

Illus. 6.—Carved Chest with One Drawer, about 1700.

Chests of drawers appear in inventories about 1645. They were usually made of oak and were similar in design to the chests of that period.

The oak chest of drawers in Illustration [9] is owned by E. R. Lemon, Esq., of the Wayside Inn, Sudbury. It has four drawers, and the decoration is simply panelling. The feet are the large balls which were used upon chests finished with a deep moulding at the lower edge. The drop handles are of an unusual design, the drop being of bell-flower shape. This chest of drawers was found in Malden.

Illus. 7 and Illus. 8—Panelled Chests upon Frames, 1670-1700.

Illustration [10] shows a very fine oak chest of four drawers, owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston. The spindles upon this chest are unusually good, especially the large spindles upon the stiles. There is a band of simple carving between the drawers. The ends are panelled and the handles are wooden knobs.

Illus. 9.—Panelled Chest of Drawers, about 1680.

From the time that high chests of drawers were introduced, during the last part of the seventeenth century, the use of oak in furniture gradually ceased, and its place was taken by walnut or cherry, and later by mahogany. With the disuse of oak came a change in the style of chests, which were no longer made in the massive panelled designs of earlier years.

The moulding around the drawers is somewhat of a guide to the age of a piece of furniture. The earliest moulding was large and single, upon the frame around the drawers. The next moulding consisted of two strips, forming a double moulding. These strips were in some cases separated by a plain band about half an inch in width.

Illus. 10.—Panelled Chest of Drawers, about 1680.

Later still, upon block front pieces a small single moulding bordered the frame around the drawers, while upon Hepplewhite and Sheraton furniture the moulding was upon the drawer itself. Early in the eighteenth century, about 1720, high chests were made with no moulding about the drawers, the edges of which lapped over the frame.

Illustration 11.

Another guide to the age of a piece of furniture made with drawers is found in the brass handles, which are shown in Illustration 11 in the different styles in use from 1675. The handle and escutcheon lettered A, called a “drop handle,” was used upon six-legged high chests, and sometimes upon chests. The drop may be solid or hollowed out in the back. The shape of the plate and escutcheon varies, being round, diamond, or shield shaped, cut in curves or points upon the edges, and generally stamped. It is fastened to the drawer front by a looped wire, the ends of which pass through a hole in the wood and are bent in the inside of the drawer.

A handle and escutcheon of the next style are lettered B. They are found upon six-legged and early bandy-legged high chests. The plate of the handle is of a type somewhat earlier than the escutcheon. Both are stamped, and the bail of the handle is fastened with looped wires.

Illus. 12.—Six-legged
High Chest of Drawers,
1705-1715.

Letter C shows the earliest styles of handles with the bail fastened into bolts which screw into the drawer. Letters D, E, and F give the succeeding styles of brass handles, the design growing more elaborate and increasing in size. These are found upon desks, chests of drawers, commodes, and other pieces of furniture of the Chippendale period.

The earliest form of high chest of drawers had six turned legs, four in front and two in the back, with stretchers between the legs, and was of Dutch origin, as well as the high chest with bandy or cabriole legs, which was some years later in date. Six-legged chests were made during the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and were usually of walnut, either solid or veneered upon pine or whitewood; other woods were rarely employed.

Illus. 13.—Walnut Dressing-table,
about 1700.

The earliest six-legged chests were made with the single moulding upon the frame about the drawers, and with two drawers at the top, which was always flat, as the broken arch did not appear in furniture until about 1730. The lower part had but one long drawer, and the curves of the lower edge were in a single arch.

The six-legged high chest of drawers in Illustration [12] belongs to F. A. Robart, Esq., of Boston. It is veneered with the walnut burl and is not of the earliest type of the six-legged chest, but was made about 1705-1715. The handles are the drop handles shown in letter A, and the moulding upon the frame around the drawers is double. There is a shallow drawer in the heavy cornice at the top, and the lower part contains three drawers.

Dressing-tables were made to go with these chests of drawers, but with four instead of six legs. Their tops were usually veneered, and they were, like the high chests, finished with a small beading around the curves of the lower edge.

The dressing-table in Illustration [13] also belongs to Mr. Robart, and shows the style in which that piece of furniture was made.

The names “high-boy” and “low-boy” or “high-daddy” and “low-daddy” are not mentioned in old records and were probably suggested by the appearance of the chests mounted upon their high legs.

Illus. 14.—Dressing-table, 1720.

High chests, both six-legged and bandy-legged, with their dressing-tables were sometimes decorated with the lacquering which was so fashionable during the first part of the eighteenth century.

Illustration [14] shows a dressing-table or low-boy from the Bolles collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is covered with japanning, in Chinese designs. This dressing-table is the companion to a lacquered high-boy, with a flat top, in the Bolles collection. The handle is like letter C, in Illustration [11]. That and the moulding around the drawers place its date about 1720.

Coming originally from the Orient, japanned furniture became fashionable, and consequently the process of lacquering or japanning was practised by cabinet-makers in France and England about 1700, and soon after in this country.

The earliest high chests with cabriole or bandy legs are flat-topped, and have two short drawers, like the six-legged chests, at the top. They are made of walnut, or of pine veneered with walnut. The curves at the lower edge are similar to those upon six-legged chests and are occasionally finished with a small bead-moulding.

Illus. 15.—Cabriole-legged High Chest
of Drawers with China Steps,
about 1720.

The bandy-legged high-boy in Illustration [15] is owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq. It is veneered with walnut and has a line of whitewood inlaid around each drawer. The moulding upon the frame surrounding the drawers is the separated double moulding, and the handles are of the early stamped type shown in Illustration [11], letter B. The arrangement of drawers in both lower and upper parts is the same as in six-legged chests. A reminder of the fifth and sixth legs is left in the turned drops between the curves of the lower edge.

Steps to display china or earthenware were in use during the second quarter of the eighteenth century.

They were generally movable pieces, made like the steps in Illustration [15], in two or three tiers, the lower tier smaller than the top of the high chest, forming with the chest-top a set of graduated shelves upon the front and sides.

The broken arch, which had been used in chimney pieces during the seventeenth century, made its appearance upon furniture in the early years of the eighteenth century, and the handsomest chests were made with the broken arch top.

A lacquered or japanned high-boy in the Bolles collection, owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is shown in Illustration [16]. It is of later date than the lacquered dressing-table in Illustration [14], having the broken arch. The lacquering is inferior in design to that upon the dressing-table, and at the top is a scroll design following the outline of the top drawers and the moulding of the broken arch.

Illus. 16.—Lacquered
High-boy, 1730.

A large and a small fan are lacquered upon the lower middle drawer, and on the upper one is a funny little pagoda top, with a small fan, both in lacquer. The handles are of an early type, and the moulding around the drawers is a double separated one. Such japanned pieces are rare and of great value.

A fine high chest is shown in Illustration [17], from the Warner house in Portsmouth. It is of walnut and is inlaid around each drawer. The upper middle drawer is inlaid in a design of pillars with the rising sun between them, and below the sun are inlaid the initials J. S. and the date 1733.

Illus. 17.—Inlaid Walnut High
Chest of Drawers, 1733.

The lower drawer has a star inlaid between the pillars, and a star is inlaid upon each end of the case. The knobs at the top are inlaid with the star, and the middle knob ends in a carved flame.

J. S. was John Sherburne, whose son married the daughter of Colonel Warner. The legs of this chest were ruthlessly sawed off many years ago, in order that it might stand in a low-ceilinged room, and it is only in comparatively recent years that it has belonged to the branch of the family now owning the Warner house. A double moulding runs upon the frame around the drawers, and the original handles were probably small, of the type in Illustration [11], letter C.

Illus. 18.—Inlaid Walnut High
Chest of Drawers, about 1760.

A walnut high chest of a somewhat later type is shown in Illustration [18], belonging to Mrs. Rufus Woodward of Worcester. It is of walnut veneered upon pine, and the shells upon the upper and lower middle drawers are gilded, for they are, of course, carved from the pine beneath the veneer. The frame has the separated double moulding around the drawers. A row of light inlaying extends around each drawer, and in the three long drawers of the upper part the inlaying simulates the division into two drawers, which is carried out in the top drawers of both the upper and lower parts. The large handles and the fluted columns at the sides would indicate that this chest was made about 1760-1770.

Illustration [19] shows a “high-boy” and “low-boy” of walnut, owned by the writer. The drawers, it will be seen, lap over the frame. The “high-boy” is original in every respect except the ring handles, which are new, upon the drawers carved with the rising sun or fan design.

It was found in the attic of an old house, with the top separate from the lower part and every drawer out upon the floor, filled with seeds, rags, and—kittens, who, terrified by the invasion of the antique hunter, scurried from their resting-places, to the number of nine or ten, reminding one of Lowell’s lines in the “Biglow Papers”:—

“But the old chest won’t sarve her gran’son’s wife,
(For ’thout new furnitoor what good in life?)
An’ so old claw foot, from the precinks dread
O’ the spare chamber, slinks into the shed,
Where, dim with dust, it fust and last subsides
To holdin’ seeds an’ fifty other things besides.”

Illus. 19.—“Low-boy” and “High-boy” of Walnut, about 1740.

But carefully wrapped up and tucked away in one of the small drawers were the torches for the upper and the acorn-shaped drops for the lower part. These drops were used as long as the curves followed those of the lower part of six-legged chests, but were omitted when more graceful curves and lines were used, as the design of high chests gradually differed from the early types.

Illus. 20.—Walnut Double Chest,
about 1760.

The “low-boy,” or dressing-table, was made to accompany every style of high chest. The low-boy in Illustration [19] shows the dressing-table which was probably used in the room with the bandy-legged high-boy, flat-topped or with the broken arch cornice. It is lower than the under part of the high-boy, which is, however, frequently supplied with a board top and sold as a low-boy, but which can be easily detected from its height and general appearance. The measurements of this high-boy and low-boy are

The high-boy measures seven feet from the floor to the top of the cornice.

High chests and dressing-tables were made of maple, often very beautifully marked, in the same style as the chests of walnut and cherry. The high chest was sometimes made with the drawers extending nearly to the floor, and mounted upon bracket, ogee, or claw-and-ball feet. This was called a double chest, or chest-upon-chest.

The double chest in Illustration [20] is in the Warner house at Portsmouth. It is of English walnut, and the lower part is constructed with a recessed cupboard like the writing-table in Illustration [106]. The handles upon this chest are very massive, and upon the ends of both the upper and lower parts are still larger handles with which to lift the heavy chest.

Illus. 21.—Mahogany Double Chest, 1765.

A double chest which was probably made in Newport, Rhode Island, about 1760-1770, is shown in Illustration [21]. The lower part is blocked and is carved in the same beautiful shells as Illustration 31 and Illustration 106. This double chest was made for John Brown of Providence, the leader of the party who captured the Gaspee in 1772, and one of the four famous Brown brothers, whose name is perpetuated in Brown University. This chest is now owned by a descendant of John Brown, John Brown Francis Herreshoff, Esq., of New York.

Illus. 22.—Block-front Dressing-table, about 1750.

A low-boy of unusual design, in the Warner house, is shown in Illustration [22]. The front is blocked, with a double moulding upon the frame around the drawers. The bill of lading in Illustration 109 specified a dressing-table, brought from England to this house in 1716, but so early a date cannot be assigned to this piece, although it is undoubtedly English, like the double chair in Illustration 212, which has similar feet, for such lions’ feet are almost never found upon furniture made in this country.

Illus. 23.—Dressing-table, about 1760.

The shape of the cabriole leg is poor, the curves being too abrupt, but the general effect of the low-boy is very rich. The handles are the original ones, and they with the fluted columns and blocked front determine the date of the dressing-table to be about 175O.

The low-boy in Illustration [23] is probably of slightly later date. It has the separated double moulding upon the frame around the drawers, and the curves of the lower part are like the early high chests, but the carving upon the cabriole legs, and the fluted columns at the corners, like those in Chippendale’s designs, indicate that it was made after 1750. Upon the top are two pewter lamps, one with glass lenses to intensify the light; a smoker’s tongs, and a pipe-case of mahogany, with a little drawer in it to hold the tobacco. This dressing-table is owned by Walter Hosmer, Esq.

Illus. 24.—Chest of Drawers, 1740.

The little chest of drawers in Illustration [24] belongs to Daniel Gilman, Esq., of Exeter, New Hampshire, and was inherited by him. It is evidently adapted from the high-boy, in order to make a smaller and lower piece, and it is about the size of a small bureau. The upper part is separate from the lower part, and is set into a moulding, just as the upper part of a high-boy sets into the lower. The handles and the moulding around the drawers are of the same period as the ones upon the chest in Illustration [20].

Illus. 25.—High Chest of Drawers, about 1765.

The furniture made in and around Philadelphia was much more elaborately carved and richly ornamented than that of cabinet-makers further north, and the finest tables, high-boys, and low-boys that are found were probably made there. They have large handles, like letter F, in Illustration [11], and finely carved applied scrolls.

The richest and most elaborate style attained in such pieces of furniture is shown in the high chest in Illustration [25], which is one of the finest high chests known. The proportions are perfect, and the carving is all well executed. This chest was at one time in the Pendleton collection, and is now owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook, New York.

Illus. 26.—Dressing-table and
Looking-glass, about 1770.

Such a chest as this was in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mind when he wrote: “After all, the moderns have invented nothing better in chamber furniture than those chests which stand on four slender legs, and send an absolute tower of mahogany to the ceiling, the whole terminating in a fantastically carved summit.”

The dressing-table and looking-glass in Illustration [26] are also owned by Mr. Flagler. The looking-glass is described upon page [385]. The dressing-table is a beautiful and dainty piece of furniture of the same high standard as the chest last described. The carving upon the cabriole legs is unusually elaborate and well done. It will be noticed that the lower edge of these pieces is no longer finished in the simple manner of the earlier high-boys and low-boys, but is cut in curves, which vary with each piece of furniture.

In Illustration [365] upon page [378] is a low-boy of walnut, owned by the writer, of unusually graceful proportions, the carved legs being extremely slender. The shell upon this low-boy is carved in the frame below the middle drawer instead of upon it, as is usual.

The dressing-table in Illustration [27] also belongs to the writer. It is of walnut, like the majority of similar pieces, and is finely carved but is not so graceful as Illustration [365]. The handles are the original ones and are very large and handsome.

High chests and the accompanying dressing-tables continued in use until the later years of the eighteenth century.

Illus. 27.—Walnut Dressing-table, about 1770.

Hepplewhite’s book, published in 1789, contains designs for chests of drawers, extending nearly to the floor, with bracket feet, one having fluted columns at the corners, and an urn with garlands above the flat top. It is probable, however, that high chests of drawers were not made in any number after 1790.

CHAPTER II

BUREAUS AND WASHSTANDS

THE word “bureau” is now used to designate low chests of drawers. Chippendale called such pieces “commode tables” or “commode bureau tables.” As desks with slanting lids for a long period during the eighteenth century were called “bureaus” or “bureau desks,” the probability is that chests of drawers which resembled desks in the construction of the lower part went by the name of “bureau tables” because of the flat table-top. Hepplewhite called such pieces “commodes” or “chests of drawers.” As the general name by which they are now known is “bureau,” it has seemed simpler to call them so in this chapter.

Bureaus were made of mahogany, birch, or cherry, and occasionally of maple, while a few have been found of rosewood. Walnut was not used in serpentine or swell front bureaus, although walnut chests of drawers are not uncommon, which look like the top part of a high chest, with bracket feet, and handles of an early design; and so far as the writer’s observation goes, few bureaus with three or four drawers were made of walnut.

Illus. 28.—Block-front Bureau, about 1770.

The wood usually employed in the finest bureaus is mahogany, and the earliest ones are small, with the serpentine, block, or straight front, and with the top considerably larger than the body, projecting nearly an inch and a half over the front and sides, the edge shaped like the drawer fronts. The early handles are large and like letter E in Illustration [11].

The block front is, like the serpentine or yoke front, carved from one thick board. It is found more frequently in this country than in England. The block-front bureau in Illustration [28] is owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston, and is a very good example, with the original handles.

Illus. 29.—Block-front Bureau, about 1770.

The small bureau in Illustration [29] is in the Warner house in Portsmouth. It is of mahogany, with an unusual form of block front, the blocking being rounded. The shape of the board top corresponds to the curves upon the front of the drawers. The handles are large, and upon each end is a massive handle to lift the bureau by.

Illustration [30] shows a block-front bureau owned by the writer. Chippendale gives a design of a bureau similar to this, with three drawers upon rather high legs, under the name of “commode table.”

Illus. 31.—Kettle-shaped Bureau, about 1770.

The height of the legs brings the level of the bureau top about the same as one with four drawers. One handle and one escutcheon were remaining upon this bureau, and the others were cast from them. The block front with its unusually fine shells would indicate that this piece, which came from Colchester, Connecticut, was made by the same Newport cabinet-maker as the writing-table in Illustration [106], and the double chest in Illustration [21], which were made about 1765. The looking-glass in the illustration is described upon page [410].

Illus. 30.—Block-front Bureau, about 1770.

Illustration [31] shows a mahogany bureau of the style known as “kettle” shape, owned by Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. Desks and secretaries were occasionally made with the lower part in this style, and many modern pieces of Dutch marqueterie with kettle fronts are sold as antiques. But little marqueterie furniture was brought to this country in old times, and even among the descendants of Dutch families in New York State it is almost impossible to find any genuine old pieces of Dutch marqueterie.

Illus. 32.—Serpentine-front Bureau,
about 1770.

A bureau with serpentine front is shown in Illustration [32]. It is made in two sections, the upper part with four drawers being set into the moulding around the base in the same manner as the top part of a high-boy sets into the lower part. The bureau is owned by Charles Sibley, Esq., of Worcester.

The bureaus described so far all have the small single moulding upon the frame around the drawer. From the time when the designs of Shearer and Hepplewhite became fashionable, bureaus were made with a fine bead moulding upon the edge of the drawer itself or without any moulding.

The serpentine-front bureau in Illustration [33] belongs to Mrs. Johnson-Hudson of Stratford, Connecticut. The corners are cut off so as to form the effect of a narrow pillar, which is, like the drawers and the bracket feet, inlaid with fine lines of holly. The bracket feet and the handles would indicate that this bureau was made before 1789.

Illus. 33.—Serpentine-front Bureau, about 1785.

A bureau of the finest Hepplewhite type is shown in Illustration [34], owned by Mrs. Charles H. Carroll of Worcester. The base has the French foot which was so much used by Hepplewhite, which is entirely different from Chippendale’s French foot. The curves of the lower edge, which are outlined with a line of holly, are unusually graceful; the knobs are brass.

Illus. 34.—Swell-front Inlaid Bureau, about 1795.

Illustration [35] shows the styles of handles chiefly found upon pieces of furniture with drawers, after 1770. A is a handle which was used during the last years of the Chippendale period, and the first years of the Hepplewhite. B and C are the oval pressed brass handles found upon Hepplewhite furniture. They were made round as well as oval, and were in various designs; the eagle with thirteen stars, a serpent, a beehive, a spray of flowers, or heads of historic personages—Washington and Jefferson being the favorites.

Illustration 35.

D is the rosette and ring handle, of which E shows an elaborate form. These handles were used upon Sheraton pieces and also upon the heavy veneered mahogany furniture made during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. F is the brass knob handle used from 1800 to 1820. G is the glass knob which, in clear and opalescent glass, came into use about 1815 and which is found upon furniture made for twenty years after that date, after which time wooden knobs were used, often displacing the old brass handles.

Looking-glasses made to swing in a frame are mentioned in inventories of 1750, and about that date may be given to the dressing-glass with drawers, shown in Illustration [36]. It was owned by Lucy Flucker, who took it with her when, in opposition to her parents’ wishes, she married in 1774 the patriot General Knox. It is now in the possession of the Hon. James Phinney Baxter, Esq., of Portland, Maine. Such dressing-glasses were intended to stand upon a dressing-table or bureau.

Illus. 36.—Dressing-glass,
about 1760.

A bureau and dressing-glass owned by the writer are shown in Illustration [37]. The bureau is of cherry, with the drawer fronts veneered in mahogany edged with satinwood. A row of fine inlaying runs around the edge of the top and beneath the drawers. This lower line of inlaying appears upon inexpensive bureaus of this period, and seems to have been considered indispensable to the finish of a bureau. The dressing-glass is of mahogany and satinwood with fine inlaying around the frame of the glass and the edge of the stand. The base of the bureau is of a plain type, while that of the dressing-glass has the same graceful curves that appear in Illustration [34].

Illus. 37.—Bureau and Dressing-glass, 1795.

The bureaus in Illustration [34] and Illustration [37] are in the Hepplewhite style. The bureau and dressing-glass in Illustration [38] are distinctly Sheraton, of the best style. They are owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston, and were probably made about 1810. The carving upon the bureau legs and upon the corners and side supports to the dressing-glass is finely executed. The handles to the drawers are brass knobs.

A bureau of the same date is shown in Illustration [39]. It was owned originally by William F. Lane, Esq., of Boston. Mr. Lane had several children, for whom he had miniature pieces of furniture made, the little sofa in Illustration [228] being one. The small bureau upon the top of the large one was part of a bedroom set, which included a tiny four-post bedstead.

Illus. 38.—Bureau and Dressing-glass, about 1810.

This miniature furniture was of mahogany like the large pieces. The handles upon the large bureau are not original. They should be rosette and ring, or knobs similar to those upon the small bureau. The bureaus are now owned by a daughter of Mr. Lane, Mrs. Thomas H. Gage of Worcester.

Illus. 39.—Bureau and Miniature
Bureau, about 1810.

Bureaus of this style were frequently made of cherry with the drawer fronts of curly or bird’s-eye maple, the fluted pillars at the corner and the frame around the drawers being of cherry or mahogany.

There was added to the bureau about this time—perhaps evolved from the dressing-glass with drawers—an upper tier of shallow drawers, usually three. The dressing-table shown in Illustration [40] is owned by Charles H. Morse, Esq., of Charlestown, New Hampshire. It stands upon high legs turned and reeded, and a dressing-glass is attached above the three little drawers. The handles should be rings or knobs.

The case of drawers with closet above, in Illustration [41], is owned by Mrs. Thomas H. Gage, of Worcester. It is of mahogany, the doors of the closet being of especially handsome wood. The carving at the top of the fluted legs is fine, and the piece of furniture is massive and commodious.

Illus. 40—Dressing-table and Glass, 1810.

Illus. 41.—Case of Drawers with
Closet, 1810.

The bureau in Illustration [42] is also owned by Mrs. Gage, and is a very good specimen of the furniture in the heavy style fashionable during the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

It was probably made to match a four-post bedstead with twisted posts surmounted by pineapples. The drawer fronts are veneered, like those of all the bureaus illustrated in this chapter except the first four, and there is no moulding upon the edge of the drawers.

Illustration [43] shows the heaviest form of bureau, made about the same time as the last one shown, with heavily carved pillars and bears’ feet. The drawer fronts are veneered and have no moulding upon the edge. This bureau is owned by Mrs. S. B. Woodward of Worcester, and it is a fine example of the furniture after the style of Empire pieces.

The bureau in Illustration [44] is owned by Charles H. Morse, Esq., of Charlestown, and shows the latest type of Empire bureau, with ball feet, and large round veneered pillars. The three Empire bureaus shown have the last touch that could be added, a back piece above the tier of small drawers.

Illus. 42.—Bureau, about 1815.

The bureaus have the top drawer of the body projecting beyond the three lower drawers, and supported by the pillars at the sides. This and the shallow tier of small drawers, and the back piece are typical features of the Empire bureau, which may have the rosette and ring handle or the knob of brass or glass.

Illus. 43.—Bureau, 1815-1820.

The toilet conveniences of our ancestors seem to our eyes most inadequate, and it is impossible that a very free use of water was customary, with the tiny bowls and pitchers which were used and the small and inconvenient washstands. A “bason frame” appears in an inventory of 1654. Chippendale designed “bason stands” which were simply a tripod stand, into the top of which the basin fitted.

Illus. 44.—Empire Bureau and Glass, 1810-1820.

They were also called wig stands because they were kept in the dressing-room where the fine gentleman halted to remove his hat, and powder his wig. The basin rested in the opening in the top, and in the little drawers were kept the powder and other accessories of the toilet. The depression in the shelf was for the ewer, probably bottle shaped, to rest in, after the gentleman had poured the water into the basin, to dip his fingers in after powdering his wig.

Illus. 45.—Basin Stand, 1770.

The charming little basin or wig stand in Illustration [45] is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The wood is mahogany and the feet are a flattened type of claw and ball, giving the little stand, with its basin and ewer, some stability, unless an unwary pointed toe should be caught by the spreading legs. The acanthus leaf is carved on the knees, and the chamfered corners above have an applied fret.

The drawings of Shearer, Hepplewhite and Sheraton show both square and corner washstands of mahogany with slender legs.

The washstand in Illustration [46] is of mahogany, and differs from the usual corner stand in having the enclosed cupboard. It was made from a Hepplewhite design and is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge.

The corner washstand in Illustration [47] is owned by the writer. It is of mahogany, and the drawers are finely inlaid, probably after a Sheraton design.

Illus. 46.—Corner Washstand,
1790.

The little towel-rack is of somewhat later date and is made of maple, stained. The washbowl and pitcher are dark-blue Staffordshire ware, with the well-known design of the “Tomb of Franklin” upon them.

While the corner washstand possessed the virtues of taking up but little room, and being out of the way, the latter consideration must have been keenly felt by those who, with head thrust into the corner, were obliged to use it.

A square washstand of more convenient shape, but still constructed for the small bowl and pitcher, is shown in Illustration [48]. It is of mahogany and is in the style that was used from 1815 to 1830. This washstand is owned by Mrs. E. A. Morse of Worcester.

Both corner and square washstands have an opening in the top, into which was set the washbowl, and two—sometimes three—small openings for the little cups which were used to hold the soap.

Hepplewhite’s book, published in 1789, shows designs of “night tables” like the one in Illustration [49], but they are not often found in this country.

Illus. 47.—Towel-rack and Washstand, 1790-1800.

This table is of mahogany, with tambour doors, and a carved rim around the top, pierced at each side to form a handle. The wood of the interior of the drawer is oak, showing that the table was probably made in England. It is owned by the writer.

Illus. 48.—Washstand, 1815-1830.

There are several drawings in the books of Hepplewhite and Sheraton of washstands and toilet-tables with complicated arrangements for looking-glasses and toilet appurtenances, but such pieces of furniture could not have been common even in England, and certainly were not in this country.

Illus. 49.—Night Table, 1785.

In Illustration [288] upon page [294] is shown a piano which can be used as a toilet-table, with a looking-glass and trays for various articles, but it must have been, even when new, regarded less from the utilitarian side, and rather as a novel and ornamental piece of furniture.

Illus. 50.—Washstand, 1800-1810.

A washstand of different design is shown in Illustration [50]. The front is of bird’s-eye maple and mahogany, and the top is of curly maple with mahogany inlay around the edge. The sides are mahogany. The two drawers are shams, and the top lifts on a hinge disclosing a compartment for a pitcher and bowl. The tapering legs end in a spade foot, and a large brass handle is upon each side. The other handles are brass knobs. This stand was made after instructions given by Sheraton thus, “The advantage of this kind of basin stand is, that they may stand in a genteel room, without giving offense to the eye, their appearance being somewhat like a cabinet.” The washstand is owned by the writer.

CHAPTER III

BEDSTEADS

ONE of the most valuable pieces of furniture in the household of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the bedstead with its belongings. Bedsteads and beds occupy a large space in inventories, and their valuation was often far more than that of any other article in the inventory, sometimes more than all the others. In spite of the great value placed upon them, none have survived to show us exactly what was meant by the “oak Marlbrough bedstead” or the “half-headed bedstead” in early inventories. About the bedstead up to 1750 we know only what these inventories tell us, but the inference is that bedsteads similar to those in England at that time were also in use in the colonies. The greater portion of the value of the bedstead lay in its furnishings,—the hangings, feather bed, bolster, quilts, blankets, and coverlid,—the bedstead proper, when inventoried separately, being placed at so low a sum that one concludes it must have been extremely plain.

Illus. 51.—Wicker Cradle, 1620.

Several cradles made in the seventeenth century are still in existence. Illustration [51] shows one which is in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, and which is said to have sheltered Peregrine White, the first child born in this country to the Pilgrims. It is of wicker and of Oriental manufacture, having been brought from Holland upon the Mayflower, with the Pilgrims.

Illus. 52.—Oak Cradle,
1680.

The cradle in Illustration [52] is of more substantial build. It is of oak, and was made for John Coffin, who was born in Newbury, January 8, 1680. Sergeant Stephen Jaques, “who built the meeting house with great needles and little needles pointing downward,” fashioned this cradle, whose worn rockers bear witness to the many generations of babies who have slept within its sturdy frame. It is now in the rooms of the Newburyport Historical Society.

Another wooden cradle is in Pilgrim Hall, made of oak and very similar, with the turned spindles at the sides of its wooden hood, to a cradle dated 1691, in the South Kensington Museum.

Illus. 53.—Bedstead and Commode, 1750.

“Cupboard bedsteads” and “presse bedsteads” are mentioned in the inventories. They were probably the same as the Dutch “slaw-bank,” and when not in use they were fastened up against the wall in a closet made to fit the bed, and the closet doors were closed or curtains were drawn over the bedstead. There is a slaw-bank in the old Sumner house in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, built in 1797.

Illus. 54.—Field Bedstead, 1760-1770.

Illustration [53] shows a curious bedstead made about 1750, when it was used by Dr. Samuel Johnson, president of King’s College, New York. It is now owned by his descendant, Mrs. Johnson-Hudson of Stratford, Connecticut. The slanting back of the bedstead is like the back of an early Chippendale chair, and the effect is similar to that of the couches shown in Illustration [205] and Illustration [206]; but this piece was evidently intended for a bed, as it is considerably wider than the couches, which were “day beds.” The wood of this bedstead is mahogany. The commode which stands beside the bed is of a slightly later date. It is also of mahogany, with massive brass handles.

Illustration [54] shows a bedstead of about 1760-1770. It is what was called a field bed, the form of its top suggesting a tent. The frames for the canopy top were made in different shapes, but the one in the illustration was most common. The drapery is made of the netted fringe so much used in those days for edging bedspreads, curtains, and covers. This deep fringe was made especially for canopy tops for bedsteads. Its manufacture has been revived by several Arts and Crafts Societies. The slat-back chair is one of the rush-bottomed variety common during the eighteenth century. This room, with its wooden rafters, is in the Whipple house at Ipswich, built in 1650.

The claw-and-ball foot bedstead in Illustration [55] was a part of the wedding outfit of Martha Tufts, who was married in 1774, in Concord. It was then hung with the printed cotton draperies, hand spun and woven, which still hang from the tester, albeit much darned and quite dropping apart with age. The draperies are of a brownish color, possibly from age, but at all events they are now dingy and unattractive, whatever they may have been in 1774. The posts above the cabriole legs are small and plain, and there is no headboard. The wood is mahogany. This bedstead is now owned by the Concord Antiquarian Society. Although Chippendale’s designs do not show a bedstead with claw-and-ball feet, he probably did make such bedsteads, and this may be called Chippendale, as it belongs to that period.

Illus. 55.—Claw-and-Ball Foot Bedstead, 1774.

A bedstead with plain, simple posts, with the cover and hangings of old netting, is shown in Illustration [56]. There is a good comb-back Windsor arm-chair and a mahogany cradle of the period in the room, which is a bedroom in the Lee Mansion, Marblehead, Mass.

Illus. 56.—Bedstead, 1780.

A splendid bedstead found in Charleston, S. C., and now owned by J. J. Gilbert, Esq., of Baltimore, is shown in Illustration [57]. All four posts are carved and reeded, and are after the manner of Chippendale. The tester and headboard show the Adam influence, placing the date of the bedstead about 1770.

Illus. 57.—Bedstead, 1775-1785.

Illustration [58] shows a bedstead made from one of Hepplewhite’s designs, about 1789. The lower posts are slender and fluted, and end in a square foot.

Illus. 58.—Bedstead, 1789.

The cornice is japanned after the fashion which Hepplewhite made so popular, and the style in which this bedstead is draped is extremely attractive. It is at Indian Hill, the residence of the late Major Ben Perley Poore.

The four-post bedsteads had sometimes canvas stretched across the frame and laced with ropes, similar to the seat of the couch in Illustration [206], and in other cases they were corded entirely with ropes. Mrs. Vanderbilt in her “Social History of Flatbush” thus describes the process of cording a bed: “It required a man’s strength to turn the machine that tightened the ropes, in cording these beds when they were put together. Some one was stationed at each post to keep it upright, while a man was exhausting his strength and perhaps his stock of patience and good temper, in getting the ropes sufficiently tight to suit the wife or mother. When the bedstead was duly corded and strung to the tension required, then a straw bed, in a case of brown home-made linen, was first placed over these cords, and upon this were piled feather beds to the number of three or four, and more if this was the spare-room bed.” The height of the top one of these feather beds from the floor was so great that steps were required to mount into it, and sets of mahogany steps are sometimes found now, which were made for this purpose. A set is shown in Illustration [64].

Illustration [59] shows one of the finest bedsteads known in this country. It is in the house of Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. The two lower posts are exquisitely carved with garlands of flowers, and every detail is beautiful; the upper posts are plain. The size of the posts is somewhat larger than during the previous years, and the style of the lower part with the fluted leg would place the date of the bedstead about 1795-1800, when the influence of Sheraton was strong. The cornice is painted with flowers in colors, and the painted band is framed in gilt; the ornaments at the corners, the basket with two doves, and the ropes and tassels are all of gilt.

Illus. 59.—Bedstead, 1795-1800.

About 1800, when the Empire styles commenced to influence the makers of furniture, the posts of bedsteads became larger, and they were more heavily carved, with acanthus leaves twining around the post, or a heavy twist or fluting, with pineapples at the top.

Illus. 60—Bedstead, 1800-1810.

Illustration [60] shows a bedstead at Indian Hill, with the heavy posts and tester, the lower posts being fluted. The bedstead is draped on the side and foot with curtains which could be let down at night in cold weather, thus shutting out the bitter draughts. The coverlid for this bed is made of linen, spun and woven by hand, and embroidered in shades of blue with a quaint design. The easy-chair at the foot of the bed is covered with old chintz, printed in figures that would afford a child unlimited entertainment.

Illus. 61.—Bedstead, 1800-1810.

A bedstead with massive twisted posts is shown in Illustration [61]. The lower posts only are carved, as was usual, the draperies at the head of the bed concealing the plain upper posts. Twisted posts were quite common during the early years of the nineteenth century, and more bedposts are found that are carved in a twist than in any other design. The coverlid is similar to the one in Illustration [63]. This bedstead stands in one of the panelled rooms of the Warner house in Portsmouth.

Illus. 62.—Bedstead, 1800-1810.

Illustration [62] shows a fine example of the four-post bedstead made from 1805 to 1810. It is unusual in having all four posts carved, and for its splendid feet, which are carved in massive lions’ claws.

Each post is carved with festoons of drapery, and is surmounted with a pineapple The headboard is elaborately carved with a basket of fruit. This mahogany bedstead is owned by Mrs. E. A. Morse of Worcester.

Illustration [63] shows another bedstead with all four mahogany posts carved in the acanthus leaf and pineapple design. Each post is finished at the top with a pineapple, and the bases are set into brass sockets. Upon the plain sections of the posts may be seen pressed brass ornaments, of which there are six, two for each lower post and one for each upper one. These ornaments cover the holes through which the bed-screws are put in to hold the frame together.

Illus. 63.—Bedstead, 1800-1810.

There is a headboard of simple design upon this bedstead. The coverlid is an old, handspun and woven, cotton one, with a design of stars in little cotton tufts. Such coverlids were made about 1815 to 1830. This bedstead is owned by the writer.

Illus. 64.—Bedstead and Steps, 1790.

Illustration [64] shows a bed owned by the Colonial Dames, in their house, “Stenton,” in Philadelphia. It has the large, plain and heavy posts found in the South. The hangings are the original ones. Beside the bed is a set of steps used to assist in mounting to the top of the feather beds used in those days. The cradle is of about the same date.

Illus. 65.—Low-post Bedstead, about 1825.

Illustration [65] shows a low-post mahogany bedstead which is owned by Dr. S. B. Woodward of Worcester, having been inherited by him. It was made about 1825. The four posts are carved with the acanthus leaf, and both head and foot board are elaborately carved. It can be seen that the bed in this illustration is not so high from the floor as those of earlier date. The low French bedstead became fashionable soon after this time, and the high four-poster was relegated to the attic, from which it has of late years been rescued, and set up, draped with all of its old-time hangings.

Illus. 66.—Low-post Bedstead, 1820-1830.

The latest style of low-post bedsteads is shown Illustration [66]. It was probably made about 1820-1830, when the light woods, maple and birch, were, with cherry, largely used for such bedsteads. The wood of this bed is curly birch, and all four posts are carved alike with the pineapple and acanthus design, similar to the tall posts of the previous period. Low-post bedsteads are often found with posts plainly turned, of curly maple, beautifully marked.

Illus. 67.—Low Bedstead, about 1830.

Illustration [67] shows a low French bedstead, found in Canada and owned by George Corbett, Esq., of Worcester. The bedstead is made of finely grained old walnut, the rounding top of the head and foot boards and the face of the large drawer under the footboard being veneered. This drawer may have been intended to use to keep blankets in. It has a little foot so that it remains firm when pulled out. At each side of the low bed is a carved shell, which slides out, showing a covered rest, perhaps for kneeling upon to pray. Both the head and foot boards are covered with canvas, which was probably, when the bedstead was new, about 1830, covered with a rich brocade. All the lines of the bedstead are most graceful, and the carving is unusually well done. Plainer bedsteads in this style were made, veneered with mahogany, and they are sometimes called sleigh beds, on account of their shape. These bedsteads were fashionable from 1830 to 1850, when they were superseded by the black walnut bedsteads familiar to everybody.

CHAPTER IV

CUPBOARDS AND SIDEBOARDS

CUPBOARDS appear in English inventories as early as 1344. Persons of rank in England had their cupboards surmounted by a set of shelves to display the silver and gold plate. Each shelf was narrower than the one beneath, like a set of steps, and the number of shelves indicated the rank of the owner, five being the greatest number, to be used by the king only.

The first cupboard consisted of an open framework, a “borde” upon which to set cups, as the name implies. Later it was partially enclosed below, and this enclosed cupboard was used to hold valuables, or sometimes the food which was afterward distributed by the lady of the house. This was known as an almery or press cupboard, the former name corresponding to the French word armoire.

Illus. 68.—Oak Press Cupboard, 1640.

The names “court cupboard” or “livery cupboard” were used to designate a piece of furniture without an enclosed cupboard, low or short, as the French word court implies, and intended for a serving-table, as the word “livery,” from the French livrer, to deliver, indicates. In Europe such pieces were called dressoirs.

Cupboards abound in colonial inventories, under various names—“small cupboard,” “great cupboard,” “press cupboard,” “wainscot cupboard,” “court cupboard,” “livery cupboard,” “hanging cupboard,” “sideboard cupboard.” The cupboard formed an important part of the furniture owned by men of wealth and position in the colonies.

These cupboards were generally of oak, but those made in this country have the backs and bottoms of the cupboards and drawers of pine. The interior is similar in all, the lower cupboard usually having shelves, which seldom appear in the upper cupboard. Sometimes the lower part of the piece is divided into drawers for holding linen.

Illus. 69.—Press Cupboard, about 1650.

Such a cupboard is shown in Illustration [68]. This fine example is known as the “Putnam cupboard.” It is now owned by the Essex Institute, of Salem, to which it was presented by Miss Harriet Putnam Fowler of Danvers, Massachusetts. It descended to her from John Putnam, who brought it from England about 1640. Upon the back may be seen marks of a fire which two hundred years ago destroyed the house in which the cupboard stood. The wood is English oak, and the mouldings used in the panelling are of cedar. The cupboard is in two parts, the upper section with the enclosed cupboard resting upon the lower section with its three drawers.

Another panelled cupboard is shown in Illustration [69], in which both the upper and lower parts are made with a recessed cupboard, enclosed, with a drawer below. The wood is oak, with the turned pieces painted black. This cupboard is in the house of Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. Upon the top are displayed some good pieces of old glass.

Many press cupboards were carved in designs similar to those upon the early chests. Illustration [70] shows a carved press cupboard owned by Walter Hosmer, Esq., of Wethersfield.

Illus. 70.—Carved Press Cupboard, 1680-1690.

The wood is American oak and the cupboard was probably made in Connecticut, where there must have been unusually good cabinet-makers during the last half of the seventeenth century, for many of the best oak chests and cupboards existing in this country were made in Connecticut. This cupboard is very large, measuring five feet in height and four feet in width.

All cupboards were provided with cupboard cloths or cushions, the latter probably made somewhat thicker than the simple cloth, by the use of several layers of goods or of stuffing. These cloths or cushions were placed on the top of the cupboard, to set the glass or silver upon, and the early inventories have frequent mention of them. By 1690 the press cupboard had gone out of fashion, and but few were made after 1700, although they continued to be used by those who already owned them.

About 1710 the corner cupboard made its appearance, often under the name “beaufet” or “beaufatt.” It was generally built into the corner, and was finished to correspond with the panelling around the room. The lower part was closed by panelled doors, and the upper part had sometimes one glass door, sometimes two, opening in the middle; but more often it was left without a door. The top of the beaufatt was usually made in the form of an apse, and in the finest specimens the apse was carved in a large shell. The shelves were not made to take up the entire space in the cupboard, but extended around the back, and were cut in curves and projections, evidently to fit pieces of glass or china, for the display of which the beaufatt was built rather than to serve as a simple closet. A fine beaufatt is shown in Illustration [71], which is in the Deerfield Museum. From the construction of the pillars at the side it is evident that it was not intended to use a door to the upper part.

That there was some distinction between the corner cupboard and the beaufatt would appear from the difference in their valuation in inventories, but what was the difference in their construction we do not know.

Illus. 71.—Corner “Beaufatt,” 1740-1750.

Cupboards were made, during the latter part of the eighteenth century, of mahogany and other woods, and such corner cupboards, made as a piece of furniture and not built into the house, were common in the Southern States, about 1800. The corner cupboard, or beaufatt, was both convenient and ornamental, taking up but little room and filling what was often an empty space. Our ancestors frequently utilized the large chimney also, by making the sides into small closets or cupboards, and occasionally a door with glass panes was set into the chimney above the mantel, with shelves behind it to hold glass or china.

While the New England inventories speak of cupboards, the word kas, or kasse, appears in Dutch inventories in New York. The kas was the Dutch cupboard, and was different in style from the cupboard in use in New England. It was of great size, and had large doors, behind which were wide shelves to hold linen. The kas was usually made in two parts, the upper one having two doors and a heavy cornice above. The lower part held a long drawer, and rested upon large ball feet. A panelled kas of somewhat different form is shown in Illustration [72], without the ball feet, and made in three parts; the lower section with the drawer, the middle cupboard section, enclosed with large doors, and a second cupboard above that, the whole surmounted with a cornice. This kas is made of kingwood, a hard wood with a grain not unlike that of oak, but with darker markings. The bill of lading is still preserved, dated 1701, when the kas, packed full of fine linen, was imported from Holland by the father of Dr. Samuel Johnson, president of King’s College from 1754 to 1763. It is now owned by Dr. Johnson’s descendant, Mrs. Johnson-Hudson of Stratford, Connecticut.

Illus. 72.—Kas, 1700.

Inventories during the latter years of the seventeenth century speak of a “sideboard cupboard,” “sideboard table,” and “side-table,” but the sideboard, in our acceptance of the word, dates to the latter half of the eighteenth century. Chippendale designed no sideboards with drawers and compartments, but he did design side-tables, or sideboard tables, with marble or mahogany tops and carved frames. A Chippendale side-table is shown in Illustration [73]. The wood is mahogany, and the frame is carved elaborately and beautifully in designs similar to those of Chippendale and his contemporaries, which abound in flowers, birds, and shells. The cabriole legs end in massive lion’s paws. This table is what is called Irish Chippendale.

Illus. 73.—Chippendale Side-table, about 1755.

In Ireland, working at the same period as Chippendale, drawing their ideas from the same sources, and probably from Chippendale as well, were cabinet-makers, much of whose work has come down, notably side-tables. The shell plays a prominent part; on this table beside the large shell are two small ones upon each leg. The carving of the Irish school is not so fine as its English model, but is very rich. This table is five feet long and the original top was of marble. It is owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook, New York.

Illus. 74.—Chippendale Side-table, 1765.

A Chippendale side-table is shown in Illustration [74], which was evidently made in England, from Chippendale’s designs, if not by Chippendale himself. It is very long and has had to sustain a great weight in the heavy marble top, but it is in splendid condition, perhaps because it is so heavy that it is seldom moved. It has passed through many vicissitudes,—war, fire and earthquake,—in Charleston, South Carolina, since it was brought there by the ancestor of its present owner, George W. Holmes, Esq., of Charleston.

These long side-tables were designed not only by Chippendale, but by the other cabinet-makers and designers of the day, Ince and Mayhew, and Manwaring; but the tables of these less noted men usually are made after the prevailing Chinese style, with applied fretwork and legs which are pierced, thus depriving them of the strength necessary in so large a piece. Chippendale made these also, but in this table the cabinet-maker chose a design which looks and is strong. The carving is in scrolls done in the solid wood, and is French in design. The bracket at the top of the leg is made in a scroll, which extends entirely around the table.

The earliest mention of a sideboard, the description of which implies a form of construction similar to that of the later sideboard, is in 1746, when an advertisement in a London newspaper speaks of “a Large marble Sideboard Table with Lavatory and Bottle Cistern.” Chippendale’s designs, published in 1753 and 1760, contain nothing answering to this description, and both he and other cabinet-makers of that period give drawings of side-tables only, without even a drawer beneath. Such a sideboard as this advertisement of 1746 mentions, may have given the idea from which, forty years later, was developed the sideboard of mahogany, often inlaid, with slender legs and curved front, which is shown in the majority of antique shops as “Chippendale,” while the heavy veneered sideboard, with claw feet and compartments extending nearly to the floor, made after 1800, goes under the name of “Colonial.” One name is as incorrect as the other. Thomas Shearer, an English cabinet-maker, designed the first of the slender-legged sideboards, and they appear in his drawings published in 1788. Hepplewhite’s book, published in 1789, gave similar drawings, as did Sheraton’s in 1791, and these three cabinet-makers designed the sideboards which were so fashionable from 1789 to 1805. The majority which are found in this country were probably made here, but one is shown in Illustration [75], which has a most romantic history of travel and adventure. It is in the half-circle shape which was Shearer’s favorite design, and was probably of English make, although it was brought from France to America.

In 1792 the ship Sally, consigned to Colonel Swan, sailed from France, laden with rich furniture, tapestries, robes, everything gathered together in Paris which might have belonged to a royal lady.

Illus. 75.—Shearer Sideboard and Knife-box, 1792.

The Sally came to Wiscasset, Maine, and the story told “down East” is that there was a plot to rescue Marie Antoinette, and the Sally was laden for that purpose; and that a house had been built in a Maine seaport for the queen, whose execution put an end to the plot, and sent the Sally off to America with her rich cargo. I cannot help thinking that if the story be true, Marie Antoinette was spared many weary days of discontent and homesickness; for the temperament of the unfortunate queen, luxury loving, gay, and heedless, does not fit into the life of a little Maine seaport town one hundred years ago. When the Sally arrived, her cargo of beautiful things was sold. Legends of Marie Antoinette furniture crop up all around the towns in the neighborhood of Wiscasset, but, singularly enough, I have been unable to trace a single piece in Maine except this sideboard. Miss Elizabeth Bartol of Boston, whose mother was a granddaughter of Colonel Swan, owns several pieces. Colonel Swan’s son married the daughter of General Knox and took the sideboard with him to General Knox’s home in Thomaston, Maine, where it remained for many years.

The sideboard is made of oak (showing its English origin) veneered with mahogany. The lines upon the front and the figures upon the legs are inlaid in satinwood, and the knife-box is inlaid in the same wood. The top of the sideboard is elaborately inlaid with satinwood and dark mahogany, in wide bands, separated by lines of ebony and satinwood, and crossed by fine satinwood lines radiating from the centre. The handles and escutcheons are of silver, and the top of the knife-box is covered by a silver tray with a reticulated railing. The coffee-urn is of Sheffield plate, and the sideboard with its appurtenances appears to-day as it did one hundred years ago in the house of General Knox. It is now owned by the Hon. James Phinney Baxter of Portland, Maine.

Illus. 76.—Urn-shaped
Knife-box, 1790.

Knife-boxes were made of different shapes, to hold knives, forks, and spoons, and a pair of knife-boxes was the usual accompaniment to a handsome sideboard. The most skilled cabinet-makers were employed in their manufacture, as each curved section had to be fitted most carefully.

Illustration [76] shows an urn-shaped knife-box of mahogany inlaid in lines of holly. The interior of the box is fitted with circular trays of different heights, and through the little openings in these trays the knives and spoons were suspended.

Illus. 77.—Urn-shaped
Knife-box, 1790.

Illustration [77] shows an urn-shaped knife-box opened. The top rests upon a wooden rod which extends through the middle of the box, and instead of turning back with a hinge, the top slides up on this rod, and when it is raised to a certain height it releases a spring which holds the rod firmly in its place. This urn knife-box is in the Pendleton collection in Providence, Rhode Island.

Urn-shaped boxes were designed by Adam, and are shown in his drawings, to stand upon pedestals at each end of the side table, to be used, one for ice-water, and one for hot water, for the butler to wash the silver, not so plentiful then as now. Very soon the urn-shaped boxes were utilized to hold the knives, forks and spoons. Adam, Shearer, Hepplewhite and Sheraton show designs for knife-boxes, many of them elaborately carved or inlaid, but they must have been very costly, and within the means only of such noblemen, who, in Sheraton’s words, “are unrestrained with the thoughts of expensiveness.”

The usual shape of knife-box found is shown in Illustration [78], owned by Mrs. Clarence R. Hyde, of Brooklyn, N. Y. It is inlaid both outside and inside and the handles and fittings are of silver. The books of designs show boxes of this shape, with the lid put back, as in this illustration, and used to support a large silver plate.

Illus. 78.—Knife-box, 1790.

Mahogany was chiefly used in sideboards, with inlaying of satinwood, holly, king, tulip, snake, zebra, yew, maple, and other woods. Occasionally one finds a sideboard veneered with walnut. The curves at the front vary considerably, the ends being convex, and the centre straight; or the ends concave, forming with the centre a double curve. A sideboard with rounded ends and only four legs was made in large numbers around Philadelphia.

Illustration [79] shows a Hepplewhite sideboard owned by the writer. It is of mahogany veneered upon pine, and it was probably the work of a Connecticut cabinet-maker of about 1790. Six chairs, made to go with the sideboard, are similarly inlaid, and the knife-boxes, which have always stood upon this sideboard, have fine lines of inlaying. There is one central long drawer, beneath which, slightly recessed, are doors opening into a cupboard, and two bottle drawers, each fitted with compartments to hold four bottles. There is a cupboard at each curved end, with a drawer above. The coloring of the wood used in this sideboard is very beautiful. Each drawer and door is veneered with a bright red mahogany, with golden markings in the grain, and this is framed in dark mahogany, outlined in two lines of satinwood with an ebony line between. The oval pieces above the legs and the bell-flower design upon the legs are of satinwood. The combination of the different shades of mahogany with the light satinwood is most effective. The handles are new. When this sideboard came into the possession of the writer, the old handles had been removed and large and offensive ones of pressed brass had been fastened upon every available spot, with that love for the showy which seizes upon country people when they attempt the process known as “doing over.” The lids of the knife-boxes open back with hinges, and the interior is fitted with a slanting tray, perforated with openings of different shapes to hold knives, with the handles up, and spoons with the bowls up. A fine line of inlaying goes round each of the openings.

Illus. 79.—Hepplewhite Sideboard and Knife-boxes, about 1790.

The handles and escutcheons of the knife-boxes are of silver. Upon the top of the sideboard are several pieces of Sheffield plate. At each end is a double coaster upon wheels, with a long handle. Another double coaster, somewhat higher and with reticulated sides, stands beside the coffee-urn, and two single coasters are in front. All of these coasters have wooden bottoms, and were used to hold wine decanters, the double coasters upon wheels having been designed, so the story goes, by Washington, for convenience in circulating the wine around the table.

Illustration [80] shows a Hepplewhite sideboard with a serpentine front, the doors to the side cupboards being concave, as well as the space usually occupied by bottle drawers, while the small cupboard doors in the middle are convex. A long rounding drawer extends across the centre and projects beyond the cupboard below it, while a slide pulls out, forming a shelf, between the long drawer and the small cupboard. There are no bottle drawers in this sideboard. The doors are inlaid with a fan at each corner, and fine lines of holly are inlaid around the legs, doors, and drawer. The silver pieces upon the sideboard top are family heirlooms. The large tea-caddies at each end are of pewter finely engraved. This sideboard is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge.

A charming little sideboard owned by Mr. Bigelow is shown in Illustration [81]. The ordinary measurements of sideboards like the last two shown are six feet in length, forty inches in height, and twenty-eight inches in depth. These measures, with slight variations, give the average size of Hepplewhite sideboards. Occasionally one finds a small piece like Illustration [81], evidently made to fit some space. This sideboard measures fifty-four inches in length, thirty-four in height, and twenty-three in depth.

Illus. 80.—Hepplewhite Serpentine-front Sideboard, 1790.

It has no cupboard, the space below the slightly rounding drawer in the centre being left open. There are fine lines and fans of inlaying in satinwood, and in the centre of the middle drawer is an oval inlay with an urn in colored woods. The handles are not original, and should be of pressed brass, oval or round. The silver service upon the sideboard is of French plate, made about 1845, and is of unusually graceful and elegant design.

Hepplewhite’s sideboards seldom had fluted legs, which seem to have been a specialty of Sheraton, though the latter used the square leg as well. A feature in some of Sheraton’s designs for sideboards was the brass railing at the back, often made in an elaborate design.

Illus. 81.—Hepplewhite Sideboard, about 1795.

Illustration [82] shows a Sheraton sideboard, or side-table, with brass rods extending across the back, and branches for candles at each end. This railing was designed to support the plates which were stood at the back of the sideboard, and also to keep the lids of knife and spoon boxes from falling back against the wall. The branches for candles were recommended for the light which the candles would throw upon the silver. This side-table is very large, measuring six feet eight inches in length, thirty inches in depth, and thirty-eight from the floor to the top of the table. The wood is mahogany, inlaid with satinwood. It is unusual to find such a piece in this country, and this is the only example of an old Sheraton side-table or sideboard with the brass railing which I have ever seen here. It is owned by John C. MacInnes, Esq., of Worcester, and it was inherited by him from a Scotch ancestor.

Illus. 82.—Sheraton Side-table, 1795.

Sheraton speaks of a “sideboard nine or ten feet long, as in some noblemen’s houses,” but he admits that “There are other sideboards for small dining-rooms, made without either drawers or pedestals.”

Illus. 83.—Sheraton Side-table, 1795.

A charming little side-table, or sideboard, is shown in Illustration [83], belonging to Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston. It is of mahogany, and is inlaid with three oval pieces of satinwood, giving the little piece a very light effect. The legs also add to that appearance, the reeded upper section tapering down to a turning and ending in a plain round foot, which looks almost too small for such a piece. The outline of the body is curved down to the legs, making an arch upon the front and sides.

A sideboard of distinctly Sheraton design is shown in Illustration [84]. It has the reeded legs which are the almost unmistakable mark of Sheraton. The ends of this sideboard are straight, and only the front is rounding in shape, unlike the sideboard in Illustration [75], which forms a complete semicircle.

Illus. 84.—Sheraton Sideboard with Knife-box, 1795.

The wood is of mahogany, inlaid with fine lines of holly. The little shield-shaped escutcheons at the keyholes are of ivory. There are three drawers above the cupboards and two bottle drawers. Upon the top, at each end, is a wine-cooler of Sheffield plate, and in the centre is a mahogany inlaid knife-box similar to the one in Illustration [78]. This sideboard is owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston.

Illus. 85.—Sheraton Sideboard, about 1800.

A Sheraton sideboard of later date is shown in Illustration [85]. It is of mahogany, and was probably made about 1800. The arched open space in the middle was left for the cellaret, which was the usual accompaniment of the sideboard in those days of hard drinking. The top of this sideboard is surmounted by drawers, with a back above the drawers. The legs and the columns above them are reeded, and the little columns at the corners of the upper drawers are carved, the inner ones with a sheaf of wheat, and the two outside corners with the acanthus leaf. This sideboard was formerly owned by Rejoice Newton, Esq., of Worcester, from whom it has descended to Waldo Lincoln, Esq., of Worcester.

Illus. 86.—Sheraton Sideboard, about 1805.

Illustration [86] shows the latest type of a Sheraton sideboard, owned by the Colonial Dames of Pennsylvania, and now in “Stenton,” the house built in 1727 by James Logan, William Penn’s secretary. The sideboard stands where it was placed, about 1805, by George Logan, the great-great grandson of James. The wood is mahogany, and the large square knife-boxes were evidently made to fit the sideboard. The legs, with spade feet, are short, bringing the body of the sideboard close to the floor. The handles are brass knobs.

Illus. 87.—Cellarets, 1790.

Cellarets were made as a part of the dining-room furniture. They were lined with zinc, to hold the ice in which the wine bottles were packed to cool, and at the lower edge of the body of the cellaret was a faucet, or some arrangement by which the water from the melted ice could be drawn off. They were designed by Chippendale and all of his contemporaries and by the later cabinet-makers,—Adam, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton.

Illustration [87] shows two cellarets of different styles. The cellaret of octagonal shape, brass bound, with straight legs, is of the style most commonly found. It is in the Poore collection, at Indian Hill. Cellarets of this shape figure in books of designs from 1760 to 1800. The other is oval in form, and has the leg usually attributed to the Adam brothers. This cellaret belongs to Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. Both cellarets are of mahogany.

We now come to sideboards of the type called “Colonial”; why, it would be difficult to trace, since sideboards of this heavy design were not made until over twenty-five years after the time that the United States took the place of the American colonies.

The heavy Empire fashions gained such popularity in the early years of the nineteenth century that furniture made after those fashions entirely superseded the graceful slender-legged styles of Shearer, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton, and sideboards were made as heavy and clumsy as the others had been light and graceful. The cupboards were extended nearly to the floor, from which the sideboard was lifted by balls or by large carved bears’ feet. Round pillars, veneered, or carved similar to bedposts of the period, with a twist, or the pineapple and acanthus leaf, were used upon the front, and small drawers were added to the top. At about this time glass handles came into fashion, and many of these heavy sideboards have knobs of glass, either clear or opalescent. The brass handles that were used were either the rosette and ring or the knob shape.

Illus. 88.—Sideboard, 1810-1820.

Illustration [88] shows a sideboard of this period, 1810-1820, made of mahogany; the panels to the doors, the veneered pillars, and the piece at the back of the top being of a lighter and more finely marked mahogany than the rest, which is quite dark. There is a little panel inlaid in colors upon the lower rail in the centre. The handles are the rosette and ring, the smaller handles matching the large ones. This sideboard belonged to the late Colonel DeWitt of Oxford, Massachusetts, and it is now owned by W. S. G. Kennedy, Esq., of Worcester.

Another type of mahogany Empire sideboard, and one often seen, is shown in Illustration [89]. It is owned by L. J. Shapiro, Esq., of Norfolk, Virginia. The body of the sideboard is raised from the floor by very handsome bears’ feet, and the posts extending up to the drawers are carved, and topped by typical Empire carvings of wing effect, which separate the drawers. The centre section of doors is curved outward slightly, and there is a band of carving across the lower edge, below the doors.

Illus. 89.—Empire Sideboard, 1810-1820.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century the temperance question did not enter the heads of the fine gentlemen of the day, and the serving of wine was an important consideration. The cellaret or wine cooler accompanied the sideboard, which in the drawings of Hepplewhite, Shearer, and Sheraton had bottle drawers.

Illus. 90.—Sheraton Mixing-table, 1790.

What Shearer called “a gentleman’s social table” was designed by several, with conveniences for bottles, glasses, and biscuit, and for facilitating the progress of the wine around the table. In this country the mixing of punch or other beverages was furthered by a piece of furniture called a mixing table.

Illus. 91.—Mixing-table, 1810-1820.

Mrs. Charles Custis Harrison, of St. David’s, Pennsylvania, owns the mixing table in Illustration [90], and a sideboard to match it. Both pieces were inherited from Robert Morris, in whose famous mansion in Philadelphia they stood. The wood of the table is mahogany and the drawers and doors are of satinwood, finely inlaid. There is a well in the top for a bowl, in which was brewed the punch of the Philadelphia forefathers. The cover of the table is hinged, and the four shelves which show in the illustration fold flat when the cover is down.

The table in Illustration [91] belongs to the Misses Garrett of Williamsburg, Virginia, and is known as a “mint julep” table, having been made for the concocting of that Southern beverage by a Baltimore cabinet-maker. There are shelves behind the door for the accessories to the julep, and for the mixing of it the top of the table is marble.

CHAPTER V

DESKS

FROM 1644 to about 1670 desks appear in colonial inventories. During those years the word “desk” meant a box, which was often made with a sloping lid for convenience in writing, or to rest a book upon in reading. This box was also used to hold writing-materials and papers or books, and was sometimes called a Bible-box, from the fact that the Bible was kept in it. Illustration [92] shows two of these desks from the collection of Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. The larger desk is twenty inches in length and thirteen and one-half in height, and formerly had a narrow shelf in the inside across the back. The front is carved with the initials A. W. and the date 1654. The smaller desk measures thirteen and one-half inches in length and eight in height.

Illus. 92.—Desk-boxes, 1654.

The desk with flat top in Illustration [93] is also in the Waters collection. It measures twenty-six inches in length by seventeen in width. It is made of oak, like the smaller desk in the preceding illustration.

Illus. 93.—Desk-box, 1650.

The next style of desk made its appearance in the inventories of about 1660, under a name with French derivation: “scrutoir,” “scriptor,” “scrittore,” “scrutor,” “scriptoire,” down to the phonetically spelled “screwtor.” About 1720 the word “bureau,” also from the French, came into use in combination with the word “desk,” or “table.” It has continued to be employed up to the present time, for the slant-top desk is even now, in country towns, called a bureau-desk. As the word “desk” seems to have been more or less in use through these early years, while for the last hundred years it has been almost entirely employed, alone or in combination with other words, I have designated as desks all pieces of furniture made for use in writing.

Illus. 94.—Desk, about 1680.

A cabinet and writing desk used by perhaps all of the Dutch Patroons, of Albany, is shown in Illustration [94]. It has stood in the same house, Cherry Hill, Albany, since 1768, when the house was built by Philip Van Rensselaer, the ancestor of the present owner, Mrs. Edward W. Rankin.

Illus. 95.—Desk, about 1680.

It was probably brought from Holland by Killian Van Rensselaer, and in it were kept the accounts of the manor. The desk is open in Illustration [95], showing the compartments for papers and books. The wood of this splendid piece is oak, beautifully panelled and carved, and the fine panel seen when the desk is closed forms, when lowered, the shelf for writing. Similar pieces appear in paintings by old Dutch masters.

Illus. 96.—Desk, 1710-1720.

Illustration [96] shows a desk owned by Miss Gage, of Worcester, of rather rude construction, and apparently not made by a skilled cabinet-maker. It has two long drawers with two short drawers above them. The space above these two short drawers is reached from an opening or well with a slide, directly in front of the small drawers of the interior, which may be seen in the illustration. The pillars at each side of the middle compartment pull out as drawers. The handles are new, and should be drop handles, or early stamped ones. The characteristics which determine the date of this desk are the single moulding around the drawers, the two short drawers, and the well opening with a slide. The bracket feet would indicate a few years’ later date than that of similar pieces with ball feet.

During the first half of the eighteenth century slant-top desks appeared with a bookcase or cabinet top. The lower or desk part was made usually with a moulding around the top, into which the upper part was set. The doors were of panelled wood or had looking-glasses set in them, but occasionally they were of glass.

The frontispiece shows an extraordinary piece of furniture owned by Samuel Verplanck, Esq., of Fishkill, New York. It has belonged in the family of Mr. Verplanck since 1753, when it was bought by an ancestor, Governor James de Lancey, at an auction sale of the effects of Sir Danvers Osborne, who was governor of the Province of New York for the space of five days, as he landed at Whitehall Slip, New York, from the good ship Arundel on Friday, and the following Wednesday he committed suicide. Sir Danvers had brought his household goods with him upon the Arundel, and among them was this secretary.

Lacquered furniture was fashionable during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and while the first lacquered pieces came through Holland, by 1712 “Japan work” was so popular, even in the American colonies, that an advertisement of Mr. Nehemiah Partridge appeared in a Boston paper of that year, that he would do “all sorts of Japan work.”

The wood of this secretary is oak, and the entire piece is covered with lacquer in brilliant red, blue, and gold. The upper part, or cabinet, has doors which are lacquered on the inside, with looking-glasses on the outside. A looking-glass is also set into the middle of the top. These glasses are all the original ones and are of heavy plate with the old bevel upon the edges. Above the compartments, and fitting into the two arches of the top are semi-circular-shaped flap doors, which open downward. Between these and the pigeonholes are two shallow drawers extending across the cabinet. The middle compartment has two doors with vases of flowers lacquered upon them, and there is a drawer above, while the spaces each side of the doors are occupied by drawers. The slides for candlesticks are gone, but the slits show where they were originally. The lower or desk part is divided by a moulding which runs around it above the three lower drawers, and the space between this and the writing-table is taken by two short drawers, but it has no well with a slide like the desk in Illustration [96]. The arrangement of the small drawers and compartments is the same as in the desk in Illustration [96], and the lacquered pillars form the fronts of drawers which pull out, each side of the middle compartment, which has upon its door a jaunty little gentleman in European costume of the period. The moulding upon the frame around the drawers and the two short upper drawers would place the date of this piece early in the eighteenth century.

Illus. 97.—Cabriole-legged Desk, 1720-1730.

The first thought upon seeing the feet of the desk, is that they were originally brackets which were sawed off and the large ball feet added, but it must have been made originally as it now stands, for both the brackets and the balls under them are lacquered with the old “Japan work” like the rest of the secretary.

A style of desk of a somewhat later date is occasionally found, generally made of maple. Its form and proportions are similar to those of a low-boy with the Dutch bandy-leg and foot, and a desk top, the slanting lid of which lets down for use in writing. The top sets into a moulding around the edge of the lower part, in the same manner as the top part of a high-boy is set upon its base. Illustration [97] shows a desk of this style in the building of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, labelled as having belonged to William Penn, but which is of a later date than that would imply, as it was made from 1720 to 1730, while Penn left this country in 1701, never to return to it.

Illus. 98.—Cabriole-legged Desk, 1760.

The mahogany desk shown in Illustration [98] belongs to Walter Hosmer, Esq., and is a most graceful and charming little piece, intended probably for a lady’s use. It measures twenty-four and a half inches in length and forty-one and a half inches in height. There are three square drawers in the lower part, and the upper part has two small square drawers for pens, with a third between them. The two pen drawers pull out and support the lid when lowered. The interior of the desk has eighteen small drawers, shaped and placed so that their fronts form a curve, and each little drawer at the top is carved with the rising sun, or fan, like the middle drawer in the lower part. The entire design of the interior is like that in a large block-front desk now owned by George S. Palmer, Esq., of Norwich, which was made by Benjamin Dunham in 1769, and it is possible that the two pieces were made by the same Connecticut cabinet-maker.

Illus. 99.—Desk, 1760.

Another desk belonging to Mr. Hosmer is shown in Illustration [99]. The bandy-legs end in a claw-and-ball of a flattened shape, and instead of the drawer, plain or with a carved sunburst, usually seen between the side drawers of the lower part, the wood of the frame is sawed in a simple design. The upper part has three drawers, and the lid when down rests upon two slides which pull out for the purpose. The interior is quite simple, having four drawers with eight small compartments above. This desk measures twenty-six inches in width and thirty-nine inches and a half in height.

The desk in Illustration [100] is now owned by the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, and belonged formerly to Governor John Hancock. It measures four feet six inches from the floor, and is of the sturdy, honest build that one would expect in a desk used by the man whose signature to the Declaration of Independence stands out so fearless and determined.

Illus. 100.—Desk, about 1770.

Illus. 101.—Block-front Desk.
Cabinet Top, about 1770.

The slanting lid has a moulding across the lower edge, probably to support a large book, or ledger, and as it is at the right height for a man to write standing, or sitting upon a very high stool, it may have been used as an office desk. Below the slanting lid are two doors behind which are shelves.

Two drawers extend across the lower part, and at each end of the desk two small, long drawers pull out. The desk was made about 1770.

Illustration [101] shows a mahogany block-front desk with cabinet top, owned by Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem, which was bought by Mr. Waters’s grandfather, about 1770. It is a fine example of the best style of secretary made during the eighteenth century. The doors are of panelled wood. The lid of the desk is blocked like the front, and like the lid of the desk in Illustration [109], requiring for the blocked lid and drawer fronts wood from two to three inches thick, as each front is carved from one thick plank.

Illustration [102] shows a block-front mahogany desk, owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. It formerly belonged to Dr. John Snelling Popkin, who was Professor of Greek at Harvard University from 1826 to 1833, and probably descended to him, as it was made about 1770. The legs, with claw-and-ball feet, are blocked like the drawers, as was usual in block-front pieces, another feature of which is the moulding upon the frame around the drawers.

Illus. 102.—Block-front Desk, about 1770.

In all the desks shown, the pillars at each side of the middle door in the interior pull out as drawers. These were supposed to be secret drawers. Often the little arched pieces above the pigeonholes are drawer fronts. The middle compartment is sometimes a drawer, or if it has a door, behind this door is a drawer which, when taken entirely out, proves to have a secret drawer opening from its back. Occasionally an opening to a secret compartment is found in the back of the desk. All these were designed at a time when banks and deposit companies did not abound, and the compartments were doubtless utilized to hold papers and securities of value. There are traditions of wills being discovered in these secret compartments, and novelists have found them of great convenience in the construction of plots.

Illus. 103.—Desk with Cabinet Top, about 1770.

The secretary in Illustration [103] is an extraordinarily fine piece. It is of mahogany, and tradition says that it was brought from Holland, but it is distinctly a Chippendale piece, from the fine carving upon the feet and above the doors, and from the reeded pilasters with exquisitely carved capitals. There are five of these pilasters,—three in front and one upon each side, at the back. The doors hold looking-glasses, the shape of which, straight at the bottom and in curves at the top, is that of the early looking-glasses. The two semicircular, concave spaces in the interior above the cabinet are lacquered in black and gold.

The middle compartment in the desk, between the pigeonholes, has a door, behind which is a large drawer. When this drawer is pulled entirely out, at its back may be seen small drawers, and upon taking out one of these and pressing a spring, secret compartments are disclosed.

Dr. Holmes, in “The Professor at the Breakfast Table,” has written of this secretary thus:—

“At the house of a friend where I once passed a night, was one of those stately, upright cabinet desks and cases of drawers which were not rare in prosperous families during the past century [i.e. the eighteenth]. It had held the clothes and the books and papers of generation after generation. The hands that opened its drawers had grown withered, shrivelled, and at last had been folded in death. The children that played with the lower handles had got tall enough to open the desk,—to reach the upper shelves behind the folding doors,—grown bent after a while,—and followed those who had gone before, and left the old cabinet to be ransacked by a new generation.

“A boy of twelve was looking at it a few years ago, and, being a quick-witted fellow, saw that all the space was not accounted for by the smaller drawers in the part beneath the lid of the desk. Prying about with busy eyes and fingers, he at length came upon a spring, on pressing which, a secret drawer flew from its hiding-place. It had never been opened but by the maker. The mahogany shavings and dust were lying in it, as when the artisan closed it, and when I saw it, it was as fresh as if that day finished.

“Is there not one little drawer in your soul, my sweet reader, which no hand but yours has ever opened, and which none that have known you seemed to have suspected? What does it hold? A sin? I hope not.”

The “quick-witted boy, with busy eyes and fingers,” was the present owner of the secretary, the Rev. William R. Huntington, D.D., of Grace Church, New York, and since Dr. Holmes wrote of the secretary, new generations have grown up to reach the handles of the drawers and to ransack the old cabinet.

Illus. 104.—Block-front Desk, about 1770.

The middle ornament upon the top was gone many years ago, but Dr. Huntington remembers, as a boy with his brother, playing with the two end figures which, it is not astonishing to relate, have not been seen since those years. The figures were carved from wood, of men at work at their trade of cabinet-making, and the boys who were given the carved figures for toys played that the little workmen were the ones who made the secretary. The great handles upon the sides are large and heavy enough for the purpose for which they were intended, to lift the massive piece of furniture.

The block-front mahogany desk in Illustration [81] shows the blocked slanting lid. The brasses are original and are unusually large and fine. This desk belongs to Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston.

A splendid mahogany secretary owned by Albert S. Rines, Esq., of Portland, Maine, is shown in Illustration [105]. The lower part is bombé or kettle-shaped, but the drawers, which swell with the shape in front, do not extend to the corners, like the kettle-shaped bureau in Illustration [30], but leave a vacant space in the interior, not taken up at the ends. Three beautiful, flat, reeded columns with Corinthian capitals are upon the doors, which still hold the old bevelled looking-glasses. The handles are original, but are not as large as one usually finds upon such a secretary. There are larger handles upon the sides, as was the custom. The cabinet in the upper part is very similar to the one in Illustration [103], but there is no lacquering upon the curved tops behind the doors. With the thoroughness of workmanship and dislike of sham which characterized the cabinet-makers of the eighteenth century, there are fine pieces of mahogany inside at the back of the looking-glasses. The cabinet in the desk proper, which is covered by the slanting lid when closed, is unusually good, with the curved drawers, set also in a curve.

Illus. 105.—Kettle-front Secretary, about 1765.

This secretary is generous in secret compartments, of which there are six. The centre panel of the cabinet is the front of a drawer, locked by a concealed spring, and at the back of this drawer are two secret drawers; beneath it, by sliding a thin piece of mahogany, another drawer is disclosed; a fourth is at the top, behind a small drawer, and at each end of the curved drawers is a secret drawer. The secretary is over eight feet in height.

Illus. 106.—Block-front Writing-table, 1760-1770.

Illus. 107.—Serpentine-front Desk,
Cabinet Top, 1770.

Illustration [106] shows a beautiful little piece of furniture, modelled after what Chippendale calls a writing-table or a bureau table, by the latter term meaning a bureau desk with a flat top. The same unusually fine shells are carved upon this as upon the double chest of drawers in Illustration [21], and upon the low chest of drawers in Illustration [31].

In the inside of one of the drawers of this writing-table is written in a quaint old hand a name which is illegible, and “Newport, R.I., 176-,” the final figure of the date not being sufficiently plain to determine it. Desks, secretaries, and chests of drawers have been found with block fronts and these fine shells. All were originally owned in Rhode Island or near there, and nearly all can be traced back to Newport, probably to the same cabinet-maker. This writing-table was bought in 1901 from the heirs of Miss Rebecca Shaw of Wickford, Rhode Island. Miss Shaw died in 1900 at over ninety years of age. The writing-table is now owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook, New York. It measures thirty-four inches in height and thirty-six and three-quarters inches in length. A door with a shell carved upon it opens into a recessed cupboard. A writing-table like this is in the Pendleton collection, also found in Rhode Island.

Illus. 108.—Serpentine or Bow-front Desk, about 1770.

Illustration [107] shows a desk with cabinet top and serpentine or ox-bow front. It is made of English walnut of a fine golden hue which has never been stained or darkened. The doors are of panelled wood, with fluted columns at each side. It was owned in the Bannister family of Newburyport until 1870, when it was given to the Newburyport Library. It now stands in the old Prince mansion, occupied by the Library.

Illus. 109.—Bill of Lading, 1716.

Illustration [108] shows a mahogany desk with serpentine front and claw-and-ball feet, owned by Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, of Brooklyn. The serpentine drawers of this piece and the one preceding are carved from a solid block, not quite so thick as is necessary for the block-front drawers. This desk was made at about the same time as the secretary in the last illustration.

The bill of lading in Illustration [109] is preserved in the house known as the “Warner House,” in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, built by Archibald Macphaedris, a member of the King’s Council. It was commenced in 1712, and occupied in 1716, but not finished until 1718. Mr. Macphaedris died in 1729, and his widow, upon her second marriage, gave the house to her daughter, married then to Colonel Jonathan Warner, and the house has remained ever since in the possession of their descendants.

The rooms are panelled, and are filled with the furniture bought by successive generations. Upon the walls hang Copley portraits of Colonel Warner and his wife and her haughty mother, Mrs. Macphaedris (who was a daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Wentworth), and of Colonel Warner’s young daughter Mary, in her straight little stays, which are still preserved, along with the garments, stiff with gold embroideries, which Colonel Warner and his wife wore upon state occasions. A number of the illustrations for this book were taken in the Warner house, which is one of the best-preserved old houses in the country, and which, with its furnishings and decorations, presents an unusually good picture of the home of the wealthy colonist.

The quaint wording of this bill of lading, and the list of furniture mentioned, make it interesting in this connection, but none of the pieces of that date remain in the house, which was evidently refurnished with great elegance, after 1760, when the old furniture was probably discarded as “old-fashioned.”

Illustration [110] shows a bookcase built into the Warner house. It is made of mahogany, and stands in every particular exactly as it was originally made. The bill of lading of 1716, shown in Illustration [85], mentions a bookcase, but this bookcase is of later date, and was probably bought by Colonel Warner for his daughter, as the books in the case are all bound alike in a golden brown leather, with gilt tooling, and each book has “Miss. Warner” stamped in gilt letters upon the cover. The books are the standard works of that time,—Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, “The Spectator,” Fox’s “Book of Martyrs,” and all the books which a wealthy man of those days would buy to furnish a library. The dates of the editions vary from 1750 to 1765, so the latter date may be given to this bookcase. It was once entirely filled with “Miss. Warner’s” books, but early in the nineteenth century, during a great fire in Portsmouth, the books were removed for safety, and all were not brought back.

Illus. 110.—Bookcase and Desk, about 1765.

Illus. 111.—Chippendale Bookcase, 1770.

At the top of the bookcase is a row of Chinese fretwork, which, together with the massive handles, would also place its date about 1765. The case is divided into three sections, the sides of the lower part being devoted to drawers. The lower middle section has four drawers, above which is a wide flap which lets down, disclosing a desk with drawers and pigeonholes.

A bookcase owned by J.J. Gilbert, Esq., of Baltimore, is shown in Illustration [111]. It is made after Chippendale designs, and is richly carved. The base and feet are very elaborate, and the cornice and pediment, are wonderfully fine. The broken arch has delicate sprays of carved wood, projecting beyond the edge, and laid over the open fretwork, and the crowning ornament in the centre is a carved urn with a large spray of flowers. The ornaments and mouldings separating the sections of glass in the doors are as fine as the other rich carving upon this bookcase.

A wonderful Hepplewhite bookcase is shown in Illustration [112]. It is owned by George W. Holmes, Esq., of Charleston, South Carolina, and carries with it an impression of the wealth and luxury in Charleston, before the Civil War and the other disasters that befell that city in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Illus. 112.—Hepplewhite Bookcase, 1789.

This bookcase is nearly nine feet in length, and is made of unusually fine mahogany. The lower part is designed in a series of curves which prevents the plain look that a straight front would give in such length. The doors form one curve and a part of the other two, which are completed by the drawers at each side; a skilful management of a long space. The curves at the top of the pediment follow the same lines, and the bookcase was evidently designed by a master hand. It was probably brought from England, together with a secretary to match it. Above the doors and drawers, shelves pull out, on which to rest books. A fine line of holly runs around each door and drawer, with a star inlaid at the corners of the doors, while a very beautiful design is inlaid in light and dark woods, in the space on the pediment, which is finished with the broken arch, of the high, slender type, with carved rosettes. The centre ornament, between the rosettes, is a basket of flowers carved in wood.

Illus. 113.—Maple Desk, about 1795.

After the publication of the designs of Shearer, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton, the heavy desks were superseded by those of lighter design, and the slant-top bureau desk was seldom made after 1790. Sheraton says: “Bureau in France is a small chest of drawers. It has generally been applied to common desks with drawers made under them. These pieces of furniture are nearly obsolete in London.” Slant-top desks do not appear in cabinet-makers’ books published after 1800, and it is safe to assign a date previous to the nineteenth century to any such desk.

Illus. 114.—Hepplewhite Desk, Cabinet Top, 1790.

Illustration [113] shows the latest type of a slant-top desk, made in 1790-1795. The frame is of maple, the drawers being of curly maple edged with ebony. The lid is of curly maple framed in bird’s-eye maple with ebony lines, and in the centre is a star made of mahogany and ebony. The small drawers inside are of bird’s-eye maple, three of the drawers having an ebony and mahogany star. The base is what Hepplewhite calls a French base, and the desk, which measures only thirty-six inches in length, is a good example of the artistic use of the different varieties of maple with their golden hues. This desk belongs to the writer.

Illustration [114] shows a Hepplewhite desk with cabinet top owned by the writer, and made about 1790. The drawers are veneered with satinwood, with a row of fine inlaying of holly and ebony around each drawer front. The base is after Hepplewhite’s design, and has a row of ebony and holly inlaying across it. The slightly slanting lid turns back and rests upon two pulls to form a writing-table. The pigeonholes and small drawers are behind the glass doors, which are made like two Gothic arches, with three little pillars, and panels of satinwood between the bases of the pillars. The pediment at the top of the cabinet is quite characteristic of the period.

Illustration [115] shows a charming little Sheraton desk owned by W. S. G. Kennedy, Esq., of Worcester. It is made of bird’s-eye maple with trimming of mahogany veneer, and a row of ebony and holly inlaying below the drawers. The upper part has one maple door in the centre, with a tambour door of mahogany at each side, behind which are pigeonholes and small drawers.

Illus. 115.—Sheraton Desk, 1795.

The lid shuts back upon itself, and, when open, rests upon the two pulls at each side of the upper drawer. The wood of this desk is beautifully marked, and the whole effect is very light and well adapted to a lady’s use.

Illus. 116.—Tambour Secretary,
about 1800.

The word “tambour” is thus defined by Sheraton: “Tambour tables among cabinet-makers are of two sorts; one for a lady or gentleman to write at, and another for the former to execute needlework by. The Writing Tambour Tables are almost out of use at present, being both insecure and liable to injury. They are called Tambour from the cylindrical forms of their tops, which are glued up in narrow strips of mahogany and laid upon canvas, which binds them together, and suffers them at the same time to yield to the motion that their ends make in the curved groove in which they run. Tambour tables are often introduced in small pieces where no strength or security is desired.”

In his will, George Washington left to Dr. Craik “my beaureau (or as cabinet-makers call it, tambour secretary).” Illustration [116] shows what might be called a tambour secretary. It is made of mahogany with lines of light wood inlaid. The lid of the lower part is folded back upon itself.

Illus. 117.—Sheraton Desk, 1800.

Above it are two tambour doors, behind which are drawers and pigeonholes and a door in the centre with an oval inlay of satinwood. Above these doors is a cabinet with glass doors. The pediment is like the one in Illustration [114]. This secretary was made about 1800, and belongs to Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge.

Illustration [117] shows a small Sheraton writing table for a lady’s use, also owned by Mr. Bigelow. It is of simple construction, having one drawer, and when the desk is closed, the effect is that of a small table with a flat top.

Illustration [118] shows a desk which was copied from one of Sheraton’s designs, published in 1793, and described as “a lady’s cabinet and writing table.” The legs in Sheraton’s drawing are slender and straight, while these are twisted and carved, and the space, which in the design is left open for books, in this desk is closed with a tambour door.

Illus. 118.—Sheraton Desk, about 1810.

The slide which shows above the compartment pulls out, with a mechanism described by Sheraton, and when fully out, it drops to form the cover for the compartments. The Empire brasses upon the top are original, but the handles to the drawers are not. They should be brass knobs. This beautiful little desk was made about 1810 for William T. Lane, Esq., of Boston, and is owned by his daughter, Mrs. Thomas H. Gage of Worcester.

Illus. 119.—Desk, about 1820.

Illustration [119] shows a bureau and desk, belonging to Mrs. J. H. Henry of Winchendon. The lid of the desk turns back like the lid of a piano. The carved pillars at the side are like the ones upon the bureau in Illustration [37], and upon other pieces of furniture of the same date, about 1820.

CHAPTER VI

CHAIRS

CHAIRS are seldom mentioned in the earliest colonial inventories, and few were in use in either England or America at that time. Forms and stools were used for seats in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and inventories of that period, even those of wealthy men, do not often contain more than one or two chairs. The chair was the seat of honor given to the guest, others sitting upon forms and stools. This custom was followed by the American colonists, and forms or benches and joint or joined stools constituted the common seats during the first part of the seventeenth century.

Illus. 120.—Turned Chair,
Sixteenth Century.

The chairs in use during that period were “thrown” or turned chairs; wainscot chairs, sometimes described as “scrowled” or carved chairs; and later, chairs covered with leather, or “Turkey work,” and other fabrics.

The best-known turned chair in this country is the “President’s Chair” at Harvard University. Dr. Holmes has written of it in “Parson Turell’s Legacy”:—

“—a chair of oak,—

Funny old chair, with seat like wedge,
Sharp behind and broad front edge,—
One of the oddest of human things,
Turned all over with knobs and rings,—
But heavy, and wide, and deep, and grand,—
Fit for the worthies of the land,—
Chief Justice Sewall a cause to try in,
Or Cotton Mather, to sit—and lie,—in.”

In the Bolles collection is a chair similar to the Harvard chair, and one is shown in Illustration [120], owned by Henry F. Waters, Esq., of Salem. A turned chair of the same period with a square seat is owned by the Connecticut Historical Society.

Illus. 121.—Turned High-chair,
Sixteenth Century.

Provision was made for the youngest of the large family of children, with which the colonist was usually blessed, in the high chair, which is found in almost every type. A turned high chair is shown in Illustration [121], brought by Richard Mather to America in 1635, and used to hold the successive babies of that famous family,—Samuel, Increase, Cotton, and the others. The rod is missing which was fastened across the front to hold the child in, and only the holes show where the pegs were placed to support the foot-rest. This quaint little chair is owned by the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester.

A style of turned chair more commonly in use is shown in Illustration [122], said to have been brought on the Mayflower by Governor Carver. The chair in Illustration [123], originally owned by Elder Brewster, is of a rarer type, the spindles being greater in number and more finely turned. Both of these chairs are in Pilgrim Hall, in Plymouth. Turned chairs are not infrequently found of the type of Illustration [122], but rarely like the Brewster chair or the turned chair in Illustration [120].

The wainscot chair was made entirely of wood, usually oak, with a panelled back, from which came the name “wainscot.” Its valuation in inventories was two or three times that of the turned chair, which is probably the reason why wainscot chairs are seldom found.

Illus. 122 and Illus. 123.—Turned Chairs, about 1600.

The finest wainscot chair in this country is shown in Illustration [124]. It belongs to the Essex Institute of Salem, having been given to that society in 1821 by a descendant of the original owner, Sarah Dennis of Ipswich, who possessed two of these chairs; the other is now the President’s chair at Bowdoin College.

Illus. 124.—Wainscot Chair,
about 1600.

A plainer form of the wainscot chair is shown in Illustration [125]. It was brought to Newbury in the ship Hector, in 1633, and is now in the collection of the late Major Ben: Perley Poore, at Indian Hill.

By the middle of the seventeenth century chairs had become more common, and inventories of that period had frequent mention of leather or leather-backed chairs. Some of the earliest leather chairs have the under part of the frame similar to that of the wainscot chair, with plain legs and stretchers, while others have the legs and back posts turned. Illustration [126] shows a leather chair made about 1660, in the Waters collection. The seat and back have been covered with leather in the same manner as they were originally, as enough remained of the old cover to copy.

A chair of some later date, about 1680, is shown in Illustration [127], also from the Waters collection, the back and seat of which were originally of Turkey work. The frame is similar to that in Illustration [126], with the exception of the carved brace across the front, which feature leads one to give the chair a later date than the one in Illustration [126]. The feet have been sawed off.

Illus. 125.—Wainscot Chair, about 1600.

Other coverings beside Turkey work were used,—velvet, camlett, plush, or cloth, as well as an occasional cover “wrought by hir owne hand.” Until the latter part of the seventeenth century a somewhat architectural style prevailed in chairs, settles, and tables. This was succeeded by the graceful lines and carving of the cane furniture which came into fashion during the last quarter of that century. It is called Jacobean furniture, although that name would not seem to be strictly accurate, for the Jacobean period was ended before cane furniture was introduced into England, about 1678. The cane chairs form a complete contrast to the heavy wainscot or turned chairs in use previously, the light effect coming not only from the cane seat and back, but also from the frame, which was usually carved in a graceful design.

Illus. 129.—Flemish Chair,
about 1690.

Illus. 128.—Flemish Chair,
about 1690.

Illustration [128] shows a chair which belonged to Sir William Pepperell, made possibly for his father, for Sir William was not born until 1697. The front legs, carved with the scroll foot turning forward, are in the pure Flemish style. The brace in front, carved to correspond with the top of the back, appears in cane chairs with a carved frame.

The seat was originally of cane. This chair is now in the Alexander Ladd house in Portsmouth.

Illus. 130.—Cane Chair,
1680-1690.

A chair of similar effect, but with turned legs, and carved in a different design, with the crown as the central figure of the underbrace and top, is shown in Illustration [129]. It belongs to Miss Mary Coates of Philadelphia, to whom it has descended from Josiah Langdale, in whose inventory this chair, with its mates, was mentioned. Josiah Langdale took ship with his family and belongings, from England for America, in 1723.

Before sailing he became very ill and prayed that he might die and be buried in the old graveyard, but his wish was not granted, and he was carried on board, taking his coffin with him. Three days out (but not far from land) he died, and was buried in his coffin, at sea. The coffin was not sufficiently weighted, however, and it drifted back to land, where it was opened, and its occupant identified, and Josiah Langdale was buried from the old Quaker meeting-house, as he had prayed. His widow came safely to America with her furniture, among which was this chair.

Both Flemish and Spanish characteristics appear in the chair in Illustration [130]. The front legs are in the Flemish style, the scroll foot turning back as it often does. The twisted stretchers and back posts show the influence of Spanish or Portuguese fashions. This chair is in the Poore collection at Indian Hill, Newburyport.

Illus. 131.—Cane High-chair and Arm-chair, 1680-1690.

Illustration [131] shows two beautiful chairs owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston. The Portuguese twist has an unusually graceful effect in the tall legs of the little high chair.

Illus. 132.—Cane Chair, 1680-1690.

It will be noticed that, instead of being twisted, the upper part of the front legs is turned in balls to provide a stronger hold for the pegs which support the foot-rest. There are four holes for these pegs, at different heights, in order that the rest might be lowered as the infantile legs lengthened. The crown appears in the top of the high chair, while the arm-chair has a child’s figure carved in the centre of the top. The arms of both chairs are carved with the acanthus leaf.

An example of the finest carving attained in cane furniture is shown in Illustration [132]. This exquisite chair is owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook. The design of the top is repeated in the front brace, but much enlarged. The frame of the seat and the arms are carved like those in Illustration [131]. The legs end in a curious form of the Spanish foot.

The popularity of the cane chair, as well as its strength, is attested by the number which have survived the centuries, in fair condition for chairs so light in appearance.

The cane chair in Illustration [133] is owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston. The top of the under brace is carved in a crescent-shaped design, which is used again in the top rail. The front leg is a Flemish scroll with a ball beneath it. The cane back is unusual in design, the carved wood on each side making a diamond-shaped effect.

The chair in Illustration [134] belongs to the writer. The cane extends up into the curve made in the top rail of the back, which is, like the underbrace and the sides of the back, more elaborately carved than the chairs in Illustrations [128] and [129].

Illus. 133 and Illus. 134.—Cane Chairs, 1680-1690.

Stools were not common, but are occasionally found, following the styles in chairs. With the wainscot chairs were joined or joint stools.

The stool in Illustration [135] was used with the turned chair, like the one in Illustration [126].

Illus. 135.—Turned Stool, 1660.

Illustration [136] shows a very rare piece, a Flemish stool, with a carved underbrace, probably like the ones upon the cane-back chairs used with it. These two fine stools are in the collection of Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston.

A chair once owned by General Henry Dearborn of Revolutionary fame is shown in Illustration [137]. The back and seat were originally cane, and it has a perfect Spanish foot.

Illus. 136.—Flemish Stool, 1680.

The chair in Illustration [138] is of the style called Queen Anne. It has Spanish feet but the back shows the first use of the Dutch splat, afterward developed and elaborated by Chippendale and others. This chair and the one in Illustration [137] belong to the writer.

A chair which retained some characteristics of the cane chair was the banister-back chair, which appears in inventories of the first half of the eighteenth century.

Two banister-back chairs owned by the writer are shown in Illustration [139] and Illustration 140. It will be seen that the tops and one carved underbrace are similar to those upon cane chairs, while the legs of one chair end in a clumsy Spanish foot. The banisters which form the back are turned on one side and flat on the other.

These chairs have the flat side in front, but either side was used in banister chairs, plainer types of which are found, sometimes with the slats not turned, but straight and flat. The chair in Illustration [140] was used for the deacon’s chair in the old meeting-house in Westborough, Massachusetts, built in 1724, and it stood in “the deacon’s pue,” in front of the pulpit, for the deacon to sit upon, as was the custom.

Illus. 139 and Illus. 140.—Banister-back Chairs, 1710-1720.

Illus. 141.—Banister-back
Chair, 1710-1740.

Thedeacon must have longed for the two hours’ sermon to end, if he had to sit upon this chair with its high, narrow seat. There are several kinds of wood in these chairs, and when found they were painted black.

Illus. 142.—Roundabout
Chair, about 1740.

An unusually fine banister chair, from the Poore collection at Indian Hill, Newburyport, is shown in Illustration [141], with carved top and underbrace and Spanish feet. The seat is rush, as it usually is in banister chairs.

“Roundabout” chairs are met with in inventories from 1738 under various names,—“three-cornered chair,” “half round chair,” “round about chair,”—but they are now known as roundabout or corner chairs. They were made in different styles, like other chairs, from the turned or the Dutch bandy-leg, down to the carved Chippendale leg with claw-and-ball foot.

Illustration [142] shows a roundabout chair with turned legs, the front leg ending in a Dutch foot. This is in the Whipple house at Ipswich.

Illus. 143.—Slat-back Chairs, 1700-1750.

The most common chair during the first half of the eighteenth century was the “slat back,” with a rush seat. The number of slats varied; three, four, and five slats being used. The slats were also made in different designs, those made in Pennsylvania being curved.

Illus. 144.—Five-slat Chair,
about 1750.

Two slat-back chairs are shown in Illustration [143] from the Whipple house in Ipswich. The large chair was found in the country, stuffed and covered with many layers of wadding and various materials. When they were removed, this frame was disclosed, but the tops of the posts had been sawed off. The back posts should terminate in a turned knob, like the Carver chair in Illustration [122], which this chair strongly resembles, the slats taking the place of the turned spindles of the Carver chair. The small chair is probably of later date, and was evidently intended for a child’s use. Chairs with three-slat backs are in Illustrations [54] and [201].

Illus. 145.—Pennsylvania
Slat-back Chair, 1740-1750.

Illustration [144] shows a five-slat or five-back chair owned by the writer. It was made about 1750, and the rockers were probably added twenty-five or thirty years later. They project as far in front as in the back, which is evidence of their age. Later rockers were made longer, probably for safety, the short rocker at the back proving dangerous to the equilibrium of a too vigorous occupant of the rocking chair. This chair has never been restored and is a very good example of the slat-back chair. It is painted black with lines of yellow.

Illustration [145] shows an arm-chair with a five-slat back which is now the property of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The slats are the typical Pennsylvania ones, made to fit the back, with a deeper curve than some, and, as may be seen by comparing them with others illustrated, with a more decided curve to both the upper and lower edges of the slats. The stretcher across the front is turned and is unusually heavy.

Illus. 146.—Windsor Chairs, 1750-1775.

The type of chair succeeding the slat-back in popularity was the Windsor, which was made for years in large numbers both in England and America.

Windsor chairs made their first appearance in this country about 1730, in Philadelphia, and “Philadelphia made” Windsor chairs soon became very popular. Advertisements of them abound in newspapers up to 1800, and they may be found with the slat-back chairs in almost any country house, frequently upon the piazza, whence many a one has been bought by the keen-eyed collector driving along the road. The original Philadelphia fashion was to paint the chairs green, but after they were made all over the country they were probably painted to suit the taste of the buyer.

Illus. 147.—Comb-back
Windsor Rocking-chair,
1750-1775.

There is a story that the name Windsor was derived from the English town, where one of the royal Georges found in a shepherd’s cottage a chair of this style, which he bought and had others made from,—thereby setting the fashion.

Windsor chairs are found in several styles, two of which are shown in Illustration [146], owned by the writer. Side-chairs like the arm-chair were made with the dividing strip which connects the arms left out, and the rounding top rail continuing down to the seat. The other chair in the illustration is known as a “fan back” from its shape with the flaring top.

Illustration [147] shows a “comb-back” Windsor rocking-chair, owned by Mrs. Clarence R. Hyde, of Brooklyn, N. Y. The middle spindles are extended to form the little head-rest, from which the name is derived.

Illus. 148.—High-back Windsor Arm-chair,
and Child’s Chair, 1750-1775.

A fine, high-backed arm-chair, and a child’s chair are shown in Illustration [148], owned by Miss Mary Coates of Philadelphia. These chairs may have been some of the original Philadelphia-made Windsor chairs, as they were bought in that town by Benjamin Horner, who was born in 1737.

Windsor writing-chairs are occasionally found, and one is shown in Illustration [149], possessing more than common interest, for it is said to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson, and upon its table may have been written the Declaration of Independence. It now belongs to the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. The seat is double, the top one revolving. The legs have been shortened.

Illus. 149.—Windsor Writing-chair, 1750-1775.

Illustration [150] shows two late Windsor rocking-chairs, the one of curly maple being several years later than the other, as the rockers, short in front and long behind, bear evidence. These chairs are owned by the writer.

The Dutch chair with bandy or cabriole legs and a splat in the back made its appearance with the early years of the eighteenth century, and was the forerunner of the Chippendale chair. The first Dutch chairs have a back similar in form to the Queen Anne chair in Illustration [108], slightly higher and narrower than later backs. They are sometimes called Queen Anne chairs, and sometimes parrot-back, from the shape of the opening each side of the solid splat. The stretchers or underbraces of earlier chairs are retained in the first Dutch chairs, one of which is shown in Illustration [151], owned by Mrs. Charles H. Prentice, of Worcester.

Illus. 150.—Windsor Rocking-chairs, 1820-1830.

The first mention found of claw-and-ball feet is in 1737, when “six Crowfoot chairs” appear in an inventory. In one of 1750, “chairs with Eagle’s foot and shell on the Knee” are entered.

Illus. 151.—Dutch Chair
(back stretcher missing), 1710-1720.

A chair is shown in Illustration [152], still retaining the stretchers, but with the claw-and-ball foot and a shell at the top of the back. This chair was made about 1720-1730. It belongs to Walter Hosmer, Esq.

Illustration [153] shows a chair also belonging to Mr. Hosmer. It is made without stretchers, and the splat is pierced at the top.

A chair which retains the form of the Dutch chair, with “Eagle’s foot and shell on the Knee,” is shown in Illustration [154], but the splat is cut in an elaborate design, with the centre opening heart-shaped, which was the shape of the earliest piercing made in the plain splat. This chair and the one in Illustration [155] are in the Poore collection at Indian Hill, Newburyport. They show the development from the Dutch to the Chippendale style. The legs in Illustration [155] are carved upon the knee with an elaborate form of shell and a scroll. The splat is not pierced, but has a curious design of ropes with tassels carved at the top. These chairs were made about 1740-1750. The backs of the last four chairs are made with the characteristic Dutch top, curving down into the side-posts with rounded ends, with the effect of back and sides being in one piece.

Illus. 152 and Illus. 153.—Dutch Chairs, about 1740.

A style of chair common during the first half of the eighteenth century is shown in Illustration [156]; one chair having turned legs while the other ends in a Spanish foot. The tops are in the bow shape, and the splats are pierced, showing the influence of Chippendale fashions. The splat is alike in both, but the country cabinet-maker who probably made these chairs may have thought the splat would look as well one way as the other, and so put one in upside down. They are in the Deerfield Museum, and were made about 1750.

Illus. 154 and Illus 155.—Dutch Chairs, 1740-1750.

A roundabout chair in the Dutch style is shown in Illustration [157]. The bandy legs end in a foot with a slight carving in grooves, and the seat is rounding upon the corners like that in the ordinary Dutch chair. This very graceful chair is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge.

Illus. 156.—Dutch Chairs, 1750-1760.

Easy-chairs formed a part of the bedroom furniture inventoried during the eighteenth century, and they were made in various styles, with Dutch, Chippendale, and Hepplewhite legs. Hepplewhite gives a design in 1787 for what he calls “an easy-chair,” and also a “saddle-check chair,” while upon the same page, with intentional suggestion, is a design for a “gouty-stool.”

Illus. 157.—Dutch Roundabout
Chair, 1740.

Illustration [158] shows an easy-chair with the Dutch bandy leg and foot, owned by the writer. Such chairs were inventoried very high, from one pound to ten, and when one considers the amount of material required to stuff and cover the chair, the reason for the high valuation is understood. In the days when the fireplace gave what heat there was in the room, these great chairs must have been most comfortable, with the high back and sides to keep out draughts.

An easy-chair with claw-and-ball feet is shown in Illustration [159]. It is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. A beautiful easy-chair with carved cabriole legs, owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., is shown in Illustration [248].

We now come to the most important period in the consideration of chairs,—the last half of the eighteenth century. During this period many books of designs were published, which probably came to this country within a year or two of their publication, and which afforded American cabinet-makers an opportunity for copying the best English examples.

Chippendale’s designs were published in 1753, Hepplewhite’s in 1789, Sheraton’s in 1791. Besides these three chief chair-makers, there were Ince and Mayhew, 1765; Robert Manwaring, 1765; R. and J. Adam, 1773; and others of less note.

Illus. 158.—Easy-Chair with Dutch Legs, 1750.

Chippendale drew most of his ideas from the French, notably in the way of ornamentation, but the form of his chairs was developed chiefly from the Dutch style, with the bandy leg and splat in the back. His straight-legged chairs were suggested by the Chinese furniture, which was fashionable about the middle of the eighteenth century. These various styles Chippendale adapted, and employed with such success that his was the strongest influence of the century upon furniture, and for a period of over thirty years it was supreme.

Illus. 159.—Claw-and-ball-foot Easy-chair, 1750.

Illus. 160.—Chippendale Chair.

The claw-and-ball foot does not appear upon any of Chippendale’s designs in “The Gentleman’s and Cabinet-Maker’s Director.”

Illus. 161.—Chippendale Chair.

His preference was plainly for the French scroll foot, shown upon the sofa in Illustration [209] and the candle-stand in Illustration [333]. Doubtless, however, he made furniture with the claw-and-ball foot, which was the foot used by the majority of his imitators and followers.

An early Chippendale chair is shown in Illustration [160], from the Poore collection at Indian Hill, with stretchers, which are unusual in a Chippendale chair. The cabriole legs are carved upon the knee and end in a claw-and-ball foot.

Illus. 162.—Chippendale Chair.

The top of the back has the bow form, which is a distinguishing characteristic of Chippendale. This chair-seat and the one following are very large and broad.

Illus. 163.—Chippendale Chair.

The lines in the back of the chair in Illustration [161] form a series of curves, extremely graceful in effect, and the carving upon the back and legs is very fine. This chair is one of a set of six owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq.

Illustration [162] shows a chair owned by Miss Mary Coates of Philadelphia. The design of the back, with some variations, is often seen. The top forms a complete bow with the ends turning up, and a shell is carved in the centre.

Illus. 165.—Chippendale Chairs.

A variation of this back is shown in Illustration [163]. The top has a fan instead of a shell, and the ends of the bow top are grooved.

Illus. 164.—Chippendale Chair.

This chair is one of a set formerly owned by Miss Rebecca Shaw of Wickford, Rhode Island, who died in 1900, over ninety years of age. They are now in the possession of Mrs. Alice Morse Earle of Brooklyn, New York.

A fine arm-chair owned by Miss Mary Coates is shown in Illustration [164].

Two very beautiful and unusual Chippendale arm-chairs are shown in Illustration [165]. They are owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., and the larger chair, which was formerly in the Pendleton collection, is undoubtedly an original Chippendale. Its proportions are perfect, and the elaborate carving is finely done. The other chair presents some Dutch characteristics, in the shape of the seat and back, but the details of the carving indicate it to be after the school of Chippendale.

Illus. 167.—Roundabout Chair.

Illustration [166] shows a graceful chair with carving upon the back and knees. It belonged formerly to Governor Strong of Massachusetts, and is now owned by W. S. G. Kennedy, Esq., of Worcester.

Illus. 166.—Chippendale Chair.

The roundabout chair in Illustration [167] was originally owned by the Rev. Daniel Bliss, the Congregational minister in Concord, Massachusetts, from 1739 to 1766. He was succeeded by William Emerson, who married his daughter, and who was the grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson. William Emerson died in 1777, and Dr. Ezra Ripley succeeded to the pastorate and the widow, and took possession of the manse and of this chair, which must have served the successive ministers at the desk, while many hundreds of sound sermons were written. It now belongs to the Concord Antiquarian Society.

Illus. 168.—Extension-top Roundabout Chair.

An unusually fine example of a Dutch corner chair with an extension top, is shown in Illustration [168], owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The finest type of roundabout chair is shown in Illustration [169]. It is of mahogany and has but one cabriole leg, the others being uncompromisingly straight, but the cabriole leg, and the top rail and arms are carved finely with the acanthus design, worn almost smooth on the arms. It belongs to Dwight M. Prouty, Esq.

Illus. 169.—Roundabout
Chair.

Illustration [170] shows a chair owned by Albert S. Rines, Esq., of Portland, Maine.

Illus. 170.—Chippendale Chair.

It is extraordinarily good in design and carving, fine in every detail. The gadrooned edge upon this and the roundabout chair is found only upon the best pieces.

Illustration [171] shows one of six chairs owned by the writer.

The design of the chair-back in Illustration [172] is one that was quite common. The chair belongs to the writer.

The chair in Illustration [173] is owned by Mrs. E. A. Morse of Worcester; the one in Illustration [174] is in the Waters collection, in Salem, and is one of a set of six. The legs and the rail around the seat of the last chair are carved in a rosette design in low relief.

Illus. 171 and Illus. 172.—Chippendale Chairs.

About the middle of the eighteenth century it was fashionable to decorate houses and gardens in “Chinese taste,” and furniture was designed for “Chinese temples” by various cabinet-makers. That the American colonies followed English fashions closely is shown by the advertisement in 1758 of Theophilus Hardenbrook, surveyor, who with unfettered fancy modestly announced that he “designs all sorts of Buildings, Pavilions, Summer Rooms, Seats for Gardens”; also “all sorts of rooms after the taste of the Arabian, Chinese, Persian, Gothic, Muscovite, Paladian, Roman, Vitruvian, and Egyptian.”

Illus. 173 and Illus. 174.—Chippendale Chairs.

Illustration [175] shows a Chippendale chair in “Chinese taste” owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook. The legs and stretchers are straight, like those of Chinese chairs, and the outline of the back is Chinese, but the delicate carving is English. A sofa and a chair in “Chinese taste” are shown in Illustration [211].

Illus. 175.—Chippendale Chair
in “Chinese Taste.”

Illustration [176] and Illustration [177] show two Chippendale chairs with backs of entirely different design from the splat-back chairs previously illustrated. Their form was probably suggested by that of the slat-back chair. Illustration [176] is one of a set of six, originally owned by Joseph Brown, one of the four famous brothers of Providence, whose dignified names, John, Joseph, Nicholas, and Moses, have been familiarly rhymed as “John and Josey, Nick and Mosey.” The six chairs are now owned by their kinswoman, Mrs. David Thomas Moore of Westbury, Long Island. Each slat is delicately carved, and the chairs represent the finest of this type of Chippendale chairs. Illustration [177] shows a chair owned by Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem, with carved slats in the back. Chairs with this back but with plain slats are not unusual.

Illus. 176.—Chippendale
Chair.

Hepplewhite’s designs were published in 1789, and his light and attractive furniture soon became fashionable, superseding that of Chippendale, which was pronounced “obsolete.” Hepplewhite’s aim was to produce a light effect, and to this he often sacrificed considerations of strength and durability.

Illus. 177.—Chippendale
Chair.

Illus. 179.—Hepplewhite Chair.

While Chippendale used no inlaying, Hepplewhite’s furniture is ornamented with both carving and inlay, as well as painting. His chairs may be distinguished by the shape and construction of the back, which was usually of oval, shield, or heart shape. The carving in Hepplewhite’s chairs is of quite a different character from that of Chippendale. The three feathers of the Prince of Wales often form a part of the back, for Hepplewhite was of the Prince’s party when feeling ran strong during the illness of George III.

Carved drapery, wheat, and the bell-flower, sometimes called husks, are other characteristics of Hepplewhite’s chairs, two of which are shown in Illustration [178], belonging to Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston. The Prince’s feathers appear in the middle of one chair-back and upon the top rail of the other.

Illustration [179] shows an arm-chair from a set of Hepplewhite dining-chairs owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. The back is carved with a design of drapery and ears of wheat.

Illus. 178.—Hepplewhite Chairs.

A chair is shown in Illustration [180], which has features of several styles. The legs are French and the width of the seat; the splat joins the seat in the manner of Chippendale; the anthemion design of the splat is in the Adam style and the carving on the top rail, but the rail is Hepplewhite’s.

Illus. 180.—Hepplewhite
Chair, 1785.

It is probably an early Hepplewhite chair, made before his own style was fully formulated, and the combination has resulted in a beautiful chair. It belongs to J. J. Gilbert, Esq., of Baltimore.

Illus. 181.—Hepplewhite
Chair, 1789.

The chair in Illustration [181] is also in Mr. Gilbert’s collection. Although the shield back is generally accredited to Hepplewhite, Adam made it before him and it was used by the other chair-makers of his time. This chair shows very strongly the Adam influence in the carved and reeded legs and the fine carving, which is called guilloche, upon the arms and around the back and the frame of the seat.

Illus. 182.—Hepplewhite Chair,
1789.

The entire chair is beautifully carved.

The arm-chair shown in Illustration [182] has stood since 1835 in front of the pulpit in the Unitarian church in Leicester, Massachusetts, but of its history nothing is known for the years before that date, when it was probably given to the new church, then just starting with its young pastor, Rev. Samuel May. This chair, like the one in Illustration [181], which it resembles, has characteristics of different styles. It is probable that both Hepplewhite and Sheraton had practised their trade some years, and had made much furniture before their books were published in 1789 and 1791, and had adopted and adapted many ideas from the cabinet-makers and designers of the day, as well as from each other.

The chair in Illustration [183] was used by Washington in the house occupied as the Presidential mansion in Philadelphia. It is now owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. This chair has the same guilloche carving as the chair in Illustration [181], extending entirely around the back. The legs are short and the chair low and wide, and this with the stuffed back indicates that the chair is French.

Illus. 183.—French Chair, 1790.——Illus. 184.—Hepplewhite Chair, 1790.

The chair in Illustration [184] is also in the rooms of the Historical Society, and is one of the set owned by Washington. The urn and festoons in the back show a marked Adam influence, but the three feathers above the urn are Hepplewhite’s.

Illus. 185.—Arm Chair, 1785.

A very fine arm chair is shown in Illustration [185], owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq. The mahogany frame is heavier than in later chairs of the same style, and the arms end in a bird’s head and bill.

Illus. 186.—Transition
Chair, 1785.

During the transition period between Chippendale and Hepplewhite, features of the work of both appeared in chairs.

The chair in Illustration [186] has the Chippendale splat, with the three feathers in it, and the top rail has the Hepplewhite curve. It belongs to Mrs. Clarence R. Hyde, of Brooklyn, N. Y.

Illustration [187] shows one of a set of six very beautiful Hepplewhite chairs bought originally by the grandfather of their present owner, Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. This chair is carved upon the legs with the bell-flower, and the three middle rails of the back are exquisitely carved. Chairs of this design, with the ornament of inlay instead of carving, are also found.

Illus. 187 and 188.—Hepplewhite Chairs

The chair in Illustration [188] belongs to W. S. G. Kennedy, Esq., of Worcester. The rails are not carved or inlaid, but the fan-shaped ornament at the lower point of the shield back is of holly and ebony, inlaid. This design of Hepplewhite chair is more frequently found than any other.

Illus. 189.—Hepplewhite Chair.

A specialty of Hepplewhite’s was what he terms “a very elegant fashion.” The chair-backs were finished with painted or japanned work. This was not the lacquering which had been fashionable during the first half of the eighteenth century, with Chinese figures, but it was a process of coating the chairs with a sort of lacquer varnish, and then painting them in gold or colors upon a black ground.

Illus. 190.—Hepplewhite Chair.

Haircloth was used for the seats of chairs; the edges were finished with brass-headed nails, arranged sometimes to simulate festoons, as in Illustration [191].

A Hepplewhite chair with a back of quite a different design from the examples described previously, is shown in Illustration [189]. The back is heart-shaped, and the ornamentation is of inlaying in light and dark wood. This chair is one of four in the Poore collection at Indian Hill. They formed a part of the set bought by Washington for Mount Vernon, and were in use there at the time of his death.

A chair owned by Miss Mary Coates of Philadelphia is shown in Illustration [190]. The characteristic bell-flower is carved in the middle of the back of this chair.

Illus. 191.—Sheraton Chair.

Hepplewhite in turn was superseded by Sheraton, whose book of designs was published in 1791, only two years later than Hepplewhite’s; but that short time sufficed for Sheraton to say that “this book [Hepplewhite’s] has already caught the decline”; while he asserted of Chippendale’s designs, that “they are now wholly antiquated and laid aside, though possessed of great merit, according to the times in which they were executed.”

Sheraton’s chairs retained many of Hepplewhite’s characteristics, but the great difference between them lay in the construction of the back, which it was Sheraton’s aim to strengthen. His chairs, except in rare cases, do not have the heart or shield shaped back, which distinctly marks Hepplewhite chairs, but the back is rectangular in shape, the top rail being curved, straight, or with a raised piece in the centre, corresponding to the piece in the middle of the back. A rail extends across the back a few inches above the seat, and the splat or spindles end in this rail, and never extend to the seat.

Illus. 192.—Sheraton Chairs.

Sheraton’s designs show chairs with carved, twisted, reeded, or plain legs. The best Sheraton chairs found in this country usually have straight legs, slightly smaller than those upon the straight-legged Chippendale chairs. The tapering, reeded leg, which is characteristic of Sheraton, is not found so often upon his chairs as upon other pieces of furniture.

Illus. 193.—Sheraton Chair.———Illus. 194.—Sheraton Chair.

The chair in Illustration [191] is owned by the Misses Nichols of Salem, and it was brought with its mates to furnish the house built by McIntire in 1783. The chairs were imported, and as the back is precisely like one of Sheraton’s designs in his book, they may have been made by him, before the book was published in 1791.

Illus. 195.—Sheraton Chair.

The impression given by this chair is of strength combined with lightness, the effect which Sheraton strove to attain, while at the same time he made the chairs strong not only in effect but in reality, an end which Hepplewhite did not accomplish. The legs of the chair are plainly turned, but in the original design they are reeded.

Illus. 196.—Sheraton Chair.

Illustration [192] shows two Sheraton chairs owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq. It will be seen that the carving in the back is similar in design to that of Hepplewhite chairs, and the carving and shape of the upper part of the chair-back with the curved top rail is often seen upon Hepplewhite’s “bar-back” chairs.

Illus. 197.—Sheraton Chair.

Mr. Bigelow also owns the upholstered arm-chair in Illustration [193], sometimes called a Martha Washington easy-chair, from a similar chair at Mount Vernon. This chair and one in Illustration [194], which belongs to Mr. Bigelow, are after the Sheraton style, although these designs do not appear in Sheraton’s books.

Illus. 198.—Painted Sheraton
Chair, 1810-1815.

The arm-chair in Illustration [194] is said to have belonged to Jerome Bonaparte, but as Lucien and Joseph Bonaparte both had residences in this country, it would more probably have been owned by one of them rather than by Jerome, whose career in America was short and meteoric. The wood of this chair is cherry, said to have grown upon the island of Corsica, and the style of the back, while upon the Sheraton order, differs from any of Sheraton’s designs.

The chair in Illustration [195] belongs to Walter Bowne Lawrence, Esq., of Flushing, Long Island. It is one of the finest types of a Sheraton chair. The front legs end in what Hepplewhite called a “spade foot,” which was frequently employed by him and occasionally by Sheraton.

Illustration [196] shows a Sheraton chair owned by Mrs. E. A. Morse of Worcester. The top bar is carved with graceful festoons of drapery, and the back is in a design which is often seen.

Illus. 199.—Late Mahogany Chairs, 1830-1845.

A chair after Sheraton’s later designs is shown in Illustration [197]. It is one which was popular in the first decade of the nineteenth century. This chair is part of a set inherited by Waldo Lincoln, Esq., of Worcester.

The chair shown in Illustration [198] is owned by Mrs. J. C. Cutter of Worcester. It has a rush seat, and the back is painted in the manner called japanning, with gilt flowers upon a black ground. These chairs, which were called “Fancy chairs,” were very popular during the first part of the nineteenth century, together with settees decorated in the same fashion.

Illustration [199] shows two mahogany chairs owned by Waldo Lincoln, Esq., of the styles which were fashionable from 1840 to 1850, examples of which may be found in almost every household, along with heavy sofas and tables of mahogany, solid or veneered.

In the first half of the nineteenth century and in the last quarter of the eighteenth, furniture was fashionable made of the light-colored woods; maple, curly and bird’s-eye, and in the more expensive pieces, satinwood, which was used chiefly as a veneer on account of its cost. The two varieties of maple, being a native wood and plentiful, were always used lavishly, and rarely as a veneer. The thick maple drawers in old bureaus have been sawed into many thicknesses to use in violins, for which their seasoned wood is especially valuable. The parlor in John Hancock’s house, in Boston, was “furnished in bird’s-eye maple covered with damask brocade.” As Governor Hancock was a man of inherited wealth and probably of fashion as well, his parlor would be furnished according to the mode of the day.

Illus. 200.—Maple Chairs, 1820-1830.

The three maple chairs in Illustration [200] belong to the writer. They were probably made about 1820 to 1830. The wood in all is beautifully marked curly maple, and in the upper rail of two is set a strip of bird’s-eye maple. The design of the carved piece across the back is one that was used at this time in both maple and mahogany chairs.

CHAPTER VII

SETTLES, SETTEES, AND SOFAS

THE first form of the long seat, afterward developed into the sofa, was the settle, which is found in the earliest inventories in this country, and still earlier in England. The settle oftenest seen in America is of simple construction, usually of pine, and painted; probably the work of a country cabinet-maker, or even a carpenter. It was made to stand by the great fireplace, to keep the draughts out and the heat in, with its tall back, and the front of the seat coming down to the floor; and sadly was it needed in those days when the ink froze in the standish, as the minister sat by the fire to write his sermon. Illustration [201] shows a settle in the Deerfield Museum, in the kitchen. In front of the settle stands a flax-wheel, which kept the housewife busy on winter evenings, spinning by the firelight. Beside the settle is a rudely made light-stand, with a tin lamp, and a brass candlestick with the extinguisher on its top, and snuffers and tray beside it. Upon one side of the settle is fastened a candlestick with an extension frame. Behind the flax-wheel is a banister-back chair, the plain type of the chairs in Illustration [139], and at the right of the picture is a slat-back, flag-bottomed chair such as may be seen in Illustration [143].

Illus. 201.—Pine Settle, Eighteenth Century.

Illustration [202] shows a settle of oak, which has upon the back the carved date 1708. The front of the seat has four panels, while the back has five lower panels, with a row of small panels above. The top rail is carved in five groups, the middle design of each group being a crown, and between each small panel is a turned ornament. The arms are like the arms of the wainscot chairs in Illustration [124] and Illustration [125]. The top of the seat does not lift up, as was often the case, disclosing a box below, but is fastened to the frame, and probably there were provided for this settle the articles often mentioned in inventories, “chusshings,” “quysyns,” or cushions, which the hard seat made so necessary. This settle belongs to Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston.

Illus. 202.—Oak Settle, 1708.

The word “settee” is the diminutive of “settle,” and the long seat which corresponded to the chairs with the frame of turned wood was called a settee or small settle, being of so much lighter build than the settle.

Illus. 203.—Settee covered with Turkey work, 1670-1680.

Illustration [203] shows a settee owned by the Essex Institute of Salem, and said to have been brought to this country by a Huguenot family about 1686. It is upholstered, like the chairs of the same style, in Turkey work, the colors in which are still bright. Turkey work was very fashionable at that time, rugs being imported from Turkey in shapes to fit the seat and back of chairs or settees.

Another form of the long seat was one which was intended to serve as a couch, or “day-bed.” It was really what its French name implies, chaise longue, or long chair, the back being an enlarged chair-back, and the body of the couch equalling three chair-seats. Illustration [204] shows a couch owned by the Concord Antiquarian Society, which formerly belonged to the descendants of the Rev. Peter Bulkeley. It had originally a cane seat, and evidently formed part of a set of furniture, for a chair of the same style is with it, which also belonged to the Bulkeley family. Both couch and chair are Flemish in design, with the scroll foot turning backward. The braces between the legs are carved in the same design as the top of the back.

Illus. 204.—Flemish Couch, 1680-1690.

Illustration [205] shows a walnut couch made in the Dutch style about 1720-1730, with bandy legs and Dutch feet. The splat in the back is Dutch, but instead of the side-posts curving into the top rail like the Dutch chairs, in which the top and the side-posts apparently form one piece, these posts run up, with a finish at the top like the Flemish chairs, and like the posts in the back of the couch in Illustration [204].

Illus. 205.—Dutch Couch, 1720-1730.

Illus. 206.—Chippendale Couch, 1760-1770.

It is interesting to compare this couch, which is owned by the Misses Hosmer of Concord, Massachusetts, with the following one, Illustration [206], which belongs to Mr. Walter Hosmer of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and was made about 1770. This couch, of mahogany, has a back like one of the familiar Chippendale chairs, somewhat higher than the back of the couch in Illustration [205], which is longer than this Chippendale couch.

Illus. 207.—Chippendale Settee, 1760.

The bandy legs with claw-and-ball feet are unusually well proportioned, and the effect of the piece of furniture is extremely elegant. The canvas seat is drawn tight by ropes laced over wooden knobs.

A double chair owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston, is shown in Illustration [207]. The splats are cut in an early design, with the heart-shaped opening in the lower part. The settee is not so wide as some, and the back is not equal to two chair backs, lacking the side rails which are usually carried down in the middle between the splats.

Illus. 208.—Sofa, 1740.

The front legs have the acanthus carving upon the knees, and end in a Dutch foot. This settee is what was called a “Darby and Joan” seat, just wide enough for two.

A sofa is shown in Illustration [208] from “Stenton,” the fine old house in Philadelphia, now occupied by the Colonial Dames. The back and arms are upholstered, and the shape of the arms, and the curved outline of the back are like early Chippendale pieces. A distinction was made between the “sopha” and the settee, the sofa being a long seat with the back and arms entirely upholstered, like the sofa in Illustration [208].

Illus. 209.—Chippendale Settee, 1765-1770.

Illustration [209] shows a Chippendale settee with beautifully carved cabriole legs, owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq. The three front legs are carved with the scroll foot turned to the front. This foot was called the French foot by the cabinet-makers of that period, about 1765-1770.

Illus. 210.—Double Chair, 1760.

Illustration [210] shows a double chair, also owned by Mr. Flagler. It has characteristics of various nationalities and styles, mainly Chippendale. The back consists of two chair backs, wider than arm-chair backs, which is almost always true of the double chair. The corners of the seat, and the ends of the top rails are rounding after the Dutch style, but the splats are Chippendale. The three front legs end in a small claw-and-ball, and the knees are carved. The most noticeable feature of this graceful piece is the rococo design at the top of the back and upon the front of the seat.

Illustration [211] shows a Chippendale double chair and one of four arm-chairs, formerly owned by Governor John Wentworth, whose household goods were confiscated and sold at auction by the Federal government, in 1776. Since that time these pieces have been in the Alexander Ladd house at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where they now stand. They are a perfect exemplification of Chippendale’s furniture in the Chinese style, and are probably the finest examples of that style in this country. They are of mahogany, with cane seats. The design of the backs is more elaborate than any of the Chinese designs for furniture of either Chippendale, Manwaring, Ince, or Mayhew; an unusual thing, for a majority of the designs in the old cabinet-makers’ books are far more elaborate than the furniture which has come down to us. Chippendale says that these “Chinese chairs are very suitable for a lady’s boudoir, and will likewise suit a Chinese temple.” One wonders if Governor Wentworth had a Chinese temple for these beautiful pieces of furniture. He had, we know, splendid gardens, which were famous in those days, and possibly a Chinese temple may have been one of the adornments, with these chairs for its furniture.

Illus. 211.—Chippendale Double Chair and Chair,
in “Chinese Taste,” 1760-1765.

Illustration [212] shows a double chair, which is well known from representations of it in various books. It is one of the finest examples existing of the Chippendale period, and was undoubtedly, like the double chair in Illustration [211], made in England. The carving upon the three front legs is unusually good. The feet are carved with lions’ claws, and the knees with grotesque faces, while the arms end in dragons’ heads.

Illus. 212.—Chippendale Double Chair, 1750-1760.

The corners of the back are finished with a scroll, turning to the back. The wood of this double chair is walnut, and it is covered in gray horsehair. This chair formerly belonged to John Hancock, and was presented to the American Antiquarian Society in 1838, with other pieces bought from the Hancock house, by John Chandler, of Petersham, Massachusetts.

The little settee in Illustration [213] is owned by Albert S. Rines, Esq., of Portland, Maine. It was evidently made from the same design as a long settee in the Pendleton collection in Providence, which has the same Chippendale carvings on the back at the centre and ends, and the same effect of the leg being continued up into the frame of the seat. This settee has the middle leg unevenly placed.

Illus. 213.—Chippendale Settee, 1770.

The settee in Illustration [214] is entirely unlike any shown. It is French, of the time of Louis the Sixteenth, and with the six chairs like it, was part of the cargo upon the ship Sally, which sailed from France in 1792, and landed at Wiscasset, Maine, with a load of fine furniture and rich belongings intended to furnish a home of refuge for Marie Antoinette, who did not live to sail upon the Sally. The sideboard in Illustration [75] has the same history and it can be traced directly to the Sally. The settee and chairs came from Bath, Maine, where there are also other chairs from the Sally, which are, however, like the sideboard, English in style.

Illus. 214.—French Settee, 1790.

The settee is of solid rosewood, with the short legs of the Louis XVI period, and a very deep seat. The wood of the back is elaborately carved in a design distinctly French, of roses, with a bow of ribbon in the centre. The settee and chairs are now owned by Mrs. William J. Hogg, of Worcester.

A double chair owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., is shown in Illustration [215]. The back is made of two Hepplewhite chair-backs, which combine the outline of the shield back and the middle of the interlaced heart back shown in the chair in Illustration [189].

Illus. 215.—Hepplewhite Settee, 1790.

The three front legs are inlaid with fine lines and the bell flower, and the backs are very finely inlaid, with lines in the urn-shaped piece in the centre, and a fan above, while a fine line of holly runs around the edge of each piece. The stretchers between the legs are a very unusual feature in such settees.

Illustration [216] shows a Sheraton settee, now in Girard College, Philadelphia. It was a part of the furniture belonging to Stephen Girard, the founder of that college. It has eight legs, the four in front being the typical reeded Sheraton legs. The back has five posts dividing it into four chair-backs. The seat is upholstered.

Illus. 216.—Sheraton Settee, 1790-1795.

The Sheraton sofa in Illustration [217] was probably made in England about 1790-1800. It is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. The frame is of mahogany, and the rail at the top of the back is exquisitely carved with festoons and flowers. The front of the seat is slightly rounding at the ends, and the arm, which is carved upon the upper side, extends beyond the upholstered frame, and rests upon a pillar which continues up from the corner leg. This style of arm is quite characteristic of Sheraton. The legs of the sofa are plainly turned, not reeded, as is usual upon Sheraton sofas.

Illus. 217.—Sheraton Sofa, 1790-1800.

The sofa in Illustration [218] is a typical Sheraton piece, of a style which must have been very fashionable about 1800, for such sofas are often found in this country.

Illus. 218.—Sheraton Sofa, about 1800.

The frame is of mahogany, with pieces of satinwood inlaid at the top of the end legs. The arms are like the arms of the sofa in Illustration [217], and they, the pillars supporting them, and the four front legs are all reeded. This sofa is owned by W. S. G. Kennedy, Esq., of Worcester.

Illus. 219.—Sheraton Settee, about 1805.