Paul H. Burroughs

“ On every plantation there was some high genius from the colored quarters, constituted the particular guardian of the family cupboard, who saw to keeping it trim and clean, an old Mother Hubbard that went to the cupboard to get whatever might be wanted from the family store—sure of the supply, from ear muffs and hoods to some herb or toothsome dainty, and herself of a nature made for small confidences, to whom the children brought their troubles. ”

“ GATE-LEGGED AND DINING TABLES
SINCE the days of King Arthur, a table, and particularly a dining table, has been synonymous with royalty. Often to dine with a man is to make him your friend. The table, perhaps, more than any piece of furniture, serves to bring people into a closer relation and better understanding of each other, and of affairs as well. The interests of the American colonists were few, and they depended, to a great extent, on what they received in the way of pleasure, in their homes and from each other. ”

“ This was Thomas Sheraton, a man without means, living on a poor street, wearing a worn and threadbare coat, and combining with his piety, as a minister of the Gospel, a genius for conception of beautiful furniture that perhaps has never been excelled. He registered as an author, bookseller, scholar, and preacher. His ideas of design were built largely around those of the Adam brothers, and he was ready to carry forward the classical idea, so much like Adam and at times so like Hepplewhite, that it is difficult to distinguish him from them. ”

“ The city of Charles Town, visited by fire near the end of the first half of the century, with every house on the east side of Broad Street consumed, went about rebuilding herself in brick, as the period of prosperity began to make itself felt. Fine gardens were being made, with Henry Middleton at work at Middleton Place, and Mrs. Drayton at Magnolia, on the Ashley, where today, in spring, the garden still grows, and myriad of azaleas, in blossoming pink of every tint and shade, and red of every hue, mingle their tones in such fashion as to produce an almost overwhelming sense of loveliness. ”

“ In Virginia, the Eastern Shore jutting almost into Maryland, Accomac and Northampton Counties, early opened up, where many relics of the past survive today, seems almost a part of it. Hand in hand, the two colonies, Virginia and Maryland—Leah and Rachel, they were called—moved together, bound by mutual ties of blood, descent and marriage, defense and material interest in commerce and shipping, with the Potomac, the theatre of mutual business and social pleasure, a dividing line that served rather to bring together than to set them apart. ”

“ Dealers, often too, lose out. A fair price, offered by a collector, while rambling around in a South Carolina attic with a family group who, at his suggestion, had unearthed a complete set of dining room furniture of distinct value, but long since discarded for a more modern set, led to their refusal for anything except an extortionate price—so possessed had they become with the fictitious idea of its value, and the possibility of demanding a highly inflated price. ”

“ Nothing is more difficult to place in a definite manufacture than a chair, as only certain deviations from a general style will help to do so. Many sets of chairs were made in the South for the original furnishings of homes, and these only can be definitely placed. It has been said that one can tell American-made chairs of the Chippendale period by the fact that the side seat rails have a tenon that passes through the rear legs, but this cannot always be used to determine a Southern-made chair, as many of the workmen learned their trade in England, and did not follow this construction. ”

“ Walnut, cherry, and pine were the woods most used by the early furniture makers of the South, until the advent of mahogany, when that wood, of course, went rapidly to a place of unquestioned supremacy. Virginia, from the earliest times, has been noted, as today, for its fine old walnut trees; and home-grown walnut, appealing to the luxurious, and used abundantly for paneling in Southern houses was, as a rule, the first choice of the Southern furniture builders for highly finished pieces. ”

“ The first Southern settlers, in many instances, could do no better for themselves by way of shelter than huts and cabins, and even caves, with the Cavalier-born, as well as the less fortunate, having to bide their time until something better could be produced. Following the cabins in Maryland, came the pine-board house, green-shingled and shuttered or paneled at the windows, and as housebuilding got under way in Maryland and Virginia, the barn-type house, with high pitched roofs, and chimneys built outside the walls, largely prevailed. ”

“ Some hedging, and even sidestepping a bit, is often in order on both sides, which, when it comes to the naming of price, often operates to the grief of one or the other in reality wishing to sell or buy. Ten dollars, on one occasion, offered as a start, for a tambour desk by a buyer who, in fact, would have gladly given two hundred dollars to possess it, threw the owner, a woman, into a state of indignation. ”

“ By 1640 Virginia had almost fifteen thousand people, and the demand for furniture was steadily increasing. More than one family often lived under one roof; families were large, as a rule, and the door stood open for strangers and friends alike, at all hours. The amount of furniture required rose as the standards of living advanced. Virginia looked out for herself in this, one of her major needs, and her county files reveal a host of men at work. ”

“ The gate-leg table has a long history of beauty and usefulness. Originating in the spiral twist of English design in the middle of the seventeenth century, it has shown much variety in style and form. As popular and decorative as this table is today, it is hard to realize that it reaches back into the South of stormy times, when the colonists lived in fear of the Indians lurking at their door, and the men of the house came back from the long struggles to tell their stories around this table. ”

“ Maryland, a royal colony in close touch with the mother country, imported rare pieces which were often used for examples, and perhaps, more than any of the colonies, clung to the English ideas in furniture making. Life was lived at the best, and fine furniture was a necessity. ”

“ The oak Virginia-made cupboard, lined with Southern pine, which is illustrated, stamped with its early style, makes safe the assumption that this piece is one of the first made in Virginia, and as far as can be determined, the first in the United States.
Early beds in any quantity have not been found in the South. Due to their cumbersomeness, many of them have been done away with, it is thought. What the settlers made and used was simple, with the bed furniture, perhaps, of more moment than the bed. ”

“ Living everywhere, it would seem, had improved. A far inland mountain farmer in Rappahannock County, Virginia, George Nicholls, lists in his will, with a court cupboard, other chests and articles which even then denote decided comfort: "two tables, one six and one four foot, one form, one great looking glass, one couch, one great joyned chair, one pair of andirons . . . one feather bed and furniture, two high bedsteads." ”

“ Fine houses and fine furniture meant fine living, and visiting back and forth, with cards and dances that lasted for days, to enjoy. Annapolis opened her theatre in 1752. Charles Town was already filling hers to the doors. Breeding of fine horses was the business and sport of a gentleman. The thoroughbred had long since displaced the field pony in Virginia, with Virginia and Maryland the pioneers in improving the stock, and many race courses being run—the York, at Charleston, highly popular, as were those at Fredericksburg and Alexandria, and on to Marlboro and Annapolis. ”

“ There was elegance among the planters, and leisure, if desired, on from the middle of the century, with building activity continued, as the struggles with the French and Indians ended. Carter's Grove, in Virginia, built in 1751, showed doorways flanked with pilasters, hand-tooled work in the drawing room, fronting the river, a Roman Doric cornice above its chimney piece, and easy-falling stairway with twisted newels and fine ramp, an archway eighteen feet wide, flanked by Ionic pilasters breaking the wall paneled in black walnut and pine. ”

“ Peculiar to the majority of Southern-made card tables are the five legs, four of which are stationary, and one of which swings out to support the top when open. Card tables of the Hepplewhite period are sometimes found very elaborately inlaid, and frequently in pairs. Mahogany was the most popular wood for this type of table.
The active interests in the home relate themselves to the small table. To encompass the various tables of small size made in the South, to meet the various needs, would constitute a comprehensive study. ”

“ AMERICA, in the first fifty years of her existence, was largely under control of the British influence in many ways, and the idea of house and furniture clung closely to early English tradition, when many often slept in one bed, none too comfortable, and wherever a fireplace happened to be. ”

“ The few found in the South are made of oak, decorated with carving. The early colonial gentleman must, of course, learn to write, particularly with long letters to be sent back to England, and the Bible box was put upon a stand and made to take the form of a desk. In 1690 a chest, with a top having a solid fall board, enclosing drawers and pigeonholes, came into use. This was one of the forerunners of the secretary. Few of this type are known in the South, and those few are of English origin. ”

“ Hepplewhite's ideas of furniture building came to America following the Revolution, as the country, too, responded at length to the Adam idea. The period of his activity corresponded largely, in time, to that of the administration of George Washington as President of the United States, when the country was again making some advance, and the ideas of luxurious living once more were uppermost. The Hepplewhite name designates a furniture rapidly coming into favor as the new republic got upon its feet. ”

“ Cross Manor, Calvert's Rest, Brushwood, on the South Wicomico, hark back to the stately days of early Maryland. The Old Brick House on the Edisto Island, in South Carolina, with its walls two feet thick, its cypress paneling and painting in oil by master hands, tells a story somewhat different from that of the oldest house at Beaufort, so arranged that muskets could be exploded from both sides, with a place provided below where ammunition might be kept at hand.
Throughout, joiners and carpenters were at work. The more prosperous depended on importation for the best of their furniture. ”

“ Attention is called to the inlaid oval on the front of the chest, a type of inlay used on many pieces throughout the South and a clever, though humble imitation of the ovals found on elaborate pieces. The black parts shown in the oval were made of colored putty and cut out after the oval had been put into the wood, with a gouge. They were then filled with colored putty instead of being made of wood. This was often done, too, with the more elaborate pieces. Thus the workman was given opportunity with a variety of decoration that could be made, as a rule, only with curved sides. ”

“ The question of values is always a delicate one, and even though well-to-do people of established financial and social position are hard to bargain with, the experienced collector always prefers to deal with someone having some idea of value and a definite figure in mind. For the day is long gone when the buyer is out to deceive the owner as to proper values, even though, as yet, the average buyer is not adverse to making a good bargain. ”

“ HUNTING BOARDS
THE hunting boards around which the owners of Southern plantations gathered their friends before and after the hunt, resemble the sideboard in plan and execution, and served to some degree the same purpose. They were often in plain designs, and served as a part of the equipment of the homes. With the Southern
forests rich with game and the housewife eager for the results of the day's hunt, the sport was indulged in by all classes. ”

“ The term desk, now in general use in America, denotes any object of furniture used for writing purposes. Bureau, the English term for an inclosed writing cabinet, is one of the many names for the desk. The modern use of the word, secretary, is from the French word, scriptoire, meaning to write, and scrutoire. Secretary, today, means a desk with a bookcase top. ”

“ Hopkins in 1767, in Baltimore, was offering a vast array made in mahogany, walnut, and cherry, with carving and without, "card, parlor and tea tables . . . decanter stands, tea kettle stands, dumb waiters and tea boards."
Attention is called to the sewing table. Diversion was afforded, even for women of wealth, in handwork and sewing, and which made the sewing table a piece of importance. ”