104 
House dr Garden 
D?'. 
<3 UNDYING 
CHARMytSOLONIAL 
FURNITURE ■ 
All the sentiment which surrounds 
this Furniture of our forefathers is 
reflected in our new book on Ameri¬ 
can Colonial Furniture. Its illus¬ 
trations and descriptions — more 
than 200 in all—are full of interest. 
A request will bring you a copy. 
'V 4‘ fjf?! 
B ; 
’ 
O vogue of the moment ever 
can rival the lasting appeal of 
Early American Furniture, 
gnity and richness, its simple 
beauty and sincerity set it apart 
from any other style. 
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iHTdi 
‘The ‘Desk illustrated above is the famous 
Governor ^X T inthrof Model, 38 inches wide. 
In the background is an exceptionally 
handsome and roomy chest of drawers. 
K » 
Department C' 12 
WA HATHAWAY 
• COMPANY • 
62 'WEST 4rSTH STREET 
NEW YORK 
■MM 
ON HOUSE & GARDEN’S BOOK SHELF 
“Furniture Masterpieces of Duncan 
Phyfe” by Charles Over Cornelius. Dou¬ 
bleday, Page & Co. 
Duncan Phyfe is being honored with the 
first one-man show ever given an Ameri¬ 
can craftsman. Being our greatest crafts¬ 
man, he profoundly deserves the honor 
extended to him by the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art in New York. How much 
he would have enjoyed such an exhibition 
when he was making fine mahogany fur¬ 
niture down in his little shop on Fulton 
Street in 1817 . Even in those days he was 
quite an important person. He knew 
Sheraton from Empire—partly by imi¬ 
tating them both so assiduously. And the 
lumber trade respected him; down in the 
West Indies, Cuba, Santo Domingo, the 
finest trees felled were promptly labeled 
“Phyfe,” and held to the order of the New 
York furniture maker, and that was fame 
indeed a century ago. 
The revival of interest in American 
furniture of the early part of the 19 th 
Century has not only brought about this 
remarkable exhibition at the Museum (of 
somewhat over one hundred pieces) but 
it has given us a very complete and beau¬ 
tifully put together book on the “Furni¬ 
ture Masterpieces of Duncan Phyfe” by 
Charles Over Cornelius, the assistant 
curator of the Museum’s Department of 
Decorative Arts. This book gives a fine 
review of Phyfe’s best work and has a de¬ 
lightful opening chapter devoted to the 
early history of New York City, sketching 
with a light touch the social and political 
conditions of Knickerbocker New York, 
in the midst of which Duncan Phyfe pro¬ 
duced the best furniture of his age; so far 
as craftsmanship is concerned, the best 
furniture ever made in America. Though 
for sheer beauty and originality, it does 
not really compare with the early Colonial 
furniture, those simple, dignified, reticent 
achievements of the cabinet-makers of 
New England and the South. 
It is curious how Duncan Phyfe man¬ 
aged to achieve a certain style that is 
recognized as his accomplishment, for it 
is difficult to think of a single piece of his 
craftsmanship that is wholly original. He 
always brings to mind Hepplewhite or 
Sheraton, whose books had just been pub¬ 
lished in England when Phyfe began to 
work in a large way. Chippendale influ¬ 
enced some of his designs, and then later 
the French cabinet workers completely 
controlled his mind, though in every in¬ 
stance you feel that the French cabinet¬ 
makers would have done something quite 
different. Until the very end of his work, 
Duncan Phyfe preserved a lightness of 
feeling, a genuine desire to suit his furni¬ 
ture to American decoration and a great 
respect for his occupation. It is interest¬ 
ing to trace the change of his best work 
from Hepplewhite and Sheraton to what 
is now called the American Empire. Air. 
Cornelius wisely avoids showing Duncan 
Phyfe’s Black Walnut Period which 
lacked taste, beauty, everything, except 
good craftsmanship. It is greatly to his 
credit that even the most hideous of the 
models that came from his shop were exe¬ 
cuted with integrity, ingenuity and good 
workmanship. One notes with interest 
Duncan Phyfe’s appreciation of his own 
excellent work. There were no sales in his 
shop, no making of inexpensive pieces to 
keep his workmen busy. 
Mr. Cornelius presents several charts 
showing the detail which characterizes 
Duncan Phyfe’s furniture and which ena¬ 
bles the connoisseur to establish the iden¬ 
tity of the work of this craftsman, who 
did not often sign his pieces. Fortunately, 
certain details of his work were very inti¬ 
mate to him and these details were re¬ 
peated so often in his various models that 
they really established a style which is 
known as the Duncan Phyfe period. It is 
impossible to go into a description of 
what constitutes this style, but we heart¬ 
ily recommend to every lover of Ameri¬ 
can furniture and every appreciator of 
Duncan Phyfe, Mr. Cornelius’ book, not 
merely to read, but to study, and to memo¬ 
rize if one intends to become an authority, 
as a writer, a decorator or a craftsman. 
“Truly Rural,” by Richardson Wright. 
Houghton, Mifflin Company. 
It seems very mete and right that the 
editor of House & Garden should also 
have a house and garden “in the flesh,” 
as it were. For how could a man tell 
eager readers the best way to build and 
furnish a house, just how to plan and 
plant a garden with authority unless these 
words were born of actual experience, of 
heartbreak and ecstacy? 
In a fascinating book bound in apple 
green, Mr. Wright sets forth in humorous, 
yet serious vein, the fashioning of his own 
home. The house itself he did not build. 
A Connecticut carpenter, eighty years 
ago, “built it out of a book to please his 
wife.” And his wife should indeed have 
been pleased, for he copied exceedingly 
well the quaintest, possible presentation 
of a little pure Greek temple, and set it 
on a hillside with tall green trees about it, 
across the road from a beautiful New 
England evergreen pasture. Of the buy¬ 
ing of this house Mr. Wright tells in his 
opening chapter. 
He had been told that the Farr place 
near New Caanan was for sale. “As he 
began to climb that steep hill” he says, 
“I was conscious of exploring an unknown 
land—the road was very muddy and the 
rain dripped off the rim of my hat. Had 
it been winter, I thought, the water would 
have frozen into icicles, which would have 
made a pretty design for a hat such as she 
could wear to advantage. Warm eyes 
shining behind crystal icicles dangling 
from a wide brim. Charming!—At the 
hill we stood solitary and enraptured.” 
It was in this mood that the house was 
bought and furnished and the garden en¬ 
larged and planted and the lovely home 
achieved. Although at intervals the new 
homemaker would stop in the plowing of 
a field or the building of a pergola or the 
planting of a rose garden, questioning 
“just why do people want to live in the 
country.” A question which he answers 
in the last paragraph of his book delight¬ 
fully when he decides “that the mansion 
of Heaven will be not unlike this Greek 
temple with a bay window, those gar¬ 
dens not unlike these seven acres, more or 
less. For, we shall make our Heaven 
where we have sown our purple longings.” 
The various chapter headings of Mr. 
Wright’s “story” humorously set forth 
the pleasures and the difficulties that were 
encountered along the happy way of a 
very personal and artistic kind of home¬ 
making. One chapter is called “The Age 
of Miracles”-—that of course, has to do 
with carpenters and plumbers and the 
fact that some work was actually accom¬ 
plished by them. There is another called 
“The Tyranny of Closets and Books.” 
Every homemaker will read this chapter 
with joy, for there never was a house, 
except perhaps Mr. Wright’s, that did 
not have more books than closets. A de¬ 
lightful heading is “The Spring and Fall 
of Man”—spring of course, being hope, 
and fall, disillusionment—though there is 
never much disillusionment in this book 
of cheerful philosophy. For failure to 
this writer is a means of clearing the air, 
seeing things in their true light, just a 
chance to start over again, hurrying along 
to a new springtime. The last chapter is 
on Heaven, and that we have already 
quoted, but by no means adequately. 
There is much quaint wisdom in the 
book, the presentation of many practical 
experiments. Lovely memories of old 
happinesses press into the most practical 
paragraphs, just as memories do in life. 
Every one who thinks of making a 
home in the country and those who have 
accomplished their homemaking will read 
this book with alternate smiles and misty 
eyes; and also with the feeling that here 
are real lessons in homemaking and gar¬ 
den planting, easier to understand and 
more fruitful of results than dozens of 
technical books could furnish. 
