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

Furniture Finishing

As an original style American Empire varied greatly in merit according to the method of treatment and, compared to much that was produced in the latter "gimcrack" era, constituted a thing of dignified beauty. It retained its popularity well through the nineteenth century, but today is looked upon as a curiosity; in its earlier manifestations only has it any interest in the eyes of collector or designer.

Plate XL.—American Empire Sideboard, Showing Massive Contour and Scrolf Support!.

At first the mahogany was polished on the bare wood with shellac and linseed oil to a brilliant lustre. In time a vogue grew up for coloring the veneer a deeper, richer red with a dye distilled from the liquor of boiled West Indian logwood chips. It was then shellaced, varnished and polished with so many coats that the true beauty of the veneer was well-nigh obliterated. The modern practice calls for a deep red tone known as Colonial and a pale varnish polished to a high lustre.

Victorian and Mission (1840-1900)


TOWARD the middle of the nineteenth century a change came over the spirit of furniture design, partly perhaps as a reaction from the swift brilliance of the Georgian era, but more probably due to the increased perfection of woodworking machinery. Hitherto furniture had been made exclusively in shops, all the work being done by hand, so that only the wealthy could be looked to for patronage. Thus a table by Duncan Phyffe cost $265 and a pair of card tables $135, which in view of the value of money in those days, would make the prices today equivalent roughly to three times these amounts.

When it was discovered that machinery could turn out furniture in quantities limited only by the demand, there was a rush, in America as in England, to get into the business. Dazzled by the new opportunity for wealth, artistic merit was ignored in a disorderly race to see who could excel in novelty. The result was an avalanche of gimcrack, gingerbread designs that today would be rejected even by the least educated and that caused machinemade furniture to become a term of reproach. Small wonder then that the cabinet maker continued to flourish—for three or four decades the wealthier classes and the United States government itself consistently preferred the higher priced hand-made output rather than accept the factory-made product.