October, 1916 
21 
verting to English patterns) to a more at¬ 
tractive and acceptable sort of furniture or 
was later augmented by importations. At 
the same time this increased demand for 
cabinet-making invited English craftsmen to 
seek their fortunes in the new world, and 
before long a very respectable home indus¬ 
try, both North and South, was evolved. 
New England Cabinet-Makers 
New England thrift (or perhaps it was 
conservatism) has fortunately preserved to 
us many pieces of early furniture, some of 
it dating back to King James II’s time. 
These New England Jacobean pieces fol¬ 
low simple lines in general, with here and 
there a piece of ornate type. In the reigns 
of William and Mary and of Anne a rapidly 
increasing number of English craftsmen 
migrated to the Colonies. They helped here 
to perpetuate the styles of this period. It 
is not at all uncommon to meet with very 
fine examples of the Queen Anne period 
which were contemporaneously produced by 
American craftsmen; in fact, some of the 
New England cabinet-makers became so 
proficient that the products of their shops 
rivaled the output of British makers both 
in staunchness of construction and accuracy 
of contour. The well-proportioned cabriole 
legs of many pieces of this description ex¬ 
tant are as well designed as any of the 
examples then being produced in the 
mother country by the skilled English 
cabinet-makers. Naturally, the local 
Colonial production of Chippendale, 
Adam, Hepplewhite and Sheraton styles 
was supported by the affluence to which 
the Colonies attained. During the troubles 
of the Revolution the importation of ma¬ 
hogany by the Colonies was diverted by 
Great Britain. Substitutes, for the time 
(and this began to mark a decline, with 
fluctuations in the materials used) had 
to be found, such as that of the sweetgum 
tree, which in appearance and general 
character is very similar to mahogany, its 
distinguishing features being a slightly 
lighter color and grain. 
In New Amsterdam 
The Dutch influence seems less to have 
entered the traditions of American fur¬ 
niture. A fair amount of furniture was 
imported by the Dutch of New Amster¬ 
dam from Holland and numerous authen¬ 
tic pieces of this Dutch furniture have 
come down to us, such, for instance, as 
the gate-leg table which is preserved in 
the Manor House at Croton-on-Hudson. 
But local cabinet-makers soon came to blend 
features of the English styles with those of 
the Dutch designers and finally purely Eng¬ 
lish styles superseded the others. 
Still another local division of Colonial 
furniture was that introduced by those set¬ 
tlers known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. 
This type of “Dutch” must not be con¬ 
founded with the Dutch of New Amster¬ 
dam. Coming to Pennsylvania, these im¬ 
migrants brought with them their gaily 
painted peasant furniture, and in the early 
days of the colony they produced much of 
that ware for their own use. Hence their 
furniture cannot be said to have been a 
marketable product. Nor did examples of 
it stray far from the locality, save in those 
instances where the settlers emigrated to 
other parts of the country. Stiff, conven¬ 
tional flowers and fruits, birds and decora¬ 
tive bands characterize the decorations. 
Pieces of this kind are still to be found in 
central and southeastern Pennsylvania, al¬ 
though the majority of the antiques extant 
consist of bridal chests and small boxes. 
In the North much of the early furni¬ 
ture, especially tables, was made of maple, 
pine and birch. Walnut, of course, was a 
great favorite, particularly with the earlier 
Among the types prevalent about 1700 was a 
simplified form of gate-leg table. This example 
is of birch 
cabinet-makers of Pennsylvania, where 
superb slabs of beautiful black walnut were 
milled from the wonderful old trees, that 
so soon disappeared through this demand. 
We must not be surprised to find so little 
early furniture of the South, for, despite 
the wealth and culture of Virginia, the 
Carolinas and Maryland in Colonial times, 
these Southern colonists were equally fash¬ 
ionable and discarded the old for the new 
before the dawn of the 19th Century, earlier 
than did the Northerners. A search of the 
Southern States will find scarcely one piece 
of Jacobean design. A hunt for original 
William and Mary will be equally fruitless, 
but in the case of Queen Anne many ex¬ 
cellent pieces will be found. 
Duncan Piiyfe 
No story of American furniture, no mat¬ 
ter how brief, can be written without men¬ 
tioning the name of Duncan Phyfe, the New 
York cabinet-maker, whose artistic products 
justly won him the sobriquet of “The 
American Sheraton.” Due to his effort 
American collectors can find excellent ex¬ 
amples of designs made in this country. 
The period between 1795 and 1830 was 
marked by a persistent dislike for all 
things English, and an ardent admiration 
for things French, and this prejudice 
showed itself in the furniture. Ameri¬ 
can cabinet-makers adapted these French 
designs according to their lights, and the 
result was not always unsuccessful. At 
the very end of its influence the work 
sank to a low level of artistic merit. Be¬ 
fore that time it had known the apex of 
artistic line in the works of Phyfe, and if 
we are to judge American Empire, it 
were better to use the high standards set 
by his famous productions. 
The tables of this period were usually 
made with square ends, the dining tables 
being of the extension type having drop 
leaves and other leaves which could be 
inserted on pedestal tables. At this time 
center tables came into vogue. These 
were ordinarily circular in shape and 
usually supported on ornate pedestals ris¬ 
ing from a plinth supported on winged 
claw feet. Some of these tables were 
rectangular and some had double tops 
that folded out or could be turned up 
against the wall. The sofa tables of 
Phyfe’s design were oblong and had 
narrow drop leaves at both sides, the 
ends supported by the lyre motif. 
In the period 1675 to 1700 the American Jacobean 
designs were fairly faithful to their English proto¬ 
types, as shown by this gate-leg table which is still 
excellently preserved 
An American drop-leaf table of maple and pine, 1675- 
1700. The stretchers are lathe turned, the two bars 
being introduced to prevent the stretcher being used 
as a foot-rest 
