64 
.. . .nil.. 
or we 
CHILD 
e^f N irresistible ’age-of-innocence’’ 
charm is one of the most delightful 
features of the Children s Department at 
McCutcheon’s. 
Somehow the desired simplicity of the 
child’s wardrobe has here been carefully 
guarded, while the workmanship itself 
has lent a distinctiveness that is all the 
more delightful because unpretentious. 
Smocks, frocks, rompers—Oliver Twists 
—all have a rare individuality, sometimes 
in handwork, often in daintily contrasting 
colors—always the materials are of the 
finest quality. 
SUGGESTIONS for Layettes and Infant 
Outfits with accompanying cost gladly 
sent upon request. 
Reg. Trade Mark 
James McCutcheon & Co. 
Fifth Avenue, 34th and 33d Streets, N. Y. 
. . . . . .............. 
House & Garden 
Satin wood Furniture 
(Continued from page 47) 
a fine polish, and are durable, but with 
a slight tendency to split. 
For the satinwood furniture that is 
made to-day, for the decoration of 
cabins in passenger steamers and so on, 
the West Indian kind is used almost 
exclusively, but in the 18th Century it 
was the East Indian satinwood that was 
held in highest esteem and used for 
most of the finest furniture. 
Its satiny grain and figure accorded 
well with the Adam treatment, but the 
peculiar value and charm of satinwood 
was in the color. Whether inlaid with 
devices of rose and purplewood, band¬ 
ed in tulipwood or holly, applied fan- 
wise as a veneer, or painted by such 
decorative artists as Angelica Kauffman, 
satinwood seems perfectly to embody 
the spirit of the age. 
It was a costly wood, which demand¬ 
ed the most skilful workmanship. Care¬ 
ful seasoning was needed and the prep¬ 
aration of its surface for painting was 
a tedious and delicate business. Yet 
it would seem as if the craftsmen of 
that age not only delighted in over¬ 
coming difficulties, but loved adding 
new complexities to their task; the in¬ 
teriors of their cabinets are often 
miracles of ingenuity and skill. 
All this fine work was stimulated by 
the interest which the aristocracy 
showed in it. One of the first books 
on furniture of that century had for 
its revealing title: “The Gentlemen’s 
or Builder’s Companion.” Sheraton’s 
“Drawing-book” had a huge list of 
subscribers which was by no means 
confined to the cabinet-makers, uphol¬ 
sterers, and general artists, to whom it 
was addressed. Ladies of fashion, not 
to be behindhand in the prevailing 
taste, ordered plain satinwood furniture 
to be made for them, and painted and 
decorated it themselves in the popular 
style of sentimental classicism. Some¬ 
times they used a little Bartolozzi print 
of Pergolesi or Cipriani and applied it 
as a centerpiece or panel, varnishing it 
in so cleverly that the illusion of paint¬ 
ing was nearly achieved. 
Tracing the course of cabinet making 
in satinwood, it is possible to learn 
more than a little of the modes and 
manners of that age. 
Uses and Manners 
It was an era of candlelight and 
cards; the pomps and vanities were 
flaunted; hours were spent at the toilet, 
and the dressing table often doubled 
the functions of the secretaire and side¬ 
board. Early rising was unfashionable 
and the fine ladies received morning 
callers in their bedrooms. One of the 
rare examples of satinwood used solid 
and carved is found in the pillars of 
a bed. Quantities of secretaries, dress¬ 
ing tables, and cabinets were designed 
to meet the requirements of these exact¬ 
ing fine ladies and gentlemen; a typical 
piece, designed by Sheraton, veneered 
in the finest satinwood, and painted by 
Zucchi, is best described in his own 
words: “A cabinet to accommodate a 
lady with conveniences for writing and 
reading, and holding her trinkets, and 
other articles of that kind.” Such 
combinations were exceedingly popular, 
and had infinite variety. A table of 
fine West India satinwood, with the 
writing slope lined with old velvet, has 
immediately under the slope a sham 
drawer fitted very compactly with a 
minor and compartments for powder, 
patches, haresfoot, and red. For men, 
the sham drawer would contain a spirit 
decanter, and a three-bottle cellaret 
with drainage hole all complete is con¬ 
cealed in one secretaire-bookcase ve¬ 
neered with satinwood and banded with 
rose. 
For these bandings, borders, and in¬ 
lays, many different kinds of wood 
were used, some of which are now 
rare, as, for instance. Zebra wood, 
which is a light, yellowish brown, with 
dark vertical lines almost like a zebra 
stripe. Tulipwood, which was so much 
employed with satinwood, is beauti¬ 
fully striped, and distinctly pink when 
new. Kingwood is something like zebra, 
but more red in tone, and darker, and 
marked with fine dark lines. Hare- 
wood is sycamore, in the same cutting 
as that used for fiddle backs, stained 
with water, to which oxide of iron is 
added, to an ashen gray, which fades 
to a yellowish color with age. The 
green stained wood, which was so often 
used as inlay for leaves and husks, was 
pear or beechwood stained bright green 
by an oxide of copper, but of its bril¬ 
liance only a faint olive now remains. 
Boxwood and holly were also fre¬ 
quently used, cherry, laburnum, yew, 
purplewood, which turned almond black, 
ebony, and the rare Coromandel and 
Amboyna. 
Sheraton and Satinwood 
Sheraton delighted in these elaborate 
pieces, with their dignified and ex¬ 
quisite exteriors, and their unexpected 
and hardly less exquisite interiors, often 
miracles of mechanism and fittings. 
Valuable papers, jewels, and money 
were kept in these secret drawers and 
recesses with hidden springs. Some of 
the Harlequin tables seemed made more 
for a freak than for any particular use. 
In Sheraton’s “Drawing-book” the 
amusing titles tell their own tale: “The 
Sisters’ Cylinder Bookcase (with a 
short waistline pair of sisters each oc¬ 
cupied at her side of the desk and 
separated by the bookcase), “Horse 
dressing-glass and writing-table,” “Con¬ 
versation chair,” and so on. The peer¬ 
less card tables of satinwood, Pembroke 
tables and chairs of that epoch, which 
were painted with a fine disregard of 
the damage which sooner or later over¬ 
takes chairs and tables, are entirely 
typical of the age—reckless in pursuit 
of beauty at any cost. 
After the dawn of the 19th Century 
a period of decadence set in which 
lasted over fifty years, when there was 
a revival of interest in satinwood. The 
firm of Wright & Mansfield, who had 
begun to make it, sent a fine cabinet to 
the International Exhibition in Paris 
1867. It was decorated with Wedg¬ 
wood plaques after Flaxman, and its 
workmanship was of a high order. Col¬ 
lectors now began to look for Sheraton 
satinwood (as it was called), and when, 
by and by, demand occasionally ex¬ 
ceeded the supply, as usual the forgers 
“got busy.” 
The old designs were requisitioned, 
and the satinwood itself was carefully 
treated (sometimes with coffee) to give 
the look of age. 
Originals and Imitations 
It may be said that a clear deep 
yellow indicated old wood, and that 
the silky grain, which gives t'o satin- 
wood its peculiar charm, is found larger 
in the 18th Century pieces than it is 
to-day. But, further, there is in gen¬ 
uine 18th Century satinwood an in¬ 
describable softness, almost a trans- 
lucency that is, in point of fact, in¬ 
imitable. The forgers were clever 
people, and they did pretty well. Some¬ 
times they realized good sums, but they 
failed and always will fail to ■ render 
that one essential quality that time, and 
only time, can give. 
On account of its light color and the 
fineness of its texture satinwood fur¬ 
niture needs greater care than mahog¬ 
any or oak. Old pieces should be dusted 
with a soft cloth kept for the purpose, 
(Continued on page 66) 
