New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-06


Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries By Irving
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| The poet tells TO look not mournfully into the
past but this book Of DR. Lyons IL Irresistible nvi
tauon 10 lnger regretfuly the halcyon days OF
our c0untry's YOUTH when furniture as IL ought
to be- artistic, useful and substantial. Some furniture
that have to-day filfls these three conditions,
but Ii is only small proportion OF the great mass that
is annually manufactured for the OF the people
Though the dove-taied mortise and tenon are stu
used to certain extent in factories where 1t Is
matter of pride to turn ont hundreds Of pieces daily,
the tenacity OF CINE is relied upon more than II ever
was in the cid time, and this to say nothing OF
slpshod jontng results in furniture that soon gets
out OF repair Colonial furniture, the other hand
has lasted for hundred and fifty years and more.
As to present day designs, vast numbers of them
are awdry and vulgar II is significant that the best
modern furniture is that which has been made from
carly models Our colonial ancestors derived all Their
ideas about furniture from English and Continental
sources but they were free from any sense
OF copying, they simply continued the
traditions Of their fathers and grandfathers When
revive early American patterns we are really re
uving those which in in Great Britain and
the Netherlands years before they common here 1t
is indeed popular belief that the great chests and
cupboards Of New gland brought complete from
the other side but Dr. Lyon advances conclusive evil
dence to support his theory that makers OF such articles
fouiished here early In the history OF the Colonies
In Europe oaken chests were made by joiners. Why
not by men of the craft in Americas Captain
Edward johnson, in his "Wonder Working Provi-
dence" tabuates the trades practlsed in Boston in
1647, and joinery is given leading place. Savage's
Genealogical Dictionary records that Edward Bull
carver Boston in 1868 and another book of the
same sort mentions Richard Knight, OF Charles
town, "a carver aged fifty three years in 1876" Dr.
Lyon finds further proof OF the activity Of native
worBmen in the frequency with which pieces OF SIM
IIo
duces chest Of which forty duplicates possessed
in Hartford County Connecticut, while only ex
ample of the pattern is known TO exist In East
ern Massachusetts, That one, now In Memorial Hall at
Deereld Is believed have been brought from Scot
land in 1873 The wood used In many OF the old
chests can be identified as American, and there are
inventories to show that makers kept in stock guam
titles OF wood, hinges special nails and ornaments
for the manufacture Of Of the most necessary
pieces Of furniture in the typical wEngland home
DR.. Lyon rightly begins his study with these old
chests. AS he points out, nearly every Englshman or
IIolander coming here must have brought at least
one with him q packing box, and the probabilities
are that some families brought half dozen. Thus
with chests than we do with cupboards
or chairs the two other great staples of the house
holder. The chests were strongly built and were well
suited to purposes Of transportation. The carving
on them, rich IL sometimes was WIS never as high
as that the regal productions Of the Italian Renais
from which they were deScended Mucn OF INC
decoration on the chests brought 10 New England and
used patterns there inclsed so that 1T ran no
risk OF being knocked Off. The Oldest New-England
chests nothing than large packing boxes made
beautiful and valuable by tasteful adOnment and honest
workmanship. IN England however early IN the seven
teenth century and In America by 1855, 1t had oc
CURED TO men TO make their chests still more orna
mental ms we'll as more useful by fitting drawers under
meath them. Apparently only drawer was first
used The earliest chest with the addition mentioned
in New England archives is one made for the Rev. Ma
thanel Rogers. of Ipswich Mass. lie paid 16 shlhngS
for it, Fifteen years later in 1870 the first record
of chest made with two drawers appears in the in
ycntory of william worden OF Boston. This cost
1 pound 10 shillngs, but probably because the
chest better In every wav than NIT.
Rogers's The extra draw could not have
caused such advance in the price. Testimony 10
the purely local character of the later innovation comes
in the statement that the chests with two long drawers
underneath one above the other. which com
mon in New-EDgland are scarce in Europe
In Europe they have chest unknown
In America, one with two short drawers
on the same level. Chests with three drawers are
also extremely rare in America. The only one Dr.
Lyon has discovered is in Memorial Hall at Deerfeld
Mass Additional space. whether Of one drawer or
two the New England settler insisted upon Very
few OF the extant chests without drawers.
From the chest with drawers to the press or cup
board seems natural transition, but the latter had
never any connection with the former The cup
board was evolved from the table board used to
place cups upon. In the earliest times we can
imagine it to have been one OF the rudest though one
OF the most convenient appointments Of the home.
As plate was accumulated In wealthy families 1t was
thought pleasant to display IL 10 the best advantage
and cupboards were made with shelves steps. 1t
coud not have been long before 1t was seen that
precious cups and fagons and fragile ware were safer
from damage behind closed doors, but the exact date
hp int of
10 determine They were in in England In the
fifteenth century and possibly earlier for according
to yolleteDuc, partially inclosed dressoirs' were
known In France I'm the fourteenth century, and
France even then set the style for England in minor
matters OF this sort. The moment parts OF the cup
board inclosed the path was open for division
Of the cupboards purpose. From being a piece Of
furniture for The display OF plate china or glass
il became a store chamber for those treasures,
and lnaly for linen, books. clothes, OF any
thing that happened to need place Thus cupboard"
came TO mean two different pieces OF furniture.
the one more or less peculiar to the dining room, the
other permissible anywhere in the house. The open
cupboards says DR.. Lyon. distinguished from the
closed ones by the prefix court" livery" Ills
assertion Is the interesting because the terms
court-cupboard and livery cupboard have long troubled
historians. No English cupboards bearing either
have come to from the sixteenth seventeenth
centuries nor are they figured liz any Of the books
! of those times. DIR. Lyon found In Singers notes
on "RomeO and Juliet reference TO print in
| - Laurca AustriacR," folio Of 1927, stating that
from IL the reader would get better notion OF the
| court-cupboard than volumes OF description would
afford him. but DIR. Lyon has failed TO 10 earth
n copy OF "Laurea Ausriaca.S The general drift Of
opinion that the eourt-cupboard was open struc
turc AT the same time, DR.. Lyon has detected in
! inventories and in the plays OF the old dramatists
signs that contemporaries were some times partially
inclosed or made with drawers An inventory Of
/ Of a
drawer and cubberd cloth Of 1ndyan stuff and Chap
man. In his " Roaring Girl play OF 1911, has the
line "place that in the courtcupboard.' The prep
osition here suggests inclosed cupboard In New