American Furniture Understanding Styles, Construction and Quality

by Kirk, John T.

• ISBN13: 9780810942202
• ISBN10: 0810942208
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Summary

Answers questions about when, where, how, & even why a piece of furniture was made, covering three centuries of changing styles.

Table of Contents

Dating by Styles	7	(1)
Acknowledgments	8	(2)
Introduction	10	(1)
A Book About Looking	11	(6)
Wood: How It Affects Design and Signals the Authentic and the Fake	17	(10)
``Buy It Ratty and Leave It Alone'' Revisited	27	(6)
Ratty: A Case Study	33	(8)
The Seventeenth Century	40	(1)
Order and Integration	41	(6)
Which Chair Is a Fake and Why?	47	(4)
The Immediate Beauty of Hadley Chests	51	(4)
Early Repainting	55	(4)
The William and Mary Style	58	(1)
Tall and Precarious	59	(10)
American Freedom	69	(8)
The Queen Anne Style	72	(5)
Besotted by the Beauty of a Queen Anne Leg	77	(18)
Bold Boston Forms	95	(6)
Mixing New with Old	101	(6)
Enriched Surfaces: Imitating Expensive Surfaces and Transforming Awkward Forms	107	(4)
The Rococo Period and Chippendale Style	110	(1)
Rococo in America	111	(4)
Urban: Elaborate, Plain, and Vernacular	115	(10)
Regional Differences: Massachusetts and Philadelphia Chairs	125	(6)
Urban and Rural Case Pieces: Elaborate and Plain	131	(14)
A Connecticut Maker's Transference of Philadelphia High-Style Forms	145	(6)
The Value of a Trained Eye	151	(4)
Uniqueness, Rarity, and the Marketing of Newport Masterpieces in the 1990s	155	(12)
Two Phases of the Federal Period	162	(5)
The Neoclassical Style	167	(4)
Neoclassical Chairs	171	(6)
The Late Neoclassical Look: Greater Mass and Movement	177	(2)
Multi-Part Dining Tables	179	(4)
The Greco-Roman Style	183	(8)
The French Connection	191	(4)
Rural Freedom	195	(2)
Rural Vernacular Neoclassicism	197	(6)
Classicism and the Shakers	203	(8)
Modern Practices	210	(1)
A Plethora of Styles and the Revival of American Designs	211	(7)
Conclusion	218	(2)
Notes	220	(5)
Bibliography	225	(3)
Index	228