|
|
Furniture has often been called the backbone of antique collecting. One buys a small table, a chair or two, to give distinction, character, and decorative charm to one's home and these prove so pleasant to live with that more pieces are added as time goes on. Such collecting can range from rarities of the seventeenth century to comfortable pieces of the Early Victorian period, and it is surprising how successfully one can mix examples of the various periods of design in which the American cabinetmakers worked and still achieve a pleasing and harmonious decorative scheme. Furniture making was undoubtedly one of the first crafts practiced in America. The ships that brought the colonists from England and the various European countries during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and even the early years of the nineteenth century were comparatively small and cargo space was limited. So settlers of New England, New York, the Jerseys, Pennsylvania, and the southern colonies brought their tools with them and, as soon as they had houses in which to live, began making tables, chairs, beds, chests, and other essential furnishings. The same condition applied when colonizing penetrated inland, and continued as migration broke through the mountain barrier into the virgin western lands starting with the late eighteenth century. What was made by the first settlers in each succeeding wave of development was crude, and most of it was discarded just as soon as better pieces were obtainable from the hands of men who were cabinetmakers. Some of these had mastered their craft in the Old World; others were native sons, American trained. In either case, what they made not only had an American flavor distinct from the furniture produced on the other side of the Atlantic at the same time, but the cabinetmaking craftsmen of the various sections developed regional characteristics of design and workmanship.
|
|
|
Furniture
Glass American
Metal wares
Miscellaneous
Porcelain, Earthenware
Prints & Paintings
Repairs
Silver & Imitations
Textiles & Needlework |