Vol.11 / Issue 9             Tennessee Valley Woodworkers             Editor, Richard Gulley                 September 1996

Folks this year is fast getting away from us, but 1996 still holds many good things for those who call themselves Tennessee Valley Woodworkers.

This month all who care to are invited to Fall’s Mill to demonstrate woodworking skills or the products thereof. The Lovett’s are gracious hosts and you will be glad you attended.

October (Saturday the 5th if my memory serves me correctly) is the date set by your illustrious picnic committee for this year's outing. We will gather at the Duck River Building and move down to the lower 40 for the festivities. And yes, we are having the now infamous auction. Bring anything you would like to pawn off on some unsuspecting woodchucker either for self-profit (a noble institution) or to benefit the club (equally noble). Enough of that.

December is near and dear to all of us because we get together to talk and sing and something else that I don’t seem to recall right now, although it seems I should. That does remind me of something that happened to me the other day though. Someone accused me of having half-timers disease. That's when you start showing Alzheimer’s symptoms long before you should.

You have to admit that's quite a line-up, and I didn't even include the rest of our regular meetings and three more issues of Splinters. Where else can you get more entertainment for ten bucks. We should raise the dues. (He's quit preachin’ and gone to meddlin’!)

What can you say about a month that has a third Tuesday that falls on a Wednesday. That's my kind of month. And it was also my kind of program. If there's one question I have heard more than any other it's "How do you know how much to charge". Our panel was a great cross section of woodworkers (all the way from "I just want to break even" to "Phil, the light bill is due - carve faster"). There’s probably more of us who long to make a living working with wood and even more spouses who long to see the workshop just break even.

We should probably have more programs on similar topics (like what’s involved in setting up a small business). While I’m on the subject of great programs I would like to say that Doyle is doing a great job as program chairman. It’s not an easy job. Can a program chairman serve successive terms? Just asking, Doyle.

The hap’nin thang (‘happening thing’ to those of you who don’t get out a lot ) during September of 1986 was Old Timey Days. This was the first public appearance of the TVWW. I’m glad they decided to ‘come out of the closet’.

I’ve found several things this past month. The article I decided on is something I’ve been thinking about using in the newsletter anyway. It’s a brief overview of the different styles of furniture that continue to influence our designs today. If you enjoy this article let me know and maybe in future issues we can take one style or period at a time and further expand on it.

I’ll go ahead and close now as this article is quite lengthy. I would tell you what this month’s program is about but I’m not sure if Doyle told me or not. (Half-timers)

This quote and I’m done. ‘Yesterday is a finished play. Tomorrow is a waiting adventure. But today is a gift - that’s why they call it the present.’

Hope to see you all Tuesday night - til then Watch out for SPLINTERS.

Style Basics

A style is a collection of characteristics and general rules for how they're combined in a finished product. Recognizing things by style is simply a matter of grouping objects by their similarities. In furniture design, styles are defined primarily by shapes, proportions, and detailing.

Changes in furniture style come about for many reasons. While the primary motivation is often a personal expression of the concerns and tastes of the designer, technology and utility also play a role. A style can also be defined by the invention of new types of functional furniture. Writing desks, secretaries, and bookcases, for example, are associated with certain traditional styles because those forms didn't have a reason to exist until changes in lifestyle demanded them.

While style names often refer to a period of history, they can also refer to a philosophy or to an influential designer. Federal, for instance, refers to furniture that was made during the Federal period, while Chippendale refers to work of a certain period that bears a stylistic association with the designs of Thomas Chippendale. Of course, you can no longer build furniture that belongs to a historic period, but you can build pieces in the style of a period. In this way, an understanding of styles provides a starting point as well as an appreciation for traditional forms and their impact on design today.

What follows is a general overview of the major design directions that shaped American furniture styles up to the early 20th century

JACOBEAN.

The earliest work, dating from about the middle of the 17th century, is referred to as Jacobean or, more popularly, Pilgrim furniture. It's characterized by heavy turnings used for legs and spindles, or split in half and applied to a surface for decoration. This style also features elaborate relief carving, usually of a geometric of floral motif and often accented with applied molding that divide areas into geometric shapes. The wood is usually oak and/or pine, and painted ornamentation was popular.

A chest of this period, what we might call a blanket chest today, typically utilized frame_and_panel construction, although the simple pegged, or later nailed, 6_board chest was also evident. As the basic chest with a hinged lid developed, it was enhanced by a shallow bottom drawer. Eventually, the entire chest was filled with drawers and the hinged lid was discarded, creating a chest of drawers. Small, shallow chests, called desk boxes, had sloping or flat hinged lids and were used to hold books and writing materials.

In terms of chair design, the Jacobean style is represented by the Brewster chair and the Carver chair. Both are constructed of heavy, turned spindles __ the Brewster chair differs in the rows of vertical spindles spanning the rails both above and below the seat. Another type of chair, called the Wainscot chair, features a back and seat made from flat boards ornamented with carving.

The William & Mary style introduced changes in materials __ walnut and maple supplanting oak and pine __ and used veneering as a way to create ornamentation through highly figured, naturally decorative wood.

The types of furniture changed as well. Small desk boxes were placed on stands, and the lid was now hinged at the front so it could be opened for writing. The desk box was also united with a chest of drawers and eventually acquired a cupboard top to produce the secretary we're familiar with today.

Although turned legs remain in William & Mary pieces, the profiles are less bulbous and the heavy relief carving of Jacobean designs is replaced by more refined detailing. Drawer openings are frequently accented by thin, half_round strips called cock beads and frame_and_panel doors acquire the characteristic arched_top panel based on an S_shaped cyma, or ogee, curve.

Perhaps the most notable furniture type introduced in this period is the highboy. This is a chest of drawers placed on a stand. The stand also has drawers and up to six turned legs connected by flat rails sawn to a curved profile. More refined highboys have an arched S_shaped curve motif in the front_rail. The stand by itself is called a lowboy and is a precursor of today's dressing table.

The transition from Jacobean to William & Mary produced a variety of chair designs. In addition to a general refining of detail and proportion, chairs with horizontal curved slats and banister_black chairs with vertical profiled slats became popular.

Roughly 100 years after the settlement at Plymouth, a new design style, called Queen Anne, took the S_shaped curve and made it a more dominant visual component. The most striking example of this is the cabriole leg. Unlike the turnings of previous styles, the bowed, offset cabriole leg created a smooth, graceful curve that grew from the floor to be continued around the entire piece.

Queen Anne chairs, for example, have cabriole legs at the front and simpler arched legs at the back. The back's central splat is based on a vase shape that further echoes the curves in the legs and back frame.

This cabriole leg design, so indicative of Queen Anne style, is not exclusive to chairs. It appears on everything from beds to desks to highboys. The highboy, in particular, evolved the S_shaped curve in the form of a sophisticated, broken_scroll pediment at the top of the case.

Queen Anne furniture also features carved shell motifs on the knees of cabriole legs,

front panels of highboys and within corner cupboards. Frame_and_panel doors generally feature a half_round arch at the top of each panel. Walnut remained a favorite material, with maple and cherry also in use; mahogany was beginning to achieve popularity.

Like earlier styles, Chippendale originated in England and became part of the American furniture scene around the middle of the 18th century. It is rooted in a combination of French Rococo influences, Chinese design and ornamentation, and a revival of English Gothic motifs __ all held together in forms based on earlier work. The style was given its name in acknowledgment of Thomas Chippendale's work and his book of furniture designs, The Gentleman and Cabinet_Maker's Director.

The cabriole leg, broken pediments, and arch_top panel doors are a few of the many components carried over from Queen Anne. However, to these were added detail and ornamentation as yet unseen. To chair splats, perforated designs of Chinese or Gothic influence were incorporated. Cabriole legs were carved with highly detailed ball_and_claw feet. Straight legs, a Chinese influence, became common on both chairs and tables.

This period also saw the introduction of the breakfront __ a large cabinet with a central section flanked by two shallower and narrower side sections. Chests of drawers saw variation in serpentine designs that transformed the traditional flat front into an undulating symmetrical curve.

The wood of choice was mahogany, although walnut, maple, and cherry were also used. Highly figured crotch_grain veneering in geometric patterns was a popular means of decoration.

The years after the American Revolution saw a new style emerging that was founded on a renewed interest in classical forms. The Federal style, a reaction to the heavily ornamented Chippendale, was, to a large extent, introduced to American woodworkers through the work of George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton.

In addition to being more geometric, Federal furniture is lighter and more delicate than preceding styles. Details include fine inlay, reeding, cock beads, and refined turnings. Both veneering and painting are used as ornament. Chair backs are either square cornered or curved and often feature elaborate pierced splats.

Of all the chair types associated with the Federal period, one of the most popular today is the Windsor chair.

The Windsor was actually introduced to America well before this time, but it was in this period that it achieved widespread popularity. The design is characterized by spindle construction, splayed legs, and a carved slab seat.

Individual examples differ in the back design. These range from rod_back versions with straight uprights connected by a horizontal member, to oval_back chairs with a continuous bent_back frame. In chairs with arms, the arms may be integral with the bent_back member, or the back may be a separate assembly joined to a C_shaped armpiece. Seat outlines are either convex or accented with the S_shaped curve.

Evolving out of Federal traditions and borrowing forms from the English Regency style, Duncan Phyfe __ a cabinet maker based in New York during the early 19th century __ generated a distinctive style that can truly be called American.

Some of the characteristics of Phyfe's work include vase_shaped pedestal table supports with three or four curved, or saber, legs, claw feet and cloverleaf_shaped tabletops. The legs were frequently ornamented with reeding or repetitive floral carvings, and multiple beading was a common edge treatment for table_ and cabinet_top edges.

Broad surfaces such as tabletops and drawer fronts were generally veneered with mahogany, and the pieces were stained dark. Phyfe chairs utilize a lattice back, often with a lyre_shaped splat.

Although the term is loosely used today to denote a style, Victorian better refers to a period in which many styles were popular.

At a time when the Industrial Revolution was making its impact felt on both production techniques and the availability of products, users and makers of furniture were thinking of style less as a slow evolution and more as a library of existing possibilities. Victorian designers used style in a manner similar to the way we use it today __ as a means to create cohesive settings based on a variety of influences. Makers began to draw from the past, producing furniture inspired by earlier periods, much in the same way we might make a dining suite based on Queen Anne design elements today.

Notable movements in Victorian furniture drew inspiration from Gothic, Renaissance, Elizabethan, and Rococo styles. The makers relied on the ornamentation of a previous period to imbue their creation with a desired aesthetic effect, and heavy ornamentation is one of the hallmarks of Victorian furniture. Designers produced several new forms of furniture, most notably the circular ottoman, balloon_back chair, and the single_end sofa. The wood used runs the gamut from rosewood to oak.

The Shakers, a religious society with communities in various locations ranging from New York to New England and throughout the Midwest, produced furniture characterized by a desire for utility, economy, and efficiency without sacrificing quality. The result is a clean, relatively unadorned style that, as seen alongside others, appears sparse and institutional.

In contrast to elaborate highboys, the typical Shaker chest of drawers is an almost featureless assemblage of flat boards, punctuated by simple turned drawer pulls. The plain turnings of a classic Shaker chair are about as far as you can get from the carved cabriole legs and heavily ornamented turnings of mainstream styles. However, Shaker furniture is anything but styleless, and the apparent emphasis on utility belies a subtle and restrained sense of detail and ornamentation.

Even the most elemental pieces often use simple moldings. Chair turnings are sensitively tapered with carefully shaped finials, and the overall proportioning reflects a concern for balance that's rooted in aesthetic pursuits as much as in utilitarian requirements. The Shakers made furniture from available domestic hardwoods and pine.

Whereas Victorian woodworkers and designers drew their ideas about ornament and form from the past and combined them with new mechanized production techniques of the day, another school of design adopted a deliberately anachronistic approach, reacting against the machine age to evoke an aesthetic based on a rustic, craftsman style. The Arts & Crafts movement represented a need to return to basics in design and construction, with an emphasis on utility, simplicity, and individual craftsmanship.

 Rooted in the work of two English designers and essayists, John Ruskin and William Morris, the American movement found expression through Charles and Henry Greene and Gustav Stickley. American Arts & Crafts examples are grouped more by common philosophical goals rather than by design detailing.

Where some pieces may show Japanese, Renaissance, or Gothic influence, others are characteristically unadorned and rely on functional requirements and joinery techniques to give the work identity. The joints themselves are part of the visual design, supplanting the need for traditional ornamentation. Stickley's furniture, in particular, is typified by straight lines and simple, straightforward joinery.

A popular offshoot of the Arts & Crafts movement is the Mission style of furniture. It's characterized by simple rectangular designs, usually built from oak and stained dark.

ART NOUVEAU

Yet another group of designers who took a different route away form the Victorian mainstream to form a "New Art." Art Nouveau based its efforts not on copying natural forms and applying them as ornament, but by using organic forms as the inspiration for the entire design.

Art Nouveau furniture is characterized by smoothly curving lines and graceful transitions through the form. The result is a sensuous and exotic composition of line. The typical Art Nouveau line begins as a slow S_shaped curve that terminates in a rapid whip_like end. While the intention is natural, the smooth curves and symmetry reflect a synthetic order where the design is a stylistic abstraction of natural form rather than a direct translation.

In the United States, Art Nouveau furniture never gained the same widespread popularity it did in Europe, although the movement was influential in graphic design and architecture. Here, pieces were usually manufactured on a production basis, particularly in the early 20th century.