The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and WaysMoore, N. Hudson
History
The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and Ways
Moore, N. Hudson
Furniture
One of the handsomest knife-boxes is an urn-shaped one which has
been noted as made also by Hepplewhite. It is wrought in mahogany,
the veneer made in pie-shaped pieces, each bit being outlined with a
delicate line of hollywood. The knives were held in a perforated rack
inside, with the handles up, and a pair of these boxes on either end
of the sideboard made a very ornamental finish. Another shape also in
vogue was more box-like in shape, the cover sloping toward the front.
Not only knives, but spoons also, were held in the racks with which
the interior was fitted; and as these latter were put in bowls up, the
cases, when open, showed to excellent advantage the worldly wealth of
the household, and were ornamental besides. Sometimes the covers of
these boxes set back flat against a portion of the top, and made a
tray on which could be placed silver cups, mugs, posset-pots, ewers,
or any pieces of table silver of moderate size. Then there were the
wine-boxes, or wine-coolers as they were often called, handsome massive
boxes of wood, generally mahogany, or whatever wood the sideboard was
made of. They stood beneath it, or, if the sideboard was low, at one
side. The usual number of bottles they contained was from four to a
dozen. General Washington's wine-box has room for eighteen bottles.
There are still a dozen of the original bottles in it, holding a gallon
each. We should call them decanters, for they are of handsome cut glass.
There is a letter from General Washington to Colonel Hamilton in the
possession of Major Church of Rochester, N. Y., presenting him with
a wine-cooler, "holding six bottles ... one of four which I imported
during my term of governmental administration."
A more usual style of sideboard, Sheraton pattern, is that given
in Figure 38. This handsome and useful piece of furniture had its
counterparts in many of the stately old houses from the Carolinas up.
It is of the swell-front type and has five deep drawers and a closet.
The wood is mahogany and without inlay. This sideboard is at the
Whipple House, Ipswich, Mass.
[Illustration: Figure 39. EMPIRE SOFA.]
[Illustration: Figure 40. EMPIRE SOFA.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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