Early American furniture

This article is concerned with domestic furniture produced in the American colonies in the 17^th century. Most of what survives from this period belongs to the later years of the century, because the pieces put together by the earliest settlers would have been of relatively low quality, required for immediate use and broken up when their useful life was over. However, a considerable amount of furniture, built by talented craftsmen especially during the final quarter of the century, was treasured and passed down through the generations. Some excellent pieces can now be seen in museums and preserved colonial homes.

Many surviving pieces were built using local oak which was lighter in colour than that found in Great Britain, which is a good clue when one is trying to distinguish furniture from the two regions. Other woods were also used, such as pine and maple, but, as these tended to be less durable, fewer pieces have survived.

Craftsmen who emigrated to the colonies tended to make furniture in the styles that they had been accustomed to “back home”, but, being out of touch with the changing tastes of the home country, they would stick with what they knew and train their apprentices accordingly, such that one finds “Jacobean” style pieces (i.e. early 17^th century) being produced decades after they had fallen out of fashion in Britain.

The furniture that typifies this period tends to fall into a small number of categories, in particular chairs, chests and cupboards. This is because such items were valued for their function at the time and so greater care and expense was devoted to their manufacture, which in turn meant that they had greater intrinsic worth that caused them to be preserved for future generations.

In terms of chairs we are talking about those that would have been sat in by the head of the household, whereas other family members would have used stools or benches. We can imagine that men who had arrived in the colonies as children or youths, and had subsequently done well for themselves, would have wanted to commission chairs of a type that they remembered their grandfathers sitting in back in England. There is therefore an old-fashioned look to many such chairs, even for the time when they were made.

One type of wooden armchair was the “carver”, named after John Carver, the first Governor of Plymouth Plantation. This was stoutly built, with turned uprights and a rush seat. The back had three horizontal members, of which the lower two were connected by three turned uprights. The chair was usually of generous proportions, as might support the no-longer-slim head of a household. The term “carver” has been misused to mean any later style of wooden armchair, but it properly belongs to the style mentioned above.

Another style was the “brewster”, named after another New England worthy, this being similar to the carver but with different arrangements of turned uprights on the back and below the seat. Also popular were “slat-back” chairs with three broad pieces of wood forming the back.

Chests, used to store clothing and valuables, were themselves highly valued and considerable attention was paid to their construction and decoration by highly skilled craftsmen. These were often “hope” or “dower” chests, made to contain a bride’s trousseau and offered as a wedding present by her parents or new husband. They therefore performed a similar function to the “cassone” that is typical of Renaissance Italian furniture, and are sometimes marked with names or initials and dates. We know the name of one chest-maker, Nicholas Disbrowe, because he inscribed a piece, made in the 1680s, with his own name and that of the young lady who was to own it. Perhaps he was her fiancé and this was his gift to her.

These chests started as large boxes with hinged lids, but then some makers added drawers at the base, which in turn led to later pieces becoming chests of drawers with the lid being dispensed with altogether. They were often highly decorated with turned elements and carved or painted panels, although the painting was decorative rather than figurative. Typical motifs for carving were tulips or sunflowers. As with most furniture of the period, such chests were solid, square and bulky, although there are examples that show a more delicate, French influence, these being typical of the more refined society of early 18^th century Boston.

Cupboards followed English lines, particularly the two-tiered style typical of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras but produced as late as the 1680s in the colonies. Ornamentation was often in the form of applied turned sections, split in half and painted black to provide a contrast with the natural colour of the wood. However, red and yellow were also popular paint colours, which would have added a measure of brightness to a poorly lit room.

Less attention was paid to the construction of items such as large tables, which were often made to be taken apart when not required. Some smaller tables survive, these following Dutch rather than English prototypes, with turned legs and small drawers with carved fronts. Gate-legged tables were produced towards the end of the century, these enabling a hinged top to be supported when required.

The impression might have been given here that early colonial life was austere and lacking in comfort, but this would not be a fair assessment, as many of the items that would have provided comfort, such as curtains, cushions and covers for chairs and tables, have not survived, although we know about them from inventories and wills.

The American colonies produced some notable pieces of furniture, well-made and pleasing to the eye, although it is doubtless the case that what we see today are the exceptional pieces, owned by wealthy families, and much of the furnishing of a typical colonial home would have been of much lower quality. That said, 18^th century America was able to produce a number of skilled craftsmen who were able to pass their techniques on to the following generations.

© John Welford