Rustic Can be Beautiful

QUESTION: Recently I bought a pair of chairs at an outdoor antique show that seem to have been made of rough-hewn logs and branches. The dealer said they came from the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. They’re well-built and with a couple of pillows on each are rather comfortable. What can you tell me about this style of chairs?

ANSWER: Your chairs are what’s known as rustic furniture, also known as Adirondack furniture, even though it wasn’t restricted to just the Adirondack Mountains.

Rustic furniture is furniture made of sticks, twigs, or logs for a natural look. The term “rustic” came from the Latin “rusticus,” meaning “peasant”.

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. 

The rustic furniture movement reached its peak during the mid- to late-19th century. In the 1870s, several American firms specialized in rustic furniture. Adirondack craftsmen produced high quality pieces for new woodland camps of wealthy New Yorkers. These included Camp Pine Knot, Kamp Kill Kare, Camp Uncas and Great Camp Sagamore. The National Park Service also adopted the style for its park lodges. The first and largest manufacturer of such furniture was Old Hickory Furniture Co., established in 1890.

Although basic living conditions were the rule in the camps and cottages that sprung up  in the mountains, the original coarse, primitive furniture evolved into fanciful and rustic as camp owners updated their amenities. 

By the late 19th century, America’s millionaires filled these camp resorts, and 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.

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.

Typical pieces of rustic furniture included chairs, love seats, tables, desks, smoking stands, clocks, chest of drawers, rockers, coat racks, mirror frames, beds and lamps.

Rustic outdoor furniture filled the porches of these camp 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. 

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

Many of the rustic styles reflected the personality of their maker, with techniques such as chip carving, silver or gold brushwork, milk paint, peeled bark and other decorative enhancements. But people often referred to some rustic furniture as primitive because it displayed a lack of craftsmanship.

Furniture makers used two basic types of rustic-furniture construction—bentwood, for which they harvested fresh sticks or steamed them to make them supple, then bent into a variety of structures and decorative shapes and twig work, consisting of straight, curved, or forked sticks assembled into structures and decorative shapes within a structure. Sometimes, they employed both types in the same piece. Some rustic furniture makers also used mortice and tenon construction while others simply nailed or screwed pieces members together.

For their furniture, makers used many different woods, including willow, hickory, mountain laurel, and Alaska cedar. In the Deep South, some occasionally used palm fronds.

Makers used large, gnarly roots in their furniture designs, making them into table legs and chair arms. To produce a striking veneer for their pieces, furniture makers preferred birch, a slender tree with bark that peeled in strips. These pieces quickly became known for their geometric designs made of the white birch bark veneer, especially on case furniture, such as chests and cabinets. Also, many of the intricate veneered designs included various kinds of split twigs, carefully chosen by color to form patterns. 

Unlike their Adirondack counterparts, Appalachian furniture makers 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. They preferred 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 hidden strength disguised by the fragile look of the design.

Today, rustic pieces often appear at higher-end antique shows. Occasionally, they 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—chests and cabinets—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. 

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 "The World of Art Nouveau" in the 2022 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.

The Ultimate in Danish Design

 

QUESTION: When I was a kid, I remember sitting on my grandfather’s lap in a very comfortable chair. It was designed like a big glove and swiveled on a chrome base with four legs. I don’t know what it was called, but I remember him referring to it as Danish modern. Can you tell me anything about this type of chair?

ANSWER: You were very lucky indeed, for you got to experience the ultimate in Danish design, the Egg Chair, designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1957. But before we explore this chair further, it’s important to know how this design style came into existence.

In 1924,. Danish architect Kaare Klint was asked to teach a newly class in furniture design at the Royal Academy's School of Architecture in Copenhagen. Considered the originator of the modern Scandinavian style of furnishing and furniture design which thrived from the 1940s to the 60s, Klint’s influence on even today’s designs is great. 

Using teak, which was plentiful in Denmark, the Danish Modern style began to emerge in the 1920s and soon gained popularity with cabinetmakers in Copenhagen.

After 1945, this unique style achieved worldwide recognition and by the mid-20th century, Danish modern had officially arrived.

The son of Peder Vilhelp Jensen-Klint, the leading Danish architect of the early 20th century, Kaare Klint studied painting and apprenticed to several architects, including his father, before opening an independent furniture design studio in 1917.

He became the first Danish designer to combine function with Danish hand-craftsmanship. His drawings revealed an attention to the needs of the human body, long before the science of ergonomics came into being.

For instance, in order that his sideboards would be the most efficient, he determined the average dimensions of the cutlery and crockery used in a Danish home. Klint then created a case containing the smallest space required for the maximum amount of cutlery needed by a household. Aesthetically, he allowed the unvarnished teak to speak for itself, maximizing its clean beauty by waxing and polishing. And so Danish designers began using natural finishes for their pieces.

Klint is known as the grandfather of modern Danish design. He, more than any other Danish furniture designer, felt that it was important to understand the craftsmanship of the furniture of the past.

He pioneered in anthropometrics, which correlates measurements of the human body to make furniture better suited to man’s physical characteristics, essentially the essence of today’s ergonomics. In 1933, he created a deck lounge chair, which he outfitted with a removable upholstered mat and pillow. 

America's initial fascination with Danish modern furniture was largely the result of Edgar Kaufmann Jr. of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He returned from Europe in 1948 with photographs of chairs designed by another Danish  architect, Finn Juhl. The interest in Juhl's furniture led to a collection designed by him for the Barker Co.

Presented in 1951, the collection introduced American designers to the structural and decorative combining of woods of various colors and grains. Highlights included a teak armchair.

Fruitful collaboration between designers and cabinetmakers led to more industrialized production. By 1950, a few factories in Denmark began producing furniture using purely industrialized methods. The new generation of designers included Arne Jacobsen, whose creations, while organic in nature, used materials such as light metals, synthetic resins, plywood, and upholstered plastics.

Graduating from the Royal Academy in 1924, Jacobsen soon demonstrated his mastery of both architecture and furniture design. With the completion of his Royal Hotel in Copenhagen with all its fittings and furniture in 1960, his talents became widely recognized.

Jacobsen's most commercial success was the Ant Chair, which was available in a number of materials, including natural oak, teak and rosewood veneers, colored finishes or upholstery. Inspired by American legends Charles and Ray Eames, this unique chair was considered revolutionary in 1952, having only three spindly legs, no arms, and a one-piece plywood seat and back. The design of this chair became the basis for the stackable chairs used in hotels and conference centers today. Jacobsen followed the Ant with Series 7, a chair that had four legs and optional arms. Initially designed in 1955, and still being produced today.

Most of Jacobsen’s designs were the direct result of his belief that architecture and furnishings should be totally integrated. Two of his commissions—the Scandinavian Airlines Terminal and the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen—resulted from the creation of the uniquely shaped chairs, the “Egg” and the “Swan.” Designed in 1957, these modernistic chairs featured hi-density, rigid polyurethane foam, upholstered on single-seat shell construction. Both are extremely comfortable while being ergonomically sound and pleasing to look at.

There was a period of time in the middle of the 20th century when Danish designers were the world's most admired. Some of the most talented earned prizes at major competitions, and their works were quickly acquired by top European interior designers and collectors. Today, American designers see them suited to many different kinds of interiors.

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 "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday 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.

The Hidden Bed

QUESTION: My husband and I recently purchased an older home. After we closed the sale, we discovered a Murphy bed in one of the smaller bedrooms. Though the bed needs some refurbishment and a new mattress, it’s seems to be in working order. Can you tell me more about Murphy beds and perhaps how old this bed might be.

ANSWER: Murphy beds have been around since the early 20th century. They have been made continuously by various companies, so it’s difficult to tell how old your bed is.

The Industrial Revolution brought with it lots of innovative ideas for convertible furniture, but it wasn’t until immigrants began arriving in greater numbers in the latter part of the 19th century that some of these came into common use. Whole families often had to live in one room—eating, relaxing, and sleeping in the same space—so that they needed furniture that served dual purposes. Beds stand out as the primary convertible piece of furniture most wanted by urban dwellers at the time. 

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the rolling trundle bed had become a common piece of furniture in homes. This large rectangular box rolled under high bedsteads for storage during the day. At night, an adult or child would pull on a rope and drag the bed out for sleeping.

A Murphy bed, on the other hand—also called a wall bed, pull down bed, fold-down bed, or hidden bed—is one that’s hinged at one end to store vertically against the wall, or inside of a closet or cabinet.

William Lawrence Murphy invented the Murphy Bed around 1900 in San Francisco. Legend says that he was falling for a young opera singer and courting customs at that time wouldn’t permit a lady to enter a gentleman’s bedroom. His invention allowed him to stow his bed in his closet, transforming his one-room apartment from a bedroom into a parlor.

Murphy then formed the Murphy Bed Company and patented his “In-A-Door” bed in 1908. He never trademarked the name “Murphy Bed.” 

Earlier fold-up beds had existed and were even available through the Sears Catalog, but Murphy introduced pivot and counterbalanced designs for which he received a series of patents. 

In 1911, William L. Murphy filed a patent for what he called his “disappearing bed.” His innovative design enabled a person to convert a bedroom to a sitting room by folding the bed back into a chifforobe-style cabinet mounted to the wall. 

Most Murphy beds don’t have box springs. Instead, the mattress usually lies on a platform or mesh, held in place so as not to sag when in a closed position. The mattress is often attached with elastic straps to hold the mattress in position when the unit is folded upright.

One of the most unique hideaway beds was the convertible piano bed from 1885. This piece could be placed in the family’s parlor and by day the room would look stylish and functional as not everyone could even afford a piano. Then by night it was a bed, affording a large family more flexibility with their sleeping arrangements. Later Murphy beds catered to the poor, but early versions may have appealed to middle and upper classes as curiosities.

Sarah Goode, the co-owner of a furniture store in Chicago with her carpenter husband, filed a patent in 1885 a patent for a “cabinet bed,” more commonly known as a “bed in a box.” Goode’s customers often complained that they liked the furniture she and her husband sold but simply didn’t have anywhere to put it in their small, urban homes.

So Goode set about inventing a folding cabinet bed that when not in use looked like a desk standing against the wall. Goode’s design was far more elaborate than a bed-in-a-box. Her folding bed unit had hinged sections that were easily raised or lowered by an adult.

Essentially, when the user folded the cabinet down, it changed shape revealing a bed. The concept wasn’t new since other manufacturers had developed “hideaway” beds that could be found in early Sears catalogs. Many of the manufacturers of these pieces had factories in Indiana. 

Unlike Murphy beds or piano beds, Goode’s cabinet bed was movable and short in stature, allowing for a safer experience and ease in moving the bed around the room. Upright hideaway beds need to be fixed to the wall so that they didn’t topple over, but cabinet beds could be freestanding.

Another feature that separated Goode’s design from all but the piano bed was that her roll-top cabinet desk-bed was actually a functional desk, with working storage and a writing surface to be accessed when not in bed form. It isn’t known if Goode’s furniture company made these beds or if she licensed her patent to other furniture makers. However, an existing cabinet-desk-bed from the era doesn’t mention anything about Goode or her patent, instead it bears the label of A.H. Andrews & Company, based in Chicago, that claim to be the sole manufacturer of such a bed.

Today both new and antique Murphy beds are quite costly, most selling for at least $1,200 to $1,500 for either.

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 "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday 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.

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.

Sorting Through the Often Confusing World of Antiques

 

QUESTION: Every time I go into an antique mall, I become overwhelmed by all the items. Booth after booth of what seems like junk. Yet I know there must be some interesting and perhaps valuable antiques hidden there. How can I make sense of it all?

ANSWER: Perhaps your mind and senses have gone into antiques and collectibles overload. So many items—bits of furniture, pottery, piles of old jewelry, dolls, old Coca-Cola signs, and things that look like the cat dragged them in. So where’s the good stuff? 

It all seems so confusing. And the prices for some items seem ridiculous, especially if you’re a beginning collector. But don’t despair. There’s a method to all that antique madness.

Generally, antiques fall into two categories—those of the real world and those of the  rarefied one that most people can only ooh and aah at. And T,V. programs like The Antiques Roadshow, Pickers, and Pawnstars haven’t helped matters. In fact, all of them have brought the world of antiques to a world-wide audience. No longer are antiques in the realm of the rich—the realm of the “Don’t touch that.”

But antiques and collectibles can be broken down into manageable categories.

When most people think of antiques, they think of furniture. And although furniture makes up a good percentage of antiques out there, smaller items, known as “smalls” in the antiques business—ceramics, glassware, silverware, toys, and commemorative items—all play important roles in the overall history of modern culture.

All in all, there are about 15 major categories and 75 sub-categories. Within these there are other, more specialized areas, such as antique musical instruments and automobiliana, two very specialized categories.

Even though antiques can be categorized generally, dealers and serious collectors use historical periods—Jacobean, Colonial, Victorian, Civil War, Western and Retro—to sort things out. Often, these terms also indicate different styles.

For instance, in the world of furniture, you’ll probably see examples of English, French, and American styles in most antiques shops and malls, as well as at antiques shows or auctions. Most English furniture falls into historical periods such as Jacobean,  pre-Victorian, or Victorian while American furniture tends to fall into different types according to region of manufacture—New York, New England, Pennsylvania, or Southern. 

Porcelain or pottery pieces tend to fall into categories associated with the country in which they were produced—England, Germany, France, United States, China and Japan. The four you’ll see most are English, German, Japanese, and American. You’ll soon become familiar with names such as Royal Doulton, Staffordshire, and Meissen, Blue Willow, Limoge, Belleek and Sevres, especially if you frequent the better antiques shops and shows.

Glassware is the third most popular category. You’ll see all types, including Depression, Venetian, English, and Bohemian glass. Most glassware collectors specialize in a particular produce line–bowls, tumblers, decanters, etc. There’s also a refined category known as art glass in which you’ll find all those pretty vases blown in amberina, peach blow, and ruby.

Silverware is also a very popular antique. Here again, English, German and American silverware predominates. Like glass, product type defines this category. Collectors actively seek teapots, candlesticks, flatware, and bowls. Classification in this category is by make and markings generally stamped on the back of the products. Sterling and Sheffield silver are the two most recognizable types. EP is often seen as a marking and stands for silver Electro Plate. Sheffield silver is a combination of a layer of silver and copper beaten together to give a silver surface with a warm sheen.

Next up comes clocks and watches. This is a very popular general category, particularly among men, who seem to like the mechanical nature of timepieces. English, French and Austrian clocks dominate. In the "Longcase," or pendulum grandfather clocks, the English manufacturers stand out with the value of the clock being as much in the beauty of the cabinetry as in the mechanical workings. A beginner should get familiar with clockmakers names such as Thomas Field, McCabe, and Japy Freres. The same applies to watches. Names like Hamilton, Seiko, and Waltham are popular with collectors.

And finally there are collectibles, which cover everything from blue willow patterned ceramics, which are popular with women, to the war medals popular with men. Just remember what a collectible is. It is an object of limited supply, gathered or accumulated for pleasure or as a hobby. A very trendy category, collectibles nevertheless have basic product lines, such as ceramic plates, perfume bottles, pocket watches, stamps, and even figurines that continue to grow year after year.

These are just some of the main categories of antiques that you can begin to collect. While some tend to be higher priced, you’ll find plenty of small pieces of furniture, ceramics, and glassware to get you started in collecting.

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 railroad antiques in "All Aboard!" in the 2021 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.

NEXT WEEK: We’ll take a look at some of the specialty categories of antiques and collectibles. 

The Search for Comfort

 

QUESTION:  I inherited a couch from my grandparents. I have tried to do research online, but the multitude of antique items is overwhelming. The couch appears to resemble the Chippendale style, but not exactly from what I have seen. My grandmother said the couch was already over 100 years old when she purchased it in the 1960's. What can you tell me about this piece? 

ANSWER: Sorry to say, but someone gave your grandmother misinformation about her couch. It’s not uncommon for dealers in used furniture to do this because they really don’t know how old the pieces they’re selling are and just want to sell them.

This couch dates from the 1920s or 1930s. It’s a great example of pseudo styles that manufacturers created to fill the need in the early to mid-20th century middle and working class markets. At that time, most people were looking forward and didn’t want “old” furniture in their homes. To buy all new furniture was a big deal, especially during the Great Depression. It was a way people impressed their friends and neighbors. Those who could afford to buy new furniture were definitely going places. So manufacturers produced some truly ugly, ostentatious pieces to fill this need. 

The roots of Modernism, grew out of pre-World War II industrialism. This furniture style used little or no ornamentation and a function over form concept. Influenced by Scandinavian, Japanese, and Italian designs, it featured industrial materials such as steel and plastic.

What all of the above styles had in common was that they were mostly produced for those that could afford them. Newly wealthy industrialists, bankers, and merchants wanted furniture that was in fashion and were willing to pay great sums for it. However, the common person couldn’t afford such luxuries and ended up with mass-produced pieces that didn’t cater to any taste in design.

What ordinary people wanted was their own form of luxury—comfortable chairs and couches that they could fall asleep in after a hard days work but that would also impress guests. They wanted just enough decoration to make the pieces seem elegant but not so much as to make them hard to care for. These needs resulted in overstuffed chairs and sofas with springs in their cushions to give added comfort, extremely stylized shallow carving that was easy to clean, and generally little decorative woodwork since using more added to the cost of the piece. Manufacturers could use cheap woods to build the frames which they then covered with upholstery.

Sitting prominently in the living rooms and family rooms of many 30 to 50-year-olds today is the ubiquitous “comfy” sofa, It takes up a huge about of space and can seat at least four or more people comfortably. Some models feature built-in lounge chairs with pop-up ottomans. The precursor to these giants was the sectional sofa. This unique piece of furniture came in sections. Buyers could buy as many sections as they needed to create a monster seating “pit,” popular in the 1980s. In some homes, condos, and apartments, the giant sofa is the only piece of furniture in the room, besides the giant flat-screen T.V. hung on the wall opposite it. 

While the sectional sofa certainly rose to fame in the mid-20th century, it has a more complex past. Before built-in cup holders and powered recliners, sectional sofas solved other problems for homeowners in the early 19th century, back before the start of the Civil War. Only a few examples remain intact, and most of them are in Virginia.

Antiques experts believe that end pieces of sectional sofas have long been mistaken for corner chairs, but evidence is sketchy. The loss of furniture makers, workshops, and a shortage of timber halted furniture production in the South. And destruction by the Union Army in Virginia led to the loss of most of these pieces. Back then, a sectional consisted of two tufted, carved and laminated sofas pushed together. Corner pieces were virtually nonexistent. 

Jumping ahead nearly 100 years to the era of Mid-Century Modern, the sectional sofa became the perfect showcase for the furniture designs of Charles & Ray Eames and George Nelson when the sleek, industrial profile of contemporary-style furniture appeared. The sectional also  answered the question of standardization versus customization when considering high consumer demand, thanks to department stores and catalogs. By breaking a sofa down into sectional pieces, known as modular design, it was easier to manufacture and ship, as well as mass-produce standard, individual pieces that could then be customized once they were the home.

And while comfort is a good thing, style is something else altogether and often the twain do not meet. But this comfort phenomenon didn’t just begin yesterday. It actually started 100 years ago in the 1920s. 

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 Sparkling World of Glass" in the 2021 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.

Buyer Beware

 

Chippendale style dining table and chairs 1930s

QUESTION: I’ve been looking for a new dining table and chairs. But the new ones I’ve seen don’t look very well made for their high cost. A friend suggested I look at buying an antique set. I found a beautiful Chippendale set in a local antique shop. It’s a beautiful set, but how can I be sure it’s the real thing? The shop is reputable so I don’t have any reason to suspect the sets authenticity. How can I be sure it’s authentic? 

ANSWER: You have every right to be suspicious. Even reputable dealers have been fooled by copies of 18th-century pieces coming out of Indonesia. The makers of these pieces do such an excellent job of copying every detail that it’s often hard for some dealers to be sure. 

The Indonesian copies are only the latest in a long line of reproductions. Most people think that because a piece of furniture of a particular older style that it must be a antique. People fail to realize that certain popular styles of furniture have been reproduced over and over throughout the last several centuries.

Indonesian Chippendale dining table replica

I could tell from the photo that the dining table and chairs had been made in the Chippendale style, but I could also tell right away that it wasn’t an antique. The giveaway was the extra leaves in the table. From the looks of it, I'd say the set might be as old as the 1930s, but I'm leaning more to the 1960s. Let’s see why.

Chippendale style dining table with two leaves 1900

Small Chippendale dining table late 18th century

At the time Chippendale furniture was popular in the mid 18th century, dining tables like this one with added leaves didn't exist. Dining tables with separate leaves didn’t come into use until the 19th century. During the 1750s, "joyners"—the person’s who made furniture—made dining tables as drop-leaf tables with large leaves or wings that could be folded down and stood against a wall until ready for use. In many cases, the owners stood them in their front hallways to allow for more space. 

A wealthy 18th-century family would have only used a larger table like this when dining with guests. They often ate at a smaller table by the fire, especially in winter, or had “tea”–what we call supper–in their bedrooms by the fire. When not in use as a dining table, they may have used it for other things and stood the chairs against the wall around the room. In fact, cabinetmakers sold the tables and chairs separately, not in sets.

Georgian Chippendale dining table made from three solid mahogany boards

At the end of the 19th century, a style called Colonial Revival came into popularity because of the colonial exhibits at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. Furniture makers began to make what they thought looked like colonial furniture although it was often stylized and lacked the fine details of the original.

Also, cabinetmakers in the 18th century used pegs to join furniture, thus the name "joyners." After the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1830, screws came into common for joining parts of furniture. Early cabinetmakers also carved their names or initials on their pieces. By the second half of the 19th century, furniture makers began to affix labels on their products.

Queen Anne side chair of Bermuda cedar

And even antique experts can be wrong. A dealer rejected an 18th-century Chippendale drop-leaf dining table and one chair as not being authentic because the wood wasn’t mahogany, the traditional wood used on such pieces. It turned out that the table and chair were authentic after all. It seems they were made of Bermuda cedar, now long extinct. This wood is more orange in color than mahogany. Although this dealer was the expert on 18th-century furniture in the area, the owner took the table and chair to other dealers who all agreed with him. It was only after a friend saw an identical table in an historic house while on a trip to Bermuda that the owner was able to determine the true age of his table and chair. 

That said, this table and chairs seems to be well constructed of solid mahogany and, therefore might sell for somewhere between $1,500 and $3,000. But don’t mistake the identity of this dining set for the real thing which might sell for upwards of $5,000. It isn’t.

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