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104 
House & 
Garden 
Graulite Answered 
The Urge of Necessity 
it'XTOU absolutely must curtail the time of these 
Y wood finishing operations,” was the demand 
made of the wood finishers. 
“We absolutely cannot do it using shellac, varnish 
or paint,” was the answer. 
“Then get something else.” 
There wasn’t anything else—then. 
Today, that something else exists—it 
is Graulite 
The label on the Savery chair in the Penn¬ 
sylvania Museum; chair shown on page 44 
Take first the question of time saving 
A CABINET-MAKER of 
—this is the schedule for finishing standing trim for 
two rooms of average size: 
First 
Second 
Third 
Fourth 
Fifth 
Sixth 
Seventh 
Eighth 
Ninth 
Day—Apply stain and allow to dry 
—Apply filler—allow to dry 
” —Sand Paper 
” —Apply coat of Shellac 
” —Sand Shellac 
—Apply coat of varnish, then allow to dry 
” —Sandpaper the coat of varnish 
” —Apply coat of varnish and allow to dry 
” —Rubbing down the last coat of varnish 
TOTAL TIME—Minimum...60 Hours 
Here’s the difference with Graulite 
—same two rooms to get exactly the same result 
as to appearance and permanence: 
First Day—Apply Graulite—allow to dry a few mo¬ 
ments then wipe off residue (Requires 
no sand papering). 
Second ” —Apply coat of wax, which requires only 
four hours, or Graulite Surfacer, which 
requires eight hours. 
TOTAL TIME—Maximum. ..12 to 16 hours 
Saving with Graulite—at least 60%. 
The result, it is true, is the same but there is a beauty 
to the appearance of a Graulite finished room or of 
any woodwork that is new and pleasing. “What a 
relief to get rid of that varnished look—the grain in 
that wood seems to rejoice” is the exclamation of 
interior decorators who have used Graulite. 
Graulite is for all kinds of wood—oak, mahogany, 
walnut, birch, ash, maple, cypress, hard pine, gum 
and hemlock. And because of its remarkable dura¬ 
bility, toughness, wear and water resisting qualities, 
Graulite is particularly adapted to floors, table tops, 
chairs, wainscoting, in fact for everything of wood. 
You can walk on a floor treated with Graulite im¬ 
mediately after it has been applied. 
Send for Graulite booklet 
Home owners, tell us what kind of wood you 
intend to use and we will submit samples cover¬ 
ing your requirements. Architects, write for large 
panels and specihcations. Manufacturers of furni¬ 
ture, tell us your problems—we can save you money. 
W. F. GRAUL COMPANY, INC. 
41 Pleasant Street Northampton, Mass. 
‘Hpi 
a 
‘Varnish 
COLONIAL 
AMERICA 
{Continued from page 45) 
indicate his establishment at an early 
age in Philadelphia, and that he mar¬ 
ried there when only twenty-two, it 
would seem more probable than not 
that he was a Philadelphian born. 
In Colonial times there were more 
cabinet-makers working in America than 
one generally supposes. Many of these 
attained excellence in their work. Some 
of these early craftsmen were native 
.'Americans and others were newly come 
from England, setting up their shops 
in Boston, in New York, in Philadel¬ 
phia and in other cities in the colonies. 
Without doubt William Savery served 
his apprenticeship to one of these. Ro¬ 
mance would like to have us think it 
was, perhaps, to some relative of Reese 
Peters, the Mrs. Savery-to-be. 
Savery’s early pieces cannot, with the 
exception of a chair which has come 
down to one of his lineal descendants, 
be identified. Even this chair, were it 
not known to have been from Savery’s 
shop, is not distinguished in any par¬ 
ticular manner of quality which differ¬ 
entiates it from the more ordinary prod¬ 
ucts of the chair-makers and cabinet¬ 
makers of 1725-1775. Good, honest 
workmanship is probably the extent of 
Savery’s early contribution in the his¬ 
tory of American furniture. Then 
came the newly published volumes of 
the famous English cabinet-makers, 
and undoubtedly Savery, as was 
the case with other contemporary 
•American cabinet-makers, was greatly 
inspired by these. There was, for in¬ 
stance, Thomas Chippendale’s “The 
Gentleman and Cabinet-maker’s Di¬ 
rector” which was issued in parts in 1754 
at a shilling apiece, the complete work 
in book form appearing in the edition of 
1762. Then Ince and Mayhew’s “De¬ 
signs” made its appearance in 1760, 
while the well-known works of Decker 
and others followed. Such earlier books 
as Batty Langley’s “Guide to Builders” 
(1729), Langley’s “Treasury of Designs” 
(1740), “Gothic Architecture” (1747) 
undoubtedly had found their way into 
the hands of American cabinet-makers. 
Batty Langley’s “Builders’ Director” 
(1767) was also influential. All these 
were illustrated by well-engraved plates, 
but were published at so low a price as 
to be available to all. A study of Wil¬ 
liam Savery’s masterpieces in furniture 
reveals the influence of the designs of 
Chippendale, and also those of Robert 
Manwaring (London, 1765-1775), in his 
work, an influence which certainly had 
not asserted itself when the chair of 
which mention has been made, was 
built, which object proclaimed its in¬ 
debtedness to the Dutch style (at its 
height 1725-1750). The tripod stand 
and the tilt table ascribed to Savery 
have identical guilloche designs, both 
from plates published by Batty Langley. 
The pieces in the Palmer Collection 
which may definitely be ascribed to 
Savery consist of three high chests, 
(called highboys, though not the true 
highboy type), two dressing tables , 
(called lowboys, though different to the i 
true English type) and a secretary desk. ; 
A tripod stand and a pie-crust tilt table ; 
and a pier table in the Metropolitan ! 
Museum collection seem also more likely : 
than not to be Savery pieces. There is : 
also what appears to be a Savery dress¬ 
ing table in the collection of the Minne¬ 
apolis Museum of Fine Arts and one | 
figured in a sale at the Anderson Gal- i 
leries. New York, last year. This was i 
described in the catalogue as follows: 
“Oblong top with refined ogee molding; 
indented at corners. Front fitted with 
long molded drawer and deeper drawer 
below, set in a finely scrolled apron and 
flanked leg, two smaller ones; trimmed 
with scroll pierced (flat) brass bail 
handles and escutcheon. The lower cen¬ 
tral drawer richly carved with rosetted 
shell motive and dainty acanthus leaf 
scrollings. Inset quarter round fluted 
pilasters, supported on beautifully pro¬ 
portioned cabridle legs having finely 
bracketted and acanthus scrolled knees 
and virile (bird-) claw and ball feet. . . 
in its fine original condition, and even 
the handles have retained their origi¬ 
nal condition”. This piece has a 
plain apron while the two Savery 
dressing tables in the Metropoli¬ 
tan Museum have elaborately carved 
aprons, the more beautiful example 
being the one Mr. Palmer ac¬ 
quired from the estate of the late Rich¬ 
ard Canfield, whose collection of rare 
pieces of mahogany was one of the fin¬ 
est in private hands. The dressing table 
in the Van Cortlandt Manor collection 
has already been mentioned and recently 
a fine high chest of drawers was exhib¬ 
ited in Philadelphia by the Rosenbach 
Company. Undoubtedly the time is not 
far distant when a census of Savery 
pieces will be made, and one could not 
suggest a more interesting furniture ex¬ 
hibition than a loan collection of exam¬ 
ples by William Savery. It would then 
be possible for the public to appreciate 
how fully he deserves as much glory as 
Duncan Phyfe has recently received! 
Savery employed mahogany and also 
Virginia walnut, a wood easily mistaken 
for mahogany, in his work. One of the 
dressing tables, (lowboys) in the Metro¬ 
politan collections is of mahogany and 
the other is of the Virginia walnut. The 
Metropolitan high chests of drawers 
(Continued on page 106) 
