Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

period reflects the dour and simple Pilgrim
style, many surviving examples demonstrate a
healthy delight in the use of paint, carving,
mouldings and turnings to decorate surfaces.
Apart from the English traditions, the influence
of Dutch work was also important at this time.
The Dutch immigrants of the seventeenth century
who settled in isolated areas in New
Jersey, Long Island and the Hudson river valley
brought the kas, for storage, which
remained a staple (either plain oak, painted, or
inlaid) piece of furniture. Other design features
such as elaborate turnings, complex curves on
cupboards as well as sensible multi-purpose
furniture resulted from Dutch originals.
Functional types
Between 1600 and 1640 the demand for fashionable
furnishings and the desire to keep up
with the court encouraged the growth of the
trade, as furniture became more common and
began to be regarded as a necessity rather than
a luxury. Although comfort became a major
consideration, furniture was now as important
for show, as for practical use. There was a
move to develop furniture types for special
purposes, especially to increase comfort. The
farthingale chair is one of the best-known,
made to accommodate the fashionably wide
skirts of the period, but at other end of the
century also the tea table is a response to the
social habit of tea drinking. In addition to this,
houses were divided into more special purpose
rooms, each demanding a particular set of
furniture.
The chief characteristics of furniture in the
first half of the seventeenth century include a
smaller and lighter feel than the Elizabethan,
with more restrained ornament.
Chairs continued to be made in massive and
solid forms, but there was a demand for comfort
and luxury, such as was found abroad. The
result of this was the beginning of upholstery.
The earliest examples were simply based on
stretched coverings over a frame. This developed
into the X-frame chair which was supplied
with loose cushions. The farthingale chair
mentioned above was often covered in Turkey
work, a canvas with a knotted pile, introduced
to imitate Turkish carpets. The settle was sometimes
further developed into a combination
piece, with the back turning into a table (called
a monk’s bench). In America, the chairs char-
Furniture history 13
acterized by turned spindles have been known
as Brewster or Carver chairs, based on the possible
original owners, but many chairs still
relied on English models as the basis of their
design.
The Elizabethan models for tables continued
into the new century but with a tendency to
reduce the amount of carving and the thickness
of legs. Initially made from built-up sections,
they were later made just from the
thickness of the leg timber. Gate-leg tables,
with circular, rectangular or oval tops, were
developed to suit smaller family living quarters.
This form of table demanded some improvement
to the hinge so that the leaves could be
dropped more carefully.
The development of the court cupboard and
the buffet was a major feature of the Jacobean
period. Both forms originated in the previous
century but the later versions were noticeably
less decorated and were not made with a
canted upper stage (Figure 1.9). By the 1650s
they were a shadow of their former glory and
gradually disappeared from fashion. The development
of the chest into its final form with
drawers, began with the introduction of the
‘mule’ chest which had a single drawer in the
base. It was not then a big step to introduce
the drawers into the whole carcase.
During the period the range of chests, cupboards
and boxes expanded and examples
relate to regional styles as much as any other
furniture type. In America they range from the
simple six-boarded variety to more decorated
panelled and carved versions. The famous
Hadley and Hartford types attest to this local
tradition. These sometimes have a drawer
underneath the proper chest, a harbinger of a
new form – the chest of drawers. The forms of
court cupboards and presses in America again
followed English traditions.
The Commonwealth period (1649–1660) is
often seen as a severe style with little emphasis
on comfort or convenience and with few
new initiatives in design or production.
Fashion was in abeyance during this Puritan
period, which was clearly one of little ornament.
However, turned work became more
elaborate, as exemplified by bobbin and ball
turning. During the 1640s the ‘Yorkshire and
Derbyshire’ chairs were produced with their
distinctive knob-turned front legs, and back
consisting of two wide carved crescent-shaped