DOI Heft:
Nr. 334 (March 1925)
DOI Artikel:Erskine, Ralph C.: American furniture design
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19984#0212
mceRnAcionAL
ORIGINAL ROOM OF THE FIRST PERIOD, SHOWING PANELING, BEAMS AND FURNITURE THAT ARE FULL OF INTERESTING
DOCUMENT FOR MODERN APPLICATION IN DESIGN
piece from any period, this picture of the people
comes vividly before him. He sees roads and
paths with people on them; houses in each settle-
ment; country estates and cities grow before his
eyes and through it all he remembers that the
only intercourse from north to south was by
pacing it off, step by step, on foot or with horse
or possibly by boat. Whether it be Franklin
trudging from Boston to New York and on to
Philadelphia, or Washington and his men, back
and forth, up and down, doing so much of signifi-
cance and interest, we wonder if they did not live
three times as long as we to accomplish it all. So
insignificant becomes our speed of travel, our
trains and our motors.
The best dates to remember are: First Period:
1630101725. Second Period: 1725 to 1790. Third
Period: 1790 to 1825.
The First Period can be pictured by the found-
ing of Plymouth, New England, 1620, and the
founding of Jamestown, Virginia, 1607. Allowing
a few years thereafter for winning a foothold, the
actual making of things in which we are interested
begins about 1630. Elizabeth had died in 1603.
The Virgin Queen; hence Virginia. But our colo-
nial craftsmen had brought with them the Eliza-
bethan traditions in design. For a long time in
these distant provinces they made crude copies of
court cupboards and chests with mitered mould-
ings and applied ornaments. Tavern tables with
heavy stretchers near the floor. Butterfly and
gate-leg tables with stretchers. Houses with
Elizabethan gables, overhang of the second story
and drop fmials at the corners.
Probably there is no period quite so rich in
interesting ideas for the modern home as this of
the First. It is so genuine! So straightforward
and free from ostentation. Those who would save
money in building and furnishing and yet achieve
interest and imagination, friendliness and those
qualities which appeal to the heart should study
the traditions of this First Period. One can repro-
duce an old kitchen living room with white pine
paneled walls and doors or with clear wide boards
of Douglas fir from the Northwest. Random
widths of oak boards in the floor. Hand-hewn
jour seventy-two
MARCH I925
ORIGINAL ROOM OF THE FIRST PERIOD, SHOWING PANELING, BEAMS AND FURNITURE THAT ARE FULL OF INTERESTING
DOCUMENT FOR MODERN APPLICATION IN DESIGN
piece from any period, this picture of the people
comes vividly before him. He sees roads and
paths with people on them; houses in each settle-
ment; country estates and cities grow before his
eyes and through it all he remembers that the
only intercourse from north to south was by
pacing it off, step by step, on foot or with horse
or possibly by boat. Whether it be Franklin
trudging from Boston to New York and on to
Philadelphia, or Washington and his men, back
and forth, up and down, doing so much of signifi-
cance and interest, we wonder if they did not live
three times as long as we to accomplish it all. So
insignificant becomes our speed of travel, our
trains and our motors.
The best dates to remember are: First Period:
1630101725. Second Period: 1725 to 1790. Third
Period: 1790 to 1825.
The First Period can be pictured by the found-
ing of Plymouth, New England, 1620, and the
founding of Jamestown, Virginia, 1607. Allowing
a few years thereafter for winning a foothold, the
actual making of things in which we are interested
begins about 1630. Elizabeth had died in 1603.
The Virgin Queen; hence Virginia. But our colo-
nial craftsmen had brought with them the Eliza-
bethan traditions in design. For a long time in
these distant provinces they made crude copies of
court cupboards and chests with mitered mould-
ings and applied ornaments. Tavern tables with
heavy stretchers near the floor. Butterfly and
gate-leg tables with stretchers. Houses with
Elizabethan gables, overhang of the second story
and drop fmials at the corners.
Probably there is no period quite so rich in
interesting ideas for the modern home as this of
the First. It is so genuine! So straightforward
and free from ostentation. Those who would save
money in building and furnishing and yet achieve
interest and imagination, friendliness and those
qualities which appeal to the heart should study
the traditions of this First Period. One can repro-
duce an old kitchen living room with white pine
paneled walls and doors or with clear wide boards
of Douglas fir from the Northwest. Random
widths of oak boards in the floor. Hand-hewn
jour seventy-two
MARCH I925