Old Furniture in New England

FORTY years ago, Mr. J. B. Felt, the antiquary, published his desultory little work Customs of New England, and led the way in the study of domestic life. Other scholars have recognized the value of the material which lay hidden in inventories and wills, and Mr. William B. Weeden has made most admirable use of such documents in his Economic and Social History of New England, scattered through which work may be found references to furniture and interior arrangements of the New England colonial house ; but the first thoroughly scientific examination of one interesting corner of this field is in the attractive and rich volume, Colonial Furniture of New England, by Dr. Lyon.¹ Even in this work there is no attempt made at a complete treatise. Dr. Lyon calls his book a study, and he confines himself to an examination of chests, cupboards, chests of drawers, desks, chairs, tables, and clocks ; passing by sofas, bedsteads, wash-stands, wardrobes, bookcases, carpets, and only glancing at table furniture and household utensils. The satisfaction which the reader gets is in the evident caution of the author, and in his clear determination not to lose himself in speculation, or to allow his strong enthusiasm to lead him into rhetorical extravagance. Everything is set down with deliberation, and as the result of personal investigation. The history of each class of furniture is briefly traced, and the evidence gathered as to the forms in use in England or Holland chiefly ; then the subsequent history in New England is taken up, and nice questions are raised as to the priority of forms. One hundred and thirteen heliotype illustrations of pieces of furniture referred to in the text serve to make the author’s meaning clear and to establish his points.

One admirable feature of Dr. Lyon’s book is the good taste which governs in the selection of objects presented thus to the eye. The authenticity of the several objects is well determined, but we are by no means sure that Dr. Lyon could not have presented equally authentic objects in the several groups which would not have been nearly so interesting nor so beautiful. He shows pretty conclusively that a great deal of the furniture found in New England was the work of native cabinet-makers ; is it possible that they followed good models exclusively ? The architectural forms of the same period forbid this inference ; for though these forms were very often dignified and in good proportions, this was not universally the case.

Nevertheless, we have in this book abundant examples of the best furniture of New England, just as we have in such books as Mr. Little’s capital views of the best specimens of New England domestic architecture. And just as our architects to-day are going back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for models, especially in the details of their work, so our cabinet-makers who have the furnishing of our houses could not go astray if they were to study the examples given in Dr. Lyon’s book ; they can do this intelligently, since he has in many instances been at pains to give careful measurements.

There is one characteristic about the furniture here presented which can hardly escape the observer. It is the dignity which marks the several pieces, and the intimation which they give of reserve in house-furnishing in olden times. That is, one can hardly think of rooms being crowded with furniture of this sort. Each piece represents individual worth, and seems to hold a sort of reproof for the clutter, the miscellaneousness, of our modern interiors. Fancy throwing a scarf over the back of one of the tall chairs figured here! How impertinent would be a lot of bricabrac on one of these stately tables ! The very provision made by means of ‘‘steps” for the grouping and display of choice china upon one of the chests of drawers or cupboards hints at dignified order and reserve. But to look for a return to the same simplicity and fine distinction in our modern houses is to expect something little short of a revolution in our habits of life. Our only hope is that, as hygienic science gets firmer hold of us, it will form an alliance with good taste, and banish our upholstery and hangings, and a large part of the dust-gathering and light-excluding paraphernalia of our nineteenth-century houses, to some vast valley of Gehenna where their fires will go up perpetually; for the supply of such fuel must be illimitable.