gay apr d eh ees orci NU WALLA Et cant at Gere mrt JT Reroige Sas SE eke i Rey ah Verte ‘ , , i 1 ‘a A , 1 1 x : . h i 4 . iA v , " * 5 " } hh) ‘ i ' (i, , ; - ~ pe 4 ‘ ~ - i ®& ‘ yn 5 UF $. 2 ‘ FURNITURE of the PILGRIM CENTURY (OF AMERICAN ORIGIN) WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR ““AMERICAN WINDSORS,” 208 pages 54 by 7 in. with 22 added pictures The above is the only work on the subject. STATES BEAUTIFUL SERIES Each 304 pages, 7 by Io in., 304 illustrations Already Published New HampsuHirE BEAUTIFUL VERMONT BEAUTIFUL MassacHUSETTS BEAUTIFUL ConnEctTicuT BEAUTIFUL In Preparation PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL (Eastern) to issue 1924. Ouro BEAUTIFUL to issue 1924. MaIneE BEAUTIFUL to issue 1924. New York BeautiFut (Eastern) to issue 1924. Montana BeautiFuL (With National Parks) WASHINGTON BEAUTIFUL FioripA BEAUTIFUL Tue Ciock Book to issue 1924. FURNITURE of the PILGRIM CENTURY (OF AMERICAN ORIGIN) 1620-1720 WITH MAPLE AND PINE TO Zs&oo INCLUDING COLONIAL UTENSILS AND WROUGHT-IRON HOUSE HARDWARE INTO THE rgoTH CENTURY BY WALLACE NUTTING ILLUSTRATED WITH MORE THAN FIFTEEN HUNDRED EXAMPLES COMPLETELY REVISED AND GREATLY ENLARGED OLD AMERICA COMPANY PUBLISHERS FRAMINGHAM MASSACHUSETTS G To HENRY WOOD ERVING WHO EARLY DISCERNED THAT THE STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF PILGRIM FURNITURE WAS AN EXPRESSION OF PILGRIM CHARACTER =4/= ” t— a tad EXPLANATORY Tus work, like the first edition, is essentially confined to American furniture and minor articles. Greater care has been taken in this edition to exclude pieces of doubtful American origin. The few excep- tions to this rule are noted in the text. The first edition being exhausted the author was faced with the ques- tion whether to reprint or revise. The publication of the first edition elicited information of the existence of many previously unknown but important pieces. For instance, a court cupboard of supreme interest was called to the attention of the author by the owner. It had never been known to the public. By one means or another so much material, in regard to interesting articles, came to the attention of the author, that it appeared to be wiser to undertake a complete new edition. Practically every page has been rewritten and about six hundred additional articles have been illustrated so that the total number shown, numbered and un- numbered, approaches two thousand. Many articles appearing in a decora- tive form as, in one case, about a hundred pieces of pewter on an open dresser are not taken account of and are not even referred to again. We have thought it wiser to pass over the partial consideration of any class of subjects, and to treat in a very full manner those classes called for in our title page. Thus in the matter of iron: cast iron, though certainly used more or less for five hundred years, is shown in only one or two examples. As there appear to be no known American clocks of the Pilgrim Century, or at least not enough examples to merit treatment here, it has been thought best to exclude all clocks, leaving that class of objects for possible treat- ment in a separate work. Advantage has been taken of the opportunity to make a few corrections and to omit a few pieces which, owing to their similarity to others, or for other competent reasons could be spared. It should not, however, be inferred that the omission of any piece casts a reflection on its authenticity. Greater attention has been paid to dimensions, to dates, and to the woods employed. The matter of ownership has been brought up to date so far as feasible, but the articles in the owner’s collection are not, in the text, so designated. The curious may find them in the index. Some owners reserve their names. 8 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY All classes of subjects shown have been much increased in number. This is especially true of court cupboards, pine cupboards, chests and, most of all, of hardware. Here the additions are so numerous that they outnumber the old subjects many fold. In this department of the work almost every one of the objects shown is in the collection of the author or those of his friends. Since so much English furniture has been coming to America, and so much study has been given to English works on the subject, the opinion had been pretty generally established that, so far as grace and charm and quaintness are concerned, American furniture before the mahogany period, in the turned styles at least, surpasses the old world patterns. Never before have exclusively American collections been so desired. The author makes no pretence to exhaustive knowledge, and where any article is referred to as unique or as one of two or three of its class known, he would be understood as limiting these statements to his own or his friends’ knowledge, as of the date of issue of this edition. The increase of interest in the subjects treated has been startlingly rapid. A score of years since one might have gathered up most of the good old iron in America, and have been thanked for carrying it away. Yet this iron is now felt to be almost as important in giving a house the feeling of the period as the furniture itself, particularly if we take into account the fixed, as well as the lighting and fireplace hardware. The best pieces of American furniture are certainly cherished as highly by us as are the best pieces abroad. Possibly this would be true irrespec- tive of the comparative intrinsic merits of American and foreign articles. We want what our own ancestors made and used. It enriches life, and gives us the aroma of a past which is most delightful in retrospect, what- ever may have been its strenuous reality. That which has been handled and used by six, seven or eight generations of our ancestors, is in a manner sacred, so that we avoid any financial appraisal of it. We think of it in terms of affection. The great war has stimulated our attention to it and enhanced our regard for it. The great number of new plates and the increasing costs of material and labor, have worked hardships in the matter of books. But the pub- lishers are to issue this work at the same moderate price as the first edition, encouraged by the reception of the first edition. Indeed, those who really know the extent of the labor required in this volume will also know that it is issued primarily as a labor of love. Watiace NuttTInG FRAMINGHAM, MassAcHUSETTS CONTENTS The references are to text pages only PAGE ee tne bss wascebiniecues 17 INES er 117 Bee i dace Soke be ase ee 130 Meme RAMES (mall)... 0. oi. cee cee ve eee cca ees 147 Sememsie or Desk). 2 fb a hk ae cece nee ces 160 Meee AND OESKS 2 he hed ee le eet ewe eae 179 RETRO TTEt te i a Like wes wate s 190 ereosepey tine, Walnut, etC.). 2... 0-2... ee cae eee 247 I Ae hl ne oe ee ben wa Ralee te 277 ECO cir) is hake lc tgs wiles Sod dw os 278 Penomeirtined Fuori) 21 ke ee eh es we ees 282 Pers (late 17th and Early 18th Centuries)............... 318 PEPRMMSPMEVIVANIA) 0 6.0.5. kc ten cece ease ehsewsavess Baer RePammen rearvicd OF METOUEd ol. oe ved eee te vees 348 We CEPT ANCOUS Oo) fice. Eo Ph eee da ed eha ane 359 ©. 2 tah RE ee a 388 Prameise DS OETTEES AND SETILES..... 0.20000 ce cnc bee nce 399 ne ee i i hes us bane Pods acd emake 420 EE en se eee Ds a ve kas Ao ee 436 MRE P Re fc 10 hoe spd aes cera ee ee od SEA 450 Peemectory On COMMUNION LABLES. ¢.....00 50+... 00000-2> 454 ERATOR oe ns ies sw ater | 8a cae ew a 495 PINE Ee hh acai wo Ee es et ob datas isp MU RPPONSTRUMENTS 05. 05c 0) suka ewes sacs beeen de md as 547 RE MET Sar Me Hee ibe tick sak bk Ake mek las 548 Memroemrver Dressing lables) 225 osc Sck sca wows cone ebm abs a 554 MOV AUDE SO yes chy kee Rasen us Uiaty ce ene tee oe 566 ERPEEEIR URN Sel tte erates Matte Ghee hy Re ee Se ad 582 TET CAUNLA GSES | Pon ee Me et ota Lee hes fai ask ye ane Sere eS 608 (AEE od Se seers. bain Sse ne ee Ue a eros) Ae ha nete cD 648 BMREU GET RONMT SSC marl un eins, Lee nies ete es te 651 MieEEODS) OF COLLECTING 1.140 >. outa a eae ees Siok Seen 679 F URN ITURE of the PILGRIM CENTURY % (OF AMERICAN ORIGIN) 1. An ARCHITECTURAL CHEsT. 1640-60. 2. Enp or CHEsT. 3. Env or Court Cuppoarp. 4. A Carvep Oak CuEst. 1650-70. 5. A Carvepo TuHree-PaneL Oak CuHeEstT. 1650-70. ease —70. ELED Lip Cuest. 1650 ED Oax Pan A Carv 6 Ca deviate ce! 1660-70 wiTH ‘“‘ Rope” Carvine. HEST O Oak AN ™~ 8. A Carvep Oak Four-Pane. Cuest. 1660-70. g. A Carvep Oax Five Panex Cuesr. 1660-70. Furniture of the Pilgrim (entury CHESTS Cuests are the first form of furniture. We dig them out from Egyptian tombs. Even nomads find the need of chests, which mark the beginning, indeed, of a settled civilization. The word chest is of extremely ancient origin and in the Greek it is precisely the same as the form still heard among country people, chist. Cyst and encyst are of the Same source and meaning, as is also chest applied to the human body. As ordinarily used, the word refers to a wooden receptacle with a lid. In its European form the chest was first an ecclesiastical appurtenance for the storage of sacred vessels. Indeed the ark of the covenant among the Hebrews was a chest. The use of the word tabernacle in conjunction with a small sacred receptacle is an interesting side light, since it also is applied to furniture. The first known carving upon furniture was done on chests, some of the quaintest of which are still found in the churches of the old world. In the middle ages the nobles used chests for their valuables and clothing, and it was a custom for a king in his progress to carry chests with him. The use of the word box in England for our trunk is a curious survival of that ancient custom. It was a symbol of respectability and thrift to own a good chest. The custom of providing a young lady with a hope or dower chest marked the solid beginnings of her home life. The loose custom of applying the word dower to small chests-on-frames as special designation is wrong. Probably most dower chests were initialed and sometimes carried the initials of both husband and wife. There is no manner, however, of assuring our- selves that any chest is a dower chest, though the carving of interwoven hearts or of double initialing is usually to be regarded as the mark of a dower chest. As any family advanced in worldly gear it added to the num- ber of its chests. While chests vary greatly in size they most often perhaps approximate a length of forty-eight, a hight of thirty, and a depth of eighteen inches. 17 18 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY That is, the proportions are about eight by five by three. This would hold approximately for chests with one drawer. There are those who claim that a very nice and precise proportion was maintained in the dimensions of the chests and of all its panels, but this seems somewhat fanciful. The theory may have some basis when applied to a chest with a strictly archi- tectural front. While the chests of the wealthy were often carved with great elegance and elaboration, the poor, who also required chests, used the simplest forms, even the board chest perhaps dating back beyond the seventeenth century. The early styles of chests were, like all things artistic, derived mostly, so far as we are concerned, from Italy, whence, through France, Flanders and Holland, and sometimes from Spain, those styles came into England, and at length in restricted and special forms were adopted in America. We, however, retain only the slightest reminiscences of Romanesque and Gothic shapes. We derive some painted styles from middle Europe, especially Moravia. For the most part the carving done in America was flat, linear or peasant carving, terms interchangeable in common use. Carving in the round or bas-relief is exceedingly rare among us. Indeed, possibly a dozen instances will cover all American examples. We recognize that such peasant carving is a marked, even perhaps a complete degradation, from the forms of the middle ages. America was founded when a decline in the arts had already set in. We must, therefore, regard American furniture with mixed sentiments. Probably our taste for the quaint and our love for what our own ancestors left, and the admiration which we have for a people who paused in a wilderness to embellish their households, form a stronger stimulus for the American collector than any elements of pure art which are found in antique furniture. With the going out of carving, and in conjunction with its later phases, came in the addition of applied ornaments, until, in the mid-eighteenth century, the artistic instinct had so far faded, that we reached a point where the merest molding was the only survival of decoration on chests. The material of the earliest American chests was oak, in accordance with English traditions. But very quickly pine lids were introduced. The abundance and the size of “ pumpkin ” pine should have been, it would seem, an early and irresistible temptation. But curiously enough the pine adopted was the hard or yellow pine so largely vanished now from our local forests. The hard pine was almost as heavy and difficult to work as the oak. Following the use of it in lids it quickly came into use in panels and bottoms. It is not until the eighteenth century that we begin to see much of the soft or white pine used, and then it is principally found in the board chests FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 19 which have no claim upon our attention, unless they are in some manner decorated. The joined, that is the mortise and tenon frame panels, is always the mark of good cabinet furniture in any age. The cabinet work of American chests seem to be not at all inferior to their English prototypes. The use of the draw bore pin to secure tight joints was first publicly noticed by Lyon in his invaluable pioneer work. The method consists in so boring the holes in the rails and the stiles that they shall not absolutely coincide but that the hole in the rail shall be nearer the shoulder of the tenon, so that the pin when driven shall draw the rail to form a very close joint with the stile. Thus an old pin, withdrawn, often shows in a crooked form. These pins are of white oak. It is probable, at first, that the joiner was the same person as the cabinet maker. That is, the word carpenter is far less common in that time. The same person erected a dwelling and built its furniture. We have known such instances as late as 1800. The mechanic specially engaged as such by the Pilgrim Fathers was John Alden, who was followed by Kenelm Winslow in 1639. We shall have occasion later to refer to chests and cup- boards which one or the other of them probably constructed. The first chests were mere boxes without a drawer, and were therefore most inconvenient. The use first of one drawer, then of two and three, and finally the transition to a chest-of-drawers was easy. We do not won- der that the use of the chest went out. The peculiar features of the Ameri- can chest, which distinguish it from its English cousin, are the simplicity of its hinges, the use of wood instead of iron for drawer handles, the usual presence of pine in some part, this last feature not being conclusive. The method of joining is by some regarded as a distinguishing feature but we are frank to say that we are not quite able to feel certain about this difference. Even as regards the oak there are those who are quite ready to distinguish between the American and English sort. It is usually easy to discern the difference in the oak. But when our best judges are at variance as to the very species of the wood, how much less able are they to separate, in every case, varieties of the same species? A very keen judge once mistook chest- nut for plain oak. We do not mean to indicate scepticism on our part. We can only say that the best people are sometimes mistaken. The difference in color between American and English oak is not always conclusive. The English examples are sometimes as light as our own. Further, English oak is often as strongly featured as our own. Ordinarily, oak exposed to the smoke of an English apartment for several hundred years will be more or less creosoted, and of course dark. So far has this process gone that the term black oak is a common and apt description of that wood as seen in 20 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY English dwellings and furniture. To us it seems most sombre and alto- gether unattractive. The very late introduction of chimneys, and the discovery by an American, Count Rumford, of a method for preventing smoky chimneys are circumstances which have freed us from black oak. The American Indian, had he constructed chests, would soon have seen on them a complexion properly smoked by his wigwam. There is a powerful, insidious, sentimental and prideful tendency to in- duce us to regard a piece of furniture as American. Its native origin makes it more attractive from every standpoint, even the pecuniary. But in a work of this kind certainly we cannot afford to lean toward judging a piece to be American unless we are obliged to do so’ This position is an amusing shift from that of a few years since, when everyone who had a piece of old furniture was inclined to refer it to an English origin. Thus even now we find on Connecticut chests and Pilgrim cupboards, no trace of the style of either of which we find in England, labels affixed declaring that these pieces were brought over by English ancestors, if not in the Mayflower then in the Anne. But even in some recent instances the age of Anne has of necessity been repudiated. Almost as we write a chest of drawers with lapped joints has been in good faith represented to us as brought over by John Alden, and it is still in a family of his descendants. There are a few Americans who possess a sort of insight into the origin of furniture. This insight arises from long association with English and American examples, and is usually trustworthy. Unhappily, it is circum- stantial evidence that we are, as a rule, obliged to follow. Only one or two of the makers of American seventeenth century furniture have been surely connected with the specimens they have left us. Traditions are un- satisfactory. It is easy to trace the process of their formation. A father may tell his son that a certain heirloom belonged to his great grandfather, and was probably handed down from their pioneer ancestors, and that per- haps he brought it from England. The next generation changes the perhaps to a probably and the generation following omits the probably. It is not a conscious misrepresentation. Indeed, the origin of traditions is often creditable to those through whom they are handed down, even when such traditions are not reliable. Documentary evidence is almost wholly lack- ing. Even when we find writings referring to furniture it is only by inference that we can connect a particular piece of furniture with the writ- ing. Before the age of photography we lacked an easy and immediate method of connecting a piece of furniture with the comments upon it. In- deed, at the present time there is a loose method of referring to furniture in writings which are not directly connected with the objects described. The FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 2% only precise method is to write legends directly upon the photograph of the piece concerned. We are subjected to further difficulties in the establishing of authen- ticity in furniture by the repairs, wise or unwise, generally the latter, which have been made. More often than not the lid of an ancient chest wears out or splits and is replaced by a new one, so that we cannot certainly know whether the original lid was pine or oak. The old clinch or staple or cotter pin hinges, words which describe the same thing, are often replaced by modern, or at best by a different style of hinges. New panels and new pins are inserted. New bottoms are placed in the chest or its drawers. The legs are pieced. Sometimes the decorations or the moldings or the applied ornaments are restored or even hopelessly changed. This work is not always done by the unscrupulous. Our attention has recently been called to what would have been a remarkable court cupboard, the door of which has been replaced by a glass front! Its shelf also has been replaced by a marble substitute! Yet the piece is in the hands of the original family of owners who claim to cherish it with the utmost veneration. They would not part with it under any consideration nor would they let it alone. We are using chests, the first great class in furniture of which we treat, as an opportunity for mentioning these difficulties which occur in our estimate of all alleged antique furniture, for in all classes of objects we meet the same principle. We find recently painted or varnished or wrongly restored pieces to such an extent that their value as examples is mostly lost. Chests usually appear with three panel fronts. The four panel front is exceptional and the five panel front is very rare. The ends of the chests according to merit, age, or style, are arranged in one or two or more panels either sunk or raised. The backs of good pieces are mostly paneled. The legs of a chest are in earliest examples simply continuations of their corner stiles. These legs originally extended below the body of the piece from seven to eight inches. A present length less than those dimen- sions is almost invariably to be accounted for by cutting or decay. Pieces late in the seventeenth century often terminated in ball feet, which were not as long, but varied from three to perhaps four inches. In some instances the ball feet were applied on somewhat shortened stile legs. In most cases the ball feet were applied directly to the body of the piece by boring a round bottomed hole into the corner of the frame. A square bot- tomed hole indicates a modern auger rather than the ancient pod bit. The lids of chests when not attached by the clinch hinges were secured by cleat hinges. These were in the form of cleats fitted under the end of the lid where it projected beyond the chest. This cleat gradually widened towards the back, was bored, and attached to the body by a wooden pin. The BD FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY cleats were ordinarily oak even when the lid was pine. The projection of the lid beyond the cleat was slight. Where there was no cleat the pro- jection usually varied from three quarters of an inch to an inch and a quarter on the ends and on the front. Behind, the lid was sometimes flush and sometimes overhung, in such a manner that when it was raised, the overhang formed a stop to prevent the lid from falling back too far. The edge of the lid on the ends and the front, but almost never on the back, was finished in what is popularly called the thumb nail mold. In a few instances, however, the front and rarely the back has a somewhat more complicated mold with a bead or two, and the ends are left plain or they are finished with gouge carving. Two or three instances are known of paneled top chests which claim an American origin. There are a con- siderable number of instances of original plain oak tops. The great majority of original tops are yellow (hard) pine. In this volume the words yellow and hard as applied to pine are considered as interchange- able terms. All the legitimate shapes of chest hinges known to the author are shown later in this work. So far as we have noted the strap, or strap and T hinges, are confined to the Pennsylvania chests of walnut or pine, or to the New England chests of pine. Even in this last instance the hinges are more likely to be mere cotter pins. The usual practice in the making of chests was to rive not only the rails and stiles but often the panels. This method secured greater strength, be- cause if a stick of oak would not split smoothly it was rejected. It was also far easier to rive than to saw. Our ancestors did not always do work in the slowest and the hardest way, although such an impression has their strenuous life made, that some authors seem to presume that the fathers preferred a hard way to an easy one. The riving of the wood is often ap- parent yet, on the unfinished interiors of the rails or stiles, and is quite frequent on the backs of the panels, and the under side of the drawers. The oak used is referred to as white in all works that we have seen. We have, however, repaired with red oak certain chests, and the applied portions, of old wood of course, had precisely the texture and the color of the original. Red oak is easier to work than white oak, since its grain is more open. White oak is stronger, and better, and for practical purposes we may consider the early furniture as constructed of that wood. The use of pine panels in the back came in very early, and in the case of cupboards this remark applies to the fronts as well. In the chests, pine panels seem to have been a little later on the fronts. There is no fixed rule of practice in this matter. Both customs existed side by side until finally the age of oak passed out entirely. 1660-70. A Carvep Oax Four Panext Cuest. 10. Bee OME SB potitiemcniinnnl Re *& 1660-80. PaneEL CHEST. An Oak Turee-Tu.ip I. I SSS ee wk ARES a alms AN dina aa anche leca .ia Ate Sik SEBE aS ana thi 12. A Carvep Oak Tuuip Cuest, 1660-70. 13. A Patm-PaNnEL CHEsT. 1650-70. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY as The drawer was usually constructed with a solid one piece front. The drawer ornamentation was by applied moldings. Sometimes this application extended so far as to divide even a narrow drawer into minute false panels. The drawer ends were usually of oak and always grooved to fit oak runs which were secured to the frame of the chest by mortise or nail or both. The lack of the grooved end is, broadly speaking, a mark of eighteenth century work. The bottom and the back of the drawer may be of pine or rarely oak. But the drawer bottom is not attached in the eighteenth century style by being driven into a groove panel-wise, in the earlier examples, but is nailed on to the bottom, the drawer front being rabbeted to receive the bottom boards so that they shall not show. We give elsewhere an illustration of a drawer end, but would remark here that the earliest drawer construction showed no dovetailing. The drawer end was nailed against a rabbet. The first dovetailing appears, however, before the seventeenth century ends. This early dovetail is very broad and totally different from the numerous small dovetails which followed. The back of the drawer is usually nailed on in an absolutely plain form, the groove of the drawer end cutting through it also. The drawer bottoms vary in thickness. They may be an inch or more in the very earliest pine forms, and they may fall to a half inch. They often resemble, when of pine, a surface very like a shaved pine shingle. One should carefully note that the use of nails, so usual in drawer construction, was confined exclusively to that portion of the chest, which was otherwise constructed always entirely with pins of wood. In fact, this method of construction continued well into the nineteenth century and is not a mark of great age. The pins were square or roughly octagoned. In no instance has one been found turned. The figure of the oak was quite generally quartered, and this figure too often shows on carved surfaces. On such surfaces, to avoid a confusion of ornament, it is always better to find plain oak. We always prefer it although we by no means generally find it. Nor is the absence of plain oak in panels in any way a detriment ‘to a piece as an antique. The chest usually contained a till of oak or pine molded on the edge of the lid in the same manner as the chest lid. The till lid is frequently made with smal] dowels, portions of the solid wood, as hinge pins, so that the lid put in place, as the frame was driven together, was henceforth permanently fixed in position. An instance comes to our attention of a little drawer beneath a till. Sometimes the till itself is decorated with die stamping and, in one instance that we recall, by a date so stamped. The earliest chests had no drawer, but America was scarcely settled before the one drawer chest came in. The two drawer chest is very frequent. The chest with three drawers is very rare. Cabinet makers 26 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY seemed to reason that if they were to go so far as to make three drawers it was as well to make a complete chest of drawers. The locks of chests were usually attached on the interior. Most of such locks are lost. Their origin will be discussed later. We leave to particular chests the treatment in detail of the carving, the molding and the applied ornaments. Chests are rarely found, as far as we know, with handles, except in the form of the seaman’s chest of pine. Handles are restricted, usually, to two part chests of drawers or table cabinets. The chest in its usual form, or as a miniature, to be used for valuable papers or a Bible, was the article of furniture most likely to be imported. It could be brought to America containing linen or apparel, and thus could be stowed in the hold without occupying much additional and valuable cargo space. There are apparently a few such pieces still left to us. Possibly a box at the Marblehead Historical Society, and. others at Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, and two or three chests, came over on the first ship or in one of those that followed within two or three years. As to methods of construction, when the difference between English and American work is pointed out, we need to remember that at the very first this difference was negligible. It became wider with the passing years. It may have required fifty years to establish a distinct American type of construction or ornamentation. This difference arose partly from materials at hand, partly from the exigencies of the colonists, and partly from the natural variation that would arise on separation from the parent stock. By 1700 pine became common as the principal structural wood in New England, while walnut, followed by pine, came in at the same period in Pennsylvania. When we speak of Pennsylvania we refer to the general type which existed on both sides of the Delaware River, and which is found to a considerable degree in New Jersey. The southern types of seventeenth century furniture are so rare that we can scarcely generalize upon them. The Dutch types proper are those contiguous to the Hudson River and are to be distinguished from the Pennsylvanian or German types, often loosely called Dutch. Although the love for carving seems inherent in Hollanders, chests by them in a carved form are exceedingly rare. They were fond of painted decoration also, and nearly all our painted furniture of the colonial period is Dutch or Pennsylvania or from southern Connecticut where, as we shall see, it developed in a special style. Chests in cherry are known. Possibly chestnut was rarely used. 2 14. es An Oax Tuuip-PaneL CuHEstT witH Cross PANEL. baal y yes 4 1s fy oe a A Connecticut “ SUNFLOWER ” No-Drawer CHEsT. 1670-90. 1670-80, 1660-80. A One-DraweErR SUNFLOWER CHEST. 16. Oe i i ad 1660-70. A Carvep Oak Four-Paneu CHEST. Ls 1660-80. A Two-Drawer SuNFLowER CHEsT. 18. eG el ae es ond 1670-80. An Oax TureeE Panet Cuesrt. 19. 20. A Carvep anp Painrep CuHest. DatTep 1704. 21. A Capratn’s Six-Boarp Sea-Cuest. Datep 1677. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 31 Nearly all of our best examples, however, are in oak, or pine which fol- lowed it at a great distance as to merit. Old inventories mention also spruce; cypress and butternut has been found. The so called sea chest reputed to have belonged to one of the Pil- grim Fathers has inverted V or bootjack end, and is of board construction. A sea chest should properly sit flat on the floor without any legs. Other- wise it would overturn at sea. It is also made, as a rule, narrower at the top than at the bottom, to fit it against the ship’s side in the forecastle. Its handles are of woven rope attached to a bracket. This sort of chest, to- gether with the plain pine chest, has been broken up in great numbers for use in the repair of antique furniture. Unless such chests have some special sentiment connected with them they are of small account. In this book all objects are designated by number, never by page. No. 1 is called an architectural chest because the arches of the panel are structural and not simulated. The chest was found in a very ruinous condition on Long Island. It is owned by Mr. G. H. Buek of Easthamp- ton, Long Island. His dwelling is that made famous as the inspiration of the poem “ Home, Sweet Home.” According to a tradition, the chest was brought from Lynn in 1649 by a family of Osbornes. It has been care- fully restored, the feet of course being new. It is important as showing a true facade. It is also highly meritorious architecturally. The arrangement of two end-to-end drawers is scarcely found elsewhere in American chests except in the serrated Plymouth type. No. 2 shows the end of the chest with its scratch or grooved carving, an obvious imitation of the heavier structural work of the front. The end carving is found very rarely on chests, only three or four other in- stances coming to our mind. No. 3 is the end of the Virginia court cupboard shown in full later. We insert it here to afford an interesting comparison, since, in this instance also, the end is scratch carved, whereas the front is, in part at least, carved in the round. Thus we see an effort to carry out a slighter and less expensive decoration on the ends. In this instance, however, we have somewhat better carving on the top end rail. In all probability No. 1 was carved on the leg stiles below the frame but the restoration is proper, since it is not safe to surmise a design the precise character of which we cannot ascertain. The modillions opposite the ends of the drawers are extremely rare on chests. They show as projecting substantially in No. 2. Where we have seen them, they are more often opposite the upper rail, especially on cupboards. This chest shows in the upper rail a conventional foliated scroll which very commonly appears on chests. The tulip decora- 32 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY tion in the panels is more unusual, especially in this excellent form. The rope carving of the arch is also of very rare character. No. 4 is an elaborately carved oak chest owned by Mr. William B. Goodwin of Columbus, Ohio. It has been restored. It is fair to say that its American origin has been challenged. The very early date of the chest, however, which is conservatively given with its title, may fairly account for its resemblance to English designs. Made at so early a period, there was no reason for a marked divergence from the foreign pattern. The effect is that of a low relief carving, the edges being rounded and the foliage being of varying depths, following the styles of the previous century, and producing a handsome effect. The carving on the stiles and top rail depart very markedly from what we are accustomed to see, which is more in the nature of that on the bottom rail. The panels also are of high character, those at the sides being of the tulip blossom and bud design, whereas the central design shows in its upper part a three leaf pattern. This chest came to Mr. Goodwin through the descendants of Kenelm Winslow, the official coffin maker of the Pilgrims of Plymouth. It is believed by Mr. Goodwin to have been made by Kenelm Winslow. The bottom, as found, was of butternut. The lid was of yellow poplar. It has been replaced with old pine. The body is believed to be of American white oak. Mr. Goodwin is the owner of a great number of interesting chests, each representing a special type or origin. Size: 47% by 273 by 214 inches. No. 5 is another very early chest whose special features are its rare paneled oak top, not looked for in an American piece. The carving is of a crude character on the panels, but the rails and stiles are better done, the inner stiles being palmated. The rope molding on the bottom stile is to be compared with that on No. 1. Another feature of interest is the scrolled, scolloped, not engrailed bottom rail. We do not find this except on early chests, and then on those with no drawer or possibly with one drawer. The bottom of this chest is pine but the back is oak. English chests of oak and also containing pine have come to our attention. The origin of this chest is not certain but it is presumably Connecticut. Size: 46 by 274 by 20 inches. Here as throughout this volume we name the long dimension first, that is, the length, or as some would call it the width across the front; then the hight from the floor to the top of the lid, then the depth from front to back. It is important to take note of these specifications as they will not subsequently be explained. We have here a two panel end, as is frequent in chests of the earliest Spageeh ne! te E i. 1660-80. Oax Diamonp-anp-ArcH CHEsT. AN 22. 1660-80. A Norman Tootru Carvep CHEsT. 235 oe OE Le AO EERE SLE SF. IE AE IY BIE IE ELD 24. SERRATED PLyMouTH CHEST 1660-80. 25. SeRRATED PLymMourH CHEST. 1660-80. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 35 type of the highest character. There is also a thumb nail molding of the lid. No. 6, owned by Mr. George Dudley Seymour of New Haven, is supposed to be American, although its lid is of paneled oak, like that of No. 5, a feature which appears in only one other instance among the great number of chests here illustrated. The panels are carved in what is called a Runic design. The lower rail and the stiles are very slightly carved. The upper stile is outlined with scratches and prepared for inter- secting lunettes. This is not the only instance of incomplete carving. A chest-on-frame in this work is similarly outlined. The chest was found in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and is now in Wadsworth, Atheneum, Hartford. No. 7 is a four panel front chest, owned by Mr. H. W. Erving of Hartford. The ends are in single panels. The short stiles are plain, but the end stiles carry double rows of pencil and pearl carving. The top rail between rows of pencil and pearl ornament shows a scroll, and the bottom rail carries one row of the pencil and pearl ornament. The lid is oak. To a student of structure this chest may serve to illustrate certain peculiarities. The molding on the inside of the leg stiles is worked from the solid, apparently, after the parts of the chest were assembled. That is to say, this molding runs out to nothing at the top and bottom, being chiseled rather than planed, and stops not abruptly but on a curve. Again the bottom rail is beveled or molded on its upper edge under each panel, which is not true on the lower edge of the upper rail. Sometimes the beveled edge was carried around all sides of a panel but always stopped before the corner was reached. The moldings on each side of the stiles here are, as appears, cut before the chest was put together. The back posts projecting as they did beyond the back top rail were often cut away for an inch or so, at the top, to allow the lid to open and to stop it, when it struck the shoulder, thus cut on the post. Otherwise the lid would have been strained. The till within the chest at one end was framed in. In the earliest examples the till was of oak. Subsequently we often find it in pine even though the chest is oak. Size: 474 by 264 by 204 inches. No. 8 represents a very long chest. The decoration of the top rail is a series of lunettes and reversed lunettes, which we see also on various other chests of oak and even on one of pine in this work. The laureling which it bears on the short stiles resembles that on the Parmenter court cupboard, and also that on other chests. Wherever found it indicates an 36 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY early date and strong English influence. The rosettes or asters in the panels resemble those on a Bible box shown later. The initials P. W. are a somewhat early instance of -initialing though the English practice in this respect was probably different. Here the most frequent dating and initialing is found on chests of the last decade of the seventeenth century. Chests were usually made to order and we suppose them always to have been so made when they were initialed. It is this circumstance that gives individuality, romance and charm to old furniture. It is apparent that this furniture was designed for the house into which it was to go, and that it was to be used for a very specific purpose. It is a not altogether pleasing reflection that the names of the owners, even of initialed pieces, of early furniture, are almost always unknown. Their makers also are un- known. Although many stories accompany furniture, especially where it is found for sale in shops, it is practically impossible, more than once in a thousand times, to establish the precise origin of furniture in the Pilgrim Century. No. 9 represents two extremely rare features in a chest, namely a five panel front and a carved end. The owner is Mr. George Dudley Seymour. The lid is a restoration as are also the feet. Of course the bottom should not show. The chest is very handsome, and follows closely the analogy of some English models, and is similar in its diamond panel design to No. 10. The indentions above and below the panels are an interesting variant. The short stile on the two-panel end is also carved like those in front. No. 10 shows a close cousin of the chest just discussed. The carving of the top rail has been called by some fluting, and the term is absolutely correct as a description. As in all cases of fluting the effect is enhanced by the curved line left at the bottom of the flute. The bottom rail has merely scratch carved lunettes. Both rails and stiles on the two-panel end are strongly molded, the moldings at the top and bottom being called chan- nel molds. Flat panels like these are called sunken panels whereas those with the beveled edge which rise to a level with the surface of the stiles and rails are called raised panels. If the panels rise higher than the frame we name them block or highly raised panels. The lid of this chest is neither original nor proper. Size: 54 by 32 by 23 inches. The depth is very unusual but is evidently increased to correspond with the great length. The length of the feet is 74 inches, which is quite proper, showing only normal wear which is never very much on solid oak, unless a piece has stood in a wet place. No. 11 is the first example we have thus far shown of applied orna- 26. A SerRRATED PLtymMoutH Cuest. Darep 1691. caplet ie WV YN SESS bas. Ss ee Aa ts ca a OLE lt a i te nn SS es a] 27. A SERRATED PLyMouTH CuHEsT. 1660-90. 1660-80. A SerraTep PLymoutTH CHEsT. 28. FouiateD THREE PaneL CuEst. 1660-80. 29 TTES. 1670-80 TH RosE Wl’ A Carvep Oax CHEsT, 30. Hab Gk 31. A Carvep Oax Cuestr. 1660-80. vail is i li tems tc 32. A PaneLep-Lip Oak CuiLp’s CuEst. 1670-1700. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 41 ments in addition to carving. This construction points to a slightly later date than the pieces which are decorated by carving alone. True, there are individual instances of pieces that are carved, of later date than those that are both carved and otherwise decorated. This chest also shows triangular blocks in the corners of the end panel. There are three tulip patterns in its panels, and in this respect it is, perhaps, unique. This chest also shows a heavy applied strip of molding about the base both at the ends and in front. It will be observed later that this molding often stops on the front when it is between drawers, and in some instances it is true also at the bottom, as in all the known examples of the serrated Plymouth chests. The drops, also called split banisters, which appears to be the same word as balusters, are marked by great boldness in the turnings. The connection between the enlarged ends and the central portion is very small, So as to cause us to wonder how the crude early lathe could be coaxed into producing a result so delicate. It will be noted that these drops are in pairs on the inside stiles and appear in a larger form singly on the outside stiles. There is a strong affinity in shapes between all the patterns of drops. The rounded oval in the center of the end panel is called a turtle back, a boss or an egg. In this instance it will be seen that it is surrounded by four miniature bosses. These applied ornaments on chests and cupboards were almost always painted black, probably to simulate ebony. Their wood is often maple but sometimes beech, birch or pine though the last named is rare. They are attached by glue and in some instances wrought brads have reinforced the glue. Whether the brads were ever original, we have been unable to establish. The frames of the chests of the earlier type were as a rule put together without glue, the joiner depending upon his pin construction. Obviously when ornaments were attached he must fol- low a different method. Very rarely we have seen pins of wood used to attach ornaments but we cannot now name the instances. There seems to be a fatuous dependence by joiners upon the reliability of glue. Unhappily this dependence has been the cause of the loss of many fine decorations. It is the rarest thing to find a chest or a cupboard with all its original ornaments intact. In fact we know of only one such instance. Joiners today show the same simple faith in glue. In the ancient day when there was no dry heat such as we too often have in modern dwellings, glue was more likely to fulfil its function satisfactorily. Ornaments on an ancient piece will sometimes drop off like an unripe harvest when subjected to steam heat. There would seem to be no valid objection to securing these ornaments solidly by brads. The ancient cabinet makers are said to have 42 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY used a far better glue than we have today, but that is a matter that is open to two opinions. Our loss would not be so great were it not true that the moldings about the panels of old pieces were also often attached by glue, and hence have lost some of their members. The heavy skirt mold and other heavy molds we are happy to say was usually attached by pins of wood or by nails. The owner of this chest is Mr. George Dudley Seymour. The top is new and probably should have been of pine, not oak. The chest is otherwise original. It was found in the Capt. Charles Churchill house, Newington, Connecticut, about forty years ago. At that time it stood on end and was in use as a harness cupboard. In the same house was a Connecticut sunflower court cupboard which was rejected to “ make room.” Size: 47 by 26 by 19 inches. No. 12. This carved chest should be compared with the Hadley chest Nos. 33 to 42, and particularly with No. 41. It resembles the Hadley chest in being carved over the entire front and in showing everywhere the tulip blossom. In this case, however, instead of the narrow vine shown in No. 41 we have a highly conventionalized heavy rope. The style of carving is quite superior to that found on the ordinary Hadley chest, which is about as bad as anything can be, and scarcely worthy of the name carving. There is a two drawer chest similar to the piece before us in the Con- necticut Historical Society. The panels in:that piece are more like the tulip pattern panels on the sunflower chest. It will be noted that no moldings whatever appear on this or on the Hadley chests unless the chamfering around panels is to be called a mold- ing, which is hardly allowable. Another feature of this carving is that a plain band is left all around the edges of the rails and the stiles before the carving begins. As this is the first chest we have shown with a drawer, we may point out that American chests of this period had small wooden drawer knobs. They are much smaller than the Pennsylvania type of a later period, and very much smaller than the walnut knobs of the depraved Empire period. In English chests of this date we usually find an outline pear-shape iron drop handle, a thing we have never observed on an American chest. Owner: Mr. H. W. Erving. Size: 49 by 32 by 184 inches. No. 13. Arare four-panel chest with one drawer attractively carved in wheels, rosettes or geometrical figures, connected with grooved bands, and spaced by smaller similar circles. The palmated carving of the panels and 1690-1700. A Onet-Drawer Hapiey CHEsT. 33: Hse 1700-10. MiniATURE CHEST. 34. 35. A One-DrawER Hap.ey CHEst. 1690-1700. crass eee i 1690-1710. 36. A Six-Boarp SUNFLOWER PinE CHEST. a 2 Re A FA &) z, 9 1690-1700. Drawer Haney Cuesr, A ONE 37- AE aE 1700. Cc Miniature Cuest, 38 I é : 6 # 1690-1700. A Hap.ey CuHeEst, wirH FuL_yi Name. 39- FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 47 the deep channel mold on the corner stiles are both noticeable. The chest has now had its legs pieced. The lid is pine, a trifle too narrow, and bevels sharply outward and downward from the top, and is cut from a slab so as to give the benefit of the extreme width, a very amusing instance of adaptation. The usual number of lunettes on such chests is five, as here, on the top rail. This chest has a three-panel end. A similar chest of Mr. Erving’s has four panels. The old hasp remains. Size: 52 by 34 by 21 inches. The wood of this chest is very light white oak. No. 14. An unusual Connecticut chest, has the side panels in the con- ventionalized tulip pattern, but instead of the aster or sun-flower pattern on the middle panel we have the diagonal cross often found on Con- necticut cupboards. This is the first chest in which we find turtle backs on the front. The huge, ungainly handles are incorrect. They should be the usual moderate sized turned handles. We find on this chest the pairs of short drops on each side of the drawer and another pair in the center where the drawer front is divided in two parts by false panel work. In pieces of this kind, as usual, where there are moldings applied to the board which forms the front of the drawer, a plain thin piece, three eighths of an inch thick, more or less, is applied at the center to make the division between the two panels and on this the drops are applied. Thus the board forming the front is really recessed, or allowed to push in below the surface, and the surface is made flush by the applied blocks and moldings. The blocks on which the stiles rest are not a part of the chest. This chest should be compared with No. 15. It is from the Henry Stearns collection, formerly in Hartford. No. 15. A rare example of which perhaps only one or two others exist of a Connecticut sunflower and tulip chest without a drawer. On this account it is probable that we should date the chest about ten years earlier than chest with drawers, although to do so is of course purely arbitrary. We observe in No. 14 a heavy molding carried around above and below the drawer, and here we have a similar mold on the bottom rail. The carving on this notable class of chests is about an eighth of an inch deep, sometimes only three thirty-seconds deep. The background is pitted by numerous tool marks so as to form a pebbled or stippled surface. In many cases this ground is painted red. Perhaps this was always the case. In the process of years the red has faded or been washed away so that in some instances scarcely a trace of it remains. The tulip and the sunflower are so highly conventionalized as to indicate at least a second stage of development. In fact the central and 48 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY upper blossom of the sunflower is of a different character than the others, although all are supposed to grow on the same stem! There are one or two score sunflower chests known. So far as we are able to trace them at all, as we are in a large majority of instances, we find that all came from Hartford County and many from Hartford itself. Lyon, who is very accurate, states that English collectors have never seen a chest of this character. Since his date, however, it is claimed that numerous oak pieces in England have pine in parts. Simmons, in an article on this subject, makes the same claim. If we are to generalize on these state- ments at all we may say that pine in English pieces of the oak period is very rare. We do, however, find it more frequently in the walnut and mahogany periods. There are those who claim that this pine is really Scotch fir and others who say that it was imported into England. However, it not necessary to depend upon the presence of pine in oak pieces to establish their American character, in the case of the sunflower and various other chests. It is not at all credible that every English type of this sort should have been brought to America leaving none behind. The presence of so many in one city and county is evidence of the strongest character in favor of the conclusion that these chests were produced .in Hartford. The moldings on these chests are sometimes of red cedar, from which we infer that it was the intention to leave them in the natural wood so as to secure the color of the cedar. In instances, however, where a softer wood, or perhaps soft maple, is used, the moldings were painted red, which has now become an old red. At the time it is applied, however, we have evidence that it was very brilliant. Near the center of these molds there were small black parallel lines painted across the molding. The owner of the chest is Mr. James N. H. Campbell of Hartford. Size: 444 by 244 by 18 inches. No. 16. This one drawer Connecticut sunflower style is far more frequent, but the two drawer type is probably most often found, because it is a trifle later. The piece before us has a pine lid, and two-panel ends. The upper end panel has beveled corners. The fashion of slanting the turtle backs on the drawer is an interesting characteristic. Though the name sunflower chest has been bestowed on this style it is understood that there are side panels with conventionalized tulips. Owner: Mr. H. W. Erving. Size: 444 by 31 by 194 inches. No. 17. This four panel chest has its stile legs carved in the same fashion as No. 10. The bottom rail is also a lunette motive, only in this 40. A Two-Drawer Hapiey Cuest. 1690-1700. 41. Turip-Scrott Haptey Cuest. 1690-1704. ; 42. A Turee-Drawer Hapitey CuEst. 1690-1700. 1660-90. K CHEsT. Eicut PanELED Oa 3 4 1693 DatTep . EL CHEsT K THREE Pan Oa 44. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 53 case it is doubled. Thus the bottom rail matches the top rail except that it is not so ornate. The double lunette here is of precisely the same outline as that in the pine chest No. 36. We may presume that the pine chest motives were copied from those on the oak chests. We have called this motive a shuttle pattern. The carving on the long stile has been char- acterized by carvers as a spade motive. The short stiles are carved in a manner like an inset split ball turning. It will be noticed that the bottom rail is not chamfered as is usual. This chest never had a drawer, but numerous chests, on careful examination, show that a drawer is missing. Sometimes the supports have been entirely removed but a trace of a framed rail for the drawer to slide upon can always be found, generally in the form of a rabbet on the back stile. This chest is of extraordinarily large size, being 544 by 292 by 224 inches, about the size of No. 10. As these two chests have elements of carving in common and as their ends are almost precisely alike we may infer they may have been made by the same person. Owner: The estate of William G. Erving, M.D., Washington. No. 18 is a very good specimen’ of a two drawer sunflower chest. It was restored about forty years ago at the time when Connecticut cabinet makers, working in conjunction with Dr. Lyon, were first engaged on their pioneer work of finding and calling attention to this sort of furni- ture. This example has not lost any considerable portion of its feet; the top is original except the cleats; so also are most of the ornaments. There is an interesting variation in these chests and in cupboards of the same period, which clearly indicates that they were made to order, and that the feeling of the cabinet maker and his patron coincided in the thought of giving individuality to each piece. Thus we observe that the carving, the ornaments, the size and many other particulars are varied slightly. A chest, especially when designed as a gift, was regarded properly as appropriately marked by some peculiarity. It is this variety, so natural to a good workman, and so fine a stimulus in all artistic produc- tion, that the seventeenth century had and we have not. It is this feature which must be introduced again into American life. It is one thing to standardize the mechanism of automobiles. That may be possible and is certainly desirable. But we ought to distinguish between mechanics and artisanship. Unless we are to revive individuality in our characters as well as in our surroundings, true progress will be at an end. There is no stimulus in thinking, and no character development, if every house- hold is to be furnished with standard articles. Size: 45 by 40 by 204 inches. The stile legs project six inches and were probably at least seven inches. 54 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY The top is hard pine. All the elements of this chest are quite correct. No. 19 is an interesting variant. The owner is Mr. H. W. Erving. The foliated scroll on the center panel, bearing the initials W. B. differ- entiates the chest quite markedly. The absence of the drawer may probably call for an earlier date. There is a single panel end. The channel or shadow molding in these chests is as a rule painted black to coincide with the applied ornaments. The maple used in turn- ings was the soft, swamp, or water maple, three names for the same variety. It was rather more common and easier to work than the rock or sugar maple. The birch used in turnings was often of the gray and rather frail and somewhat soft variety, not the heavy, hard mountain or salmon birch. Size: 44 by 254 by 18 inches. No. 20. This unusual chest is a combination of carving with painted decoration, and is therefore probably earlier than the chests with painted decorations only. This piece is remarkable in giving not only the year, but the month and the day, on the central panel. The two drawers are also painted in the tulip bud and blossom, and the blossom is not as highly conventionalized as is usual. This is the first chest we show with decorated painting, the painting mentioned in the previous cases being in the nature of a background or relief to set off the carving. It will be observed that on this chest as well as on No. 18 the molding between the drawers stops on the front and is returned to the front. In the Plymouth serrated chests, however, while the moldings stop on the front, returns are seldom worked upon them. They are sawed off flush with the outside end of the carcass. Some have thought that this distinction in the manner of applying the molding indicates an earlier date for the Plymouth chests, and we incline to this opinion. It is entirely possible, however, to at- tribute the difference to the greater skill of the Connecticut craftsmen. We feel quite certain that painting on Connecticut chests was a later decoration than the carving or the applied ornaments. It is found in southern central Connecticut. What inspiration it received from the Hol- landers of New York and the Pennsylvania Germans is not clear, but Wwe must presume a connection owing to the fact that the painted chests of Connecticut are found principally in the shore towns where con- nection with New Amsterdam was close. Owner: Mr. Malcolm A. Norton of Hartford who also has chests like No. 18. . No. 21 a true seaman’s chest. It is called a captain’s chest, pre- sumably because it is carved. Sailors had leisure and exercised it very frequently in the carving of small ornaments called scrimshaw work. 1660-90. Att Oax Arcu Panet CHEST. 45. 20. 1700— Pine Boarp IniTiALED CHEST. 46. 47. Oax Scrottep Skirt Cuest. 1660-80. 48. Pine Miniature CueEst. 1690-1710. 49. Oax Two-DrawEeR CueEst wiTH Drops. 1670-80. 50. A Curvep Motp Cuesr. 1680-90. Core et, Nagy ear Arad FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 59 They are a free hearted and generous lot. They seem to enjoy making something. for wives and sweethearts more than for themselves. Hence we find surprisingly little insthe way of carving by them on cabinet pieces. We accept with suspicion tales of their having done elaborate chairs on shipboard. In the instance of this board chest, the first by the way we have shown without a joined frame, the simplicity of the carving makes it seem reasonable to believe that it was done on ship- board. Nevertheless the hearts initialed M.S. would seem to point it out as a gift piece done for a sweetheart or a wife. That it was, how- ever, made at sea or by a seaman is proved by the rope handles. Its lack of feet also indicates that it was for use at sea and may have been designed for the captain’s wife. The material is pine, not the best for carving. Oak itself, though it is the classical wood for Gothic carving, is not susceptible of dainty cutting such as marked the work of Grin- ling Gibbons, whose favorite material was pear wood. The grain for the highest class of work should be close and hard and free from knots. As has been pointed out before, the lids of sea chests are usually narrower than their bases owing to the forward slant of the back. Owner: The estate of George F. Ives of Danbury, Connecticut. The date appears in no less than three places on the front, a curious repetition. Size: the outside measurements including the lid, are 53 by 19 by 21 inches. No. 22. This chest introduces a new element for our consideration, — the carved arch in combination with the panels we have already been considering. The owner is Mr. H. W. Erving. This American chest is very elaborate and has legs of unusual length indicating that good care must have been taken of it. The ends have three plain panels. The arch in this chest is also seen on English ex- amples, and on No. 24 and No. 45 and on some court cupboards. The arch is quite precisely like the English, not only in its shape but in the projecting capitals and bases. One would hardly catch at first glance the great number of ornamental features, but to enumerate them is impressive: drops, bosses, nail heads, channel molds, diamonds, rosettes, blocked corners, incised ornaments, an arch, keystone and other arch- structure blocks and moldings about panels and drawer. The wheel decoration rather than the flower type which appears in the diamonds may have been suggested by the wheel windows of the Gothic day. Of course the circle, as variously divided geometrically, is a primitive and obvious method of ornament. Size: 453 by 334 by 192 inches. 60 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY No. 23 is a decided departure in ornament from the chests hitherto considered. Dr. Lyon showed a chest of this character. The series of square carved incisions running vertically on the stiles is called Norman tooth carving. The top rail is cut in foliated scrolls as often seen. The panels are done in a double scroll of the same character. The drawer is a restoration and the feet have been pieced. The chest presents a very handsome appearance and has a fine color. The lid is of thin oak with an unusual overhang. Sizé: 36 by 334 by 18. No. 24 is our first example of a serrated Plymouth chest belonging to Mr. M. A. Norton. These chests are of the highest importance for several reasons. They constitute, together with the serrated Plymouth cupboards, the main contribution of Plymouth Colony to our important and stately furniture. of the seventeenth century. Eight or ten of these chests are known. The points of similarity between them are: first, serrations, like Norman carving, running across one or more oak molding bands the length of the chest. Second, two or four drawers arranged in sets of two on the same level. That is to say no drawer goes across the chests, but there are two side by side or end to end drawers. If more drawers are added they are in the same fashion. We shall notice later that this rule holds true also with the court cupboards of the same type. Third, narrow parallel gouges in pairs (pencil and pearl) running at intervals across one or more oak moldings on the front. Fourth, the molding stops on the top but does not return. It is sawed off flush with the ends. Fifth, all the pieces have applied turned decorations, both drops and bosses, All have triglyphs on some one of the rails, perhaps always the top rail. Sixth, all have pine drawer bottoms, pine drawer fronts and prob- ably all have pine panels in front and in some cases at the end. Seventh, all are paneled in the backs, sometimes with oak, sometimes with pine. Eighth, all are traced, as far as they can be traced at all, to Plymouth Colony or to Plymouth itself. The piece before us is peculiar in that it possesses an arched panel, which is the only instance we recall among the Plymouth serrated chests. This fact has the more importance since it bears on the question whether American chests and cupboards with arched panels may not be challenged as old importations. There is such a strong American feeling in these Plymouth pieces that we feel this arch settles the matter. The shape of the notching is really in the form of pointed dentils on the highest member of the chest. The drawer moldings are, we believe, uniformly slanted back to the outside edges rather than slanting 51. Heavy Two-Drawer Batu-Foor Cuest. 1670-90. Oak Turee Panet Cuest. 1670-90. § 2 1670-90. SPEER EME RTE oe te en Oak anv Pine Turee Pane, Cuesr. 53- TTY NR EERIE RR rer eR t re 55+ 54. Prain Pane Oax Cuest. 1670-90. A One-Drawer Moupep Oax CuHEst. 1680-90. “ey oe eager 56. An Oak Cuest, with Turee Repearep Panes. 1670-90. Be 57 An Oak Six-Boarp CueEstT. 1690-1700. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 65 inward like most chest moldings. We believe that this character of a molding, other things being equal, is the older of the two, since it follows the style of the seventeenth century looking-glasses. This chest was found in Connecticut in a family which had possessed it for many generations. Yet the migration of Massachusetts people to Connecticut and the definite knowledge of Plymouth origin in other cases need not stagger us in relation to this chest. Though it has lost something from the feet it is a rich example of the type. No. 25 is another chest of the same general character except that it has turned feet in front. The moldings of the panels are also more elaborate than we have seen on any other of the type. It is an exceed- ingly handsome piece. The side panels we think finer than the square blocking in the corners, although this of course is a matter of taste. We have said that all these chests have two drawers. This chest being small scarcely breaks the rule, the shortness of the drawer not calling for its division. Owner: Mr. M. A. Norton, the same as in the preceding example. No. 26 presents many interesting variations and has the special flavor of a precise date. The till of this chest is of white oak divided down the center with a row of stamping, and then having the halves of the top each bearing an X of similar stamping. The face of the till is also stamped. Below the till are short side runs of oak which indicate that there was once a small sliding drawer under the till. The date is stamped by the same tool which executed the rest of the work, 1691. Another exceedingly interesting mark of change with the progress of the years is the fact that a half of the old drop handle on one drawer was in place showing it to have been a brass ring drop. The handles therefore as shown are reproductions. This piece was found in an attic in Scituate, according to a report. It is, anyway, a Plymouth Colony piece. The thin applied blocks at the center of each side of the middle panel and on the side panels were stamped in double rows with an inter- esting device. Some of these applied pieces were missing and also some of the moldings, as we would naturally suppose would be the case. But the most remarkable fact in regard to the condition of the piece was that every one of the applied turnings was intact. It is important to notice that these applied ornaments appear on the feet also, in this case in pairs. In two of the cupboards found, as we shall see, there is a single large turning, simulating to some degree a ball foot. The interesting question arises whether all chests and cupboards of this design should not 66 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY have applied turnings on the feet. We incline to the belief that they did all have such turnings originally. ; Another feature of odd interest in this chest is the fact that the lid, which is original, is of hard pine but is faced with a piece of oak, front and back, wide enough to admit the molding. This is an amusing cir- cumstance since the panels are pine. Why they should have attached the strip in the back is difficult to say. We may presume that wide oak could have been found since the writer discovered a house constructed of two inch plank many of which were twenty-four inches in width, and ran for many feet without a knot. It is true that these planks were red oak, which perhaps is found in larger boles than the white. Nor could the choice of yellow pine, as in this case, have been dictated by a lighter weight since the difference is not great. The mystery of these pieces is further hightened by the fact that we have in this example and in some others four oak panels in the back whereas the front panels are pine! Had oak been considered more desirable we cannot understand the failure to use it, because the panels are never very wide. The ends are three panels, and of oak. The drawer bottom and drawer back are of pine, and like every example of this type we have examined they show the rive or cleaving marks, here and there, on the under side. We hardly think this could have been an English custom. It is fair to say that several excellent mechanics have pronounced this wood spruce. The difference between spruce and pine on the smooth grain is very slight. One of our friends became much alarmed at the statement about spruce, and warned us that our pieces would be slightly thought of if we mentioned the matter. There seems to be a kind of bigotry in relation to woods as well as in religion. All the bottoms of this class of pieces are of a very smooth even grain which split with an agreeable smoothness, and we believe that the material is pine. A structural detail is that the drawer ends are nailed directly through from the fronts. The nails are then covered by the molding. This method is the opposite from a very early type in which the nails were driven from the drawer ends into the rabbet of the drawer front. The presence of the drop handles on this piece, as distinguished from the wooden knobs found in all the other pieces of this type which come to our attention, undoubtedly indicates a considerably later date for this piece. We notice that the earliest highboys, which we date about 1690, all had brass drop handles, and from that date on no fine furniture, except possibly the drawers of gateleg tables, used wooden knobs. We shall later point out the certainty of an earlier date for the court cup- ones 1680-90. An Oax Center Brock PaneL CuHEsT, 58. abet aes 1700. A Pine Carvep CuHEsT. c. 59 fi 1660-80. PANELS. PLAIN Oax CueEst witH Drops, 60. ‘ 5 7) 1660-80. Oax Brock Pane, CHEstT. I. 6 a4 n is. sets if BORD area aes 1680—90 Oax ORNAMENTED PaNneEL CHEsT. 62. mit |) ie é - i) Senter PIR Femme * i ze > iI Figen, Pm jo Owes {comico * Vobe si Cw ere eae p ate ott be “alee Sap i PL ns bs 1680—90. Batt-Foot Oax PaneL CuHEsT. 63. 1690-1710. Foor Pine Cuest. TurRnIP- 64 DatEep 1776. ArcuH Carvep Watnut CuHEstT. 65. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY at board of this type. The stamping which appears on this piece is also a decoration which seems to have come in about 1690. The piece is therefore marked by transitional ornaments, and notwithstanding its beau- tiful construction it really stands for the beginning of a decline. Size: 525 by 34 by 204 inches. These dimensions as usual are given on the body, technically called the carcass, except that the vertical measure- ment is from the floor and includes the feet. Here the feet are only 4% inches long and have probably lost three inches. The oak strip on the lid is $ inches behind and 14 inches in front, and the thumb nail mold- ing is carried around front and ends. The large oak moldings are 14 inches thick, and, in this solitary instance, we believe, the mold over the drawer in front is returned. The love of individualism appears in this chest which has diamonds in the end panels and block corners in the middle panel, a decoration which is reversed in various other pieces of the type. All end panels in this style are sunk, we believe. The top molding under the lid is varied by a diagonal cut running up from the pairs of cuts which form a crude pencil and pearl ornament. While mentioning dimensions we may say that the till has an extra- ordinary width being 94 inches. It also has a lock, now lost. No. 27 is another of the same type of chests from the collection of Mr. B. A. Behrend of Brookline. A peculiarity here is the scratch carved serrations on the feet, both at the top and the bottom, which would indicate the general rule of applying ornaments to the feet was in this case dispensed with, and that the carved serrations on the moldings above were merely suggested on the feet. This piece is also peculiar in having four “beam ends” instead of triglyphs. It will be noticed also that the panel work on this chest is precisely the reverse of that on the one preceding it. 3 No. 28 belonging to Mr. H. W. Erving, is still another of these important chests. In this case we have the interesting variant already referred to of the large split turning on the feet which was also found on two recently discovered court cupboards of this type. We do not understand the lack of the third applied piece on the ends of the top rail, to make the triglyph, but we presume it to be correct as Mr. Erving is very accurate. ‘There are other instances of two instead of three strips. We have here the unusual thing in these chests of quartered oak panels instead of pine. The effect of the lighting does not show the quartering of the grain, on the left panel, but it is also, of course, of oak. It may be that the possession by a cabinet maker of a fine quartered piece induced him to use the oak rather than the pine. 72 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY In this connection there is a strong light thrown on the reason for using pine on the drawer fronts in this style. That part of the front which was not covered by the cedar molding was painted black. Thus there was no call to show a grain. Painted furniture may as well be pine as anything else. There still remains, therefore, only the problem of the true panels. Size: 50 by 334 by 214 inches. We have now shown five of the Plymouth serrated chests. There is another one in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, and we believe several others known, which we cannot just now place. We consider these pieces among the most important of our American chests, especially when their charac- ter and their source are considered together. No. 29 represents an oak chest the three panels of which are identical, being a doubled foliated scroll in the flat carving. The chamfering on all sides of the panels is clearly seen here. It is also clear that the chamfering on the short stiles was done on the bench, and all the rest was done after the chest was assembled, or at least with reference to the manner in which it must assemble. The panels including those on the ends, and the three on the back are of oak, and those on the back still show the rough riving. The lid is of pine molded with a bead on the front, and with pin hinges through the cleat. The chest was painted red and after the removal of all of the color possible it still has a strong tinge. Both upper and lower rails and all the stiles have a simple, doubled channel mold. Size: 42 by 274 by 18 inches. The legs are now 6% inches long. The chest has a one panel end. The till is missing but the mortise grooves where it existed appear. No. 30 is a very elaborate and handsome chest belonging to Mr. James N. H. Campbell, of Hartford. This very rich front exhibits numerous unusual features: One pecu- liarity is the very wide bottom rail, the like of which we do not remember to have seen in any other chest having a drawer, because the use of that portion of the chest is lost. The arrangement of the end panels is quite unusual; there being as a rule one, three or four. Here we have two, the lower one conventional, and above, instead of the two usual panels long vertically, we have a more decorative panel with triangular blocked corners. The front of the chest exhibits two styles of rosettes or asters or sunflowers, — we never are certain which term we should apply, and as these flowers are always conventionalized it is not a matter of import- ance. For the first time we have here, cut in the stile feet, similar flower blossoms to those found on other parts of the front. There is also a tact eet 66. Miniature Painrep CHEsT. PaintED Oak Cuest. Datep 1700-10. 1705-6. DUR PALM hn Le LALA A te? (TET * Pei a Shaka See ie: oS Sea Rs 68. A Patnrep Cuest, witH Two Drawers, 1690-1710. 69. PainTeEpD Oax CuEstT. 1680-1700. 70. Sunspurst ParnreD Oak CueEst. 1680-1700. EWoopd CHEST. 1690-1710. ED WuiItT AINT. P I 7 1700-20. E CueEsts oF Drawers. Miniature Pin BOATS 7 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 77 peculiar little scratch carving on the top rail which we could perhaps dispense with without loss to the feeling. Very peculiar members of the carving are those which, shaped like a bending corn leaf, either single or double, fill the spaces between the rosettes. It is probably the copy of the end of a palm leaf. Another peculiarity is the division, super- ficially, of course, of the side panels into four smaller panels. The drops are also shorter than we usually find. Size: 48 by 374 by 20 inches. No. 31 is an unusual chest. The owner is Mr. George Dudley Seymour. It originates in New England. The front and end panels are of oak. It has the original pine lid. The carving of the stiles and top rail is similar to that of a copper-plate frontispiece fly leaf of an old Bible. It is a Renaissance type. The carving of the top rail also re- sembles that on chests already treated being in fact almost precisely like that of No. 23. This chest was sold many years ago at an auction of the effects of Josiah Herricks, of Antrim, New Hampshire, and, therefore, called the “ Antrim Chest.” In this and other parts of this work it will be understood that the frames of chests and boxes are oak unless otherwise stated and that their lids are pine unless otherwise stated. Size: 45 by 264 by 22% inches, the last dimension being the width of the top. Ordinarily speaking we are giving the frame size only, to which the overhang of the top should be added. No. 32 is a miniature chest, also belonging to Mr. George Dudley Seymour. It is presumed to have been made for a child. It is of oak including the paneled lid. It is also the only miniature chest in oak of this date, so far found, in America. The front rail has been charred, perhaps by rush lights, a common thing in English chests, it is said. It is to be noted that there is also a wide dentil carving across the bottom rail and that this is repeated on both top and bottom rails on the end. Size: 20% by 14% by 123 inches, the first and the last dimensions being the outside measurements of the lid. No. 33. With this chest we come to an interesting but perhaps over- rated and certainly later series of chests to which the name Hadley has been given, due to the fact that Mr. H. W. Erving found a chest of this character which originated in Hadley, or at least was found there. The special characteristics of these pieces is that the entire front is carved, stile and rail and drawer front, and that the carving is even carried down the stile leg to a point near its bottom. There is a considerable difference in the merit of the carving but it is all poor. The main element is the tulip blossom, the bud seeming to be somewhat neglected. The carving 78 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY is not even worked back to a ground in many instances but is merely scratched or outlined on the surface. This is always true of the veins from the stem to the leaf. The other motives in these chests are the introduction in many instances of the heart, in which case we suppose them to have been dower pieces. In addition to that they are, we believe, without exception initialed. They have the further peculiarity which appears also on one of the court cupboards in the author’s possession, not however of this style, that the ends of the drawer fronts are mitered. We scarcely understand the origin of this detail but its effect is obvious. It prevents the drawer from pushing in too far, and keeps it just flush with the rails and stiles without the need of a stop in the rear. These chests, in the one drawer type, generally have a small horizontal panel at the bottom of the end and two small vertical panels above it. These panels are always sunk so far as noted. They are also surrounded by beaded molds and they are chamfered on all sides. On the two drawer and three drawer types there are usually four end panels, these being longer below and slightly shorter above. The lids of all the pieces we have examined were of pine. Other details we take note of under the separate numbers. No. 33 is one formerly in the B. A. Behrend collection. It is attractive in color having some of the old red in the ground work of the panels. Of course, it has lost a part of its feet but we believe is otherwise original. No. 34 is a miniature chest belonging to the estate of J. Milton Coburn, M.D., of South Norwalk. It is the first example we have had of ball feet, which began to come in about 1680, but did not become fully established as a style for ten or fifteen years after that date. It has the double arch molding, which is a trifle later than the single arch. The use of these miniature chests was either for children or for placing on tables to contain more valuable or smaller articles than were placed in the large chests. We have here also the use of the brass drop handle, some- times called the bell tongue or tear drop. The plates on the handles were cast with various ornamentations. The English were past masters in the production of beautiful brasses. It is supposed that in most cases elaborate early hardware was imported. We cannot, therefore, state with certainty the origin of brasses even on pieces which are distinctly American. No. 35 shows another Hadley chest varying only slightly from No. 33. The feet have been pieced to the upper length. Those inclined to see the image of George Washington on the contour of cliffs may pick out his grotesque head on the drawer. Probably this resemblance was unintentional since it is formed of the foliation of the tulip. The initials 74. 75. CarveEp Boarp CHEsT. PaNELED Pine CuHuEstT. 1698. 1700-10. 1 A ee D9 bye" eee ~ / 76, A OneE-Drawer Carvep Pine CuHEstT. 77. One-Drawer Pine CHEstT. 1710-20. ae ihe 4 my = a 78. 79: YeLLow Pine Axti-Carvep CHEST. SHEATHED BRACKETED CHEST. 1700-10. 1700-10. 80. A Six-Boarp Rounp Pane, Pine CuEsT. 1710-20. 81. Pine Cuest on SHOES. 1710-20. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 83 on these chests are so obvious that they will not be referred to except for special reasons. ‘The lid on this chest was wrongly replaced by oak. It has now been changed again to pine. The chest was found in south- western New Hampshire in the hands of an owner who doubtless carried it up the Connecticut river from its place of origin. Size: 414 by 354 by 184 inches. No. 36 is the first instance we show of a carved pine chest. It is now owned by the Pennsylvania Museum and was in the author’s former collection. The special interest that attaches to it, is that, while it is a six board chest, and the first chest we have shown of normal size with- out a frame, it carries carving from motives seen on the oak chest, and carried out with a considerable degree of taste. Thus the front is marked off as if the central portion were a panel. This portion as well as the outside of the entire front is surrounded with a single arch molding made, of course, by carving. The lunettes and reversed lunettes follow the analogy of more elaborate ones seen on chests already described. In the central section these lunettes are repeated in a kind of interlaced design which forms a series of circles from each of which four shuttles are out- lined. In the center there is the outline of a sunflower, which connects this piece with Connecticut examples. It came from Connecticut. The inverted V or bootjack end is somewhat relieved in its plainness by an irregular contour. There are a considerable number of carved pine chests. This one is perhaps more highly regarded than many of the others. The chest affords an amusing instance of rapidly increasing estimation of merit. It was found by a dealer who obtained it for practically nothing and sold it for a little more. Again it changed hands for a very low sum. Quickly, however, its unusual and quaint qualities began to be felt, and the next carved pine chest that appeared was held at so respectable a value as to be compared with the values placed upon carved oak pieces. No. 37 is a Hadley chest formerly owned by Mr. Brooks Reed of Boston. The carving of the middle panel is differentiated somewhat from the last example. No. 38 is a miniature decorated chest owned by the Metropolitan Museum. ‘The word decorated in this connection has now been special- ized so as to apply to painted decoration, as distinguished from carving or from applied turnings or other ornaments. In this case the decoration is very effective, but the inability of a photograph to pick out colors satisfactorily does not do the subject jus- tice. The ball feet and the flush drawer belong with the period. No. 39 is a variation from the Hadley chests previously shown, in 84 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY that it has two drawers, and, more particularly, is carved with the full name, Elisabeth Warner, across the top rail. It is owned by Mr. Philip L. Spalding of Boston. It was found in or near Deerfield about 1916, by Dr. Miner of Greenfield, who also found in the same region the three drawer Hadley chest No. 42. The condition of both pieces was good. No. 40 is another two drawer Hadley, the carving of which is some- what superior, in some respects, to the one drawer pieces. Or perhaps we should say that its variation from them is a pleasing change. It will be observed that the short stiles in these chests are very wide. Probably this was so arranged, since as the stiles were carved, more room was left for the full development of the carving pattern. The very close keep- ing to the tulip, however, indicates that the ancient tradition of Holland was still powerful. The initials, slightly indistinct, are H. A. The effect of the carving is a little softer than that on some pieces. It will be seen also that the chamfering of the panels in these Hadley chests is more in the form of a looking-glass frame and is entirely done on the bench, into the very corners, so that the chamfers match as they meet. This is an interesting mark of change and enables us to date furniture. The carving, also, on the bottom rail of this prece departs from the conventional, being a series of spade shaped leaves. Here also the heart on the middle panel is repeated on the bottom drawer. Size: 44 by 423 by 184 inches. No. 41 brings us to a Hadley chest, if we may so call it, of a more interesting and artistic design, and makes it appropriate to point out certain analogies. Mr. Erving found his chest in 1893. The chest before us was found in Hatfield. Mr. Luke Vincent Lockwood whose large and well known volumes show a good many of these chests, has recently discovered a chest of high character which he believes did not originate in Hadley. That name is probably a misnomer but answers as well as any other to fix a type. The remarkable discovery by Mr. Lockwood of a chest on which appears the legend “ Mary Allyn’s Chistt Cutte and Joyned by Nich. Disbrowe,” is perhaps as important as any fact which has come to light for years regarding American furniture, unless we are to except the dis- covery of three Plymouth court cupboards. Mr. Lockwood has given the public a scholarly and accurate dissertation in. the bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum concerning this chest. It appears that Disbrowe died in Hartford in 1683. We have, therefore, an earlier date for the earliest type of this chest than had hitherto been assigned. The carving upon the Disbrowe chest is sufficiently similar to that on the Eastman sce pneoon ee eS cscs 82. A WuitrEewoop Cuest with Heavy Buocx Panets. 1700-10. 83. A Pine Nine-Panet Cuest. 1720. 84 & 85. Smatu anpd LarcE Pine CueEsts. 1710-20. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 87 chest before us to suggest the probability of community of knowledge between the makers, or possibly the same maker. Each chest has a dia- mond in the side panels in which the initials are inserted. Four of the half diamonds on the top drawer of the Disbrowe chest appear on the Eastman chest. The continuous scroll carried around the outside stiles, the rail above the top drawer, and thence onto the inside stiles, is obviously the same motive in each case. In this Eastman chest the scroll of the inner stiles, however, connects with the stem of the tulip on the top rail. Another variation of an important character is the sunflower and the five centered rosettes cut respectively in the upper and lower drawer of the Eastman chest. Of course there are many variations in detail. Now as to the origin of these pieces, the chest before us, owned by George P. Eastman of Orange, New Jersey, has the following light thrown on it by the owner: His grandfather Lucius Root Eastman, Sr. saw as a boy the chest in the woodshed of Ais grandfather Martin Root. When L. R. Eastman, Sr. grew up he obtained the chest from an aunt to whom it had come meantime. Mr. Eastman, the present owner, informs the writer that John Allis was a resident of Hatfield and that his daughter Elisabeth Allis was married to James Bridgman in 1704. In the inventory of Bridgman’s estate there is mentioned a “ Wainscott Chest.” The Martin Root above mentioned was the grandchild of this couple. Mr. Eastman says that there seems to have been a family con- nection by marriages between the Allises of Hatfield and the Disbrowes of Hartford. It is believed that the initials E. A. stand for Elisabeth Allis and that it was a dower chest. The sunflower motive on this chest allies it somewhat with the Hartford sunflower chest. It should be remembered that the first road was the river, and that the first land road was built up and down the Connecticut river, and that the connection between the towns on the Connecticut was very close. Captain John Allis, father of Elisabeth Allis, died in 1689, six years after Disbrowe. It is entirely possible, and perhaps we should say probable, that the chest was made by her brother, who was in business with a Belden who had married the widow of Captain Allis. These two carried on business for many years and the firm name was used for about a century, and the firm has been continued under another name to the present time. Mr. Lockwood states that Mary Allyn married in 1686; that Disbrowe was born quite probably in Walden, Essex County, Eng- land, in 1612 or 1613, and that he was the son of a joiner, and that there is a record of him in this country back to 1639. We are greatly indebted to Mr. Lockwood for his thorough search. 88 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY Our conclusion as to the whole matter of these two chests is that they antedate the other Hadley chests known, and also are far superior to them in design. We call attention to a later discussion in this book on the carving of these chests, as compared with the box No. 134 which probably antedates both of the chests. No. 42 is one of two known three drawer Hadley chests. The owner is Mr. Harry Long of Boston and Cohasset. We speak with reservation regarding the number of these chests because the only one we have seen beside this is in the Deerfield Museum. We have, however, had a report concerning another but have not yet seen it. This piece was found near Deerfield, in excellent condition, except that it had lost the handles. A flat wooden bar was run down inside the chest in front, passing through slots in all the drawer bottoms so as to lock them. Thus one key at the top was all that was necessary. Most of the Hadley chests have their stiles beveled, another term for chamfered, on their inside faces, below the body. The next step to three drawers would naturally have been a chest of drawers in the Hadley style. One or two have been found somewhat resembling the Hadley chest, but perhaps should not be classed under that name. The going out of carving, which occurred very shortly after the coming in of the chests of drawers, may account for this hiatus. With this chest our review of the Hadley type ends. It has attained more prominence perhaps than it merits, yet it is an interesting example of the influences at work about the year 1700. No. 43 is a large and extremely rare chest in that it has two rows of panels on the front. These are formed, indeed, of applied pieces on the four true oak panels. All structural parts of this chest are oak in- cluding the four back panels, except the lid which is extraordinary in its width and condition, it being formed of pine and 244 by 534 inches, The applied decoration on this chest may possibly be lacking in some particulars. It is impossible to ascertain whether there were drops on the outside stiles to match the three on the other stiles or not. Decora- tion of this sort, when undertaken, was usually more complete, so that the appearance is suggestive of something omitted. The applied decoration on this chest may possibly be lacking in some and the triangular blocks of the panels, the channel molding and the applied ornaments, and even the thumb nail molding of the lid, are painted black, the panel moldings and the chamfers on the end panels are painted red. The feet at present are only 34 inches long and that is probably half of what they were originally. The bottom has been nailed on so as to 86. An Oak Two-Part Cuest or Drawers. 1670-80. 88 & 89. 87. An Oax CuHEstT An Oax AND A PINE | 4 / oF Drawers. 1670-90. edn RI ES Cuest oF Drawers. 1680 & 1720. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY QI show on the outside, which of course was not the original construction. The legs are thus shortened an inch. Size: 524 by 304 by 232 inches, excluding the lid overhang. This piece was found in Connecticut, and has been slightly restored, the original hinges being missing. No. 44. An oak chest with the original pine lid which is, however, in very bad condition. It has the cleat pin hinge. The date is cut in the long inserted block in the bottom of the center panel. A feature of particular interest in this chest is the application of very slender drops on the panels. They appear incomplete and apparently were formed by cutting off the ball ordinarily seen at the bottom. Compare with the long drops on No. 118 and No. 203. Also compare the finely divided panel work with that on No. 118, No. 126, and No. 203. Here then we have four pieces, a chest, a chest on frame, a Bible box, and a court cup- board, all with the same miniature, long and narrow, horizontal panels, all of which probably bore small bosses, such as still appear on a part of these pieces. The presumption is that all of them were made by the same artificer. The date on No. 203 is close to that on this chest. We think the application of the miniature drops on the panels is not happy, especially as they are not fully carried out. The panel work, however, on the drawer, is attractive. The very large split turning on the leg stiles calls our attention markedly. In another piece, having a turning as large, it is shown lower down, so as more fully to simulate a leg. This chest is all of oak except the lid, drawer bottom and back, which are of yellow pine. Size: 31 by 294 by 19 inches, excluding the moldings and the lid of the overhang. The feet are now only 54 inches long. No. 45 is a very handsome chest with the side panels arched and an attractive group of four central panels with nail heads. This chest was found in southern New Hampshire where it had been for a very long period. The lid and panels are oak. It strongly resembles English chests and other chests already referred to in this connection. It has, how- ever, been in this country long enough to become acclimated and to receive its citizenship papers. It has a very attractive beaded mold and the unusual paneling of the end is obvious. We are continuously met by a small class of pieces like this all in oak in chests and court cupboards and sometimes in chests on frames whose origin is not precisely certain. We do not wish to be understood as main- taining the certain American origin of these pieces. We only say they are probably American. We do not remember to have seen chests elsewhere with applied pairs 92 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY of short drops between the drawers having also such drops at the ends of the drawers of a different length, as here. There is a very pleasing columnar effect secured by the long drops in conjunction with the arches. The ensemble of the chest is most attractive. It is owned by Mary M. Sampson of Boston. Size: 48 by 31 by 21 inches. No. 46 is a board chest, the lid of which has an applied plain bevel molding, which laps down upon the body of the chest. The initials and the elaborate rosettes are very well done, when we consider that the work is on pine. There is also a little flirt of carving on the portion of the end near the bottom, just above the break of the lines that run down to the floor. Size: 414 by 264 by 183 inches. No. 47. This chest, with the initials A. B., has the good but rare scroll on the bottom rail. The frame is of quartered oak but the panels appear to be of whitewood. The ends instead of being paneled in the usual fashion are molded horizontally at the rails which are, of course, pinned as usual. A board is then inserted between the rails in the fashion of sheathed paneling. The bottom rail is extraordinarily wide, about ten inches, and is molded to represent a rail with a skirt board. The back is a whitewood board rather than a panel. The lid is of pine. Size: 42 by 31 by 193 inches. No. 48 is a miniature chest of pine with the single arch molding. It is of much better character than the plain board pieces, owing to the heavy mold at the base and the ball feet. The owner is Mr. Arthur W. Wellington of Boston and Weston. No. 49, owned by the Metropolitan Museum, has curious triangular blocks above the long drops. They somewhat resemble crude capitals. The heavy moldings are all stopped on the front. The distinction has been made, in this use of molding, between the stile legs and the ball- foot legs. It has been thought bad form for the molding to run around the ends of the piece in a stile foot chest. In that case No. 30 would be challenged. It certainly is very rare in the application of its moldings. In the chest before us we have the first highly specialized geometrical paneling on the upper drawer, consisting of V’s running in from the ends of the drawer and from the division at the center. No. 50 is the first ball foot chest of considerable size which we have shown. It has the further peculiarity of moldings scrolled in regular curves. It bears the initials A. D. Owner: Mr. G. Winthrop Brown of Brookline. The long drops are go. An ExaporaTELY PaNELED Cuest oF Drawers. 1680-90. 1690-1700. Foot Cuest or Drawers. Bau.- I. 9 Cuest oF Drawers. 1680-1700. 92. 93. An Axuui-PinE CuEst or Drawers. 1690-1700. 94. An Oax Bati-Foot Cursr or Drawers. 1680-1700. ‘ space agi ee EOS es bey 95. A Two-Part Oax CueEstT oF DRAwERs. 1680—90. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 97 precisely similar above and below. That is, the turning motive is doubled from the center, like the stretchers of chairs. The base mold on the ball foot chest is, in the good forms, generally heavy, as here. No. 51 formerly owned by Mr. Brooks Reed of Boston, is, in spite of its appearance, a chest. The fact that the upper part of it simulates drawers is, of course, an indication that it was made after chests of drawers became well established. We somewhat wonder at this system of orna- ment, because the earlier plan, as in the chests previously considered, seems in better taste. The drawer element seems to predominate in the mind of the maker and he carries his decoration to the top as he had begun from the bottom. The early fashion, however, of ending the between- drawer molds on the front, obtains here. It will be seen also that the true bottom drawer and the top false drawer are alike and that the second false drawer is molded with sufficient heaviness to give a blocked appear- ance. The back legs of the chest are in the ancient fashion formed by a continuation of the frame, and are otherwise called stile legs. The front feet are somewhat clumsy but probably indicate an early period. No. 52 is a chest belonging to Mr. H. W. Erving. It has three panel ends. As appears, it has no rail beneath the drawer. This is an unusual form as is the chest below it. Nevertheless we find it in some of the oldest pieces, notably in the Parmenter court cupboard, No. 195. The feet are somewhat abbreviated. Size: 454 by 244 by 184 inches. No. 53 is another chest belonging to Mr. H. W. Erving. It has the usual oak frame, but pine panels, with a raised panel in the end. Whether this is a mark of a later date we do not yet feel certain. In any case the raised panel is rare. We have, however, found it on an oak cradle of the very earliest period. It seems to have been considered an unnecessary thing. Of course it strengthened the panel by making it thicker and improved the appearance of the chest at the same time. Size: 413 by 284 by 184 inches. The difference between the hight of this and the preceding is seen to be chiefly in the legs, those on this chest being the proper length. No. 54 is a plainer chest than any we have hitherto featured. All the panels, including the three at the back, are of oak. The lid is of pine and is seemingly original. It is molded on the front only. The stiles in the back were not smoothed at all after riving. This is the first instance we have seen of this kind, though leaving the backs of the back panels rough, as in this case, was common enough. Some question has been raised in relation to the chamfering of the legs. What purpose 98 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY was conserved by thus cutting them away is not apparent, but the cut is very old and some good judges have thought it original. This chest affords an interesting opportunity to study the decoration around the panels. It will be seen that the top rail-molding, against the panel, fades away as it approaches the inside stile. Thus over the central panel it fades away at both ends. This construction is always a mark of early work. Size: 47 by 29 by 204 inches. No. 55 is an oddly molded oak chest. The owner is Mr. Dwight Blaney of Boston and Weston. All the oak of this chest is quartered including the panels. The drawer is peculiar in that the top and bottom of it are so constructed as to blend with the repeated moldings, and to hide its outline. We do not remember another chest with so much of repetition in the molding. The effect is interesting. No. 56 belongs to Mr. H. W. Erving. It shows no very great devia- tion in style from some that have preceded it. Instead, however, of the turned drops flanking the drawer and dividing it in the center, we have sets of triglyphs matching those on the top rail. The effect of so many of these ornaments is to increase the apparent hight of the chest. The moldings are of Spanish cedar. There are two panels in the ends. The quartering of the panels shows with fine effect. The blocks when placed around the panels, as here, are called center side blocks, as distinguished from corner blocks. ‘They are, of course, always applied. Size: 454 by 33 by 20% inches. No. 57 is the first example we have given of an oak six-board chest. Its plainness is relieved by the gouge carving at the ends of the molded front. The molding on the joints in front is similar to that of the earliest wall sheathing. The chest was formerly owned by Koopman’s, Boston. No. 58 is the first example to be considered wherein the oak stile feet are cut off slightly below the frame, and continued with ball feet. This construction, while unusual, is not unique. Another feature of interest in this chest is the application of thin blocks surrounded by molding in the center of the panels, as bases on which to impose the turtle backs. The turtle backs on the upper rail are of odd shapes and we think no better on that account. The diagonal setting of the turtle backs on the drawer should be observed. Owner: Mr. G. Winthrop Brown, of Brookline. No. 59 is a small, somewhat late board chest, with carving more in the style of the Sheraton period than anything we have hitherto shown. We presume the carving to be original although it is very unusual on chests. The central decoration is quite similar to that on a corner cup- SYA 96. Warnur Cuesr or Drawers. 97. Litre Cuest or Drawers. a 1690-1700. 1700-10. a tbs 98. An Oax ano Watnut Cuest oF Drawers. 1690-1700. 99- Oax anv Pine CueEst oF Drawers. 1690-1700. vista. at FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY IOI board of unmistakable early character. We do not pretend to the capacity of being able to ascertain in every instance whether carving is recent or ancient. It is probably the most difficult of all questions, when the imi- tation is well done. Far better men than the writer have been grievously deceived in this matter. Brushes are used to give the grain of the carving an aged effect. One coat after another of paint is applied, then perhaps washed off in part. Size: 32 by 143 by 12% inches. No. 60 is a chest belonging to Mr. Dwight Blaney. The large applied turnings on the leg stiles are almost identical in style, size and placement with those on No. 44, though the smaller drops are different from that chest. They appear, however, to be more in harmony with the large end drops. ‘This chest is left in an unrestored condition. It is obvious that at one time there were moldings on the drawer. No. 61 is owned by Mr. H. W. Erving. The channel or shadow molds are strongly emphasized as was the intention, being painted black originally and properly. The end panels are supplied with blocks to give the effect of Greek crosses, whereas the central panel has triangular blocks forming an octagon. The entire front is of strongly featured oak. There are two panel ends. Size: 43 by 31 by 204 inches. No. 62 is a highly decorated chest. The owner is Mrs. Hulings Cowperthwaite Brown, of Boston and Brookline. The chest was inherited from the Waters Estate. The ball feet are somewhat smaller than is usual. The paneling is very odd, especially at the sides. The application of the turtle backs on the top rail seems odd and we are led to wonder whether or not there may not have been others. Perhaps the effect, how- ever, is as good in the form in which the piece stands. No. 63 is a chest with highly featured oak, and excellent ball feet. This chest was found with fourteen of the sixteen original ornaments in place. The paneling of the drawer is peculiar and gives the appearance of two miniature drawers at the ends. The design of the middle panel should be observed. Usually the small oblong divisions were at the bottom of the middle panel. It will be noticed that no ornaments whatever are applied on the top rail. This may be owing to the unusual beauty of the oak in that mem- ber. The feet are of flattened balls almost in the onion shape, technically so called. No. 64 is an all pine chest with turnip feet. This is a term roughly applied to most ball feet, but we think it more appropriate when there is a small necking above the ball as here. The feet behind are simple 102 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY continuations of the boards. The single arch molding we consider arbi- trarily as ten years earlier than the double arch molding. All parts of this chest are original. Size: 35 by 39 by 174 inches. No. 65 is an amazing example of reversion to an earlier period. While the date is very plainly marked as 1776, some of the features of this chest would have been appropriate a hundred and fifty years before that date. This remark applies to the architectural arch. The great extent of the imbricated carving is also startling, as is the highly elaborate double rosette at the top of the side stiles. ‘The bracket also belongs to an earlier period. As we recollect this chest it is in walnut. It belongs to Mr. Stanley A. Sweet of New York City. No. 66 is our first example of a chest with complete painted decora- tion. The owner is Mr. H. W. Erving, who purchased the chest when it was entirely covered with a thick coat of brown paint, which was very old. He carefully removed this paint, and the figures as seen here all came out, and have simply been touched up line for line with absolute fidelity. An interesting circumstance has been brought out by the removal of this protective coating of paint. That is the great brilliancy of the original coloring. It has often been supposed that the reds and greens on these old pieces were soft. They were quite the reverse. Our an- cestors had so little color in their lives that they were somewhat lavish of it on their furniture. The truth obliges us to state this fact, although it proves that their taste in design was better than their taste in color. As retraced the painting on this fascinating little chest teaches us several things. The background appears black but is a few shades off, rather green-black. We have noted in other pieces that the black will change to bottle green. The thistle blossoms and buds and crown are most intense and varied centers of color. They are to be compared with the decorated chest of drawers No. 100, and the bird on the end should be compared with that on No. 71. The material on these decorated chests or chests of drawers is usually of whitewood, at least on the front. In some instances they are pine on the ends and the lid is of course generally pine. We shall later dis- cuss their connection with Moravian furniture. Their origin is Connecti- cut, on the Sound, perhaps twenty miles east and west of New Haven. Our present example was a miniature. Size: 254 by 19 by 164 inches. No. 67 is a new feature in chests to be considered. Although it is 1690-1700. DecoraTED WuiTEwoop CHEsT oF Drawers. 100. 1700-20. Cuest oF Drawers. E LittLe Pin 101. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 105 oak it is decorated. The inadequacy of photography does not show clearly the design which covers the panels and the drawer front. The chest is from Branford, Connecticut, and is owned by Mr. George Dudley Sey- mour. The painting is evidently imitative of contemporary English imitations of lacquer work, brought into England from the far East. The end panels are in a thistle down design. The central panel bears the painted date. The chest is now in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. Size: 484 by 323 by 204 inches, including the lid overhang. No. 68 is a chest belonging to the estate of Mr. George F. Ives. The chest has lost its feet, but is otherwise in good condition. The painting is distinctively different from the designs we have hitherto shown. It exhibits a considerable freedom and no small degree of artistry. It will be seen that the base carries much the same design as the portion immediately under the lid. Apparently to give room for a handsome spray between the drawer panels, the latter were set very far apart. There is a large tulip on the ends as on No. 102. Size: 42 by 40 by 20 inches, to which we should add about 4 inches for the original hight. No. 69 brings us back to another painted oak chest. This piece has lost its drawer. Its great oddity is the ball feet attached to the extended stiles. Another unusual feature is the raised panel at the ends. The chest was found in New England, painted a heavy red. When this was removed quaint tree decoration was found on the side panels, and on the central panel what appear to be painted imitations of bosses. The numer- ous channel molds are all black and so are the small moldings applied around the front and end panels. The back has one large panel of pine. The front and end panels and the original lid are of pine. Size: 43 by 303 by 18% inches. The length of the leg below the end rail is 64 inches including the ball, and the ball is 3 inches to the extended stile. No. 70 is another oak chest with decorations. In this case they are of the sort called sunburst, and appear on the front panels only. Instead of a molding around the drawer there are a black and a red stripe dividing the drawer into two painted panels. There are two long vertical end panels. The panels are oak, including the single long horizontal panel behind. This chest came from Connecticut, and, like many from that neighborhood, has a bead on the front of the lid, rather than the thumb nail mold on three sides. Size: 43 by 22 by 204 inches. The stile feet are now 6 inches long. No. 71 is another painted whitewood chest which belongs to the state of Connecticut and is in the Stone House, at Guilford. The decora- 106 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY tion on the upper panel is very like that on one of the drawers on No. 101. The frame is of oak. Nos. 72 and 73 are miniature pine pieces. No. 72, on the left, has two little drawers and the single arch molding. The lid is 19 by 13 inches. It is 163 inches high. No. 73, the other chest, with the heavy base mold, ball feet and double arch molding, is a successful effort to secure good style with simple material. Size: The top is 23 by 133 inches. It is 20 inches high. Both pieces are owned by Mr. Chauncey C. Nash of Milton and Cohasset. No. 74 is a most interesting example, because it continues the tradition of oak for a material and carving for a decoration, but in its construction is a six board chest. The carving on the drawers is fluting. The three hearts carved over the elaborate lunette, and indeed interfering with them, seem like an after- thought. They probably indicate that the chest was a dowry piece. All the moldings are carried around the ends, a feature very rare in this method of construction. This chest was bought in Boston, but was probably found in Connecticut, the discoverer not being living to verify that statement. The piece was formerly in the B. A. Behrend collection. The year given as the date is carved on the till. Owned now by Pennsylvania Museum. No. 75 is a small decorated piece of pine. It will be observed that, curiously enough, the decorator carried his scrolls across the whole front ignoring the drawer divisions. We find here the much loved and often repeated tulip blossom. On the bottom drawer, however, the designer became more ambitious and sketched two birds which we may fondly hope are doves. The piece belongs to the southern Connecticut type. Owner: Mr. Chauncey C. Nash. No. 76 is owned by Mr. G. Winthrop Brown of Brookline. It is another example of a six board oak chest, carved. It has elaborate lunettes resembling but not identical with those on No. 74. There is also a band of imbricated carving below the top section, and a “ pencil and pearl ” decoration just above the drawer. There is also immediately under the lid a plain serration which suggests the Plymouth chest. At the ends of the front we have the quite usual gouge carving. Whether this was easier to work than a mold, or for what reason it is so frequent, we do not know. The drawer of this chest is pulled by reaching under the front, so that it requires no knob. This omission of a rail below the drawer, while a rare feature, is, nevertheless, found on some of the oldest cabinet pieces. 103. A FremisH-LeEGceEp HicHBoy. 1680-1700. : _ eh ekg ¥ age sees i 104. A ParinreD HicHBoy. 1700-10. ag penn a a | 105. A Five-LeccEep Hicupsoy. a erent 1690-1710. ’ ts 106. A ButTTrernut HicuHBoy. 1690-1710. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY III Size: 283 by 233 by 18 inches. While we have not the dimensions of No. 74, that chest also is small. No. 77 marks the transition to the plain chests of the eighteenth cen- tury, but it has not quite reached their perfect simplicity of design. It has more pleasing lines. A single arch molding is also carried out through- out. It is owned by Mr. G. Winthrop Brown. No. 78 is most unusual in that the ends as well as the front are carved. The carving is simple but effective. We have on the lower panels a starfish design, which is merely a variant of the Gothic wheel window. The other carving, principally in discs or semi-circles, predominates. The serrated motive, doubled so as to form a zigzag ribbon, appears on the top and the bottom rail and the outside stiles, and the single serration under the lid on the ends, whereas the rest of the ends follow in general the decoration of the front. Two other oddities of this chest are its framing. It is mortised entirely through the front stiles, the ends of the tenons frankly appearing. ‘The lid, also, is fixed in position in the rear and breaks with the movable portion in a grooved joint. Thus the chest has no hinge, but when unhasped the front was lifted as usual. The piece was found in southern Connecticut, and most of the material is yellow pine. Size: 424 by 30% by 18 inches. The legs are 64 inches long. The front of the lid is formed by a band vertically thicker than the rest of the lid, for what purpose does not appear. No. 79 is a simple chest of interesting construction. It has the scrolled bracket end. A slight effort at decoration has been made. The front is sheathed with boards molded at their matching in the manner of the best early house sheathing. There are also brackets between the frame and the ends. They indicate the survival of an earlier style and add much to the chest. The lid has the most elongated thumb nail molding we have seen. The original lock seems to be in position. Origin: New England. Size: 49 by 24 by 17 inches. The material is all yellow pine. No. 80 presents an interesting variation from the ordinary pine chest in its circular central panel, and in side panels carved to correspond. It is to be observed in this and many other interesting instances that the panels were carved in the solid wood, and are therefore only simulated. Thus what began in joined furniture as a structural feature was, when the age of paneling passed away, sometimes retained as we see it here. Owner: Mr. George Dudley Seymour. Size: 484 by 23 by 17 inches, including the lid. The chest was found 112 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY in the Captain Charles Churchill house, Newington, Connecticut. The original coat of red paint is intact. No. 81 is a pine chest relieved from plainness by the oddity of the shoes upon which it rests, by the projected base and by the gouge carving at the corners. It also has scratch carving, running around the front, which is scarcely discernible in our picture, on the left side. The owner is Mr. George Dudley Seymour. No. 82 is a style known to exist in at least three examples. Its marked peculiarity is the heavily blocked central portion of the panel ornamenta- tion. The panels are painted black, as are also the incised (channel) moldings on the rails and stiles. The applied moldings are painted red. A peculiarity is the running of the molding on the outside stiles down through the width of the drawer. The chest here shown was formerly in the collection of Mr. George Dudley Seymour and is now owned by Miss Mary Miles Lewis Peck, of Bristol, Connecticut. It is an heirloom of the Lewis family of Farmington. It was found in Bristol, an offset of the town of Farmington, by Mr. Seymour, about 1895. Another chest almost precisely like this is in the author’s collection and a third was found by Mr. Seymour in 1920. The three chests appear to have been made by the same hand. The material in every case is of whitewood, the close grain of which was well adapted for decoration, and more highly regarded than pine. No. 83 is a chest with numerous small panels similar to overmantel decoration. The middle panel is relieved by three flutes. The brackets of this stile, while they survive for an earlier period, frequently appear on early eighteenth century chests of the better class. The owner is Mr. Edward C. Wheeler, Jr. of Boston. No. 84 and the larger chest under it, No. 85, are doubtless intended to go together, and were perhaps made for a mother and child. Or perhaps the more valuable articles were kept in the smaller piece. There is one drawer in each chest, the other drawers being simulated. The scroll board at the bottom, variously called the skirt or valance, is a feature which always adds a good deal to furniture, if the style permits it, as here. These pieces are owned by Mr. George Dudley Seymour, and are at present in the Wadsworth Atheneum at Hartford. The size of No. 84 is 204 by 17 by 114 inches, including the lid. The size of No. 85 is 284 by 244 by 13 inches, including the lid. With these chests we conclude the examination of this subject except for the two chests appearing on the last page of this volume. We be- lieve every well known type of American chest is represented, as well as many others that are too rare to be reckoned in any class. 107. A Cross-StRETCHER HicHBoy. 1710-20. [ ri 1690-1710. Bone Watnut HicHsoy. HERRING- 108. ‘AeoCaee SWEET mM EALERTS RINSED SBI meant PARR 6 a 1700-10. A HeErrinc-BonE Watnutr HicHBoy. 109. 110. Herrinc-BonE Watnut HicHBoy. 1690-1710. CHESTS OF DRAWERS ‘Turse are neither so important, so early nor so good as the chests. In their period also they are not so numerous. This is accounted for by the fact that chests of drawers no sooner began to come in, in the form in which they evolved from chests, than the high chest of drawers was developed. This style, otherwise called the highboy, prevented the further development of the low chest of drawers. It is impossible to say now when the first oak chest was made in America. We can estimate the date within about a score of years. We find them about 1660. The style seems to have followed the oak chest as known among us, for about thirty years. It is a far more convenient article of furniture than is a chest. No. 86 represents such a chest of drawers owned by Mr. George Dudley Seymour. We feel, however, that the brasses on this chest make the date we have assigned to it at least ten years too early. A peculiarity in the piece is that it is made in two parts and is separable at the center, being kept from slipping out of place by dowels, as well as by the molding, originally. | This separation should be covered by a molding. The piece is shown as it was found in the rough state without the molding. It is said that the piece was brought into Boston from Dedham. It was put in order by Patrick Stevens, then employed by Robbins Bros., of Hartford. Size: 563 by 383 by 204 inches, including the overhang. It will be seen that the hight is such as would naturally develop from a chest. No. 87 was in the Waters collection. The extraordinary amount of ornament upon it is typical of a good number of pieces made as the seventeenth century drew to its close. It will be seen that the first and third drawer are alike in ornament, also the second and fourth, on the end panels. But even here there is a variance in the central panel. It will be noticed that No. 86 had a two-panel end, whereas this has a four-panel end. The drops on this piece are incorrect, and have now been changed. The molding in the very top element suggests that on a Plymouth chest. The panels in front are all of oak. 117 118 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY Size: 46 by 433 by 213 inches. No. 88 is a chest of drawers in which all the panels are oak including the two vertically long back panels, and the end panels. The drawer bottoms are pine, as is also the lid but the backs of the drawers are riven oak. The molding immediately under the lid is a series of close set dentils. ‘They are really not much wider, in the openings between them, than saw cuts. The large moldings on the front are cut off square and do not return. The piece is agreeably small. It was found in eastern Massachusetts in 1922. Size: 30 by 36 by 20 inches. No. 89 is a little table chest of drawers, all of pine. The heavy moldings give it character and dignity. The drawers show an interesting increase of depth from the top to the bottom one. This is the first piece we have shown with the overlapping drawer front, a mark of the coming in of eighteenth century work. The drops are not original. All other parts are original. Size: 15 by 234 by 10 inches. These dimensions do not include the very broad base which is 19 by 114 inches. No. 90 is an oak chest of drawers formerly owned by Mr. Brooks Reed. No one can say that the front is monotonous. The top and the bottom drawers, which are alike, are very boldly blocked. The other two drawers are narrow and also are alike. The stiles are treated by applied moldings, as a series of small panels. The heavy moldings are returned on the front. It would appear that the base should have had a molding. The end panel is built up with a series of moldings together with a central block on which a boss is affixed, resembling a chest we have already treated. No. 91 is an oak chest of drawers, the top and bottom members of which resemble those in the chest of drawers Mee discussed, except that they are somewhat lighter in effect. The piece was found in Connecticut, and came immediately from the Henry Stearns collection. One mark of a somewhat later date than the chests hitherto treated is the square stile legs. Previously we have had them larger and in a flat section. There is an amusing variance between the huge foot and the small stile. We have shown this fashion in one or two earlier examples. The front panels, the large end panel, the single long horizontal back panel, and the lid are of yellow pine. The end panel is heavily blocked in the fashion called bolection molding, and resembles one or two already Bie a cde acacia 111. Smart Drawer HicHBoy. 1690-1710. 112. A SimpLe HicHBoy, wirHoutT STRETCHERS, 1720. 1710-20. Curty Mapre Hicupoy. Weg 114. A SimpLe Five-Leccep HicHpoy. 1690-1710. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 123 treated. The moldings are painted red, and the blocks and feet black. The piece has been restored to a considerable degree. Size: 392 by 38 by 193 inches. No. 92 is a chest of drawers the picture of which is furnished by Mr. H. V. Weil of New York City. The end panel is raised and has bolection moldings. The ball feet are attached in the more usual manner directly to the frame. The piece is not a miniature, but, by accident, is shown on a small scale. | No. 93 is an all pine chest of drawers formerly owned by Koopman’s, Boston. While it is made of boards instead of being framed it has many of the features of the earlier period. The end terminates at the bottom with a series of scrolled openings reminding one of Gothic arches. The heavy single arch molding is prominent. We would presume that it had lost such part of the feet as would naturally be missing through attrition. We have here the first chest of drawers in which all the drawers are alike. The style of dividing drawer fronts in this fashion is called geometric molding. No. 94 is an oak chest of drawers owned by Mr. George Dudley Sey- mour. The center panel on the top drawer contains the initials R.B. The center panel of the drawer below has the initials A.P. The chest ends are two panels separated by the returned ends of an applied molding extending between the two upper and the two lower drawers. The other applied moldings between the drawers do not follow around the end. The ball feet again are attached to extended stiles. The single set of triglyphs seem a trifle lonely. Is it possible that the piece bore others on the stiles? | Size: 454 by 32 by 20 inches, including the overhang. No. 95 is a two part chest which has the molding to cover the joints of division. The owner is the estate of J. Milton Coburn, M. D. The applied ball-turned molding is an odd feature. The decorated moldings on the second and fourth drawers are more conventional but perhaps not as gracefully arranged as we usually find them. With No. 96 we reach the first object shown in this volume in walnut. The age of walnut in England began somewhat earlier than in America. This is a case where walnut was used with an oak stile, rather than in the turned stile. This attractive little chest has the stiles divided into small panels as was the case with No. 90. The four drawers are all alike. There are two end panels side by side, vertically. The piece has under- gone some repairs. The handles are not original. Size: 384 by 334 by 21 inches. No. 97 is an attractive little quaint piece, the photograph of which is 124 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY furnished by Mr. H. V. Weil. The handles of course are of the size usual for a large chest of drawers and therefore display humorously the contrast between the size of the drawers and the handles. The single arch mold, the heavy base mold, and the ball feet establish the date. No. 98 is another chest of drawers in which the frame is oak, and most other parts walnut. Thus we see the transition between the two woods. The top is half inch walnut. The frame and the end rails are of oak. The end panels are of pine, there being two, one above the other, sunken, with perfectly plain rails and stiles. The drawer fronts are pine covered with an eighth of an inch walnut veneer, and all the moldings are of walnut. The piece has the groove side runs on the drawers, indi- cating a date not later than 1700. The feet are pieced and are in the small square section of the somewhat late chest of drawers, which followed the analogy otherwise of the oak chests of drawers. Size: 36 by 33 by 22 inches. The moldings project to give an over all length, top and bottom, of 39 inches. No. 99 is an oak and pine chest of drawers in the former collection of the author. The width of the stiles is quite noticeable, but there was no evidence of drops ever having been applied. It is impossible, how- ever, in every case, to know whether there should be drops or not. Fifty years or so after such a chest was made some of the drops would naturally try to justify their name. When part of such ornaments were gone, it was common to eliminate all of them, and to refinish the piece. As they were ordinarily applied by glue, there is now no means of knowing except by analogy, whether drops orginally existed. The most interesting feature of this piece is its excellent ring drop handles and rosette plate and ’scutcheons. No. 100 exhibits for the first time the full development of the painted decoration. ‘The front of this piece is in whitewood, the ends and lid and drawer interiors are pine. The frame is of oak. The two short drawers at the top are identical in decoration and attractive enough, had not the artist essayed the conceit of a human face, into the lips of which is caught the stem of a spray of blossoms. The three long drawers are each decorated with separate motives. The flower pot design, in the drawer above the bottom drawer, is found, with some variation, on the Pennsylvania German pieces, the inspiration of which very likely came from Moravia. In Moravia we find the same flower pot motive, used on a very great number of pieces. The design on the bottom drawer is that already shown on a chest. We have the thistle blossom surmounted by a crown. At the right is the rose and at the center the fleur-de-lis with ‘ ‘ 1690-1700. SYCAMORE AND ApprpLEwoop Hicupoy. 115. 1670-80. ARCH-AND-STAR CHEST-ON-FRAME. TO: 117. A Carvep CHEST-ON-FRAME, 1670-90. Riel a Ke 118. SmaLu-PaneL CHEsT-oN-FRAME. 1690-1700. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 129 the crown. These arms of England evidently have nothing to do with Moravia. They are a kind of patriotic expression. | The end panel is boldly done in a very large tulip stem surmounted by a fully opened blossom, under which there depend, one on either side, a large bud. The importance and the interest of the tulip bud and blossom as a motive for hundreds of years can hardly be overestimated. In Holland the national flower was the natural object to delineate on furniture. We have seen the tulip carved on all the so-called Hadley chests and on the sunflower chests. It will appear later in household hardware form, latches, hinges, etc. This piece of furniture has its paint- ing in better condition, and, on the whole, is rather more elaborate, than any other to which our attention has been called. The drawers are made in the early style, with side runs. The feet have been pieced about three inches. ‘The piece is otherwise original. Relating to whitewood as a material, it is perhaps more attractive when it is called tulip wood. This wood is commonly found in New England, and for fifty years has been a cheap commercial finish wood. The tree grows to a lofty stature, and excites wonder in European botanists who visit us, and find a flowering tree of such size. The wood is semi- hard, of close grain, and none that is apparent. It is therefore a good material for decoration. It is an odd coincidence that the tulip should have been painted so much upon tulip wood. Reverting to the coloring, the border tendrils are nearly white. The flowers are in shades of yellow, old red, pink, etc. The sprays and foliage are very delicate, and are done by an assured hand. Birds appear facing one another, on the outer leaves of the fleur-de-lis. Their necks are long. Let us call them pheasants. We note a tendency, as we approach 1700, to raised panels in the ends of cabinet pieces, although we find occasionally a raised panel, as in a cradle to be shown, of a date a great deal earlier. Also we notice a tendency to flatten out the curves of the base molds until eventually we get the mere bevel, such as appears in No. 98. We notice also the substitution of brass drop handles for the wooden knobs, in all classes of furniture except tables. Size: 42 by 43 by 19 inches. No. 101 is a little board chest of drawers of the Harry Long col- lection. These little pieces are sometimes called child’s chests of drawers. The end handle perhaps indicates that the piece was set upon a larger one. No. 102 is the end view of No. 100 and has been discussed. HIGHBOYS ‘Tue highboy, called in England a tallboy, is merely a chest of drawers set on a frame. Wherever a sense of style works strongly it immediately tends to an extreme, as some of us have noticed in rela- tion to feminine apparel. No sooner did the feeling of discomfort, at stooping over chests, get well into the blood of the people of 1700, than they began to place their chests upon legs. They then made so many drawers in their chests and the legs so long, that they were obliged to stand on stools to get into the upper drawers. The highboy in some form or other reigned supreme for eighty odd years. It was matched by the lowboy, which is only another name for a dressing table. The chests of drawers had an- swered for dressing tables to some extent when they were low. The high- boy and the lowboy therefore went together to form a proper complement for a chamber. The highboy was longer, higher and deeper even as regards its frame, than was the lowboy. At the present time there are a large number of highboy bases being shown as lowboys. It is only necessary to sit down at one to learn that it is not of a convenient hight as a dressing table. Furthermore, the lowboys, with only one exception that we know, were so built that it was possible for the knees to go under the table, as they could not do in the five or six legged highboy style. As the feeling for style passed out it was the custom, throughout the nineteenth century, to divide a highboy between two daughters, of whom the one took the top and the other the bottom. It was almost as bad as Solomon’s proposed division of the baby. The parts cer- tainly are incongruous and unrelated, and are neither one of them worth more than half of a baby. Slowly and painfully the effort is now being made to reassemble the separated units. Negotiation, following search, and sometimes liti- gation following negotiation, goes on, to bring the lost members into place again. In No. 103 we show a highboy supposed to be of American oak. The base scrolls following the Flemish design seem to be bass wood. Poplar is also sometimes used. ‘There is another highboy of this style in Connecticut, and a third in the collection of Mr. Luke Vincent Lock- 130 Mah alien ule 119. Spray DecoraTep CHEsT-ON-FRAME. 1690-1700. oS peeneerenn PRE I A SH at 120. TURNED CHEST-ON-FRAME. 1690-1700. 121. SPOOL-TURNED CHEST-ON-FRAME. 1680-1700. 122. BaLu-TURNED CHEST-ON-FRAME. 1690-1700. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 135 wood. We have also recently seen an English importation of such a piece. The clumsy heavy scrolls of the chest suggest the inspiration of the awkward, nineteenth century, degraded Empire style. With the exception of the cap board this piece is original. The age of highboys is indicated in part by the frame on which they stand; in part by their moldings and in part by the woods of which they are constructed. The five legged pieces are more rare than those with six legs. Those with four legs are still more rare than either. We do not know that there is any special merit or value of one style over another, as far as the number of the legs is concerned. The long drawer in the frame is the mark of an early type, it being the survival of the chest fashion. The piece before us has a flush drawer. That is to say, the face board of the drawer has no lip or rabbet pro- jecting over, and covering, the joints on the frame. The name highboy was doubtless a sly joke at the stilted appearance of these pieces of furniture. These pieces began with flat tops and we show no other type. The “bonnet top” came in with the cabriole leg about 1720. For that reason the so-called six-legged highboys are more in request, although they are not as decorative, at least at the top. This lack of design in form was made up largely by the beauty of the walnut or maple veneer so common on this class of furniture. Steps to hold a display of pewter or other ware, were often placed on these flat tops. It will be observed that the frame or base of the highboy invariably extends considerably beyond the top. A wide and heavy mold was applied at the edge of this base, to afford a framed enclosure to receive the top. The piece before us probably originated in Connecticut. Size: 394 by 213 inches, on the body of the frame; 37 by 19% inches on the body of the top. The hight is 48 inches over all. The moldings extend these dimensions 24 inches in length and 14 inches in width. No. 104 is a painted highboy with something the same decoration as appeared on No. 101. In fact the more closely we study this decoration the more we do find points of connection. The bad lighting is such as not to show the tulip end, which is like No. 101. The piece belongs to Mr. James Davidson of New London. We have lacquered highboys though we question if they are American. We do not remember another painted highboy. No. 105 shows a five-legged highboy belonging to Mr. Chauncey C. Nash. It is in walnut. In this piece we have the first instance of 136 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY the so-called chased handles, which are intermediate between the drop handle and the willow pattern of the later Chippendale time. It is a popular notion that the decorations on these brasses are tooled by a graver. Those who have studied the subject carefully, state that the ornaments are a part of the casting. We have in this piece the single long drawer of the early type. No. 106 represents a butternut highboy, in the single arch pattern. This term “ single arch ” is simply the description of the half round edge cut on or applied to the frame around the drawers. The backs, the lid, and the interior of the drawers of these pieces, are pine in this case and generally. The pine is sometimes yellow, sometimes white. The legs are frequently of a lighter and cheaper material than the rest of the piece. The size, on the frame is 254 by 264 by 20% inches, excluding the mold- ing. The top is 332 by 294 by 194 inches, excluding the molding. The total hight is about 56 inches, therefore. This piece was found in New Hampshire in 1922. No. 107 is a cross stretcher highboy, in the former collection of the author. The incipient pair of legs is represented by the acorn drops. The turnings here have a pleasing flare, and are called trumpet turn- ings, in distinction from the piece last shown where they are called cup or bowl turnings, from a resemblance to an inverted cup, at the top of the main turning. This highboy and most of those that follow it have a thin lining mold, attached to the curves of the scroll, and projecting with a half round edge, very slightly. The higher arch of the center between the pointed arches of the side, is to be observed as a type. No. 108 is a highboy with a border, around every drawer, of herring- bone veneer, the central portion of the drawer being filled with walnut burl veneer. The turning is not so delicate as the preceding one. It was bought in Boston. As distinct from the preceding which has no molding at all, this has a double arch molding. In the frame there is here the single drawer with three identical arches below it. It was in the author’s former collection. No. 109 is a highboy with similar veneer to that on No. 108. The piece is in very fine condition and has the three top drawers, the central drawer being a little longer than the side drawers. Compare this with the two drawers in the top of No. 108, the three drawers of equal length in No. 107. Also note that in this case the drawers are flush. The dating is probably a little late, since the flush drawer was the earlier. a ‘ianetieersitemairnienn: Sf tage mammccteenr gn 1690-1700. Spray DrEcorATED CHEST-ON-FRAME,. 123. se RN ’ ko erate eaten ee gia ete A, ee ee ee oe ee SER Re le 2 ME manape aa a AA RE INS CRIP NIE I a m na ae ’ ree nN AAA AML LALLA EDT OOD: SRS kl MENA 2 EM 124. InrraLeD OaK CHEST-ON-FRAME, 1680-90. 126. 125. Lunerre-Roserre Box. 1670-90. Oax Box witH PaneExs AND Drops. 1680-1700. PRO 127. Pxrain Oax Desx-Box. 1680-90. 128. 129. A Ponp Lity Box, Ratsep Carvinc. DousLe LunetTTe Taste CHEstT. os Satta nb) A alana iia oH, S 1670-90. 1660-70. 130. Carvep Oax Box. 1660-90. ili na Ras alae aad RE tne FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY I4I Size: Over all, 424 by 62 by 23 inches. Size of upper frame: 37 by 30% by 204 inches. No. 110 belongs to Mr. Edward C. Wheeler, Jr. It is one of the most beautifully preserved pieces we have seen, every part being original and the veneer in fine condition. It is in the herringbone pattern. Having a flush drawer it is early. This piece has never been cleaned. Size: The frame is 384 by 214 inches in length and depth. The upper section is 365 by 20 inches. The total hight is 61 inches. The outside front of the frame mold is 404 inches, and 22+ inches from front to back. No. 111. This is the only highboy we have seen with two small end-to-end drawers over the central arch. The scheme of the drawers should be examined in all these pieces. The conventional type is sup- posed to have three drawers in the frame —deep drawers on the sides and a shallow drawer in the center. As to the origin of highboys in this walnut veneer type, we are more likely to find it here than in Pennsylvania. The supposition that Pennsylvania is the home of the walnut highboy should be understood as meaning solid walnut, which of course is found there and in the South. The turnings in this piece are beautiful, the flare of the post being very marked. The piece is further distinguished from those we have hitherto con- sidered by its torus mold under the cap mold. No. 112 is a simple highboy which we feel certain is original. It differs from those we have seen by being a little later in date, and in the omission of stretchers. In other words it is simplified. Its button- like feet indicate turnings of the later Queen Anne type. This piece was found by Mrs. E. B. Leete of Guilford, Connecticut. No. 113 is possibly a country made highboy. It belongs to the estate of George F. Ives. The ring turning on the drops is odd. The curly maple of which it is constructed is a beautiful wood, a little later in its use than walnut, but paralleling the later walnut period, and con- tinuing well on in the century. Of course, the legs have not the boldness of turning which we should desire. We have here also a cross stretcher such as appears in the lowboy. No. 114. This simple piece is a fascinating example made perhaps by the village cabinet maker. It has the plain long drawer and there are no arches on the frame. The five legs are an effort to adapt the table frame style to the highboy style. We hardly know how to account for the variations in styles unless it was that the makers did not have the 142 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY conventional patterns available. Then it was that their ingenuity dis- played itself in original adaptations which are now sought after. Owner: Miss Mabel Choate, of New York and Stockbridge. No. 115 exhibits a highboy belonging to Mr. Horatio H. Armstrong of West Hartford. It is of sycamore and apple wood, an unusual but very agreeable combination, since sycamore is a very beautiful furniture wood. Apple also turns to a hard and smooth surface and takes a polish like ebony. Here the single long drawer below, the flush drawers, and the single arch molding indicate an early date. The arches, as in single drawer pieces for the most part, are alike. The turnings are differen- tiated considerably from those usually seen. a ae 131. Rope ScroLttEep TripLe Rosette Box. 1670-90. — antitebtie »— para le tila cs i i i inn i vB ANNES EN MEAS RTC A 132. Hapiey Box. 1670-90. 133. Pine anp Oak RosEeTTE Box. 1690-1710. - : <9 134. Hapiey Box Carvep In THE Round. 1670-90. 4 4 Sica stall a Ri Se Poa inlet 135. Pine Barz Foor Box. 1690-1700. rams 1374. 136. Dousite FLurep Oak Box. 1660-90. Miniature Box. 1700. 137b. Fo.iaATED Box. 1670—90. mers nein ieee ean er 138. FoxtaTep Scrott Oak Box. 1670-90. 139. Carvep Tuuip Box. 1670-90. 140. FontaTrEp ScroLt Oak Box. 1670-90. SMALL CHESTS-ON-FRAMES ‘T uese alluring little pieces of furniture excite our interest partly because they are small. Any miniature piece of furniture is like a child of the human species. We seem to love it more. Another element of interest is the greater or less degree of mystery which surrounds these pieces. We refer to the long continued discussion as to their purpose. Again they win upon us owing to their intrinsic merits and beauty. Last of all their rarity of course excites the average collector. These pieces have been called almost everything from pulpits to washstands. We must deny that they were either of these. Nor do we feel that it is the thing to call them desks-on-frames. They are always, so far as we know, found with flat tops. There are desks-on- frames containing cabinets and surrounded with no mystery. One of the pieces to follow was called a tabernacle table, by the three generations whose word we have for it. These pieces are quite different from the boxes that follow in that those boxes never have drawers as far as we have observed. Some of the chests-on-frames, however, have been found with removable tops, so that, if taken away from their original stands, they are precisely like the boxes discussed in the next chapter. Ordinarily, the frame of these pieces, for they all have frames, passes up through the base and the box, making a unit of the whole piece, so that it may not be taken apart. Like other furniture these chests-on-frames were unquestionably used for more than one purpose. As side tables in the dining room they would have been convenient. One in the author’s possession was always called the linen chest. More generally we may presume that they served the purpose of small chests to contain the more valuable belongings. No doubt the great Bible was sometimes placed in such a piece. We sometimes forget that there is no law compelling a distinct and uniform use for a piece of furniture. At the same time they are fascinating, and more ornamental than absolutely necessary. Few of them seem to have existed. We are treading on a treacherous path when we explore the number of any particular style of furniture. Still, their date in most cases was not as early as that of court cupboards, and there is no reason for their extreme rarity except that not so many of them existed originally as of other kinds of furniture. Perhaps thirty 147 148 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY more or less are generally known. A half dozen have come to light within quite recent years, They belong to that class of furniture that never remains in the market long and of which not a single example is known to be available now. The aristocrat among these pieces is the first that we will discuss. No. 116 belongs to Mrs. J. Insley Blair of Tuxedo Park. The frame is of oak but the lid and the bottom of the frame and drawer are of pine. The American origin of such pieces is much discussed, especially of late. We see pieces from England with similar drawer bottoms. This piece, however, has been in America for a long time. It was found a few years since in York, Maine. It has several features which distinguish it, and place it in a class by itself so far as our present knowledge goes. One of these features is the vase turning of the leg. It is quite in the style of that found on court cupboards. If we consider this feature in conjunction with the broad stile legs in the rear we are still more impressed by the similarity to court cupboard construction. The ball turned stretcher system is another important feature. Since this piece was discovered a table has come to light with stretchers in the same style, though of smaller size. The cross brace doubled stretcher of course gives much strength, and the feel- ing of solidity, and adds greatly to the charm of it. The upper part had arches in the side panels and an eight pointed star in the center panel. These arches should be compared with those shown on a chest. The applied ornaments are quite like those on chests and court cupboards. This like all other chests-on-frames has one drawer in the frame. It will be seen that the ornaments are carried around on the end and that there is a diamond shaped applied decoration in the center of the end panel. It is somewhat too large to be called a nail head. This piece is in an unrestored state. We have previously shown the inaccuracy of designating these pieces as dower chests. It is an equally loose phrase to term them Pilgrim chests. The earliest we know were indeed made in the Pilgrim Century, but are no more likely to be found in Plymouth Colony than in southern New Hampshire. Size: 264 by 354 by 17% inches. For the most part these pieces may be thought of as about three feet high, two feet long and a foot and a half deep. No. 117 is perhaps the next best sort of chest-on-frame with the exception of one owned, and shown, with carving, by Lyon. The piece before us is owned by Mrs. J. Insley Blair. It is a fine specimen, and in its original condition, with the possible exception of the lack of a shelf 141. Carvep Box. 1660-90. 142. Carved Oak Two-Panet Box. 1670-90. 143. Box wiry ImpricaTep Carvinc. 1660-80. Ne asia i le lea i cascada Dic dried le ili ick SI alba hic ont Ot i Sal a mac a ae as 144. FLuTe anp Lunetre Carvep Box. 1660-80. 145. InTERsEcTING LuNETTE Box. 1670-90. ae , r Pa west 4 146. Axi Pine Lunerre Carvep Box. 1680-1700. 147. 148. 149. Friesian Carvep Box. AIM ORR pare SORRELL RR NN Appr co Pine Carvep Box. ABOUT 1736. 1690-1700. 150. Curry Marre Desk Box. 1700-20. RINININININ: FA NAN IIIA AT AG / N YW WNMNVNIG ASOT AN AS NING NY NVENVAN y uy ( TAT TAA rANY/ WAS y AV WAN AW NAN % £7 , if VAAN RAANCS Avs ( NANNIES MERE AN , TIRING. AM TAVIS ie 151. Aut Pine Carvep Box. 1700-20. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 153 on the stretchers. We believe that a shelf was common when the stretchers were square. In this case particularly the edges of the stretch- ers, on the top, especially on the inside, are quite sharp. The discoverer of this piece admits that there was a shelf, but that he regarded it as not original, and hence destroyed it. His judgment is to be taken as to the particular piece removed. However, it may have been a substitute for the original shelf. Several chests very like this have been found. In fact the resem- blance is so close that we presume they are all made by one person. A piece in the possession of the Pennsylvania Museum has an applied mold- ing covering in part the front stretcher and in part the shelf above it. This mold is cut off flush with the outside edge of the post. The carving is intended to be identical with this piece. This piece, however, has one strip of applied ball molding on the outside stiles whereas the Pennsyl- vania Museum piece had two such strips. The drawers of these pieces are practically identical in their carving. The frames are oak and the lids pine. The turning is of the earliest character. No. 118 is an unusual chest-on-frame, which has been somewhat re- stored. The small panel design on the front is like that of the drawer of chest No. 44, as are also the slender long split turnings. Compare also the court cupboard No. 203 for the similarity of the small panel work, and the little split turnings each side of the bottom drawer. These are like those on the chests and are the only ones we have ever seen without the ball at the bottom. They appear meagre on the court cupboard and raise the question whether they were not originally in pairs. The un- usual turning here resembles that on No. 121. The brackets and the drops suggest seventeenth century tables. This piece is of oak with the-initiais S. A. H. Owner: Mr. Hermann F. Clarke of Boston. No. 119 is a chest-on-frame owned by the Rhode Island School of Design. The turnings are somewhat light and therefore indicate a little later period than No. 117. The spray decoration also found on the panels is an evidence of change in taste. This decoration is usually in black on a red ground. We believe that the turnings are in maple, at least they belong to the maple period. No. 120 is a slight variation from the last in that the stretchers are turned and the body is higher in relation to the base. The decorations on the panels do not pick out in the picture. Owner: Mr. Arthur W. Wellington. No. 121 has a character somewhat like No. 116 in so far as the back legs are stiles. The simple early period is further carried out in this 154 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY piece by the use of plain stretchers on the end, the turning being restricted to the front. On the other hand the false upper drawer is usually found somewhat later. These pieces invariably have one drawer, no more, no less. We have hazarded this categorical statement, and now await the almost in- evitable upsetting of its accuracy by some new discovery. The piece before us is of oak with pine lid and panels, but it has been to a consider- able extent restored. A cloud rests on the title, as it were. Size: 273 by 354 by 16. No. 122 is distinguished by ball turnings on every part of the frame. The chest is shown as it was. The drawer has since been restored with moldings. It is of rather heavy and satisfactory construction. It will be seen that the rail under the drawer is molded more boldly than is usually the case. The end panel has a chamfered border, whereas No. 120 has a raised panel, and the border is not chamfered. These little touches have something to do with the date. No. 123 is still another decorated piece in good condition and with very attractive turnings. The drawer is very deep. The attachment of the lid by cleat hinges is obvious. The decorations in this case are not confined to the upper panels but are found also on the drawer. Owner: Mrs. F. G. Patterson of Boston. No. 124 is one of two pieces of almost precisely the same style, and with leg turnings, between the stretchers and the body, exactly similar. The other piece, which we do not show, has a pine box attached, whereas the piece before us has an oak box. These two pieces, with the carved Dr. Lyon piece, have their boxes attached by heavy nails to the frame, through the bottom of the box. This is a radical distinction from the boxes previously shown in which the corner post goes through the box. That is to say we have here a table frame with a box set upon it, which is in all particulars, even as to size, like the detached boxes which follow. This piece came from eastern central New England. That with the pine box came from the old tavern kept by the Ballard family in Ballardvale, Andover. It was called by the last member of the family who owned it a tabernacle table, the name having come down to her from her ances- tors. This is an interesting fact as throwing light on the regard in which such pieces were held, and the possible uses to which they were put. In none of the three pieces mentioned is there any question but that the table and box originally went together. No. 124 when found had had the faces of the turned posts flattened in order to apply boards to form a cupboard. Both this and the Ballard piece have notched corners or gouge carving. 152. Miniature Box. 154. ni ADA: o ® 153. 1690-1710. ScratcH Carvep Litrie CuHEst, Carvep Desx Box, 1677. 1722. [55 A PainTep Pine Box. cil ie «a Reet Bai coals 156. 1$7. ScratcH Carvep Box. ScratcH Carvep Box. 1700-10. 1700-20. 1694. Basen 2 te i 158. Watnut Desk Box. 1680-1700. 159. Wartnut Desk-Box witH TurNED FEET. 1700-20. sk 1690-1700. -FOOT SECRETARY. Watnutr Bau 160. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 159 In the Ballard piece, however, the ends of the lid are treated in the same manner, whereas in this case the lid has the thumb nail molding and is also of pine. The moldings on these two pieces are identical, and we believe them to have been made by the same cabinet maker. There is a slight difference in the turning of the feet. We may plainly see, between the initials S. A., scratch outlines for a carving design which was never carried out. Size: 253 by 32% by 17 inches. The Ballard piece is a little smaller across the front. The name tabernacle table perhaps indicated that a Bible was kept in this box. It has been suggested that these pieces were sometimes kept on the rear of pulpit platforms and that Bibles were placed in them when not in use. This suggestion is quite unreasonable. We should be likely to know, at least in some instance, if such a custom had been followed. All these pieces bear marks of taste and skill. The fact, however, that so few of them are initialed, discourages the supposition that they were frequently dower chests. A bride-to-be would undoubt- edly resent the supposition that she would need only this little box to bestow her belongings. BOXES We HAVE advisedly used this brief title because there is no reason to assign boxes generally to a use restricted by the name Bible boxes. There is still less reason to name them desk boxes, if a desk is to be thought of as a writing desk. Nor do we feel at liberty to name them miniature chests, as a class, although many of them are merely that, having a till. Without exception all the boxes which we have seen are built of boards not framed. They are generally rabbeted so as to strengthen the con- struction and allow the front to extend over the end and yet permit the end to be nailed to the front. Perhaps the majority of them are oak, but a good many of the later and even interesting specimens are pine. The bottom is almost always pine and more often than not projects in the form of a plain bevel. It is nailed in place. The use of these pieces as receptacles for precious articles is often negatived by the lack of a lock. Wherever the piece never had a lock and at the same time had no till or pigeon holes it was more likely to be a Bible box than otherwise. A considerable number of the large ancient Bibles, it is found, will fit conveniently in these boxes. The English boxes are quite likely to be carved on the ends. The American boxes are generally carved only on the front. The same is true of applied ornaments. In America they appear as a rule, only in front. The pieces were light and easily movable. Their hinges were for the most part cotter pins like those we find on chests. In the case of slant tops, however, we find, in several instances, good butterfly hinges. No. 125 is an attractive and distinctive box belonging to Mr. H. W. Erving. The material is oak and the box is initialed. Mr. Erving rails genially at the author’s box with the initials B. C. We appeal to a candid world, are not the initials B. C. more respectable than B. D.? The rosettes on this piece are attractively carved and suggest the connection with the sunflower chests of Connecticut. The lunettes are cut in a heavy channel mold and their bases terminate quite like the vertical flutes. ’ The rest of the carving is of the scratch variety. The birds in the spandrels of the lunettes are particularly amusing. 160 a eT 161. Heavy Pine Desk. 1680-1700. 162. Bauu-roor Desk. 1700-10. 163-169. Iron Lamps. 19th CENTURY. 170. Smauyu Pine SrRETCHER Desk. 1720-30, eens \ 0 ae 171. Turnep Frame Waxnut Desk. Waxtnut Desk. 1700. oa ie (1) ear 1700-20. 173. Pine Desk. Sie) aeieids 1700. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 165 There is a series of incised turned ornaments on the ends. No. 126 has the small panels like those shown on the chest-on-frame No. 118. In two instances the little turtle backs are omitted to provide a space for the initials H. S. This box is mostly original except the lid. It was found in Connecticut. The odd little turnings applied, which we have mentioned before, are found here, some one end up, some the other. We refer to the outside members of the three sets of three each. Size: 28 by 10 by 173 inches. No. 127 is a very satisfactory piece because it is so completely original. It is of heavy oak. The hinges are particularly good specimens of the butterfly sort. The slant top and the row of pigeon holes within mark it unmistakably as a desk box. Size: Over all, 25 by 93 by 19 inches. No. 128. Owner: Mr. H. W. Erving. The carving on this box is very peculiar for several reasons. So much of the wood is cut away from the design that we may call the carving raised. Of course there is no distinction between this and other carved designs, like the Hadley, except in the extent of the cutting away. However, the work is quite delicate and in the pond lily pattern and therefore a pleasing and rare departure. The other notable feature about the box is that it is asymmetrical in its carving, the design on the right as we view it being quite different from the other side, and of a very interesting pattern. Size: 254 by 9 by 163 inches. No. 129. A box unusual in several particulars, one being in the method in which the bottom is attached. It will be seen that the face boards of the box extend to the very bottom and therefore the bottom board is set in like a drawer bottom. The carving on this piece is a series of lunettes and reversed lunettes, which are elaborated into something like a palmated pattern. It was found as it is, except that there was a hole where the lock should be. The bottom and the lid are pine and the rest is oak. The lid is molded on the front and back. The carving is most unusual and approaches closely to carving in the round, as some of the foliage is shaped on the surface. The box was found in Granby, Connecticut, in 1922. It is said to have been on a farm there since 1660. Size: 244 by 73 by 143 inches. No. 130 is a handsome box belonging to Mr. G. Winthrop Brown, with arched flutes and a series of rosettes alternately different, with a ribbon interlaced scroll enclosing them. ‘The curious and quaint effect appears of leaving the last of these rosettes cut off by the outside margin, which indicates that the designer did not plan far enough ahead. It is rather deeper than those boxes which we have discussed hitherto. 166 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY No. 131. A box with a handsomely carved front in a daisy or rosette pattern, surrounded by interlaced double straps or ribbons, which terminate in imbricated scrolls. The box is of oak, but it is nailed from the front. The bottom and the lid are pine. It was found in eastern central New England. Size: 23 by 94 by 16 not including the overhang. No. 132 is a shallow Hadley box of which one or two others are known. It is about a half of the depth of No. 134, but corresponds with the rails on Hadley chests as to its width. It will be seen that the carving on this box is in the round in part. We may therefore presume that it antedates most of the Hadley chests. Otherwise we are to suppose that the great extent of the front of a Hadley chest discouraged the worker from attempting to do it all in the round. Of course carving of this character is very much better than that found on any Hadley chest. Owner: Mrs. J. Insley Blair. Size: 25 by 5 by 14 aaches. No. 133. Owner: Mr. H. W. Erving. We have here a box initialed R. N. with a stippled background for the letters. The simple carving of the two star designs is quite like that found on some of the Pennsylvania barns. The ends of this box are of oak and the front and back and lid, and of course the bottom, are pine. Red and black paint is applied in the cut-away sections of the rosettes. Size: 234 by 84 by 18 inches. No. 134. This is the only Hadley box that has so far come to our attention with a depth sufficient to allow a full element of the tulip and leaf design seen on Hadley chests. The carving like that in No. 132 is in part in the round. It is only necessary to compare this with the face of a Hadley chest to see that the latter is merely roughly scratched without artistry. This box has all its side pieces of oak and the top and bottom of yellow pine. The lid is worked into a slightly raised central panel. The condition is absolutely original. The box was found overlooking the Connecticut river in the town of Lyme, New Hampshire, which was settled from Old Lyme in Connecticut. The box was therefore probably carried up the river from that place, although we would not seem to force such a conclusion. If it was made in Old Lyme then the extent of the work on these Hadley pieces was greater than has hitherto been supposed. Of course it may have been taken from Hartford to Old Lyme originally or it may have been purchased as the settlers moved north. At any rate its general type is very early, quaint and satisfactory and intriguing. It suggests the first efforts at this type of carving. at ia TAR ER SA SIS : 174. Watnut Cross StRETCHER Desk. 1690-1700. 175-178. Bexiows. 18th anv 19th C. i p » § aoe 179. Pine Cross SrRETCHER DeEsx. 1690-1700. 180-183. Pree Boxes anp Sanp Grass, 18th C, er Naa Eat EON a ad ee ROS ae ® UP A aes OF ak aR ee Aca hl cla 184. Turnep STRETCHER Desk. 1710-20. 185-190. TinpER Box anp SparKERs, 18th CENTURY. * 1 AO the fem opie api. teal , 4E Ohm 2h bie obs. ue Wiigh « 2 or 19 Foe~ obey +h. ‘ » + Ty 191. Waxinut TuRNED STRETCHER DeEsK. 1720-30. 192-194. Wroucutr AnpiRons. 18th CrnTurRy. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 171 Size: Over all, the lid: 26 by 174 inches. The frame is 238 by 82 by 174 inches, including the thickness of the lid. No. 135 is a box formerly in the B. A. Behrend Collection, and doubt- less intended for a desk. The excellent butterfly hinges are visible. The large ball feet are unusual on so small a piece. No. 136 is a deep box received by the author as a lecture fee. There was missing a small portion of the front of the oak lid. The piece is otherwise original, and has some odd features. One of these consists in an applied molding above the base which we believe is not shown in the case of more than one or two other boxes in this book. The carving con- sists of two rows of flutes and extends around the ends. ‘This unusual feature leads us to challenge its American origin, but the author’s kind friends are accommodating enough to say that it is American. Size: 234 by 114 by 19 inches. No. 137 a. is a very quaint miniature box belonging to Mr. Hollis French of Boston. The design is called Friesian. There is beautifully serrated or notched carving on the base and the lid. The same thing appears as an almost constant motive in Norman cathedral architecture. Probably the name toy box would apply to this piece. It may have been used for jewels and placed in a larger “strong box.” Many per- fectly simple boxes of this size are found which do not merit treatment. No. 137 b. is a deep box belonging to Mr. Hollis French. The carving is the double foliated scroll so much found on chests and court cupboards. The widely spaced gouge carving at the corners is noticeable. No. 138 is a box with foliated scrolls running horizontally instead of vertically as in the previous box. Here also we have the initials A. H. The owner is Mr. B. A. Behrend. The foliage here resembles the acan- thus. No. 139. A beautifully carved box in which the tulip element occurs again. The attraction of the carving consists not so much in any accurate delineation of the tulip as in the grace of line. The carved details sur- rounding and depending from the ’scutcheon are also an interesting feature indicating that the carver did what is frequently not done. He had regard to the arrangement subsequently to be made for locking the box. Most of these boxes seem to have lacked that attention, so that we see key holes freely inserted in the midst of the carving in a somewhat awkward and defacing manner. Size: 27 by 10 by 15 inches. No. 140. Owner: Mr. George Dudley Seymour. The carving here may be presumed to represent the tulip. In fact, it is a rather better 172 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY setting forth of that favorite flower than we usually find. We notice the usual stippled background and gouge carved corners. No. 141. Owner: Mr. Dwight Blaney. The carving is very happily designed and executed. ‘The box is deeper for its length than is usual. No. 142. Owner: Mr. George Dudley Seymour. This is the second example we have shown in which the front panels are not alike. One panel bears the initial W. The pattern represents the tulip less conventionalized than usual. The piece is in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. It originated in Guilford. No. 143 is a large and interesting box. The carving of two bands of imbrications is combined with heavy moldings and several bands of scratched serrations. ‘The top and the bottom are pine. The box contains the original till of pine. All the other parts are oak. The lid is molded on the front and gouge carved on the end, a style which is carried out on the ends of the front also. The box is large, being 264 by 94 by 173 inches, not including the overhang. The original hasp is in place. No. 144. Owner: Mr. H. W. Erving. The band of vertical flute carving above is interrupted to afford room for a ’scutcheon. ‘This shows thoughtfulness. Scratched carved lunettes, a row of three, finish the front. They are filled with rays which may be variously designated. A flower fills the spandrels. ‘The same carving is repeated on the end, which is most unusual. Size: 214 by 84 by 144 inches. No. 145. Owner: Mr. H. W. Erving. Here the top line of carving is unusual. The intersecting lunettes, each done with four parallel lines, is of course a very obvious motive. The top carving is repeated imme- diately below the lunettes, and there is a line of imbricated carving at the bottom, or at least it was probably so intended. Size: 273 by 11 by 17 inches. No. 146 is a somewhat attractive box although it is pine in every part. It has a coat of old paint which, as it is somewhat flaked off, will be cleaned entirely. The spandrels are carved with fan like designs. Size: 244 by 84 by 154 inches, without the molding. No. 147. Owner: Mr. George Dudley Seymour. The carving is of a most unusual and interesting design, though it is not fully explicable. The lunettes and half lunettes are bordered with small triangles like the Norman notched carving. At the center there is a kind of spiral wheel which again is centered with a small starfish design. There is also a row of starfish running across the center of the front. All these elements are raised. What term we should apply to the battle axe shaped designs which fill the spandrels we do not know. The piece is in pine. It will be seen that it lacks the base molding. 1640-50. PaRMENTER CourT CUPBOARD. 195. ae a 1640-60. Carvep Oax Court CuPpBoarRD. 196. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 175 No. 148. Owner: Mr. George Dudley Seymour. A small box of whitewood, pine and soft maple. It is from Norwich, Connecticut, where it was owned by the Fanning family. The front ends and lid are pro- fusely enriched with carving as done in the northeast province of Holland and thence called Friesian. According to family tradition it was made by David Fanning of Norwichtown, when he was nine years old, which would give the box the date of 1736, as his birth was in 1727. Fanning died at Groton, Connecticut, in 1817. He was a soldier in the French and Indian War and a man of some local prominence. Size: 203 by 63 by 10g inches. The lid is 21 by ro4 inches. No. 149. Owner: Mr. George Dudley Seymour. A carved and stippled pine box related in its type of carving to Friesian designs. The position of the spiraled wheel at the bottom is somewhat mystifying. No. 150. The only good curly box we have seen in a form so small. It is a desk, pure and simple, with its original plain hinges. The ball feet add to its attractiveness, as does the heavy mold which is applied around the base and covers the base, which is nailed on, coming flush to the edges of the box. The original scrolled brass ’scutcheon is in place. The interior in the rear contains two plain cubbies with single arched molding. The size of the box over all is 173 by 12% by 10 inches. The size of the body is 153 by 12 by 8 inches. No. 151 is another all carved pine box with a lattice work front. It contains no till. Size: 21 by 8% by 11 inches not including the overhang. It has pin hinges, a cleated lid the front and back of which carries a molding. No. 152. This little box owned by Mr. George Dudley Seymour, has its entire surface covered with carving in the Friesian manner. The body of the box is worked from a single piece of wood, apparently white- wood. The cover, also a single piece, has thinned edges sliding in grooves. On the cover are the initials A. C., while the initials N. J. are incised on the end of the cover. Size: 44 by 24 by 14 inches. We assume that this piece is native since whitewood is the material. The box was found in Cheshire, Con- necticut, about 1900. The author possesses a miniature wall box with a slanting lid, all of whose parts are carved in the same manner. No. 153. This carved desk box is a very interesting example of the survivals in style. The wheel carving on the upper section is purely Gothic in motive. The other carving on this part is obvious. On the lid, however, we have a crude scratch carving and the name, “ Lydia 176 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY Culver 1722.” The little drawer in the bottom is very unusual for a small desk. The material is birch or maple. Size: 14 by 19 by 7% inches. , No. 154 is a box of oak. The outlines are filled with chalk in order that the date and the initials may show more plainly. The carving 1s crude and possibly unfinished. The spiral wheels, particularly, are merely scratched. The base is either not original or is quite rare in being cut flush with the box. The lid is pine with a long bevel on the front and ends. Size: On the body, 224 by 9 by 17% inches. No. 155. Asimple pine box owned by Mr. George Dudley Seymour. It was bought in Hartford. The bottom molding is a restoration. The painting, not restored, shows a vine enfolding large flower-forms. The piece is now in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. No. 156. A simple box with scratch carving filled in with white. iA decorative border which is carved is not so filled and does not appear plainly. The box is owned by the Connecticut Historical Society. Size: 104 by 54 by 7 inches. No. 157 is a painted pine box from the collection of Mr. B. A. Behrend. It is slightly carved with the initials E. A., and at the center a diamond is marked out in scratch carving with the date. Simple mold- ings appear under the lid and above the base. No. 158. A walnut desk box with a cabinet, and mirror inserted on the under side of the lid. This dainty little piece, the moldings of which are especially well done, was found in New York in 1923, in bad condition, so that there are considerable restorations. The sunken top is filled in, as it was found, with old leather. The end moldings are outlined to follow the contour of the sloping lid, and gain much grace thereby. The box is molded in the back with applied pieces precisely as on the front, except that the corners of the two panels outlined are blocked. Thin applied blocks form the centers of all these panels. The hinges are especially attractive. They appear when the box is opened. Around the mirror there is an outline of two strips of inlay, the outer one of holly, the inner one of whalebone. Size: 94 by 3% inches in front, and 5% inches in the rear. The depth is 64 inches. No. 159. An all walnut desk box with feet of the same material. There is a cabinet within. We presume in this case that the slant of the front was not really used for writing as it is rather narrow. It turns for- ward instead of backward. Size: 194 by 144 by 11% inches. vieavadt apis pal? ; 197. Prince-Howes PLymouTH Cuppoarp. 1660-70. 198. ee mer ee et A I A I A i f Prymoutu Courr CuppoarD. 1660-70 SECRETARIES AND DESKS Or COURSE the secretary was an outgrowth of the desk. It is merely a desk with a cabinet or cupboard placed on top of it. This is proved by the fact that some of the earliest examples had detachable tops, whereas later on the piece was made as a unit. In the seventeenth century for the most part people got on with small desk boxes. Good desks of this period are very rare. They may have been inspired by French examples, whence comes the word bureau, with a meaning among us of an office or department of state. The word escritoire, often used in a great variety of spelling, most of which elimi- nated the first letter, strongly suggests the French influence. It was not until the walnut period that elaborate desks began to appear in numbers. Desks today are valued largely according to the elaborateness of their cabinets. In the earliest period the cabinets were quite simple. The failure to find desks with oak frames, at least in any number, indicates the tardy arrival of desks in the seventeenth century. No. 160. A walnut secretary made with the top detachable. A curious feature of this piece is that the top juts back about an inch and a half beyond the back of the base. We have found this feature in some mahogany secretaries. It is an arrangement designed to accommodate the dado, which, in the form of panels surrounded rooms in the first period of paneling in America. ‘Thus the desk proper abutted against the dado, and the top also abutted directly against the plaster wall, above the dado. Attention should be given to the shapes of the panel tops in the doors. This form appears in the earliest panels in New England furni- ture. In Pennsylvania the form continued well into the eighteenth cen- tury, much later than in New England. The hinges which appear here to be butts are really H hinges nailed into the edge of the doors, and closing up like modern butts. This is not a very unusual method. The square pulls for resting the slant front when it is thrown open are marks of the earliest type. AQ little later it is seen that these pulls are in the form of a board on edge. Curiously enough the lid here is yellow pine though it seems original and the piece is otherwise of walnut. 179 180 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY Size: 334 inches across the front, 674 inches high, 204 inches deep. No. 161. This heavy desk, set on a frame, is a rare and important piece, belonging to the Rhode Island School of Design. It has that delightful effect of softened corners and steady wear which appeals to the heart of the collector. The molded stretchers here are early and the heavy effect of the frame indicates an early date. The desk is small. It has its original and excellent butterfly hinges. No. 162. Owner: Horatio H. Armstrong, West Hartford, Con- necticut. This handsome desk shows quite clearly a desirable cabinet of the period. The cabinet in the secretary No. 160 is about the same in pattern. The difference in the style of feet of the two pieces should be noticed. In Mr. Armstrong’s piece there is a sort of shoe below the ball. This style is a little later than the other. Nos. 163-169. A series of tin and iron lamps belonging to Mr. Anthony T. Kelly of Springfield, Massachusetts. We have found it necessary in order to show all the examples we wish to illustrate, without producing a too ponderous volume, to insert some small pieces of hard- ware below the furniture, and we have thought it more convenient to treat them as they are reached. The lamp on the left is of the simplest sort to carry about; the next is a reflector; the third has a small extinguisher which may be folded down over it; the fourth is a quaint lamp which evidently is evolved by adding the bowl of a lamp to a candle stick. The fifth lamp, with its double wick, is of the fluid type just preceding kerosene, as is also the sixth example, only that is set against a wall sconce. The last example is a very interesting multi-sided wall sconce with glass to protect the candle. We consider this a very attractive design, especially as it is convenient even for present use. In showing lamps and all other classes of hardware we do not con- fine ourselves to the Pilgrim Century. We eschew glass and for the most part show only such lighting fixtures as were made of tin and iron up to the time that kerosene came into use. No. 170. A pine stretcher desk with a maple frame. The opening in the molded book rest was probably left for the staple which is now lost. We have here the lip on the drawer which indicates the eighteenth century style. There are excellent original butterfly hinges. Size: Over all, 294 by 384 by 224 inches. No. 171. A frame desk of walnut, of a desirable type. The turn- ings are very meritorious, and their large size indicates an early date. The lip on the drawer and even the drawer pulls, however, indicate that 7 ana: ap me, Yon ome | HRN Po eee Lapis diideealhal a en ee: | nme IR) ee rT TT <--- i —— = — y 1660-70. SERRATED PLyMouTH CUPBOARD. 199. < » «> * « cy CARRIE ag CHRO og ge ° « (mm ome 44 = (4) = 19 1690-1700. SUNFLOWER AND Tuxip Courr CUPBOARD. 200. 1670-78. SUNFLOWER AND T'uLip Court CUPBOARD. 201. 1660-70. SUNFLOWER AND T'uLip Court CUPBOARD 202. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 185 the base is a survival of a somewhat earlier style. The piece was in the former collection of the author. It is one of the best examples known, although the interior is very simple. Owner: Mr. Harry Long. No. 172, a walnut veneer desk resembling No. 162, except that it is a little earlier in the feet and in the molding. In the former collection of the author. No. 173. A small pine desk on a frame with the early stretchers. When found this piece had hinges on the back of the lid. But as there were holes for pulls, the arrangement was reversed, to the original position. Owner: Mr. B. A. Behrend. No. 174. In this desk we reach, for the first time, a somewhat elaborate turning. The cross stretcher pieces of this character seem to form a connecting link between seventeenth century furniture and the six legged highboy turnings. This desk has fine original butterfly hinges. It has been to some small extent restored. We question whether or not the arched molding is correct. It should be compared with Mr. Wheeler’s desk No. 179. It seems somewhat incongruous to run a mold of this kind except all around. A finial probably rested at the intersection of the scrolled cross stretcher. ; Size: 38 by 323 by 21 inches, these measurements being over all. These turnings should be compared with the large square oak refectory table. Nos. 175-178. We give here four forms of bellows. No. 175 shows a flat surface; No. 176 shows a rounded surface with stenciling: No. 177 has ornamental turnings; No. 178 is the plainest and simplest form. These bellows like most others have brass snouts. They were a very necessary household article. No. 179. Owner: Mr. Edward C. Wheeler, Jr. A delightful small desk turned in the same type as No. 174 and probably by the same maker. It was found not very far from Boston, and is the only desk known to the writer in pine in this style. It has its early original butter- fly hinges. A desk with cross stretchers is convenient for the feet of one sitting at it. It also matches the style of the cross stretcher lowboy. Size: The frame is 29% by 19+ inches. The length is 314 inches. It is 334 inches high, and 19# inches from front to back. Nos. 180-183. The objects here depicted are owned by Mr. Arthur W. Wellington. The outside pieces are pipe boxes, the first having its back carved like a fan and pierced with the familiar and favorite heart shaped 186 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY opening, which is repeated on the front of the box. The second object in the row is a little hanging box initialed and dated and also having a heart motive. The sand glass is of an early type. These glasses when very early are usually made in two parts and are connected by wax. It was thus possible in the manufacture to regulate the opening more pre- cisely for the number of minutes required to pass the sand from the upper to the lower compartment. The phrase hour glass is hardly de- scriptive, for the time was more likely to be fifteen minutes or less. These glasses are found very convenient even today. Pipe boxes were apparently used as early as the seventeenth century. In fact, they were needed as soon as the habit of smoking came in, in Queen Elizabeth’s time. These boxes were used for the insertion of the long brittle clay church warden pipes. The drawer below was for the tobacco. The boxes were hung high on the wall to be out of the reach of children. No. 184. A desk on an all turned frame and having chased brass handles, the hinges being of the butterfly pattern. Owner: Mr. Chauncey C. Nash. The obvious arrangement of a table frame for a box here appears. The style existed along with the other style in which the posts ran through the desk proper. Size: 29 by 232 by 184 inches. Nos. 185-190. These are fire making implements owned by Mr. H. W. Erving. The first is the more common tinder box, the steel for which lies in front of it. The steel was struck upon the flint and the spark was caught on a piece of tow, these articles being kept within the box, and the candle was set in the lid so that it might serve as a kind of pilot candle to light up all the others in the dwelling. The next two objects are waistcoat pocket sparkers. These exist in a very great variety, one collection numbering over a hundred. The knife sparker is an odd variant. The last object is a wheel sparker. Some sort of fire maker was an important household article until the day of sulphur matches. It is remarkable how generally the old fire making tools were thrown away. They were no small nuisance in practical life, and our fathers seemed to have been glad to be rid of them. No. 191. A walnut turned stretcher desk formerly owned by Mr. I. Sack, of Boston. Of course the handles do not belong with it. A desk constructed in this manner with drawers and turned table frame base, and drawers in the desk box itself, obviously required a high stool or high desk chair. A few such seats are found and will be shown later. Even with such a seat one could not sit as comfortably as one could wish. 1670-90. SpLAYED Concorp CourT CUPBOARD. 203 te 204. Sranton-Cuinton Court Cuppoarp. 1660-80. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 189 Therefore, the usual fashion for the later desks provided a knee hole. We are uncertain whether the medial stretcher was designed to give foot room or was an object of economy or grace, but it achieved all these objects. Nos. 192-194. Three pairs of wrought iron andirons. The left hand pair is one of the commonest designs found, having a kind of gooseneck and a pointed square head. It should not be confused with the proper gooseneck and head andiron. The second pair is rare in that the posts are twisted. The third pair also is rather usual. Of course the object of the rings, or the turned-over tops, was for convenience in moving the irons. We do not know a time when andirons were not used. They bring back the early sentiments connected with the fireplace, and are still found in most homes. COURT CUPBOARDS us HE court cupboard is the most stately and important piece of furniture that has come down to us from the early settlers. Its possession was always a mark of dignity, wealth or family. People aspired to own a court cupboard as a token of assured position in society. ‘Thus we see in Plymouth, a poor colony, that Governor Prince had such a cupboard. We find them more frequently, however, in Boston, Salem and the richer cities of the Puritans. Most of all we find court cupboards on the Connecticut river, especially from Hartford south, and along the Sound. A collector in these days who can secure a court cupboard feels that he also has achieved no small success. These objects are very much sought for, and hence, if one exists, hitherto hidden from the light, it is quite likely to become known in a short time. The number now in museums is very small, more especially as we confine ourselves to American examples. The large majority of these cupboards is in private collections. There can be no doubt, however, that within a score of years a large number of them will gravitate to museums, where they will afford to the casual student a new conception of the furniture of our fathers. An amusing and rather trite phrase in connection with Pilgrim furni- ture is “crude design.” Every paragrapher and reviewer and novelist seems to feel himself aligned with those who know when he uses the word crude or some such adjective in relation to old furniture. For some years we have made notes, as a matter of curious interest, on the allusions by novelists to antique furniture. It would almost seem that writing people would wish to avoid marring their tales with wholly mis- leading statements. Perhaps they think they create an atmosphere. Cer- tainly one cannot look for nice distinctions in their references to the subject. We think it would not be difficult to show that in the period between 1670 and 1700 Americans built better homes, from the standpoint of "taste in design, had better furniture, were better clad, and spoke better English than has been the case at any time since. An English traveler, going up to the North Shore, used in description of the homes he visited 190 ba # 205. Duruam Oax anp WanuT Press CupBoarD. 1690-1700. 1680-90. Oax Press CUPBOARD. 206. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 193 phrases so extravagantly commendatory that we dare not even quote them. A dwelling containing as much good furniture as the inventory of Gov- ernor Eaton of New Haven Colony shows, does not exist in America today, except in the case of a few collectors perhaps, who should not count in such a comparison, because Governor Eaton’s home was designed merely to be the residence of a gentleman. Anyone who looks at the Parmenter court cupboard can hardly call it simple. Anyone who examines a slate top table of 1690 must admit, if he has studied the subject at all, that for daintiness and elaboration it has never been matched since. The fact is that while we find simple furniture, in the homes of the poor, in the seventeenth century, we also find everywhere, even among the poor, marks of excellent taste, and a feeling for design. Were a citizen of that day to “revisit the glimpses of the moon”. and enter a conventional modern home of some pretentions he would be aghast at the medley and confusion that would greet his eyes. It is not at all uncommon to see a piece of furniture which combines the motives of three or even four centuries and so warps and twists and degrades them all, and mixes them with unconnected motives of a shape- less and mongrel character that the result reminds one of a musical medley, with the music left out. A professor in entomology was waited upon by some of his smart students who had concocted a bug, by using the wings of one insect, the legs of another, the body of a third, the head of a fourth, the antennz of a fifth, and so on. They inquired what kind of a bug this was. The professor replied: “That, gentlemen, is a humbug.” The phrase would aptly describe the desks and the chairs of those who with an overweaning and wholly unjustified presumption in favor of the present mechanical and tasteless age, write of the past as crude. The age of the Renaissance, the age of Shakespeare and Milton, the age of those who inherited and preserved the cathedrals, was strong, but what- ever else it was it was seldom crude. The furniture was neither shoddy nor flimsy nor inharmonious. The court cupboard is the outstanding example to prove these state- ments. The old inventories which unhappily ceased too soon, indicate that probably many hundreds of such cupboards existed. Perhaps less than sixty, of presumably American origin are known to remain. All of these cupboards, belonging strictly in the seventeenth century, are of oak, as regards their frames. The great pillars are of some wood adapted for turning like maple. The drawer fronts and the panels may be of oak or yellow pine. The same is true of the main shelf, the top shelf and, in the open cupboards, of the bottom shelf. The various 194 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY applied moldings and ornaments may be the same wood as the pillars or they may be of red cedar, walnut or pine, but rarely of the last. We distinguish three sorts of court cupboards according to design, and perhaps we should include a fourth. One design like No. 200 has its shelf cupboard, which names the piece, splayed, or in the semi-octagon shape. A second variety is like No. 195, with a straight but recessed cupboard. A third sort has a straight front without pillars like No. 219. All of these styles except the last are found either open below or closed in by panel work and a door or doors. No. 195 was taken to Sudbury apparently when it was founded, from Boston Bay. The Parmenter Tavern was erected in 1683, in South Sudbury, long before the Wayside Inn was built. Joshua Parmenter, who carefully preserved this cupboard, was born in Framingham in 1824, and died in 1903. The writer secured the cupboard from his widow, who survives him, and their children. Joshua Parmenter remembered the occasion when the feet of this cupboard were cut off by his uncle, about 1835. He inherited the cupboard from that uncle and when the Par- menter Tavern was destroyed he took the cupboard to South Natick where the writer found it. Against the remonstrances of his friends who wondered at his preserving such a queer old thing Mr. Parmenter carefully cherished the piece. His widow and children have the same respect for it, and their regard is enhanced by their respect for him. By a Clause in its bill of sale it must bear its brass plate stating its origin, and cannot pass out of the family in which it now is except to a public museum. Mr. Luke Vincent Lockwood, with whose friendship the author has been honored, regards the piece very highly, from the standpoint of antiquity and merit of design. It combines several decorative features. It has that very rare feature in American cupboards, a band of inlay, running around the panels of the doors and on the stile below them and also on the stile above the drawers. The carving on the top member is in the arch or fluted pattern, and this pattern is repeated on the base. The central moldings are doubled foliations. All these moldings, as in the very earliest styles, are carried around the ends. The applied decora- tions, in addition to the inlay, are in the form of nail heads like triglyphs, in pairs, on the fronts, and sides of the posts. This cupboard belongs to the open style, which we regard as the earlier. The two sets of pillars are practically identical. The drawers are very heavy and are charac- terized by their lack of a rail below them, so that they never required pulls, but were withdrawn by catching the fingers underneath, on the Datep 1684. SpLayED ANDOVER CourT CUPBOARD. 207 go. 1670- SpLayED Oak Court CupBoarp. 8. 20 1670-90. SpLayED Oax Press CuPBoARD. 209 1670-90. Oak Press CuPBoaRD 210. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 199 slight extension of the front, below the bottom. This feature has pre- viously been mentioned in connection with certain chests, and may also be found on the cupboard No. 208. All the shelves, the back, the inside shelf and the division between the two cupboards are of pine as well as the very heavy drawer bottoms and backs. All the other structural parts are oak except the posts, which are maple. This cupboard follows the early design of allowing the stile behind to form the leg and of turning the front post. It has the unusual feature of the two drawers side by side and a drop between. This was in such a condition as to raise the question whether it were not a fifth leg. The restoration, however, is believed to be correct. The carving of a tree with branches in the door panels is so surrounded by applied moldings lapping slightly onto the carving as to give the effect, in the shape of the molding, to a corridor down which one appears to be looking. The old red paint remains on parts of the end panels and, strangely enough, the back. We do not know of another cupboard with so many intriguing features, or an appearance so generally attractive. Size: 52 inches long, 534 inches high, 23 inches wide over all. No. 196 is a press cupboard in the Metropolitan Museum. The brackets have been challenged, we do not know on what ground, nor do we now recall by whom. The pillars are extremely plain and are not very large in diameter. The doors below are attached on the outside of the stiles and are not recessed, a thing which we can hardly understand. The piece, however, is very elaborately carved. The scratch carving on the end panels suggests that on the Virginian cupboard to follow and that on one of the first chests treated. This cupboard has the structural architectural arches. They resemble very closely those shown in the chest No. 1. We believe the cupboard to be early. Other features of the carving which we have already referred to under other pieces do not require discussion. We do not feel qualified to say whether this cupboard is English or American but it is counted American by some of our best judges. No. 197. ‘This cupboard is one of six known in this style only one of which, that in the Metropolitan Museum, was generally known two years ago. One of these is in New Jersey, one in Boston, one in New York, one in Bridgewater, which completes the list. Of the six one is in such a condition as to be positively valueless. We show the New Jersey specimen and the Metropolitan Museum specimen besides No. 197. We apply the name Plymouth to these cupboards because the example now 200 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY before us and the New Jersey example are traced directly to that place. The example in New York came from Plymouth Colony. That in Bridge- water was also derived from Plymouth. We have not yet traced the origin of the other two, but we are confident that as the eight or more chests known of this style are traceable in part to Plymouth, that this style had its home there and not elsewhere. The author has examined four of these pieces, some of them with great care. The drawer bottoms, backs and fronts are pine. This pine does not seem to us as hard as yellow pine, yet we must presume it can be nothing else, for it certainly is not white pine. In all cases it is riven. The drawer fronts are completely covered by the molding, and the painting of the center of the panel, formed by the molding. There is some divergence in the back panels of the various specimens, as they are sometimes oak, sometimes pine and sometimes, as in the Tracy cupboard they are pine in one section and oak in another. There is also a divergence in the material of the panels of the upper part. There is the usual variation in the turning of the great pillars, though in all cases the pillars were very large. The fronts of the cupboard section also vary for the sake of that individuality which we have mentioned as a feature of the Pilgrim furniture. Thomas Prence (Prince) came to America in the Fortune. By 1634 he became governor of Plymouth. He married Patience, daughter of Elder William Brewster. In 1635, having lost her, he married Mary Collier of Duxbury. He was allowed to live at Eastham, otherwise known as Nauset on the forearm of the Cape until 1665 when in 1657, he was elected Governor for the third time. But in 1665 the permission for a governor to live away from Plymouth was cancelled, and he was granted “a seat” a mile north of Plymouth at Plain Dealing. This was the Lothrop farm occupied in 1832 by Isaac L. Hedge. Governor Prince was continually re-elected from 1657 to his death in 1673. His fourth and last wife was Mary, widow of Thomas Howes, an original settler of Dennis, then part of Yarmouth. Governor Prince’s will of March 13, 1673 has been published. It contains the following items: “ My will is that Mary, my beloved wife shall have such household goods of Any kind as were hers, before wee married, Returned to her againe.” “ Item I give onto my said loveing wife my best bed and the furniture thereunto appertaining, and the Court Cubberd that stands in the new parlour with the Cloth and Cushen that is on it.” Thus after the governor had specified that his widow should have such on & ae 8 Mie — odie a CO meme ES is V4 6 Rb) (mma Bees Cet an LES EERO 1660-90. 5 sc ah ata BEN BES fa A eo ae il Ch a le aan Bi aoe. SpLayED Oak Court CUPBoARD 211. z * s oe e 212. Press Cuppoarp BasE. 1670-1700. 213. Pine Desk. 1700-10. 214. SpooL-TURNED Courr Cupgoarp. 1690-1700. [eee as at Neco eae 1690-1710. DecoraTED WuHITEWoop Press CUPBOARD. 215. FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY 205 household goods as she brought him, he adds the bed and cupboard. The inference is clear that these articles were not a part of her dowry. This is important since it is the tradition in the Howes family that Thomas Howes brought the-cupboard from England. The mention of the “new parlour ” evidently refers to an extension of the governor’s house, made between 1665 and 1673. His fourth marriage occurred not long before August 1st, 1668. The cupboard may therefore be assigned to the period, 1665-1670. The widow returned with her legacy to Dennis, for that had been her home, and her grown son by Thomas Howes lived there. Her inventory dated December 23, 1695, mentions “an old chest and a cupboard at Prence Howes’s.” Various additional minute details of evidence were published in Antiques October, 1922. The Prence Howes last above referred to - was Mary’s grandson. There is a fascinating record of inter-marriages and relationships. He died in 1753. The Howes family retained this cupboard, which was about a hundred years old on Lisbon earthquake day, and about a hundred years after that Joshua C. and Polly Howes restored the cupboard in some degree, and attached a legend to the inside of the doors. The author purchased the cupboard from a lady of the Howes family who had inherited it. No other member of the family seemed to be in a position to hold it. In this particular case all the eight panels of the back, the interior divisions and shelves, and the upper outside panels, are of yellow pine in addition to the pine parts already mentioned as common to all this type. The pillars shown in detail in the chapter on turnings are, it is noted, reversible, being alike at both ends. We have not noticed another instance of this sort. The piece when found had all its upper ornaments but one. The applied drops on the lower section had been lost. It is probable that a large single drop existed on the feet but we have hesitated to restore it. It will be found on another piece shown of this type. The characteristic feature of the Plymouth cupboards is the serrated molding, which appears on this piece in seven lines on the front, reckoning from the top to the bottom. The wood is cut away to form these saw teeth, quite similar to Norman cathedral work. All these pieces that we know also have heavy modillions on the canopy. There is also a “ pencil and pearl” ornament repeated on various sections. The carving also in part extends around the ends. The large oak molding is attached by wooden pins. The top is separable from the base. Another feature of the Plymouth serrated pieces, both chests and cupboards, is the pair of short drawers, the upper set on the base, or in case of an open cupboard, the only pair. In the chests whether there are 206 FURNITURE OF THE PILGRIM CENTURY two ranks of drawers or only one, the drawers are all only half length on the front. We do not remember seeing this feature elsewhere except in the Parmenter court cupboard. Photographs of this piece in detail, before its restoration, front, back and ends, are in the possession of the author. Size: 51 inches across the front, 56 inches high, 22% inches deep, over all. No. 198. The serrated Plymouth cupboard in the Metropolitan Museum. The high importance of this piece is enhanced by its central panel in the form of an arch which some have claimed was a certain English stamp. If anything was made in America these cupboards were. This piece has been restored at the bottom and more or less otherwise. It is most interesting in being open below, most of the others of the type being built below as chests of drawers. No. 199. This cupboard, so near like No. 197, has come to light through the publication of pictures of No. 197. A member of the Tracy family writes that Stephen Tracy came in the Ann in 1622. Patience Brewster, daughter of Elder Brewster, is said to have been aboard. It was she who married Thomas Prence, mentioned under No. 197. Their daughter married Stephen Tracy’s son John. His descendants moved to Hartland, Vermont, and took the cupboard we are now considering, with them. It was brought back by a direct descendant of John in 1878. Of course the tradition is that it came in the Ann. This is impossible, owing to the style and the construction. The strong presumption is that John Alden or Kenelm Winslow built these cupboards and chests. Plym- outh town was very small. It was so reduced between 1660 and 1670 that there were fears that it would be entirely depopulated through re- moval to more fertile lands. We know of no other master carpenters or woodworkers except the two we have just mentioned, and the smallness of the town would seem to call for no more. Further, one of these cup- boards has been inherited in an Alden family. No. 199 has undergone slight repairs. The turnings on the feet are important and original as are nearly all if not all of the other ornaments. Owner: Howard C. Tracy of Plainfield, New Jersey. No. 200. Introduces another class of court cupboards with chests to correspond, They are called the Connecticut sunflower pieces, but in every case we believe they also have side panels of tulips. Up to the discovery of the Plymouth serrated cupboard these were the only out- standing class of highly important cupboards of American origin, found in sufficient number to afford a good basis of comparison. It is both difficult and dangerous to say how many of a certain class exist, but we Vircinia BuLBous Court CuppBoarp. 1640-60. 216 aa iki caameememnmenmannitin Essex InstiruTE Press CupBoarp. 1670-90. 218. Court CasInET. 1670-90. SE a ER ee oe ~ 1 AES RARER PRIMER sm 1 SINK oe sila “ Sane nDnOrennannnenetr, eh pom 1) Mette 2 “Thies eurennrrmeaterometne eet -