Let’s start with one of North America’s oldest furniture styles, the so-called Pilgrim or Puritan style, beginning in the early 1600s. Most of the folks of this period were VERY recent arrivals and the furniture they crafted for themselves had a very familiar look to it. After taking into account what might be called “regional influences”—meaning the Colonies—the style itself is essentially “Jacobean,” that catch-all Latin term referring to England in the time of King James I, Charles I, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, Charles II and James II. In other words, most of the 17th century until William and Mary came along, circa. 1688. The furniture was blocky, big, solid, dark and ungainly, mostly made of oak—just like at home. The Colonists were true to their heritage.

Early in the 18th century the effects of the William and Mary reign became felt in American furniture thought. It took a few years to get here, but the Colonies always lagged behind, transportation being what it was. The Dutch craftsmen employed by William introduced a new, lighter, more comfortable form with bun—or Spanish—feet, elegant turnings and decorations and teardrop pulls, and they influenced Colonial furniture in turn. Some of America’s most prized antiques are Colonial interpretations of William and Mary.

This William & Mary highboy shows the verticality of the new form in the late 17th century.

After William’s death in 1702, Mary’s little sister Anne became Queen of England and the Colonies dutifully imported (belatedly of course) the newest style named after the new queen. The QA style was slim and elegant with graceful curves, subtle decoration, slipper or pad feet and valanced skirts, all in all a very feminine form. This English style also created some of America’s most cherished works.

Just as Thomas Chippendale borrowed the QA style in 1750, adding dog ears, pierced splats and heavy acanthus carving and calling it his own, the Colonies borrowed the new style from Thomas and used it right into the Revolution, being careful not to call it “Georgian,” as the later version of the style was known in England.

A Philadelphia chair circa 1776 shows the rococo changes Chippendale made to the basic Queen Anne chair.

At long last, the Revolution! Surely, this called for a new American styling and so it was called “Federal,” in honor of the new country based on federal, rather than royal principles. So who were the great designers and builders of America’s new furniture? Among the strong stylistic influences were George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton, respected English designers of the period. Also prominent were the Adam brothers, Robert and James, Scottish architects greatly influenced by first century Roman architecture.

The end of a D-end Federal period banquet table shows the influence of Thomas Sheraton in the tapered legs.

On this side of the Atlantic, the best known practitioner of Federal was the Scotsman residing in New York named Duncan Phyfe, whose work was influenced by the early traditional English designers, but also by the Directoire and Empire of France and the Regency of England. Phyfe’s contemporary, Charles-Honore’ Lannuier, recently arrived from France and worked in the Directoire and later Empire field as his contribution to Federal furniture.

By the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, the facade of Federal had fallen to the unabashed Europhile Empire style; Napoleon’s only lasting positive contribution to the world. He had directed his architects to develop a new style for his “Empire,” which they enthusiastically did, combining classical motifs from Egypt and Greece with animistic additions such as carved animal feet and wings. Napoleon of course didn’t make it, but his style survived in England, modified only slightly, as Regency, and in America first as Empire and then in later versions as “Late Classicism” or “Restauration” as late as mid-century.

This classic Empire chair was made by Duncan Phyfe, circa 1820. (Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences photo).

Victoria became queen of England in 1837, and that started a 60-year binge of digging up and recycling styles of the past, politely called “revivals” under the umbrella label of “Victorian,” and America joined the bandwagon. Major revivals of style included Rococo-Louis XV, the revival of a phase of European art of the 18th century featuring rocks (rocailles) and shells (coquilles), Renaissance, a revival of 15th and 16th century Italian styles, Gothic, a revival of 15th century styles which was itself a revival of the 9th century as well as other lesser known revivals.

This chair by Belter illustrates the decorative flavor of the Rococo Revival of the mid 19th century.

A Renaissance Revival bed, circa 1875, reflects the architectural element of the style.

It also included a newer form based on the architectural concepts of an Englishman named Charles Locke Eastlake, whose idea of linear simplicity was driven to absurdity by American factory designers.

A reaction to all this elaborate revival erupted in Europe in the late 19th century, led mainly by William Morris in England and produced the Arts and Crafts movement, quickly embraced in America by Elbert Hubbard who started the Roycroft colony in Aurora, New York, by the Stickley family and by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Thus, it appears that for most of America’s existence, we have mooched our styles from abroad. Then, at last, came the great American contribution to American furniture: In the latter part of the 19th century we started to reproduce our own borrowed history and in the process accidentally produced the one true American style—Colonial Revival.

This 1930s table shows the creative redesign of Colonial styles in this Colonial Revival Depression era interpretation of the Jacobean style. This was our new style.

Fred Taylor is a Worthologist who specializes in American furniture from the Late Classicism period (1830-1850).

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17 + $3 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor ($25 + $3 S&H) are also available at the same address.

For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info@furnituredetective.com.

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An amethyst-colored Victorian lady’s flask found during a bottle dig at a site where an outhouse once sat. The owner of the flask used WorthPoint’s Ask a Worthologist service to determine its idently and fair-market value.

WorthPoint member Suzanne from Massachusetts must have had that same rush of excitement when, in 1980, when she found an incredible, cut-glass flask with a sterling top. Suzanne told me that she found the flask during a bottle dig. You must be thinking, “a big hole with a bunch of bottles just waiting to be discovered? “ And then think, “How did those bottles get there?”

Bottle digs are mostly nothing more than the excavation of an outhouse. There were no weekly garbage pickups. Much of the everyday trash was placed in the outhouse. Outhouse were known by many different names: Nessy, Privy, Thunder Box, Crapper, Back House; whatever it was called, they all served the same purpose. Every house and business had one prior to indoor running water and plumbing. Enquiring minds: Yes, everything that can decompose has decomposed over time.

The valuation on Suzanne’s flask was done by Audra Blevens, a generalist Worthologist for WorthPoint. The flask that Suzanne found was a ladies flask, very ornate, with a sterling hinged top. The glass flask was made of a layer of amethyst-colored glass and a layer of clear glass. The design is made when the amethyst layer was cut away to reveal the clear glass. There are English Hallmarks in the silver top, which dates the flask to Birmingham, England, and the year 1901. The maker’s marks B&F remain unidentified, but a fair market value of $300 to $350 was placed on the flask. Today flasks are highly desirable and collected, particularly ladies’ flasks, which were very ornate.

Some examples of Victorian ladies’ flasks. These items are available for purchase on GoAntiques.

Ladies did have flasks. There were many different reasons for ladies to carry a pocket flask like the one Suzanne found. Apparently, there was much more imbibing going on than is generally thought. Social drinking was widely acceptable in Victorian times, and doctors frequently prescribed alcoholic beverages to alleviate a host of ailments. It would be quite reasonable for a lady to have a flask full of brandy, gin, absinthe or any numbers of homemade or quack cures. Laudanum, a liquid made of opium and alcohol, was prescribed for pain, as a cough suppressant, for sleeping problems and to calm down fussy babies. Many doctors neglected to inform their patients that laudanum was highly addictive, which is just one more reason to carry a flask.

Who knows how that flask ended up where it did at the bottle dig. It could have been secretly hidden away in the Privy for years and forgotten, or dropped in the hole by mistake, with the owner not daring to go in after it. Perhaps, during prohibition, someone felt the need to discard it. However the flask landed where it did, Suzanne was very happy to have found it and is happy knowing just a little bit of history about it. If only the flask could talk.

If you have an item you’d like to know more about, Ask a Worthologist.

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