Showing posts with label antique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label antique. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Horn a Plenty

 

QUESTION: I’ve always been fascinated by antique items made of horn. I see them in cases at antique shows all the time. I’ve even purchased a hair comb or two and a walking stick with a horn handle. But I have no idea how these items were produced. I assume most of them were made in the 19th century, but I’m only guessing. Can you give me some insight into the production of products from cow’s horn.

ANSWER: Horn has long been used to make various utilitarian objects. Ancient people blew through it to call meetings and such. Other horns held gun powder for muskets. And ornate hair combs made of horn were all the rage in Victorian times.

Long before synthetic materials like Celluloid, Bakelite,  and Lucite came on the scene,  Mother Nature provided an interesting assortment of moldable organic materials. These unique substances from plants and animals are known as "natural plastics."

Thermoplastics are materials that are made pliable by the application of heat, then molded with pressure or by casting in a cold mold. Additional applications of heat will subsequently re-soften thermoplastics and distort the original molded shape of an object. Though many modern thermoplastics are recyclable, antique thermoplastics can be permanently damaged by heat. Testing methods, such as exposure to hot water and the ever-popular hot pin test, can ruin valuable antique objects that are very often irreplaceable. So caution should be taken when trying to identify the materials from which some antique molded items are made.

Collectors seek objects fashioned from natural thermoplastic materials like cow horn in the 18th and 19th centuries. Over time, people used horn for a .variety of useful and ornamental applications. It required persistence and hard work to understand its unique properties. Through trial and error, ingenuity and luck, horn smiths developed successful fabricating techniques for working with horn.

Horn is a form of a protein called keratin, the same type of material as in fish scales, bird feathers, human hair and fingernails. Tiny compressed hair-like fibers, which can be seen with a magnifying glass, make up the structure of ' horn. Because of its unique protein formation, horn frays easily and has a tendency to split and crack during fabrication, making it difficult to work with. 

Horn smiths harvested, cleaned and fabricated horn into a variety of useful and ornamental objects such as dressing combs, hair ornaments, buttons, jewelry, decorative inlaid frames, trinket and snuffboxes. Because of Its beautiful pale translucent quality, they used horn extensively during the Edwardian Era for producing Art Nouveau accessories that depicted the dragon fly motif. 

Horn was a plentiful by-product of the meat and leather industries. It had been used for centuries n its raw state to make objects like powder horns and for fashioning common utilitarian items such as serving spoons and shoehorns. Oxen, steer and cow horn ranged in color from pale cream to light mottled gray. Buffalo horn, obtained from India, Thailand, and China, was dark brown. Domestic cattle horn vas plentiful and ranged in color tones from pale grayish green to streaked dark brown.

Manufacturers used raw cattle horn to make pressed rattans, umbrella and utensil handles, jewelry items and dressing combs. But Before these finished products could reach consumers, they had to first be fabricated. This process actually began with the meat industry.

Slaughterhouses had a surplus of raw cattle horn, which they stockpiled into various sizes and colors. This they sold cheaply to manufacturing companies or merchants who were in the business of applying horn to fabricators. A representative from the fabricating company would carefully select horn for specialty items like ornamental hair combs. Some representatives traveled the world searching for fine horn. When color wasn’t a consideration, the horn went for making common utilitarian objects like utensil handles or buttons.

After sorting, fabricators prepared the raw horn for the first step in processing. Workers trimmed the ends away by means of sawing two cross cuts—the first called the "head" or "rootº cut and the second the "screw" or "tip" cut. They then gathered the tips  to make utensil handles and buttons and used the ragged edges of the head cut to produce fertilizer.

They then sent the trimmed horn to the "opening department" where they soaked it with water and heated it over an open fire until it became softened. Another method commonly employed by fabricators involved softening the trimmed horn in huge vats of hot water or oil.

Nevertheless, once sufficiently pliable, the horn was ready to be split open. In order to prevent waste and in an attempt to end up with a rectangular piece of material, workers made an elongated, spiral cut beginning from the widest part of the horn up through the narrow section. After slitting, they forced the  horn open using tongs, and then placed it between screw plates to flattened it.

Fabricators often performed special finishing techniques on raw horn to change its appearance. They frequently clarified and sometimes stained it. The clarifying process involved squeezing the cleaned and flattened material between heated and oiled iron plates under tremendous pressure until it became translucent. Lantern makers used clarified horn, which had a slight greenish hue, as a "glaze" instead of glass in lanterns throughout the 18º and 19" centuries. Another use for ultra thin, translucent sheets of horn was to layer them between the pages of important documents in order to protect them from damage caused by bleeding inks. But the most important application of clarified horn was in the production of fancy ornamental hair combs.

Horn smiths stained clarified horn to resemble expensive tortoiseshell by first exposing it to diluted nitric acid which turned it a pale yellow. Once they achieved the desired amber color, they sprinkled and streaked the horn with a mixture of caustic soda, litharge, or lead monoxide, and dragon's blood, a colored resin derived from the rattan palm. This solution reacted with the nitric acid in the treated horn and turned the affected areas orange. The end result was a mottled imitation of tortoiseshell in mellow shades of amber and orange. Records show that in the late 1880s the comb factory of Stewart & Company of  Aberdeen, Scotland, used 3.5 million horns to only 600 pounds of authentic tortoiseshell per year.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Advertising of the Past" in the 2023 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Monday, April 10, 2023

Connoisseur Collectibles

 

QUESTION: I love wine. And while I’m not what you call a connoisseur, I do have an appreciation for fine wine and wine culture. Over the years, I’ve assembled a collection of wine labels and about half a dozen antique corkscrews. I’d like to collect other wine-related items but am not sure what to collect. What advice would you give me to start a serious wine-related collection? 

ANSWER: You’re off to a great start. However, you need to research the history of wine making to know all the objects available to collect. In addition, you need to set a budget. Older, ancient wine-related objects can be extremely expensive. 

People have produced wine for around 8,000 years. Evidence of ancient wine production dates to 6,000 BCE in the Republic of Georgia. The development of pottery made fermenting wild grapes grown in what’s now Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, as well as coastal and southeastern Turkey and northern Iran easier.

In ancient Egypt, wine played a ceremonial role. Trade introduced winemaking into the Nile Delta around 3,000 BCE. By this time, people had begun growing grapes in vineyards. By the end of the Old Kingdom, five distinct wines, probably all produced in the Delta, constituted a canonical set of provisions for the afterlife.

But much of modern winemaking came from the ancient Greeks. Wine historians believe that retsina, a white aromatic wine produced in Greece today, is a carryover of the ancient practice of lining wine jugs with tree resin, which gave the wine a distinct flavor.

But of all the ancient cultures, the Romans had the biggest impact on the development of winemaking. Wine was an integral part of the Roman diet, and winemaking was a precise and thriving business. The expansion Winemaking expanded so much that by 92 CE Emperor Domitian was forced to pass the first wine laws.

During the Middle Ages, people from all social classes drank wine where grapes were grown. 

Today, more people have an appreciation for fine food and wine. And unlike objects associated with the preparation, eating, and storage of food, those associated with wine have been less popularized. 

While corkscrews are the most commonly collected of wine-related items, collectors are also interested in ephemera such as wine tags and wine holders. Early postcards, advertising and travel posters are usually colorful and make a nice addition to a collection, as do antique wine racks and holders. In addition, some collectors include wine tasters, funnels, champagne taps, and bottle stoppers in their collections.

Decanter labels, a general term intended to include labels for wines, spirits and sauces, as well as toiletries and medicines are also of interest to collectors. 

Also known as bottle tickets or bottle tags, decanter labels are commonly seen in silver or silver plate, although they were made in a number of other materials, including enamel, porcelain, mother-of-pearl and horn. Collectors look for a variety of different aspects including hallmarks, maker's marks and label design, which vary from plain bin labels used in cellars to beautiful, ornate labels which once adorned fine decanters, elaborate cruets and delicate toilet water bottles.

Other wine-related collectibles include wine coasters, goblets, tankards, port funnels, wine coolers, wine. jugs and pewter tankards. apparatus such as cellar equipment, corking machines. presses, barrel tools, vineyard tools, port decanting cradles, ceramic bin or cellar rack labels and numbers are also garnering interest. Wine collectibles can be displayed anywhere. Collectors often adorn their home bars with wine-related items.

For collectors whose budgets allow, there are ancient and antique wine bottles, wine coolers, antique wine glasses, and more available. 

By far, the most popular wine-related antique/collectible is the corkscrew. Early corkscrews weren’t just intended to open wine. During the 18th and 19th centuries, many items used cork for closer, including beverages of all sorts, medicines, apothecaries, foods, sauces and perfumes. Eventually, most of these items were packaged in other forms, but wines and other spirits still required a corkscrew.

The first American corkscrew patent was issued in 1851. Since that time, more than 1,000 corkscrew patents have been issued in the United States alone, giving collectors an endless selection of shapes, styles and themes in a variety of price ranges.

The Rockwell Clough Company of Alton, New Hampshire, produced a number of wood-sheathed advertising corkscrews for businesses ranging from breweries to laundries and insurance agencies. These have a patent date of October 16, 1900 Those made in the 19th century often had carved ivory, bone or tusk handles and can sell for three figures. There are also corkscrews, dating to about the turn of the 20th century which double as walking sticks.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "folk art" in the 2023 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.


Friday, November 5, 2021

Are Coffee Tables Antique?

 

QUESTION: I just purchased an antique coffee table and would like to know more about it. What can you tell me about my table? Is it a valuable antique?

ANSWER:
 I hate to burst your bubble, but your table isn’t an antique. In fact, coffee tables are a modern invention. No one knows exactly where they came from or who designed the first one.

The current definition a coffee table is a low, wide table placed in front of a couch or sofa to receive drinks, TV remotes, magazines, ashtrays, and miscellaneous other items, including feet. Yes, some people do prop their tired feet up once in a while. But a quick look back in time doesn't show many similar tables in our Western history. Old photos of late Victorian room settings show taller tables, often placed behind a sofa to receive cups and glasses when not in use. The only other table offering close to the service of a coffee table was the parlor table, often placed in the middle of the room with a gas lamp on it. Here, the lady of the house could serve coffee or tea to guests.



During the latter half of the 19th century, wealthy people became interested in the exotic furniture of Turkey. They would set up a special corner or an entire room using pillowed benches and ornately carved, low, round tables from which they drank strong Turkish coffee and tea.

Americans became especially fond of Japanese design after the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. They particularly liked the idea of sitting on pillows on the floor and eating at low tables like the Japanese do. When the Aesthetic Movement took hold in the 1880s, furniture designers blended Eastlake and Renaissance Revival styles with Turkish and Asian ones.

While some sources note the production of low tables in various Revival styles during the last decade of the 1800s, no one has ever seen any.

The coffee table appeared in the 20th century, most likely in the 1920s and 1930s. As Americans began to purchase parlor sets, consisting of perhaps a couch, two chairs, and several small tables, the coffee table idea became more popular.

In 1903, F. Stuart Foote founded the Imperial Furniture Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He had learned the furniture business from his father, E. H. Foote, who had founded the Grand Rapids Chair Company in 1872. Foote claimed to have invented the coffee table himself while helping his wife prepare for a party. He simply lowered the legs on an existing table, and a new type of furniture came into being. Unfortunately, so far this hasn’t been proven.

Prohibition may have also played a role in the development of the coffee table. From 1920 to 1933, America was legally "dry." That led to a shortage of well blended, smooth tasting liquor. “Bathtub gin" and "white lightning" to the place of traditional spirits but both had quite a kick.  To soften that kick, people began mixing fruit juices and other beverages with the hootch which eventually led to the invention of the "cocktail."

During Prohibition, people often used this low table to serve coffee to their guests. But with the repeal of the law, they could once again legally serve cocktails, so it became known as a “cocktail table.” Sales for these low tables soared even during the Depression.

To make them seem older than they were and thus more elegant, many furniture manufacturers began producing their coffee/cocktail tables using stylized designs of the past. This was a direct result of the appearance of the Colonial Revival style of the early 20th century which encouraged furniture makers to create pieces in supposedly “colonial” styles. All of a sudden coffee tables appeared in the Queen Anne, Chippendale, Federal, and even Jacobean styles. Thus, many people today are fooled into thinking that their coffee tables are really antiques.

The only way to have a truly antique coffee table is to cut down an existing antique table as F. Stuart Foote did in 1903. And while your coffee table will be a true antique, it won’t be worth very much.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.


Saturday, August 8, 2020

Basic Furniture Refinishing

QUESTION: I have a 1930's silky oak drop-door desk that has been in our shed for about 20 years.
It has seen a few cyclones and had a lot of weathering and the doors are off and knobs missing.
This desk holds special memories for me as a young child watching my dad working at it. I’d like to refinish it but have no idea where to begin. How hard would it be for a beginner like me to refinish it?

ANSWER: Your desk sounds like the ideal piece of furniture on which to learn about refinishing furniture. For many beginners, refinishing seems easy, but it’s far from it. First you need to decide if the piece needs to be completely refinished or the original finish preserved. Your desk sounds like it may fall somewhere in between.



It’s only been within the last 20 years or so that refinishing products have appeared that make the job less intimidating. However, most people think you have to strip off all the old finish before applying a new one. That all depends on the condition of the piece.

You piece sounds like it’s been through some tough times. Before you do anything, you need to evaluate it. Has the finish been mostly removed by weathering or is it spotty. If it’s the former, then you’ll need to sand it following the grain of the wood with fine to medium grade sandpaper. If it’s the latter, you may be able to just clean it up and apply a new coat of varnish. With refinishing, a little effort goes a long way. The nearer you can keep your desk to its original condition, the better.

Let’s assume the worst. If the finish has mostly been removed by weathering, you’ll need to remove what remains with a good varnish remover. Be sure to buy one that’s water soluble. Even though this takes longer to achieve the results you want, the fumes are mild and cleanup is easy. When using a remover, always brush it on with the grain of the wood. Do a little section at a time, turning the piece on end if necessary to make it easier to apply the remover. Scrap it off with a putty knife, and be sure to have a roll of paper towels handy to wipe up the excess and stripped varnish or paint.

After you’ve completely stripped your desk of its finish, lightly sand it with fine sandpaper. Wrap the sandpaper around a wooden block for support and sand with the wood grain. Be careful not to over sand----just enough to smooth the surface. After you’re finished sanding, wipe the desk with a damp cloth to remove all the dust. Do not get the wood wet.

Once you have prepared your desk for its new finish, let it rest for a day to make sure the surface is thoroughly dry. Dust it off with a dry cloth to make sure it’s clean, then begin to brush on a new finish using a soft-bristle brush and a furniture finish called tung or Chinese oil. Several manufacturers make this, including Formbys, and you should be able to buy it at your local hardware or home center. Apply the tung oil or a piece of white tube sock or other soft cotton material going with the grain of the wood.. The first coat will soak into the newly stripped wood. Let it dry 24 hours, then sand lightly with fine sandpaper. Dust it with a damp cloth again and let dry. Apply a second coat of the tung oil and repeat the process, except this time rub it with 0000 steel wool after it dries. Dust off again and apply a third and final coat of tung oil, but don’t rub with the steel wool this time.



The advantage to using tung oil is its rapid drying capability. Though it will feel dry to the touch in an hour or so, be sure to let it thoroughly dry for 24 hours. And don’t apply it on a humid or rainy day. And here's a tip: Wrap your application cloth in plastic wrap or put it into a Zip-Loc sandwich bag and place it in your freezer. Take it out 30 minutes before you're ready to apply another coat, and it will be ready for you.

Be sure to tune in next week to learn about preserving the finish of a piece of furniture that isn’t in such bad shape.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  world's fairs in the 2020 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.










Thursday, November 28, 2019

Setting the Thanksgiving Table




QUESTION: As the holidays approach, I get out my Oneida silver flatware and polish it up for another joyous season. Beginning with Thanksgiving dinner, I use a setting for 12 that’s been in our family for four generations. Except for the classic beauty of this tableware, I know very little about it. Can you please tell me more about Oneida?

ANSWER: The holidays, especially Thanksgiving, are all about traditions in many families. Your use of your Oneida family heirloom is no exception. But Oneida didn’t always make silver flatware. In fact, at one point early in the company’s existence, it made grizzly bear traps.

Oneida, Ltd. actually began as a utopian religious commune in 1848. At that time, there were several such communities that existed in the northeastern United States. Oneida was one of them.



John Humphrey Noyes and his followers founded the Oneida Community in Oneida, New York. Members of this Protestant, religious sect referred to themselves as Perfectionists because they believed that spiritual perfection could be achieved by them in this world. This was a common concept among 19th-century utopian communities. Much like the Shakers, members contributed all their worldly goods to the community when they joined it. The community held all possessions in common, and it provided for everyone's needs. They called this practice "Bible communism.''

But the Oneida Community is best known for its unconventional family arrangements. Members practiced what Noyes called complex marriage—every man was married to every woman, just as every woman was married to every man. Although neighbors surrounding the community saw this as "free love,” the Perfectionists defended complex marriage as noble and unselfish, since all were expected to be loving to each other. It discouraged individual relationships. During its early years, the community also discouraged child bearing, but by 1869 when the community had become more prosperous, its elders selected couples with desirable qualities and encouraged them to bear children. John Humphrey Noyes himself fathered several, including sons who were later very active in the affairs of the future company. Oneida, Ltd.

At first the Perfectionists tried to support themselves by farming and by preserving and selling fruits and vegetables. But this didn’t provide sufficient income, so they branched out into several industrial activities. An 1890s ad offered a booklet which told how the community came to make such interesting and incongruous things as delicious preserved fruits and traps for catching grizzly bears, fine sewing and embroidery silk, d steel chains, and beautiful flatware. Let’s face it, not many silver companies started out making traps for grizzly bears.

By 1877, when the Wallingford, Connecticut, branch of the community started making tin-plated spoons, the original Oneida Community was beginning to break up. In 1879, Noyes moved to Canada and members abandoned the concept of complex marriage. In 1880, the assets of the community were distributed to its members in the form of stock in the newly formed corporation, Oneida Community, Limited, making it one of the earliest joint-stock companies in the United States.

The new company, under the leadership of P.B. Noyes, one of the sons of the founder, first moved its silverplate production to Niagara Falls, New York, and later to Sherill, New York, within walking distance of the original Oneida Community property. It began production of silver-plated flatware and hollow-ware in 1899 using the "Community Plate" mark.

When the community became a corporation, some members found it difficult to adjust to the new business practices and divided into factions, each competing to control the board of directors. But the younger Noyes remained in control and moved the company into manufacturing higher quality wares in sterling silver, including a flatware line called Avalon in 1901. In 1929, it purchased the William A. Rogers Company began producing a lower-quality line of products using that company’s mark. In 1935, the firm changed its name to Oneida, Ltd.

By 1961, Oneida, Ltd. began producing stainless steel flatware. And by the 1980s, Oneida made at least half of all flatware purchased in the United States. At the end of the 20th century, Oneida fell upon tough economic times, becoming the last remaining U.S.-based manufacturer of flatware, knives, forks, and spoons. The resulting economic troubles resulting from 9/11 forced it to close or sell off most of its factories.
It filled for bankruptcy in 2006, and after finally stabilizing, Monomoy Capital Partners, an equity fund based in New York City, acquired it. Today, it services much of the food service industry with both china and flatware.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about antique clocks in the Fall 2019 Edition, "It's That Time Again," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.



Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Somewhere to Dream



QUESTION: My husband and recently purchased an antique four-poster bed from around 1810.  The dealer called it a tester bed. It originally had a canopy which needs to be replaced. Can you tell me what a tester is and something about the origins of this type of bed?

ANSWER: Initially the wooden frame of the bed was far less important that the trappings of textiles that surrounded it. Most any reference to a bed centuries ago actually meant the mattress and whatever cloth materials people piled upon it.

During medieval times there was no particular room set aside for sleeping quarters, thus the bed became almost a room within the household. Some of the more elaborate bedsteads had both a room and sliding panel walls. Occupants could climb inside and stuff them-selves off from the rest of the chilly and drafty residence.

Gradually, heavy curtains replaced the side panels of the "bedroom," but the basic roof remained. The solid roof, known as a tester, retained the name even though the roof covering eventually became one of cloth and curtains as the sides had been.

Basically, a bedstead and two posts supported the roof of these early beds. Over the decades makers adopted a style which incorporated four posts which supported the full tester canopy.

Early in the 18th century, during the Queen Anne period, wealthy homeowners often covered their four-poster beds with velvet and other textiles so extensively that they obscured the basic woodwork. Cabinetmakers used back panels less and less. As the century progressed, the rear posts remained covered with curtains while the front posts became more visible. As a consequence, bed makers carved and decorated the front posts more elaborately.

Some of the most impressive four-poster  beds reached heights of eight feet or more, complete with a sweeping array of curtains and canopy. Cabinetmakers made sturdy frames from mahogany or walnut. People could close panels of curtains at night for more warmth and security. Matching coverlets and bases then totally enveloped the grand bed in a sea of cloth.



Wealthy homeowners continued to import fabric for their bed coverings from Europe in the 1750s and 1760s. But with the increase in leisure activities and attention to developing social graces that characterized the time, fancy needlework done by women and school girls often supplied the decorative detail.

By the dawn of the 18th century, the finest bed available was the Chippendale bed. The Chippendale and those similar in style displayed predominantly high foot posts which were handsomely carved and ended elegantly with ball and claw feet. By contrast, cabinetmakers sometimes didn’t carve the head posts and instead left them plain to be extensively decorated by fabrics. Elaborate decorating of the beds gradually increased as owners opted for serpentine headboards and reeled posts in lieu of additional drapes.

By the 1800s, the lavish use of fabrics on beds had diminished considerably and the wood itself had more of a prominent role in the overall design. Almost without exception, cabinetmakers carved or decorated posts. In addition, homeowners began placing their beds in separate rooms designed for sleeping, usually on the second floor of their houses, instead of in parlors or various other locations in their homes.  .

The rise of the Empire period in the 1820s had an impact on a vast assortment of furniture, including the bed. Scrolled headboards were very fashionable, and posts were decorated with acanthus leaves and detailed beading. Mahogany remained one of the most popular woods of choice.

It wasn’t unusual for the well established to spend more for their bed furnishings than on the actual wood structure, itself. They preferred bright colors over white and added  fine linen-like textiles in shades of red, blue, yellow and green. Many also used generous amounts of silk and lace, along with woolen cloths.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about religious antiques in the special 2019 Winter Edition, "The Old West," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.


Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Leave it to the Romans



QUESTION: My father has been trying to find out information about an old wooden armchair that he has that bears a label that reads “Hartwig &Kemper, Baltimore.” He could use some assistance on what it exactly is and the manufacturer. Could you possibly give us some information about this chair?

ANSWER: Your chair is what’s known as a Roman chair and dates from around 1870 to 1880. It’s done in the Victorian Neoclassical Revival style, a substyle of Renaissance Revival. But the origins of this chair go far back in time.

It’s ancient ancestor was the curule chair or sella curulis, from the Latin currus, meaning chariot. In the Roman Empire, only the highest government dignitaries, from the Emperor on down, were entitled to sit on it. It began as a folding campstool with curved legs. Ordinarily made of ivory, with or without arms, it became a seat of judgment. Subsequently it became a sign of office of all higher “curule” magistrates, or officials. According to Livy the curule seat, like the Roman toga, originated in Etruria.

Although often of luxurious construction, the curule chair was meant to be uncomfortable to sit on for long periods, since the Roman public expected their officials to carry out their duties in an efficient and timely manner. Also, its uncomfortability showed that the office held by the magistrate was only temporary, so he shouldn’t get too comfortable.

During the 15th century, both the Italians and the Spanish made chairs with cross-framed legs, joined by wooden stretchers that rested on the floor. A wooden back made the chair more rigid. Dealers in antiquities in the 19th-century called them "Savonarola Chairs." 

By the 1860s, the original curule chair form changed once again. Although some chair makers continued to use the cross-legged design, others modified it so that the legs splayed outward from a rectangular seat while the back had upright spindles and low-relief carving.

Hartwig & Kemper was a well-known furniture manufacturing company in Baltimore, with an office and salesroom at 316-318 W. Pratt Street and a factory at 309-331 W. King Street. The company also had numerous warehouses in the city and stocked a wide variety of furniture, especially chairs and tables, most of which they made of golden oak. Their 1904-05 catalog featured over 300 different pieces of furniture, mostly chairs, settees, couches, and tables. But they were mostly known for their chairs, which they produced in every style and type imaginable.

Your chair, however, was an earlier model made of tiger oak, a variation of golden oak that was dark-stained to look like mahogany. It features the stylized heads of two lions, with their mouths wide open to facilitate lifting the chair, on the top of the back. Your chair is called an elbow chair, presumably because a person could rest their elbows on the arms.

Furniture manufacturers like Hartwig and Kemper interpreted the prevailing furniture styles following the Civil War in homely, machine-made versions as well as more luxurious models.

Victorian furniture offered a mix of styles, almost all revivals of former styles. The Renaissance Revival style, one of four major Victorian revival styles, included such substyles as neoclassic Roman and Greek Revival. The word Renaissance in this case covered just about everything. The result was a stylized mix of many ancient and classic styles.

The end of the Civil War saw an immense trade in relatively inexpensive furniture to meet the demand of the market. Steam-powered machines simplified the manufacture of inexpensive furniture for the mass market. Furniture produced had simple lines, relatively flat surfaces, and a minimum of detailed carving.

Although factories in New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania produced the greatest amount of furniture of all types. All made stock-in-trade furniture for the mass market. Golden or “antique” oak was the wood of choice. Some furniture companies just made chairs—straight-back chairs, dining chairs, rocking chairs.

Equipment they used was efficient enough that one reviewer said they could almost throw whole trees into the hopper and grind out chairs ready for use. However, early machines didn’t do such a great job with the finishing work. Any chairs with even a little carving had to be hand finished, a job entrusted to craftsmen brought from Europe. Sometimes, factory owners would use women and children to cover chair seats for very low wages.

The buying public at the time seriously considered price as well as style and comfort. By the end of the 1860s, Hartwig and Kemper were turning out large quantities of furniture, especially chairs.


Wednesday, May 20, 2015

For Every Meat There is a Turn



QUESTION: I love old mechanical things. Recently while rooting through a box of old junk at a monthly flea market, I came across an unusual item. It looks like a round can from which protrudes a cylinder. On the end of the cylinder is an odd-shaped ring and in the side of the can is a hole with a place to insert a key. Can you tell me what this is and something about it, if that’s possible?

ANSWER: It looks like you’ve found an antique spitjack. However, some of its parts are missing.

Today, you can go to any supermarket and purchase a fully roasted rotisserie chicken or turkey breast. But back in the 18th century, that wasn’t possible. All meats had to be slow roasted on a long pole called a spit over the fire in a huge, walk-in kitchen fireplace. And to do that evenly, it took man or woman power. Wives, children, servants, or slaves had to stand by the fire and slowly turn the meat until it was done. This had to be one of the most boring jobs in the 18th and early 19th centuries, so no one enjoyed doing it.

Roasting meat on a spit dates as far back as the first century B.C.E. During Tudor times, someone even came up with an ingenious way to have a dog provide the power to turn the spit—the dog ran in a treadmill linked to the spit by belts and pulleys. But it wasn’t until the 18th century that things got a little easier for cooks. It was then that the weight or clock jack came into being.

Descending stone, iron, or lead weights powered most of the spit-turning mechanisms, or more commonly spitjacks, used by Colonials and their British counterparts. In England, cooks referred to them as weight jacks, but in America, they came to be known as clock jacks because they used a clockwork mechanism to wind a spring used to turn the spit.

Earlier jacks of this type had a train of two arbors or spindles. Later ones had a more efficient train with three arbors. Those made and used in England had a governor or flywheel set above the engine as opposed to being located within the frame and to one side—to the right for a two train works and to the left for one with three trains. These weight jacks also contained a flywheel within the frame, usually at the
in a bell-like arch at the highest part of the frame.

In 1792, John Bailey II, an American clockmaker, patented the first steam-driven jack. However, the Turks used a mechanism similar to Bailey’s jack back in the mid-16th century.

Another type of roasting jack, the smoke jack, appeared in the early 17th century. This jack moved by the flow of the smoke from the fire over the sails of a horizontal wheel which lay sideways. By placing the wheel in the narrowest part of the chimney where the motion of the smoke was the fastest and where the greatest amount would strike the sails, the mechanism would slowly turn the spit, thus roasting the meat. But this type of jack had its downside since the speed of the jack depended on the draught of the chimney and the quantity and strength of the fire in the fireplace.

The type of jack you purchased is called a bottle jack because of its bottle-shaped hydraulic lifting device. A brass shell contains the clockwork motor. Introduced in the late 18th century, it replaced the earlier and simpler dangle spit. When the cook set the weights, the spit turned, eliminating the need for manual labor for approximately 30 minutes, after which the cook would have had to readjust the weights. Bottle jacks continued to be made and used until the early 20th century.

If your jack had all of its parts and was in better condition, it would sell for around $400.






Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Back to Nature


QUESTION: Recently I got a rustic night stand from my grandmother’s house after she died. She had once said that it came from a sale of furniture from a cabin in the Adirondack Mountains here in New York State. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s a funky piece, and I’d like to know more about it. Can you help me?

ANSWER: Your grandmother’s night stand is indeed a piece of rustic furniture, also known as Adirondack furniture, even though it wasn’t restricted to just the Adirondack region.

The idea for rustic furniture came about in the late 18th century at the beginning of the back-to-nature movement, a change from the world of classic, predictable furniture patterns to one of more fanciful design using natural materials. 

Little summer shelters appeared in city gardens, often covered in vines or surrounded by trees and shrubs. These summerhouses also provided a small green refuge that shut out the discomfort and ugliness of city life.

Designers copied nature's lines in drawings for chairs and settees for these shelters and the garden paths around them. Their plans called for gnarled, distorted limbs of shrubs and trees to make a chair or bench, instead of the usual marble or plain wooden seats. Gardens, themselves, became more picturesque and less formal, with curving paths taking the place of straight ones. Designers strategically placed rustic chairs, benches, arbors and gates throughout the plantings.

At the same time came the discovery of warm springs in America. Basic living conditions were the rule in the hotels and cottages that sprung up around the springs. The coarse furniture changed from plain and primitive to fanciful and rustic as hotel owners updated amenities.

By the late 19th century, America’s millionaires filled the resorts, but although they considered themselves naturalists, they dressed and lived formally in the midst of the rustic furniture, for they had no intention of roughing it.

But some of these naturalists set up their own camps with tents and log cabins and built rustic furniture for them or had local craftsmen do it for them. Eventually, the log cabins became large log houses with all the latest amenities. Soon they became known as compounds or family camps. However, life in these camps was more back-to-nature and relaxed than at the warm springs resorts.

Rustic outdoor furniture filled the porches of these houses and spilled onto the grass. Couches and chairs made of rough pieces of local woods, holding loose cushions, adorned the sitting rooms. Even the beds showed off the rustic style, often with fanciful patterns on the head and foot boards.

The term rustic furniture covers a functional style made of organic materials, such as the tree or shrub limbs and roots or the trunks of saplings indigenous to area of the craftsman. Although roughly made, the style was often sophisticated and imaginative. The more knots there were in the limbs, the more the designers favored them. They even left the bark on the wood whenever possible to give each piece more texture and individuality.

In the Adirondack region of New York State, craftsmen made rustic furniture for the wealthy families who had camps there. They used large, gnarly roots in their furniture designs, making them into table legs and chair arms. They favored birch to build with, a slender tree with bark that peels in strips, giving the craftsmen a striking veneer for their furniture. These pieces quickly became known for their geometric designs made of the white birch bark veneer, especially on case furniture, such as your night stand. Also, many of the intricate veneered designs included various kinds of split twigs, carefully chosen by color to form patterns.

Appalachian craftsmen took pride in knowing how to get wood to work for the intricate twists, bends and weaving for their furniture designs. They knew just when and how to bend saplings while they were still growing, letting nature do some of the work before they were ready to use the wood. The best woods to use were laurel, hickory and willow because of their flexibility and strength. They built their furniture with graceful loops and interwoven curves, weaving each piece of wood to create tension, resulting in a hid-den strength disguised by the fragile look of the design.

Today, you’ll find rustic pieces at higher-end antique shows. Occasionally, they’ll appear at flea markets. But people consigned a lot of pieces to the bonfire after they went out of fashion in the mid-20th century. So prices tend to be on the high side because of the uniqueness of the pieces. Twig rockers can sell for $150 and up, while lounges and settees can go over $2,000.
Case pieces rarely come on the market and when they do, their prices are exceptionally high, often in the four and five figure range. The most common pieces are various chairs and plant stands, priced anywhere from $75 to $600.

As the 20th century moved forward, individual craftsmen found it hard to keep up with the volume of orders, so factories opened to meet the need. Business remained brisk for the rural craftsmen until the 1940s and by the 1950s, rustic furniture was no longer popular.