from subscribers pertaining to 
“WHY COLONIAL >” 
By Harry Martin Yeomans 
voted to Architecture, Interior Decoration 
and kindred subjects, he will notice a great 
many articles advising the use of what is 
known as the ‘‘Colonial” style, both in archi- 
tecture and furnishings. So the question 
naturally arises, ‘‘Why Colonial?” I will try to give here a 
few of the reasons why Colonial furniture makes so great 
an appeal and is especially appropriate for American homes. 
Most of the furniture brought to this country by the 
settlers of the original thirteen States, or made by them, was 
heavy and crude in appearance and made of oak or walnut. 
At the beginning of the Eighteenth Century mahogany 
furniture, having Dutch tendencies, made its appearance, 
the chairs and tables having the cabriole or bandy legs 
which are so characteristic of the Queen Anne style. This 
constituted the real Colonial furniture or furniture used in 
the colonies prior to 1776. 
About the year 1725, the influence of the Italian Renais- 
sance made itself felt in England, and the classic details of 
that period were reflected both in the architecture and furni- 
ture of the time. This was the beginning of the English 
Georgian period. 
We borrowed the English Georgian architecture and 
copied the furniture as well. This was only natural, of 
course, for, as there was a demand for better things in the 
way of furniture, quantities in the prevailing styles in Eng- 
land were imported, the American cabinet-makers using it as 
models, and since that time this beautiful mahogany furni- 
ture has been known in this country as Colonial furniture, 
although most of it was designed and made in England dur- 
ing the Georgian period. 
About 1750, Chippendale, the great English carver and 
cabinet-maker, was creating a sensation in London with his 
new productions. He broke away from tradition and 
created new designs and adapted Gothic and Chinese detail 
to his own particular needs. He worked out his artistic 
ideas in pieces which had never been seen before and which 
were eagerly purchased by his clients. Chippendale worked 
almost entirely in mahogany and some of his chairs and 
tables were elaborately carved, showing a great deal of 
French influence. He made sofas, chairs, card-tables, mir- 
rors, fire-screens, tea-tables, and candlestands, all of which 
were both useful and beautiful, and became immensely 
popular as they were so well adapted to everyday needs. 
Chippendale had three worthy contemporaries, Shearer, 
Hepplewhite and Sheraton, who followed out his ideal of 
creating beautiful furniture for utilitarian purposes, and no 
matter whether their inspiration was drawn from Dutch, 
French or Greek models and motifs, they gave them an 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
WITHIN THE HOUSE 
SUGGESTIONS ON INTERIOR DECORATING 
AND NOTES OF INTEREST TO ALL 
WHO DESIRE TO MAKE THE HOUSE 
MORE BEAUTIFUL AND MORE HOMELIKE 
The Editor of this Department will be glad to answer all queries 
should be enclosed when a direct personal reply is desired 
October, 1912 
ome Decoration. Stamps 
original and sane interpretation, which was exactly suited 
to the English temperament. 
The products of these artists found their way to our 
shores and filled a long-felt want in the homes of our fore- 
fathers, just as they had in the Georgian homes of England. 
Their graceful contours and beautiful outlines made a big 
appeal and have since stood as sponsors for the good taste 
and judgment of our forebears. All of this furniture was 
copied and adapted, more or less freely, although the gen- 
eral designs of the English furniture were adhered to. 
Since the day that Colonial furniture first fell into disfavor, 
until the revival of its use about thirty years ago, we have 
developed nothing in the way of furniture that was worth 
while. It has stood the test of time and lived to triumph 
over the “dark ages” of the Victorian period of 1860. We 
have had fads and fancies in furnishings, but they have not 
survived, because there was no big, dominant thought be- 
hind the impulse that created them, and they could not stand 
the most crucial of all tests; they could not be lived with 
day after day without one growing tired of them. 
That is why Colonial furniture is favored so much by 
architects and decorators. It owes its being to the social 
conditions and demands of a people, analogous to ourselves, 
at a time when the complicated domestic arrangements, as 
we now know them, were just having their beginnings. 
Owing to its convenient size, sane designs and multiplicity of 
articles, it can be used in every room of a house or apart- 
ment, and the longer you have it about you, the fonder you 
will grow of your cherished mahogany. - Its simple elegance 
and refinement enable it, like cultured people, to fit into 
almost any environment and not seem out of place. 
I remember seeing some Hepplewhite shield-back chairs, 
together with a sideboard and table, after designs by the 
same artist, standing in solemn dignity in a paneled dining- 
room. The paneling was not elaborate; the simple ex- 
pedient of wooden moldings, with the egg and dart motif, 
being used to break up the wall space into panels above a 
wainscoting. The walls had then been painted a dull, old- 
ivory tone and yellow brocade was hung in straight folds 
at the windows. As I admired this beautiful room, my 
thoughts traveled backwards to a living-room in an old New 
England farmhouse. <A_ beautiful sunny room with a 
winger chair by the fireside and a mahogany sewing-table 
close at hand. The floor was covered with strips of .rag 
carpet, and the plain yellow paper on the wall made a fitting 
background for the old mahogany furniture scattered about 
the room. Although the wall covering cost but fifty cents 
a roll, the Colonial furniture did not lose any of its charm 
and dignity on account of being in an humble setting, and 
this farmhouse living-room possessed the same air of good 
breeding, as the more pretentious dining-room with its 
paneled walls. 
When decorating a room with Colonial furnishings, it is, 
