Most collectors of American Antiques have collections that consist of a variety of pieces; each piece representing a time period or style of living - each piece having its own story to tell. Our furniture and pottery reproductions are much like these privately owned collections. We are greatly inspired by the American crafters that came before us.
As life in the colonies became easier, American Craftsmen began to copy late English Baroque style, the so-called William and Mary designs. These were the first true American cabinetmakers, employing sophisticated woodworking techniques such as veneering, dovetail joinery, turnings and case construction.
They built complex pieces, such as highboys and lowboys, which are tall and short chests of drawers on extended legs. William and Mary chests and desks typically had scrolled skirts and trumpet turned legs. During this time the first distinctly American furniture design appeared: the butterfly table and a drop leaf table with wide curved supports.
European cabinetmakers, enamored of imported Oriental furniture, began to incorporate Japanese and Chinese design elements into their own pieces. Americans followed suit a few years later. These elements included the cabriole leg, ball and claw foot, and shell carvings. The cyma curve or ogee was used everywhere on Queen Anne pieces.
Craftsman of different areas began to work in certain different types of wood. In New England, cabinet makers preferred curly maple. In Connecticut, they built furniture in cherry. In Pennsylvania, walnut was the wood of choice. In the Carolinas, cypress and heart pine was used. In port cities, craftsmen used imported mahogany.
Overall, the Queen Anne designs were less cluttered, lighter, and more graceful than previous styles.
In 1754, Thomas Chippendale published The Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Director. His designs used many basic Queen Anne forms, but they were heavier and added decoration such as carved finials and pieced fretwork.
He also introduced the straight line as a design element; many Chippendale pieces had square untapered legs and applied bracket bases.
The American interpretation of Chippendale’s designs was much more restrained than the English. In the American country cabinet shops, there was little change from the Queen Anne style – country cabinetmakers and their clients could not afford the expensive Chippendale carving and ornamentation.
Hepplewhite and Sheraton furniture followed the neoclassic design trend that began in the late eighteenth century. The shapes of their furniture were simple, light, and graceful. Hepplewhite used more straight lines and Sheraton pieces were known for their turned legs and paneled chest ends. The flat surfaces of city-made pieces were often decorated with exotic woods, veneers, and inlays of eagles and patriotic symbols.
Because these designs were simpler, they were much more imitated than Chippendale by country craftsmen. These craftsmen could not afford the expensive imported woods so they developed techniques to paint their local woods to look as though veneered. This Grain Painted technique became popular among country folks.
Of all the furniture crafted in the West Indies, Danish West Indian furniture is the most distinctive, stylish, and classical. It is large, boldly proportioned, often with over-scaled carving and turning, and it is always made from richly figured tropical hardwoods. Danish West Indian furniture began to be made around the middle of the eighteenth century and continued into the late 19th century.
Mahogany remained the wood of choice for the island cabinetmakers and was most often used as both the primary and secondary wood. With time, the copies of imported furniture became more interpretive than exact. The craftsmen began to use traditional African zoomorphic decorative motifs and motifs from tropical flora and fauna. The continual importation of West African slaves until the mid-nineteenth century ensured the survival of African motifs.
This style furniture is similar to American Sheraton and Empire furniture.
The craftsmen who made this style furniture were immigrants from Germany and Switzerland. They settled in Pennsylvania but banded together in tight, conservative communities that preserved their Old World traditions. The popular furniture forms that they built were wardrobes, dower chests, chest of drawers, cupboards, tables, and plank seat chairs.
Typical design elements of these pieces were fancy forged iron hardware, detailed moldings and cutouts, and brightly colored painted decorations.
Medieval European folk painted decoration included hearts, tulips, distelfinks, unicorns, stars, and other geometric shapes.
Shaker furniture was developed by a strict religious order called The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. It was founded by Mother Ann Lee in 1774 at Watervaliet, New York. For fifty years there were over 6,000 believers in 19 communities throughout the East and Midwest.
As the sect grew, they began to make their own furniture, based on traditional English forms. However, because the Shakers believed that “beauty rests on utility”, they stripped these pieces of almost all ornament. In doing so, they created a style whose forms rested purely on function. There was beauty in simplicity.
The Shakers are known for many articles that were made in their communities. Their furniture, oval storage boxes, rocking chairs, and the flat brooms are featured in many museum collections around the country.
Redware, a fragile, glazed earth ware style of pottery that derived its name from its earthly red color; vanished from the American pottery market when a more durable salt-glaze stoneware pottery appeared on the scene in the mid-1800's. Because of the availability of the red clay and its low firing temperature, Redware was the first type of pottery made by the European settlers in America.
This simple method uses traditional cup with feather quills or a modern syringe bottle to drizzle white slip clay onto a wet slab of clay that will be drape molded to make a plate.
Similar to quilling, this technique uses a traditional quill cup with a single quill or a modern syringe bottle to apply the slip (liquid clay) on a dry plate or pot in a more intricate raised design.
After a slip base is applied to the piece, miscellaneous pointed tools are used to scratch a fine design through the slip into the red clay to create a detailed design.
If you are a pottery student, you will notice some European pieces in our catalog. Polychrome English Delft, German slipware, and French style pots are represented, but the focus of the collection is American.
American handmade redware pottery was made all over America, but every region had its own look. North Carolina had the Moravians who detailed the flowing slip-trailed flowers on jars and plates. The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is famous for the Bell family's pottery, such as sculpted lions. However, the most famous and prolific area for Redware pottery was Eastern Pennsylvania where the immigrant German population produced its art until the end of the 19th Century.
The 18th and 19th century pottery of New England was plainly decorated, utilitarian ware. These pots were thrown with finely detailed handles, lids, and incised lines. Pots were usually done in a simple slip decoration which could have been black manganese or multicolor slips sealed with a lead glaze. The slip-trailed name plates from the Smith Pottery in Norwalk, Connecticut are the inspiration for our reproduction plates with writing.
The 18th and 19th century pottery of New England was plainly decorated, utilitarian ware. These pots were thrown with finely detailed handles, lids, and incised lines. Pots were usually done in a simple slip decoration which could have been black manganese or multicolor slips sealed with a lead glaze. The slip-trailed name plates from the Smith Pottery in Norwalk, Connecticut are the inspiration for our reproduction plates with writing.
The 18th and 19th century pottery of New England was plainly decorated, utilitarian ware. These pots were thrown with finely detailed handles, lids, and incised lines. Pots were usually done in a simple slip decoration which could have been black manganese or multicolor slips sealed with a lead glaze. The slip-trailed name plates from the Smith Pottery in Norwalk, Connecticut are the inspiration for our reproduction plates with writing.
Most scholars on American Furniture agree that the American Windsor Chair was copied from a basic chair design that has been made in England for many years.
This basic style chair became known as a Windsor Chair because of King George 1st of England. The story is that King George was on a foxhunt when it began to rain. He sought shelter in a simple home of one of his peasant subjects, where he came upon a simple chair.
The chair seat was made from a single plank of wood. The turned legs were in holes, drilled through the seat and then were locked in place by wooden wedges driven into the top of the leg.
The back of the chair consisted of spindles rived from logs. They were glued into holes in the seat and then run into the chair crest or through the chair bow.
The King was so impressed with the simplicity and comfort of the chair, that he ordered several made in the same style for Windsor Castle. So a lowly handmade chair, made by the “common man” was now named after a royal castle.
The American Windsor chair shares the same basic design and construction traits of its English ancestor. Where the English chair was sometimes made from hardwood throughout, the American chairs had softwood seats, maple turnings and hickory spindles, which made them light, yet very sturdy.
Each region of our country made the same basic style of chairs, but each geographical area seemed to develop its own twist on the basic design.
The turnings on Pennsylvania chairs were known for their blunt arrow turnings and sturdy vase legs. The turnings on New England chairs were lighter and more delicate. Knuckle arms and the ears on fan back chairs varied from maker to maker. Bamboo turnings were done in all areas of the country in the 19th century as chair demand exceeded the availability of skilled turners.
Since these chairs were made of mixed woods they were usually painted in solid colors. Sometimes the seats were grain painted or the chairs were decorated in the style of the period. Settees, high chairs, rocking chairs, stools and even some Windsor tables were also made by these craftsmen.
To find a chair which retains it's “paint history” from the day it was made is a rare occurrence. From the collector's point of view, finding a chair with is original finish intact is very exciting; similar to finding a historical document.
