468 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



accounts for the fact 

 that many of the old 

 pieces were made in 

 walnut. Trinity Col- 

 lege has a richly carv- 

 ed walnut chair of the 

 Italian style of 1640. 



Other interesting 

 pieces linked with 

 Colonial days have 

 been mentioned. 



Furniture made of 

 Virginia walnut found 

 its way as far as New 

 England (a long dis- 

 tance in those days), 

 and furniture made of 

 this wood was pro- 

 duced by manufactur- 

 ers in Philadelphia in 

 the Revolutionary days, 

 their work being re- 

 sponsible for many excellent pieces. Some of the earliest 

 rocking chairs, that distinctively American invention, 

 were made of black 

 walnut. What we 

 know as the "bureau" 

 is an American pro- 

 duction dating about 

 1727 and the name 

 was originally spelled 

 "buerow." 



. It is an interesting 

 fact that in the early 

 days of our republic, 

 we produced a master 

 c r a f t s m an, Duncan 

 Phyfe, of New York, 

 whose work bore im- 

 press of genius that 

 ranks him with the 

 widely heralded de- 

 signers of the Georg- 

 ian Age. 



By 1750, the cabinet- 

 makers of Philadelphia 

 had surpassed those of 

 England in design, 

 workmanship and qual- 

 ity of stock used. 



They had a decided 

 advantage in their 

 choice of materials, as 

 indicated by the fol- 

 lowing quotation from 

 , Moore s Old Furniture 

 Book: "The material 

 used for nearly all Wil- 

 liam and Mary and 



WALNUT STUMPS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BEAUTIFUL 

 FIGURED VENEER 



FRENCH LATE SIXTEENTH CEN- 

 TURY WALNUT PANEL 400 YEARS 

 OLD AND AS SOUND AS WHEN 

 MADE 



FLORENTINE STYLE WALNUT 

 PORTFOLIO CARVED BY FRULLINI, 

 NINETEENTH CENTURY 



Queen Anne pieces of 

 native make (and most 

 of them were the work 

 of local joiners) was 

 a singularly beautiful 

 black walnut of deep, 

 rich color that lent rare 

 distinction to any arti- 

 cle for which it was 

 employed." 



Walnut is indelibly 

 written into early 

 Colonial history. In 

 1633 Governor Wins- 

 low presided over his 

 councils in Pilgrim 

 Hall at Plymouth with 

 the aid of a walnut 

 table. 



As a mark of es- 

 pecial regard, Mrs. 

 Washington, the mother 

 of George, "father of his country," selected a fine walnut 

 writing table for a bequest to her granddaughter, Betty 

 Carter. 



Madam Steenwych 

 (noted for her sup- 

 pers) had a fine cup- 

 board of walnut, and 

 Nicholas Van Rensse- 

 laer had a walnut chest. 



In 1705, an inven- 

 tory shows "fine chest 

 of drawers of walnut 

 wood." 



Governor Burnet of 

 New York and Massa- 

 chusetts, 1729, had 

 leather-bottom walnut 

 chairs. 



The inventory of 

 Peter Faneuil of Bos- 

 ton in 1742 shows that 

 he owned twelve wal- 

 nut frame, leather-bot- 

 tom chairs. 



Rev. Theophilus 

 Pickering of Salem in 

 1724 made good furni- 

 ture of walnut, which 

 was the wood he most 

 used. 



Windsor chairs were 

 advertised in 1768 by 

 William Gautier of 

 New York. 



The choicest of old 

 Dutch chests or "Kas" 

 were made of walnut 



ITALIAN NINETEENTH CENTURY 

 CARVED WALNUT SCREEN BY 

 FRULLINI 



ITALIAN NINETEENTH CENTURY 

 TABLE OF WALNUT BY FRULLINI. 

 FLORENTINE STYLE 



