The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Furniture Finishing

Solid colors are particularly appropriate on Directoire or Empire caned chairs and settees, the cane being antique glazed and high-lighted to give a worn effect. On the frame, correct paint or enamel colors include deep browns, rich green, crimson, royal blue and purple, rubbed dull to produce the desired matte lustre. Decoration should be classical in theme, worked out in gold, silver or a light shade harmonizing with the enamel. Banding is often supplemented by striping in two tone effects, but antiquing is not required.


American Colonial (1620-1810)


THERE is a rather widespread impression that furniture produced in America prior to the Revolution represents a distinctive style, now denoted as Colonial. In point of fact, practically all of it bears the impress of some contemporary English period and for the sake of convenience, Colonial furniture is best treated from the three stages of this development: Early or New England (1620-1720); Middle (1720-1765) ; Late or Georgian (1765-1795).

EARLY

The first hundred years of our Colonial history was a period of hardship and hence of the greatest simplicity in point of home furnishings. The most precious objects were brought from England and served as models for the skilled artisans among the colonists who faithfully duplicated these Elizabethan and Jacobean pieces, modifying their ornateness wherever possible. For it must be remembered that the first Colonial homes hardly afforded a background for highly carved or decorated furniture. Many had but one large room; the planked floors were seamed with oakum, the walls covered with boards or crudely plastered, the ceilings supported by rough hewn beams. The fireplace was often eight feet wide and surrounded by cooking utensils.

Characteristic furniture consisted of one or more chests, serving alike for seating and storage, a cupboard, a dresser, a settle, a trestle table and two or three chairs and stools. Every room, even the parlor, contained a canopied bed. Oak was favored for carved wainscot chairs, cupboards, chests and long tables, pine for rush-bottomed, ladder and spindle-back chairs and maple for smaller tables and bedsteads. Many of these pieces have distinctive names—butterfly tables, Providence tables, Salem hutches, Hadley chests, Carver chairs, etc.