Book Excerpts
By the middle of the 19th century the Industrial Revolution was in full swing and the factory system was overtaking furniture production. The old style hardware arrangements of Federal beds and Empire beds was very time consuming. Exact holes had to be drilled and nuts implanted in exact places. Everything had to be done so skillfully and individually that it just didn’t fit the new system.
A new type of bed fastener using downward facing iron mortise and tenon joints had been developed in the 1820’s but the idea of interlocking metal pieces did not receive wide-spread attention until mid century. By then the hardware had gone through another evolution and resembling square cast iron cleats with enlarged square heads protruding from the end of the side rail. These cleats engaged another cast iron device, attached to the headboard and footboard, which had matching square holes atop a slot. When the cleats entered the square holes, their shafts slid down the slots and the downward pressure held the bed together.
The visible part of the hardware, the protruding cleats, didn’t reveal the true ingenuity behind the hardware. When a wooden cover is removed from the end of a Victorian side rail the real secret is revealed - the horseshoe. The cleats actually are part of what looks like a horseshoe with the end closed. This “D” shaped appliance was then inserted in a race cut into the side rail by a mechanical drill with the top side flush to the rail and the cleats extending beyond the end. When the wooden cover was applied nothing was visible, or accessible to tear bed linens, except the cleats.
Some versions of the same idea merely drove cast iron spikes with the enlarged square heads directly into the side rail but this was not as reliable or sturdy a system as the horseshoe arrangement although it did use less metal.
In any event, here was the perfect factory adaptation for making beds. The hardware could be mass produced from molds in a foundry with each horseshoe and each receiver turning out identical. The horseshoe could then be installed in a race that was perfectly cut every time by a mechanical drill press.  After that it was covered by a piece of wood cut by a circular saw and nailed over the hardware with fasteners (nails) cut by machinery.
By the mid 1800’s, cast iron bed hardware became the norm. The most prevalent in the Victorian era was the “horseshoe” seen on the lower right. This appliance was installed in the side rail (top) in a circular groove, the race, and was covered by a small board. The exposed ends of the horseshoe engaged the fitting on the left which was implanted in the head and foot posts. A variation of the horseshoe was the straight spike, center, which was driven into a pilot hole in the siderail.
Three layer plywood came into use around the turn of the 20th century primarily as drawer bottoms and mirror backs. This early version of plywood employed a nice face of walnut, mahogany or maple for interior drawer use but it was not substantial enough to be used for structural surfaces.
Early in the 20th century the idea of “lumber core” plywood became the norm in the manufactured furniture industry in America. This new “wood” started with a solid lumber core of an inexpensive wood such as gum or poplar which was very nearly the thickness of the anticipated finished panels. In some cases oak was used even then as the core on better grades of furniture. Then cross bands of veneer, also of an inexpensive wood, roughly 1/20 inch were applied to both sides of the core with the grain running at a ninety degree angle to the grain of the core.
Finally the piece was finished off with the application of another layer of cheap veneer on the bottom of the panel and a layer of face veneer, usually mahogany or walnut, on the top surface with the grain running in the same direction as that of the core. The resulting five layer veneer sandwich was now stable enough to be used as a table top, dresser top or drawer front. This lumber core plywood was the foundation for most American furniture manufactured from 1920 to 1960. Non structural elements like the sides and backs of case goods and interior drawer dividers and dust covers continued to be made of three ply material while some high grade manufacturers used as many as eleven plies in curved applications like bowfront drawers and doors.
The development of lumber core plywood early in the 20th century is the basis for most furniture produced since then. It starts with a thick solid core of an inexpensive wood. Four additional layers of veneer, with their grain patterns at right angles to each other finish the construction, producing an extremely stable flat surface.
The word “rococo” is derived from the words for the rocks and shells used to build the garden retreats of Versailles in the 18th century, “rocailles” and “coquilles”. This elaborately decorative style progressed to furniture in the form of elegant carvings of flora and fauna, graceful curves in frames and a general air of opulence.
Rococo is the form most usually represented as being the “Victorian” style and was produced longer than any other style in the century.
One of the main designers and builders in the rococo style was the New York cabinetmaker John Henry Belter who trained in Germany where he learned the technique of lamination. He glued together as many as sixteen very thin strips of rosewood and oak to make a surface strong enough to withstand the elaborate pierced carvings that were his hallmark. His chairs and sofas were surrounded by a halo of carved, flowing vines, leaves, flowers and fruit.
While Belter’s work represented the top of the scale in rococo furniture, quite lower scale, inexpensive versions were being produced in factories all over the country with shallow machine carvings and clumsy lines.
One of the most recognizable forms of the rococo period is the Victorian balloon back chair, named for its resemblance to a hot air balloon. Chairs and sofas in this style are still being produced today.
The main woods of the rococo style were walnut at the lower end of the scale and rosewood at the upper levels.
This is an elegant example of Rococo styling by J. and J.W. Meeks. They used lamination to produce a background stable enough for the elaborate pierced carvings. J. H. Belter was also a master of this technique, often being credited (erroneously) with the concept of lamination. (Flomaton Antique Auction). |
