The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-22
WOODS THAT ARE
 USED IN FURNITURE Three Chief Periods Known to Those Who
 Collect. APPLE KNOT BOWLS. Oak, Walnut, Mahogany Foremost-New York's
 Rosewood Period.
APPLE KNOT BOWLS

. AoA in@hl'iS HOuSolLOlu SoouS, eVel 1, the knots In apple trees being utilized , flor kind of bowl which was so highly : prized among the early colonists tha' they were sometimes bound with sil. lVer Among furniture specialists Ii is usual to divide their treasures into } three periods, the oak, the walnut an6 : the mahogany, leaving out many
 woods which were much used both ir , this country and in Europe and which
 are now deservedly prized.
 Of course, during the seventeenth
 century in both this country and the
 parent one oak was the wood most
 used and sought It was In panelllng
 and wainscotipg, and the same mould
 ings which helped to render the walls N windtight were utilized In forming or
 nament for the chests, large chairs
 called wainscot chairs, tables and forms, which constituted the chief fur
 niture of the houses.
 It was stout, substantial wood and
 when you remember that all such
 objects were not flnished--that is,
 were unvarnished or oiled-you can see
 how it acquired with years that black
 color which is now so highly prised
 and which is as different as possible lfrom the dead black color which the
 forger of old furniture uses to stain
 his pieces.
 The collector who has rambled
 through unfrequented parts of Eng
 land will often find chests of elm, cy-
 press and cedar, and on the last it is
 often found that the decoration Is in-
 cised work, sometimes done with a
 hot iron, sometimes with a graving
 tool and stained.
 I The figures, knights and ladies, are
 in costumes which place them in
 about the reign of King James, and all
 bear certain resemblance. Some of
 these chests found their way over here land there are few, less than half a | dozen, in various museums of this leountry.
 When Charles II, indolent and fond of elegance, came to the throne in 1860
 he demanded in accordance with his French training more comfort than Twas usual. Two years later his mar iriage to a Portuguese Princess still l further Increased the demand for
 ehoicer domestic articles than had been known In England, and they ifn-
 ported from Holland high class furni- ture made of walnut carved
 From this time on walnut rather crowded out oak There were also im- ported from Flanders pieces of furni- ture carved and made of ebony or ce- dar either copied from Chinese models by the clever Dutch or coming direct i from the orient.
 Nor was America without her ele- gancles, too, and from these same sources, as can be gleaned from the inventories which accompany the wills made by the rich vrouws and which are the source from which we draw
 much information of how the Colonists lived and what they had Lacquered furniture was brought here from the low countries also, as we'll as direct from the Orient, and many such pieces are treasured by the descendants of the old Dutch families who brought them here.
 American cabinet makers were using black walnut, white oak, which is very different from the English oak; nut wood (hickory), maple, popular and chestnut There are collectors in this country who will not admit to their collections anything but American made furniture of oak and made prior to 17O0. M
 In New England and at the South the largest supply of luxuries were found, though the Dutch settlements around Albany and up the Mohawk l Valley were not far behind. A plank 1 table sold in New England in 3S46 for l ten shillings, though red or white oak | could be bought by the cord for three | or four shiillngs. Sawmills were set | up all over New England, the first in | Portsmouth, in 1881, so that it was not l difficult to obtain the necessary ma terial for furniture.
 Bilstead (maple) is often mentioned | in the early inventories as used for various articles like bedsteads, and | poplar was common enough to haze the price for bedstead made of 1t set | down In The Journeymans Cabinet l and Chairmaker's Philadelphia Book of Prices'' published in 1795, as one pound It is interesting to note that the price of similar bedstead in was put at one pound sev- en shillings.
 Just here it may be well to state that in many of these pattern books the prices given were for the plainest style of beds. Carving was charged for extra. The common sizes of beds was six feet by four fet, and extra width or length was charged for at the rate of two pence an inch. This ao- counts for the narrownes of many of these early beds, some of which are lar too small for two persons.
 Ash was used also, and elm and ebony were at one time very fashiona- ole. Here is the way one collector speaks of it:
 May 30, 176S. believe I am the first man that ever went sixty miles 0 an auction. AS l came for ebony, have been up to my chin in ebony; { here is literally nothing but ebony in l he house; all the other goods If ] here were any, and I trust that my Lady Conyers did not sleep upon eb- ! my mattresses) are taken away. There ' Ire two tables and eighteen chairs all 1 made by the Hallet of 200 years ago. These 1 intend to have. There are II nore plebeian chairs of the same ma erials, but I have left commission for