A Trained Eye

For the student and lover of old furniture, or for the collector of antiques, there is no asset more useful than a trained eye, quick to detect and remember the slightest variation of line or proportion. such practice of critical scrutiny incalculably benefits the sense of appreciation and further more stands one in good stead in a thousand other ways.

It is not too much to say that anyone who thoroughly knows the contours of furniture in its successive periods, and has conscientiously followed the steps of its evolution, has learned the most important part of the whole subject and gained a grasp and mastery of which no expert need feel ashamed.

To the practiced observer of contour, the Flemish scroll legs of late Carolean chairs, the cup-turned legs of William and Mary highboys and tables or the bun feet of their cabinets, the broken swan-neck pediments and cabriole legs of Queen Anne's reign, the bombé fronts of Chippendale's French work, the serpentine fronts or the tapered legs and spade feet of Hepplewhite's dainty productions, all mean infinitely more than they do to someone who is not in the habit of observing.

Understanding these details will allow a collector of antique Furniture to have an assurance and confidence in his own judgement that he may rely on, in large part, while growing his collection.

Evolution of Period Furniture

Identifying period furniture becomes somewhat easier if you remember that furniture is subject to the same laws of gradual change and development that we find in everything else, one type merging almost imperceptibly into another. In almost every instance there are numerous cases of overlapping between consecutive periods.

It is by FORM that we most quickly recognize things, and even a novice, by giving a little study to chronology and illustration, will find himself growing familiar with the shapes of each period so that soon the whole field will lie out simply before him as a well-marked map.

Styles that matured in periods in the periods where they are considered typical often will have begun their evolution towards the close of the preceding epoch.

Persistence in the types and forms far beyond periods in which they were representative, by duplicating old models, is evens more noticeable than cases of premature arrival.

This is naturally to be expected in country districts where local furniture makers and joiners, far removed from urban centers where new ideas were taking root, just went on copying the objects they had before them with little or no innovation. Oak settles of Cromwellian pattern were thus made during the reign of Queen Anne and even in that of George I.

This tendency to overlap in both directions need not disturb our classifications, however, as they are merely the exceptions that prove the well-established rule.