Wall Panelling Corporation Showroom

• home
• about us
• catalogue
• colonial designs
• history of colonial furniture
• contact us

Furniture Style, In The Early Colonies Early English and American Colonial Furniture of Seventeenth Century Type

In any new settlement, the important articles of early American colonial furniture,that is, those which would be first made, would be chairs andtables. Chests and cupboards could wait until a leisure time. Robinson Crusoe, on his island, never achieved either, it will be remembered. Thus, in the New England Colonies, it is to chairs and tables which one would turn to find copies from English models, if any such existed at all. We must bear in mind that these would be the work of the carpenter, not of the cabinet or chair-maker, for reasons which have already been stated, and not only would one expect variations on this account alone, but also the characteristics of the districts from which the early settlers had emigrated would he followed where practicable.

In early American colonial furniture like chairs, especially, wide difference existed in the work of the various English counties, almost up to 168o. Thus those of Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Welsh bordering counties, Warwickshire, Cheshire, and the districts immediately around London vary in important details more easily illustrated than described. In addition, the "Windsor" chair from the Wycombe district in Bucking­hamshire would be a persistent type, as these chairs had a long tradition behind them, and were easily made.

No Walnut Period in Early American Colonial Furniture

The Pilgrim Fathers landed in Massachusetts in 1620, fleeing from the persecution of Charles I, and the exodus was greatest from Lancashire and Western Yorkshire. In the parish church of Chorley, in Lancashire, is still to he seen the pew of Miles Standish, and the country around is redolent of Puritan traditions to this day. The new colony was further reinforced by Roundhead emigrants who left England when the monarchy was restored in 166o. It is only after this date that New England begins to develop a distinctive style of its own, in oak furniture, at the time when walnut was becoming the fashionable furniture wood in Eng land. Herein lies the chief distinction between the English and early American colonial furniture work of the later years of the seventeenth century, andas Philadelphia was only in the making at the time, if even commenced, "American" furniture is that of the New England states only. Walnut comes into fashionable (but not general) use after1660 in England, whereas oak is the American timber until Mahogany replaces it. There is really no walnut period in early American colonial furniture, although the wood was used, sparingly, especially on the banks of the Delaware.

On the other hand, in England, walnut was the wood for chairs, tables and similar pieces, whereas oak still persisted for panelings and wall-pieces. Walnut wainscotings are not unknown but they are exceedingly rare, while mahogany never appears to have been used for this purpose at any time.  Perhaps the reason s that panelings were the work of the carpenter at all periods in English woodwork, and oak was his favorite timber. The wall­pieces, court and standing cupboards of the late seventeenth century were also in his hands, and it is only in the last years of William III that the cabinetmaker is responsible for all furniture, chairs and kindred pieces alone excepted.

Getting Away from English Models in Early American Colonial Furniture

It is from 1640 to nearly 1700 that the English pieces arc the most faithfully copied in New England (due allowance being made for want of facilities and of trade traditions), but here it is often the case that the American models are anything from twenty to fifty years behind the current fashions in England, and, in dating ,f examples, due allowance must he made for this fact. There is always a certain crudity, more in line and proportion than in actual workmanship, which enables one to distinguish the American furniture of this period, whereas, in the last half of the eighteenth century, definite styles had been established, especially in Rhode Island and in Pennsylvania, and the resemblances to English models are then more imaginary than real. The timber itself is, of course, some indication of origin (in fact, it is the best of all criteria), but in photographs or book illustrations this guide cannot exist, for obvious reasons.

English Stools, Chairs and Tables of Early American Colonial Furniture

Even up to the walnut period in England, so long as hospitality in the greater houses was on a lavish and elastic scale, the stool retained its popularity as the usual seat for meals, especially in the home or southern counties, but to accommodate the extravagantly hooped skirts which were general among the better class women at this period, chairs without arms became general in the Midlands, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire, each of which developed its own definite type. Examples of both are illustrated here and are easily recognizable.

The progression of the English oak table also requires some explanation. The Tudor type was of the end-trestle form, almost until the end of the reign of Elizabeth, when the bulbous leg came into vogue. This persisted almost until the close of the Stuart dynasty, but shortly after the Restoration the vase or baluster turning began to replace it for large tables, and the spiral or twist (copied from the chair-maker) for those of smaller size. In the Commonwealth days the so-called bobbin-turning had a short lease of fashion, and, with the first years of the eighteenth century, the cabriole was introduced from Holland. It is found, in embryonic form, in the William and Mary pieces, but, as a rule, the plain smooth cabriole is an innovation of the first gears of the reign of Anne.

Early American Colonial Furniture Materials (Wood)

On principal furniture woods of the New England states (the home of these Americanized models of the English seventeenth century) were oak and maple. In rare instances walnut is found, but for chairs, elm, ash, hickory and plane tree are more common. For furniture of the settler or cottage type, deal and pine were often used, and one frequently finds pieces where many woods are used together. Veneering is rare, and when found, the base is usually soft pine (after the Dutch manner) instead of the English oak. It is more than probable that some of this early American colonial furniture may have originated from New York State and even from what is now the New Jersey shore to the north of the Schuylkill and the Delaware, and up to Albany.

Localities are difficult to fix, as the unsettled state of the country would cause frequent migrations from place to place anywhere from the Hudson to the Charles River, and the term "New England" is perhaps the best to designate much of this American furniture of seventeenth century type. The presence of heavy wall pieces, such as the court or standing cupboard would indicate a more or less fixed settlement where the early colonists were firmly entrenched in these homesteads and guarded by forts or stockades.

Early American Colonial Furniture Lacquer Very Rare

It is unnecessary to treat of American lacquer work in any detail. It was, at best, purely an adventitious decoration, and was very sparingly used. The dry climate of the Eastern American states, the rigors of a New England winter, with the consequent tendency to overheat the houses, must have been fatal to its popularity here. At the present day it is dangerous to introduce the English pieces which, in a humid climate, have persisted n a perfect state for nearly three hundred years. In America the best European examples fall to pieces in an incredibly short time. The same is true of the Chinese work, which one would have thought could withstand any extremes of temperature. American lacquered pieces are exceedingly rare, in consequence, and, in aspiration and design, are far removed from oriental originals.

Early American Colonial Furniture Lacquer Work in England

In the years from 166o to about 1730, attempts were made to design furniture specifically for lacquer ornamentation, and in the closing years of the seventeenth century, a definite fashion for lacquer did exist, shared, perhaps with the craze for marqueterie, an inlay of gaily colored woods. From these years we get the early American colonial furniture like square cabinets on carved gilt stands, ornate pieces which may have suited the large architectural interiors of the time, but which would have been sadly out of place in a New England settler's home.

Early American colonial furniture Lacquer persists, in England, throughout the period of the Chippendale school, and Robert Adam used it at Nostell Priory and at Gawthorp (afterwards Harewood House). It appears, sporadically, even up to the end of the century, in the work of Hepplewhite and Sheraton, but this late lacquer is really varnished paint, and differs, intrinsically, very little, if at all, from the decoration of Pergolesi, Antonio Zucchi, Cipriani or Angelica Kauff­mann, other than in style. Various attempts were made to revive this "Chinese taste," as it was termed. Edwards and Darly in 1745, Chippendale in 1754-62, and even Sheraton in 1795 designed in this manner, and the last named even devised a chair-pattern in wood turned to simulate bamboo, and intended for lacquering in brown with Chinese devices picked out in gold. At the same time a rage did exist for Chinese wall-papers (of which umbers were imported in the "tea-clippers") and fabrics in the oriental styles. As early as 1688 Stalker and Parker had published a folio volume in which they proposed to teach the whole art and mystery of "lackering" or "Japanning", but they were merely charlatans, as a study of the book (now very rare, by the way) will show.