Rococo AND Colonial Revival?

 

As mentioned in the previous blog, Charles F. Hummel of Winterthur wrote me to say that since the blog chair used plied wood in its back it was definitely Rococo Revival. Today I propose that while the blog chair is in that category, it holds a dual identity. Since it is an obvious remake of an 18th century Chippendale style ribbom back chair, it falls into the additional category of Colonial Revival.

19th C Ribbon Back Chair. Photo by SHS

18th C chair in Plate XV in TG&CMD

          It is generally thought that the colonial revival period began around the time of America’s centennial.  Interest in period furnishings was spurned by the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. During this time all periods of American colonial furniture; Mannerist, William and Mary, Queen Anne, Georgian, Chippendale, Federal, Neoclassical and Empire were simply lumped together into one category called colonial.(13)

Furniture adaptations on decorative and structural elements were called improvements.(14) For instance, on the blog chair there are three improvements that spring to mind.

1.The use of the three layer plied wood back to allow the chair’s back to curve and fit the contour of the human body. 

Photo: SHS

 

2. Springs in the seat, to make it “give” under weight and be more comfortable. 

Photo: SHS

3. Castors on its feet to allow it to move more freely about the room. 

Photo: SHS

This begs the question; where these changes in fact improvements?

1.a. Since the pieces of wood used to make the three plies are wider and taller than the individual parts of the tri-part back used in the 18th century, they would not be a measure to save raw materials. But the curve in the back would add comfort.

Photo: SHS

2.a. The springs used in the seat are stiff because they are too tightly compressed. They offer no additional comfort over an un-sprung seat.

Photo: SHS

3.a. The castors on the feet would definitely allow the chair to be moved more freely about a room.

Photo: SHS

 Some of these changes were improvements; others not so much. What I will say is that human inventive genius was illustrated through the multitude of technological  advances pioneered during the Victorian period when the blog chair was made. For more on this subject I suggest the text in Footnote 13. 

Theresa

Yummy Furniture and Design

theresamhs@sbcglobal.net

Connect with me at Facebook 
Link up at LinkedIn

Footnotes
13. Edgar Mayhew and Minor Myers. The Eclectic Decades: 1865-1895 In A Documentary history of American Interiors: From the Colonial Era to 1915. New York, Scribner's. 258-262
14. Ibid

Rolling Into the 19th Century!

All along we have been talking about features of the blog chair that could point to it being a 19^th century reproduction.

Photo: SHS

One of these factors is the presence of a sprung seat, which was discussed in the March 1st blog titled Webbing and Through Tenons. Another is the carvings: while they appear to be beautifully composed and in keeping with rococo themes, the overall composition is quite symmetric, instead of asymmetric as an 18^th century object would be.

Photo: SHS

Today we discuss the height of the seat of the blog chair. Seat heights have varied throughout the ages.  As an upholsterer, I have customized seat heights to fit many a client’s specific needs.  They range anywhere from 14” to 21” high; generally the taller seats are more contemporary.  To check myself, I just measured the seat height of a side chair here in my office and it is 18 ½ inches tall at the seat.

As mentioned yesterday, I was fortunate to have spoken with Charles Hummel after a lecture he presented at the UW-Madison last fall. We discussed the castor on the blog chair which I drew on a piece of notepaper and he identified its period of manufacture as 1820-25. 

Illustration by the author, Photo: SHS

So that would date the chair to the 19^th century, right? Again, not so fast! The castor could have been added at a later date!

One way to discern if a castor was added to a chair at a date later than its original manufacture is to examine the place where it was installed. Look for uneven saw and file marks at the tip of the chair leg; dead giveaways that an inexperienced craftsperson was making an adjustment to the circumference of the leg to make it fit the castor.

Does the leg show signs of cracking around the stem of the castor? Again, an inexperienced person would not know that if you drill directly into a chair leg, you weaken the strength of the leg. A stemmed castor would put pressure on the leg every time someone sits on it.

The blog chair castor shows no signs of tampering!

Photo: SHS

Another is to measure the height of the seat of the chair onto which the castor was installed.  If the chair seat is unusually high, the castor is evidently added on.  Trouble is, I wasn’t sure what measurement would be too high on an 18^th century chair since through experience I had seen such a wide variety of seat heights, none of which I researched.

Hummel clarified: if the seat height is greater than 17” at the rail, then the castors were added on. Well guess what?, at the seat rail we have just 17”.  

In this photo the top of the rail is at the the very top of the image under the upholstery.

Photo: SHS

The sprung seat itself reaches a height of 21”. Without the castor, the measurement from the bottom of the foot to the top of the seat rail is 15 ½”.            

The cumulative evidence is pointing directly to the blog chair as a 19^th century reproduction.

We still have more to explore, so don’t go away! 

Theresa

Yummy Furniture and Design

theresamhs@sbcglobal.net

Connect with me at Facebook 
Link up at LinkedIn

Merrily we roll along....

Another clue to the blog chair’s date of manufacture OR update is castors on its feet. We’ve all seen a great deal of castors/casters on a variety of furniture. The Victorian era springs to my mind when I think of the widespread use of the small wheels fixed to the bottoms of furniture legs allowing them to be moved easily. However, while working my way through Upholstery in America & Europe from the 17th Century to World War I, Wallace Gusler, Leroy Graves and Mark Anderson include a photo of an 18^th century back stool with simple, unadorned castors on all four feet in their article on an 18^th century upholstery technique.(11) Cool!

I own two chairs I’ve identified as Victorian with castors.  One is a Rococo Revival piece and another that I will call neoclassical revival because of the urn shaped splats in the space between the arm and seat rails plus other identifying qualities. It is the neoclassical chair that sports a castor similar to the blog chair.

 

 While the top base is square and the castor here is round, both have a beaded trim along the top of their plates; the plate being the piece of metal onto which the chair leg rests. This could mean that both sets of castors are 19^th century. But does it follow that both chairs are of the 19th century?

After making this connection between the two chairs, I had to find a way to verify my hunch.  Luckily I attended a lecture on the Dominy Craftsmen at the UW-Madison last November 2010, presented by Charles Hummel, retired (but still working) Curator Emeritus at Winterthur. Per Hummel, castors sporting little beads of brass around the edge of the castor plate were first made around 1820-25. Prior to that, decoration was simpler, sometimes composed of a simple reeded trim. 

Hummel dated the castors from the sketch I provided him and shown below.

Sketch by the Author, Photo SHS

If the castors are of the 19^th century as is the upholstery technique, is the pendulum beginning to swing in the direction of the blog chair also being a 19^th century object?  Tune in tomorrow when we discuss this exciting development. 

And here is my conversation with Charles Hummel which was recorded and posted at the UW Material Culture Blog!

Theresa

Yummy Furniture and Design

theresamhs@sbcglobal.net

Connect with me at Facebook 
Link up at LinkedIn

11. Cooke, Edward S. Jr., Upholstery in America and Europe from the 17^th C to WWI., Journal Article within the text: Wallace Gusler, Leroy Graves and Mark Anderson, The Technique of 18^th-Century Over-the-rail Upholstery, New York, W.W. Norton & Co. 90.