Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-04-23
New Furniture Emanates From a Museum
Ford Antique Reproductions
Available Here Next Month
\ BY MARY L. VAUGHAN
Star Home Furnishings Writer

Just few minutes drive from the goth
century hustle and hustle of industrial Detroit
is a 200-acre tract where visitors step back into
setting of life as it was lived in Americas
earliest years.
Reproduced in detail is a leisurely hamlet
as the pioneers knew it, called Greenfield Viii
lage, established by Henry Ford in 1929. An
unequalled collection of Americana has been
gathered together in the quaint setting from
Paul Revere'S silver to 6OO-ton steam loco
motive .o
In the Henry Ford Museum, it's founder
amasSed the finest examples of American fur
nitpre designs. And from those same designs,
down to the most minute detail, a goth CEN
tu1y manufacturer, the Century Furniture Co.,
has reproduced so of the pieces for the Aneri-
can public.
Il New Collection
The new collection will go on display in
Washington about May l. Colony House on
Connecticut avenue will open up model rooms
OF the authentic pieces and Woodward &
Lothrop'S downtown store has planned series
of model rooms using the same group.
Included in the collection are items for
every room in the house, upholstered pieces,
occasional tables, dining room tables and bed
room furnishings all in cherry, pine and ma
hogany.
Among the beds is an early 18th century
post with bold turningS that illustrate how
cleverly the cabinetmaker decorated what was
baSically simple form. The original bed
probably was carried by settler into the Mid
west from New England
A dresser is adapted from an especially
fine mahogany block-front Chippendale chest
of drawers made in Massachusetts, in the third
quarter of the 18th century. The block-front,
an American innovation, is associated with
Massachusetts and Rhode Island cabinetmak-
erS. Old pieces of its type have become eX-
tremely rare.
= A Smaller Piece
Among the smaller pieces is a rectangular
mirror consisting of simple nodded frame
It's type found in many 18th century homes
and is well adapted to use today
dresser and chest in the collection is
adapted from a walnut Pennsylvania secretary
desk attributed to Jacob Bachman of Ian
caster circa ITO. The original piece is in the
Ford Museum galleries and was formerly in the
collection of Howard Reisnyder one of the
foremost collectors of American furniture.
Included in the collections numerous
tables Is a lovely Queen Anne dropleaf identi-
fled with the Newport (R. ~ cabinetmakers
by its sharp corners on the Queen Anne legs
The original was made in the first half of the
18th century and can be found among furnish
ings in the dining room of historic Secretary
House in Greenfield Village.
Gen. John Stark" chair in the colec-
ton is popularity known as a Martha Wash
ngton" arm chair because of similar ones
located at Mount Vernon The original of the
finely executed chair, in the Hepplewhite style,
vas made in New England about 1880 and
belonged to the American Revolutionary gen.
eral, John Stark Q728-1822), of Man
chester, NJ H.
Each of the numerous reproductions ex-
empllfieS classic American design that will
blend beautifully with contemporary or ira
ditional decor.