Frances Clary Morse

“ 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. ”

“ It is amazing that so frail a thing as this glass chandelier with all of its shades should have survived the Civil War, and still more, the earthquake which laid low a large part of the city, but not one shade has been shaken down. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 pendulum of this clock swings above the shelf. The frame rests upon four wooden feet, and its sides and back are of glass. The face and ornaments are made of lead, the ornaments being gilded, except the parrots at each side, which are painted in vivid parrot greens. The mermaids upon the bracket are painted in colors, and the face also is painted, the whole making a gay bit of decoration. The Friesland clocks generally have mermaids and parrots as part of the decoration of clock and bracket. There is a small brass dial in the centre of the face, which can be set for the alarm. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The piano e forte—soft and loud—was invented about 1720. The strings of the piano are struck by hammers instead of being picked by quills, and the force of the hammer strokes made a stronger frame necessary than that of the spinet or harpsichord, in order to hold the heavier strings.
Brissot de Warville wrote in 1788 that in Boston “one sometimes hears the forte piano, though the art is in its infancy.” He then soulfully bursts forth, “God grant that the Bostonian women may never, like those of France, acquire the malady of perfection in this art. ”

“ The legs are large, and elaborately carved, and are set in brass standards. On each corner of the frame is a design in gilt. There is one wooden pedal, and the range of the piano is five and one-half octaves. The name of the maker has been obliterated.
The piano in Illustration 290 is owned by Mrs. Louis M. Priest of Salem, New York. The body is of rosewood inlaid with brass, the lid being of mahogany, like the elaborately carved trestle-shaped supports. It has two drawers for holding music, and one pedal, the standard for which is a carved lyre with a mirror behind its strings. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Illustration 319 shows a Franklin stove in the Warner house at Portsmouth. The fireplace, faced with tiles, was originally built to burn wood, but when the new-fashioned Franklin stove became popular, one was bought and set into the fireplace, the front of the stove projecting into the room. The stove is made of iron, with the three rosettes, the open-work rail at the top, the large knobs in front and the small knobs at the back, of brass, which every good housekeeper kept as brightly polished as the brass andirons and the handles of the shovel and tongs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Simon Willard patented in 1802 an improved time-piece, which Mr. Howard says is the clock now known as the “banjo” clock. Illustration 355 shows a clock bought by the writer in a country town from an old man who called it a time-piece, which is the name given it in the country, “banjo” being suggested to the modern mind by the shape of the upper part. The sides of the clock are of mahogany. The glass door to the face is convex and is framed in brass, and the ornaments at the sides of the clock are also of brass. ”

“ Illustration 362 shows a French clock with onyx pillars, and elaborate Empire brasses. The large ornaments at the side of the dial are of wood gilt. The middle of the dial is occupied by a beautifully wrought design in brass, of an anvil and grindstone, each with a little Cupid. Upon the quarter-hour one Cupid sharpens his arrow at the grindstone, running the grindstone with his foot upon a treadle, and at every hour the other Cupid strikes the anvil with his hammer the necessary number of strokes. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Illustration 285 is a fine example of an early pianoforte. Like the spinet and clavichord, the body of the instrument is separate from the lower frame, which is fastened together at the corners with large screws like a bedstead. This may have been for [291] convenience in transportation, and it is possible that while the top containing the works was imported, the supporting frame may have been made in this country. There are four slender inlaid legs, and one pedal, and under the body of the piano runs a most convenient shelf for music. ”

“ M. G. Potter of Worcester, and the story in the family is that this looking-glass was made by Captain John Potter of North Brookfield, a well-known clock-maker and metal-worker, as a present to his bride, about 1790. The glass has always been fastened to the black panel behind it, within the memory of the family. The probability is that the black panel was made by Captain Potter, the frame of marble with its fine gilt ornamentation having been brought originally with other Bilboa looking-glasses to Marblehead, from Italy or Spain, whichever place they may have been brought from. ”

“ The beautiful stairway with panelled ends and boxing in Illustration 407 is in the Allen house in Salem. The balusters are particularly good.
A section of the fine stairway at “Oak Hill,” Peabody, Massachusetts, in Illustration 408, gives the detail of the twisted balusters and newel so often seen in the old seaport towns. Each one of the balusters, of which there are three upon a stair, has a different twist, and the newel is a twist within a twist, the outer spiral being detached from the inner one. The balusters are painted white, and the rail and newel are of mahogany. ”

“ Rococo and Chinese designs were rampantly fashionable in frames for looking-glasses from 1750 to 1780. They present an astonishing combination of Chinese pagodas, shells, flowers, branches, animals, and birds, with occasionally a figure of a man or woman considerably smaller than the flowers and birds upon the same frame.
Some of the famous designers of frames were Matthias Lock, who published “A Book New of Pier Frames, Oval Girandoles, Tables, etc.,” in 1765; Edwards and Darley; and Thomas Johnson; besides the better-known cabinet-makers Ince and Mayhew and Chippendale. ”

“ The legs end in small lion’s feet and are carved, like the posts, with the typical Phyfe leaf. This leaf, so much used by Phyfe, is seen, like the lyre, upon Adam pieces, and apparently the Scotchman, Duncan Phyfe, took the Scotchman, Robert Adam, for his model. The fashion of heavy furniture elaborately carved was more popular in the South than in the North, and the most ornate pieces are found in the South, [279] of later date than the rich carving done in Philadelphia, upon pie-crust tables and high-boys. ”