22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



rieii'mbPl- 10. 1921 



Great Activity Follows Jamestown Market 



Busy Factories Result from Intelligently Meeting Public Demand 



Jamestown furniture factories will be busy this winter. The re- 

 sults of the November Exposition are reflected in many of the 

 factories that have been on shorter hours resuming full time, in the 

 satisfaction which the manufacturers have expressed regarding the 

 number and kind of orders placed at the exposition and in a gen- 

 eral certainty of still larger business arising from the exposition. 



The attendance of buyers at the November market was not only 

 larger than formerly but better. The exposition had been prom- 

 ised "a business-like market for business men" and it fulfilled that 

 promise in every way. Back of the good results were certain fac- 

 tors that made them inevitable. 



In the first place, the manufacturers of the Jamestown district 

 gave sound study to the demands and needs of the times. The 

 public pulse was counted through careful investigation in various 

 buying centers and plans were made to work along the lines of 

 least resistance. This wise provision brought furniture to every 

 exhibit which reflected the public taste in design, in construction 

 and in finish. 



In design, simpler and plainer lines vied with some elaborate 

 pieces, with heavy members and flamboyant curves. This was 

 due to the demand for smaller furniture on the one hand and the 

 growing appreciation of the sturdier numbers based upon the late 

 Italian Renaissance designs and Early English achievements. In 

 dining room furniture, this condition brought to the various ex- 

 hibits some dainty creations in straight lines and plain surfaces 

 that could almost be called apartment suites. The increase in de- 

 mand for that class of dining room furniture heretofore known as 

 breakfast room suites, was thus reflected. Suites of this kind, 

 mainly with the gate-leg table, maintained their place in the re- 

 gard of the buyers. Along side of these simple suites, one saw 

 large suites, with massive buffet, broad tables and heavy chairs 

 covered with the zenith production of the loom. Several ac- 

 complishments in Italian designs were exceptionally grand and 

 magnificent. Standard finishes seemed to hold their own in dining 

 room furniture except, of course, that some of the breakfast room 

 suites were a riot of color and decoration. 



The same conditions were found in the many large exhibits of 

 bedroom furniture. Cottage suites were popular, the beds being 

 low and the other pieces small in proportion. Along with them 

 were seen massive chamber suites of generous proportions. AH 

 of the periods were represented with the newer creations favoring 

 Italian design. Many of the decorated suites won great approval 

 through large orders. These fell into three main classes, those 

 finished in the Dusty Walnut finish, those carrying a w^ealth of 

 delicate polychrome and hand decoration and those made dec- 

 orative through the use of marvelous panels and inserts of fancy 

 figured woods. Two tone effects were popular. 



The results in case goods seemed to indicate that the buying 

 public today is divided into two camps with entirely different 

 tastes. In one camp are the people who because of lack of hous- 

 ing, because of lower prices or because of individual taste were de- 

 manding very simple and small furniture. In the other are the 

 people whose ideas coincide with broad and magnificent surfaces 

 and the heavy members of Italian and early English design, either 

 from personal choice, or from an idea of solidity of construction 

 which may carry an idea of longer service for the price paid. 



In the furniture manufacturers* building the spaces were all well 

 filled with furniture to meet the needs of the day. Every floor con- 

 tained notable specimens of the industry. The upholstery furniture 

 exhibits held to the high standard which Jamestown has always 

 maintained. The products ranged from simple chairs and daven- 

 ports to elaborate creations covered with all the precious accom- 



plishments of the looms. Tables were exhibited in especially large 

 numbers and in noteworthy range of design. Some of the new 

 designs, several in Duncan Phyfe being particularly remarked, 

 were attractive and compelling. The use of a specially notable 

 type of finish on tables also w^as one of the outstanding features 

 of the whole exposition. Lamps were represented by some of the 

 most charming accomplishments of the day. Metal beds and office 

 furniture maintained their high places in the Jamestown Market. 



The exhibits in the Wellman Exposition Building were equally 

 attractive. This building housed a notable offering of refrigerators, 

 case goods, juvenile furniture and an upholstery exhibit worthy of 

 all the traditions of the best. 



Other exhibition places followed the same satisfactory trend and 

 won the same satisfactory results. 



Buyers from every section of the country came to Jamestown 

 bent upon a business venture. They came in larger numbers than 

 for some seasons past and among them were those who visited 

 the Jamestown Market for the first time in addition to those who 

 have proved the worth of a trip to the early market. The whole 

 atmosphere was one of business. The buyers approached the ex- 

 hibition buildings with that air of purpose that bespeaks the ab- 

 sence of vacillation and the presence of determination. They ex- 

 amined the offerings of the manufacturers, found those offerings 

 good, and ordered in satisfactory volume. 



The big outstanding feature of the exposition, aside from the 

 gratifying volume of orders which was of course the main object 

 of the Exposition and its main success, was the feeling of down- 

 right business optimism that everywhere prevailed. This does not 

 mean a hail and farewell good-fellowship but intelligent construc- 

 tive and determining progress. The merchants w^ho represented 

 the distributing end of the industry came to Jamestown to do their 

 part and they did it. The manufacturers demonstrated in the 

 practical way of notable exhibits and proper prices that they were 

 in tune w^ith the time all the time and the results of that combina- 

 tion of forces was the success of the exposition in every way. 



New York Loses 35 Per Cent of Wood Using 

 Industries 



The New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University 

 in cooperation with the U. S. Forest Service has completed a new 

 survey of the Wood Using Industries of New York for the year 

 ending December 31, 1919. New York is the first state to issue 

 its 1919 report. 



Between 1912-1919, New York's supply of wood to her wood 

 using industries diminished 65 per cent from 548,000,000 board 

 feet to 189,000,000 board feet. 



The State has fallen from first to the twenty-fifth place in lum- 

 ber production. In twelve years her lumber cut decreased by 59 

 per cent. In 1919 New York manufacturers paid approximately 

 $11,000,000 for lumber grown in New York while the lumber 

 imported cost about $66,000,000, material of which fully two- 

 thirds could be grown to equal or better advantage in New York. 

 Some of the imported lumber came 3,000 miles by rail with high 

 freight rates which added to the cost of the finished products. In 

 1919 twenty-five out of forty-eight industries depending upon wood 

 showed a notable decrease in the amount consumed as compared 

 with 1912. The number of firms decreased by 35 per cent. The 

 state grown wood used was 1 7 per cent of the total consumption, 

 whereas, in 1912 it was 45 per cent. The total lumber consump- 

 tion by wood using mdustries for 1919 was 1,279,795 feet at an 

 average cost of $60.78 per 1,000. In 1912 the consumption was 

 1,754,519.217 at an average cost of $30.76. > 



