May, 1 9 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



185 



"Prince of Wales" Heppelwhite, "Wheat-Sheaf" Sheraton, Heppelwhite, and "Garland and Bell" Sheraton chairs 



with handsome patch or any other kind of cloth desirable. Josephine. We have so few good examples of the Empire 



The name was given it because such a chair was owned at style in this country that more education is needed in this 



Mount Vernon. period than in any other, so that the Grecian delicacy of 



The general trend of public fancy was now toward light the Napoleonic design may be appreciated, 

 and elegant forms with very showy decoration. The fur- Under the American manipulation the Empire pieces 



niture was made of many different woods rather than all show to great advantage. These were made in rosewood 



of mahogany, as in Chippendale's time. The latter de- or mahogany or painted, although a great many were of 



signer used satinwood, apple-wood, rosewood, and tulip- mahogany veneer. There is a solidity and massiveness 



wood. His chairs are much less common than those of about the Empire pieces which is not without a certain 



the other two makers, the best ones in this country having charm. 



straight legs, although the tapering fluted leg is sometimes The Adam furniture occupies a field by itself. Many 



found. This is not nearly as often seen in chairs as in fine examples are shown painted in the usual way on plain 



other furniture, however. colored ground, to tone with the room. It is probable that 



Sheraton exhausted other forms of ornamentation and some of the decorative artists who painted furniture for 



then indulged his fancy for brilliant coloring in the most Robert Adam were also employed by cabinet makers of the 



gorgeous painted decoration, mixing it with inlay and carv- Heppelwhite school, for there is a great similarity in this 



ing. He then passed on to the 

 French style of white and gold, and 

 finally the brass inlay of Napoleonic 

 day. Seats of cane work again came 

 into vogue and were varied by cov- 

 erings of needlework, of morocco, or 

 striped and variegated horsehair. 

 Damasks and finely printed silks 

 were also used, as Dame Fashion 

 decreed. 



The curved piece which Sheraton 

 introduced about 1800 remained the 

 favorite chair pattern for a century, 

 although it lost the brass mounts 

 which he intended. 



The Sheraton was succeeded by 

 the Empire, which came in about the 

 year 1804 and lasted until 1830, the 

 last of the three cabinet makers liv- 

 ing long enough for his styles to be 

 influenced by that of the heavy Em- 

 pire period. 



The early Empire furniture was 

 heavy and stiff, particularly when 

 made by English makers. While the 

 French decorated their furniture 

 which was made of mahogany and 

 coarse wood, with metal, the Eng- 

 lish used half brass. The return to 

 darkened mahogany gave a revival 

 of brass and wood which were the 

 charms of the court of the Empress 



Chippendale ladder-back chair (1755) 



form of ornamentation. Heppel- 

 white furniture was often placed in 

 an Adam house, and in such cases 

 was especially designed to harmon- 

 ize with ks surroundings. Never- 

 theless, even the decorative orna- 

 ments by no means exclusively fol- 

 lowed the lines laid down by Adam, 

 many ideas being taken from Louis 

 Seize type, and numerous examples 

 showed, especially in outline, 

 marked originality in treatment. 



The furniture was fanciful, light, 

 and showed fine lines. When the 

 city of Salem was at the height of 

 her mercantile prosperity and her 

 wharves were bustling scenes of lad- 

 ing and unlading cargoes, and when 

 her harbor was the rendezvous of 

 quaintly rigged vessels, another style 

 of furniture was brought into this 

 country — wonderful pieces of teak- 

 wood, and many examples of this 

 furniture, especially of the chairs 

 with their rich and elegant carving, 

 are still to be found in many a Salem 

 home. 



There are few more beautiful 

 pieces than those to be found in this 

 historic city. Some of these took a 

 lifetime to carve, so tough was the 

 wood and so elaborate the carving. 



