Early American Furniture

Early American furniture, furniture made in the last half of the 17th century by American colonists. The earliest known American-made furniture dates from the mid-17th century, when life in the colonies was becoming increasingly settled. Many of these early pieces were massive in size and were based on styles recalled from earlier days in England. In general, furniture styles followed those of England, with adaptations, after an interval of about 15 years. Instead of shaped legs or feet, American case furniture had legs and feet that were simply downward extensions of the rectangular styles. Decoration consisted of carved flower motifs or lunettes (crescent shapes) and chip carved (executed with mallet and chisel) scrolls and leaves, occasionally highlighted by painting, mainly in black, red, and yellow; but the carving was flatter, less finished, and more primitive than its English predecessors. Turned (shaped on a lathe) split balusters stained to look like ebony were also applied. Joinery was confined to simple rectangular panelling with mortise and tenon joints. Oak and pine were the commonest woods.

In view of the still-unsettled existence of the early colonists, chests assumed particular importance because of their portability. The Connecticut and Hadley chests were clearly variants, their carved leaf, flower, and vine ornament bearing a marked Dutch flavour. Important, too, in wealthier households, was the court cupboard for storing utensils and the press cupboard for storing clothes and linen. Trestle tables, which could be dismantled easily, were in everyday use; and the stretcher tables—large rectangular tables with turned baluster legs joined by stretchers—served as dining or centre tables among better furnishings. Joint stools (small rectangular stools with four turned legs joined with stretchers) were the commonest form of seating, but Brewster and Carver chairs also came into use, the most popular chairs being simplified versions of English turned chairs. Chairs with slung leather seats of the Cromwellian type were used in more comfortable homes by the late years of the century. Most early beds had simple, low turned posts and plain, low headboards.

Regional characteristics appeared at an early stage and are best represented in furniture surviving from the 17th century by the contrast between the chests from the Connecticut River valley mentioned above and the more austere varieties of the Massachusetts coastal settlements—sometimes painted but characterized particularly by severe, geometric carved lozenges and friezes of overlapping lunettes.