66 
House 
Garden 
T O convey the best which has been conceived 
and executed by the famous old masters of 
furniture design, to reproduce the feeling which they 
express, without copying the details, is as creative 
an art function as painting a picture. It requires a 
high order of artistic talent and a quality of work¬ 
manship and material as fine as that employed by 
the old masters themselves. 
This has been the achievement of Berkey & Gay 
designers. They have created an American style in 
lurniture to express the modern spirit and fit modern 
needs while retaining the artistic merit of work which 
is centuries old. Write us for name of nearest dealer. 
An interesting brochure concerning Berkey £ 5 ? Gay 
Jurniture, vcith illustrations, sent upon request. 
V/viiviV 
THIS SHOP MARK 
is inlaid in every genuine Berkey &r Gay production. 
It is the customer's protection ivlien buying 
and his pride thereafter 
BERKEY & GAY FURNITURE CO. 
444 Monroe Avenue, Grand Rapids, Michigan 
Keiu York City Office: 119 West 40f/i Street 
Furnishing With Old Cottage Pieces 
(Continued, jrom page 37) 
chair backs are tilted 
backward, are straight 
from top to seat, and 
curved laterally to fit 
the back. The arms of 
the armchairs also slant 
outward. 
The spindles are ta¬ 
pering or slightly 
bulging on the best 
examples; straight, cyl¬ 
indrical, and less slen¬ 
der on the poorer ones. 
Often they show the 
bamboo form. The 
outer splindes of the 
arms and of the backs 
of the fan-back chairs 
were turned more or 
less elaborately on a 
lathe; the hickory 
spindles were usually 
not turned, but cut out 
with a spokeshave and 
rounded with a file, so 
that they present a 
hand-made appearance and a pleasing 
lack of absolute uniformity. 
The seats were made of a single piece 
of plank, varying somewhat in outline, 
and hollowed out more or less in the 
fashion known as saddle-seat. 
All this shaping, curving, and out¬ 
ward slanting made for both grace and 
comfort. The placing of the legs was a 
matter of strength as well as design. 
They were set into the seats at some 
little distance in from the corners and 
were sharply raked or slanted outward, 
the feet in the best examples extending 
beyond the line of the seat. The legs 
were lathe turned, usually in vase 
forms. The tendency in some of the 
later work to reduce all the turning to 
a conventionalized bamboo pattern in¬ 
dicates a lazy habit in the maker and a 
lower value in the chair. 
The underbracing consists almost in¬ 
variably of three bulb-turned pieces, 
two connecting the front and back legs, 
and the third joining these two at the 
middle. The construction was almost 
always strong and durable, and many 
old Windsors are as solid as they ever 
were. 
Varying Forms 
Forms varied according to the geo¬ 
graphical location of their designers, 
there being Philadelphia, New York, 
and Connecticut types, but this is a 
matter for the study of the advanced 
collector. They may be arranged in 
seven general classes: (1) the New 
England or loop-back side chair; (2) 
the New England or loop-back arm¬ 
chair; (3) the hoop-back armchair; (4) 
the fan-back; (5) the comb-back; (6) 
the low-back; (7) the miscellaneous 
variations. 
The first type is the simple side chair, 
with shaped seat and with the outline 
of the back in the form of a loop. The 
second is the armchair of this species, 
with the loop carried forward in an un¬ 
broken curv^e to form the arms. The 
hoop-back is the commonest of the arm¬ 
chairs. The back is cut in two horizon¬ 
tally by a semi-circular piece which, 
extending forward, forms the arms. 
From this a hoop-shaped piece, usually 
round, extends upward, forming the top 
of the back. The spindles pass through 
holes in the middle piece, joining the 
hoop to the seat. 
The fan-backs have a horizontal 
curved or bow-shaped piece at the top. 
from which the spindles slant slightly 
inward toward the seat, the outer ones 
being heavier and turned. The top 
piece extends slightly beyond these and 
ends in curved ears. Arms are occa¬ 
sionally found on fan-back chairs, with 
a dividing piece as in the hoop-backs. 
The comb-back Windsor is simply 
one of the other forms with a head-rest 
added in the form of a miniature fan- 
back. or like an old- 1 
fashioned back-comb. 
The least graceful form ! 
of Windsor, but one of i 
the oldest, is the low- 
back. In this a single, 
heavy, semi-circular : 
piece forms the arms j 
and the top of the back 
on the same level, much 1 
as in the roundabout ' 
chair. Short spindles ; 
fill the back and sides ■ 
and the seat and legs I 
are like those of the 
other Windsors. All 
other forms are merely 
local departures from 
these, and include the 
later settees and rock¬ 
ing-chairs. 
English Windsors 
Just a word in pass¬ 
ing regarding the Eng¬ 
lish Windsors, which j 
are sometimes seen here. The most j 
common form has the rounded back and 1 
spindles, but with a pierced splat in the 
center of the back—a feature never ! 
adopted by the American makers. The ' 
whole effect of the English chair is 
heavier and less graceful than the 
American. There is no reason why we 
should cultivate it. 
The other day a dealer tried to sell 
me a bamboo-turned loop-back side 
chair of good form for $9, and remarked 
that the back had nine spindles, a rare 
feature. When I got home I found that 
my own loop-backs had also nine spin- ! 
dies, and that this was, in fact, the 
common number for this form. I had 
never noticed it before. I mention this 
as an illustration of the interesting 
things to be discovered about Windsors 
when once you have begun to collect. 
I know a man who can talk for hours 
about the various forms of turning, the 
carved ends of some of the arms, and i 
the various forms of ears on the fan- : 
backs, but he is an advanced collector. I 
Next we pass on to a consideration of : 
slat-backs and banister-backs and their 
kin. These chairs had their origin in 
Holland and England, but they were 
made in quantities in the American Col- j 
onies. While the American joiners, like j 
their fellow-craftsmen abroad, employed [ 
oak and walnut and later mahogany in 
their finest work, they were also willing 
to make use of such native woods as 
came easily to hand—ash, elm, maple, | 
pine, and cedar—frequently painting 
the softer woods. 
In those days there were various 
forms of light, simple, turned chairs in 
vogue, including the famous Governor 
Carver armchair. But the commonest | 
and most interesting were the slat- 
backs and banister-backs which came j 
into vogue after 1700. 
Slat and Banister-Backs 
The slat-backs, which were older 1 
than the banister-backs or the Wind¬ 
sors, had turned stOes, legs, and under¬ 
braces, and high, straight backs with 
from two to six horizontal slats slightly 
curved to fit the back. They were 
made of native hard woods, such as 
maple, hickory, ash, beech, etc., with ' 
two or three kinds often used in the ' 
same chair. Most of the slat-backs I ! 
have seen were of maple. They were 
well built and, if not always comfort- 1 
able like the VVindsors, were strong and i 
useful. They were not without a cer¬ 
tain quaint grace of line and propor¬ 
tion. 
Both rush and mat seats were used 
on these chairs, the latter being made 
of the inner bark of the basswood or 
linden tree and sometimes of the elm. 1 
They were made with and without I 
arms. The first rocking-chairs made in 1 
(Continued on page 68) 
.4 modern adapta¬ 
tion of the English 
Windsor chair. 
Courtesy of S. Car- 
pen & Bros. 
