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Traditional Revival. Shop Update & Recapping Federal. Season 2, Episode 39.
45 Plays3 years ago
This week we give you a shop update and a refresher on Federal furniture.
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Greene Street Joinery is a custom design & build shop located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. We build multigenerational furniture with an eco-friendly and sustainable mindset.
Inspired and guided by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, we believe in the use of traditional craftsmanship and simple, well-proportioned forms; sustainability and ethical practices; and importantly, taking pleasure in our work as craftsmen to create quality pieces of enduring value.
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Transcript
Episode Catch-up & Walnut Cabinet Discussion
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome back.
00:00:26
Speaker
We're here, episode 39. Yeah, a lot's been going on. Yeah. I mean, we're super busy. Oh yeah. Busy for the next six months. Yeah. Maybe we'll, maybe we'll catch up a little bit with the listeners out there. Yeah. Give everybody a little look into what's been going on in the shop.
00:00:49
Speaker
Yeah, so let's see this isn't too far out. This is actually will be coming out a week from tomorrow. So yeah. So when you're listening to this, this week we delivered the big walnut cabinet.
00:01:05
Speaker
You know, paint it on the outside with the doors. Everybody's got a problem with that. That's how I designed it. And you can deal with it. Yeah. Because we're going to make it out of plywood. I know. What's the difference? You know, as far as like, you know, the final appearance of it, right? You know, yeah.
00:01:27
Speaker
How am I going to get a walnut inside and paint it outside without building out a walnut? There's no two ways, but people wouldn't have a problem if it was made out of plywood. I guess. Build it out of a... Yeah, I don't know. Solid walnut interior with plywood on the outside? Yeah, that wouldn't work, because then we get into all the movement issues. You know how...
00:01:57
Speaker
So yeah, we're getting into that. And then tomorrow
Upcoming Projects & New Equipment
00:02:01
Speaker
for us last week for you, we're going up to the next job that we're going to be working on. We got to verify in the field, you know, a bunch of measurements be doing, you know, let's see 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, a hundred some odd linear feed of faux beams, a bank cat.
00:02:21
Speaker
a bench, fireplace around, the fall beams are like what, 14 feet in the air? Yeah, the ridge is about 14 feet. So that's like a 35 foot ridge beam and then eight.
00:02:38
Speaker
eight full rafters. Manny and Brian have been working on the steel sculpture for that. We got to get glass for that. I forgot. For the bar, cabinet is by somebody else. So we got that job. We got to get moving on that because we're installing that in less than a month.
00:02:59
Speaker
We're also building a sectional sofa for that, which is going to bring up the gym up in Jersey City to be upholstered. We're building like the caucus, the plywood caucus of an upholstered piece. But it's like five or six pieces, if I remember the drawings. Yeah. One, two, three, four, five.
00:03:17
Speaker
So it's a four piece sectional with a like a integrated table kind of thing that slides. So that should be cool. Then we got a little basement job. We're building like a suite of cabinets for that. Trying to pry some information out of them as to the hardware that they want. I don't know what's so difficult about it. Brown Modern.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Then I guess after that, probably getting into the boxes, which we started, you know, doing sort of some setup for. Yeah, we got a new, I won't call it a toy, we got a new machine, a serious machine. Yeah, so yesterday we got our laser Boss LS1630.
00:04:05
Speaker
Yeah. Crated. It was about 800 pounds. And the truck driver sneered at us. They all do. Yes, they all do. You know, how are you going to do that? For those that don't know, the shop is behind my house. So you got to go. How long is the driveway? About 200 feet, maybe? Yeah. I mean, it's maybe 100 yards total from the street all the way back to the show. So that's so 300 feet. It's a gravel driveway.
00:04:36
Speaker
Sounds like a helicopter. Sounds like it's in my basement. Yeah. Um, so we don't have a forklift, you know, we have to bring whatever is out there on the street back to the shop, whether that's by offloading it into our van or your pickup truck and hooker by crook. And in this case, we have a little flat bed trail or something like you'd see people bringing like yard equipment on nothing heavy duty, just a,
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's a four by eight single axle. I think it's from Harbor Freight. We bought used like it comes in like a box and you put it together. Yeah.
00:05:11
Speaker
but we keep it behind the shop and it's come in handy countless times. Oh yeah. We've moved almost everything with that. So they come and we asked for a lift gate and they, they act like we're supposed to have a forklift, even though we paid for a lift gate. It's like, no, that's why we paid for lift gate service. Right. Well, I can't put that down on that trail. You know, what cracked me up is he goes, it's not really made to lift. It's made to go down. I'm like, it's called a lift gate.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:45
Speaker
I mean, every truck driver, except the ones that come to us regularly, they always put up a fuss every time they got to do a little bit of thinking or... And we didn't even worry about asking them to do anything, you know? Like just, okay, put it on the liftgate. Yeah. And then back the truck up to the trailer, drop the liftgate, and we're going to shove it onto the trailer. Yeah. And that's exactly what we did. I told him, I said, it's not our first rodeo. We've done this about a half a dozen times with things that are bigger than this. Yes.
00:06:13
Speaker
We got the wide belt sander on there and that thing was so top heavy. It was like, you know, 24 by 24 by eight feet high. Yes. With a lot of weight up top. Yeah.
00:06:28
Speaker
Um, so we, we get it, we uncrate it and you know, we're slow and methodical and we look at it and we say, how should we do this? And, uh, there's the wife, uh, and we got it into the shop and fired it up. Yeah. I had a little bit of damage. The, uh, one of the, the feet and it has, you know, leveling big leveling feet, like three foot diameter leveling feet and, and casters, four inch casters or something.
00:06:57
Speaker
had actually gone through the bottom of the crate where there wasn't a skid. I don't know if it shifted or what. And the one caster got damaged. We got a new one on the way. So nothing, no big issue. I mean, we were able to push it into the shop. It wasn't, it just kind of, you know, when you get a caster that doesn't really move right anymore.
00:07:19
Speaker
So we could just lift up that leveling leg, we'll put the new caster on, it'll be a five minute fix. They sent us a new focal lens, also for free as sort of a little token of their appreciation.
00:07:35
Speaker
Yeah, I have to say a really good customer service over there. Steven is a gentleman we were dealing with. First time I called, I didn't know anything. He walked me through the different lasers, the sizes, the capabilities, then ended up calling back and talking to him to actually order the one that we decided to go with, which wasn't even one that we had spoken about originally.
00:07:59
Speaker
Super fast, I mean they built so they all the components and everything are made it overseas and then they assemble them in Florida and You know run tests and everything. So it's It's not made in the USA. It's like one of those like global materials things I guess embled in the USA. Yeah
Collaborations & Big Jobs Discussion
00:08:24
Speaker
you know, and it's an expensive laser. So unless you want to spend $20,000 on a laser, it's probably about as good as you're going to get is, is assembled here. Um, it looks really nice. Like inside all the servo motors and all the fit and finish is really nice. It doesn't have that stink on it. Like stuff.
00:08:42
Speaker
I mean, if you've ever bought anything like my 3D printers, I mean, they've reeked, they smell horrible. I don't know what it is. Something happens on the boat. Yeah, I think, you know, they code everything in these sort of like anti-corrosion things, because who knows, it might be stuck out on a shipping, in a shipping container for a month out at sea. But yeah, I mean, I don't know, seem pretty happy. We're still figuring it out. We really don't know what the hell we're doing.
00:09:13
Speaker
I just said to Chad, you know, it doesn't seem like there's like a lot of good information on the internet, at least where I'm looking, like YouTube. There's not, there's only a couple people really doing videos about lasers and these type of lasers specifically. So I don't know, it's a little trial and error. Maybe we could reach out to Steven. Yeah. He might have some advice because they seem to know the machines pretty well. So we went with this because
00:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, we're getting there though.
00:09:41
Speaker
Uh, we figured we're going to need customer service and having us based customer service going to make things a lot easier. Like you call in and somebody picks up the phone. Like it's not even like there's no automated thing at all. It's like dial the number. Hello, boss laser. Not like thank you for calling boss laser. Please listen to our menu. The following options. If you need a new lens, press three. Yeah.
00:10:07
Speaker
So that's good. I mean, that's worth its weight in gold. Yeah. Yeah. You know, most of the times you get what you pay for. Yeah. So, I mean, it wasn't cheap. It was 11,000 bucks, but I think it'll be worth it. We got it. We're pretty close to where we want to be on the boxes. You know, we dove in headfirst and started cutting stuff.
00:10:26
Speaker
to get geared up for these boxes because once we start we don't want to be once we start we want to be started yeah like like oh we got to do a test and this and that no we want to just jump in and do it make a thousand of these boxes I guess we didn't talk about that if if you don't know so I guess some people don't follow us on social media
00:10:50
Speaker
We're building a thousand finger-jointed boxes. They're salt sellers made to hold your, you know, salt for cooking.
00:10:57
Speaker
It's a collaboration with Three Dot Wood Design, which is a collaborative effort of Adam and Brad, Adam Papanester and Brad Leone. Brad Leone is, I guess he's still part of Bon Appetit. As far as I know, he was like the kitchen manager at Bon Appetit, which is, you know, very famous magazine, cooking magazine, and they have all these web series and stuff, which he sort of break out star from.
00:11:27
Speaker
And Ken Kenji Lopez who's another chef and $25 out of every box was donated to no kid hungry. So $25,000 got donated to no kid hungry, you know in the effort to combat childhood hunger.
00:11:45
Speaker
So yeah, we're building a thousand of them. They're already, they're sold. They sold in 24 hours. Yeah. So it won't be the, won't be the last, you know, we'll definitely be doing another run of at least a thousand. I think we'll get our practice in on this thousand. Yeah. Maybe we could do 7,000 in a week, sell seven, sell 7,000.
00:12:05
Speaker
We won't be able to make them in a week. Oh, no, definitely not we're figuring it's gonna take a month. Yeah to make a thousand so Yeah, we'll see that's what 50 a day 50 a day Put it that way We could do it. Yeah Gonna be a lot of cutting at first then once they're all cut, you know cutting assembled
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, no, no two ways about it. It's a lot of work. Oh yeah. Um, so yeah, after that, those will be for like a early November delivery. Hopefully sooner. Hopefully we can get them done sooner for him. Um,
00:12:45
Speaker
We have big job, real big job in the Hamptons now. It's gotten even bigger. The clients came today. We talked about some more stuff. I've got to price out a couple more things. Two units flanking a fireplace in a great room, matching mirrored images, two vanities, a big ninth of vanity, just a regular 24-inch vanity, big walnut countertops, maple countertop,
00:13:15
Speaker
Foyer coat cloth, you know, like a freestanding coat closet piece of furniture So yeah, it's another big one We're gonna have to run a truck to get it all out there. Yeah Yeah, I mean the van is big but we they're not gonna be able to get all that in there No, especially with all our tools and everything too. Mm-hmm Yeah holiday in the Hamptons Yeah
00:13:43
Speaker
Hopefully it doesn't snow. Yeah. Uh, you know what I'm looking forward to? What's a stopping in Brooklyn for the culinary tour. We're not going to be time. We're going to have to leave extra early. Like a four hour drive. Yeah. We're going to have to stop a rolling roaster. It's right on the way.
00:14:04
Speaker
I mean, that's like one of those roast beef sandwiches. They dip the bun right into the juice. Oh, man. It's so good. I'm not gonna be able to work after that. We had to hit on the way back. Yeah. And then the fries with cheese, that fake cheese sauce. Oh, God.
00:14:22
Speaker
Oh man. It's good. It's good. Yeah. And then that, that'll put us into 2023. We have another job that Donnie Douglas wasn't too happy to hear that we're booking for next year. Yeah. That we're going to have to try and squeeze in there somewhere. And it's not, not that small of a job. No, I don't know how they're going to have to add another month to the calendar. Be working nights and weekends. It looks like you're going to have to pay us overtime. Yeah.
00:14:54
Speaker
Triple time. That's right. You know, hazard
Promotions & Product Endorsements
00:15:00
Speaker
pay.
00:15:02
Speaker
So yeah, there's your 15 minute recap on what we got going on. Oh, you know, we didn't do, you can talk about bits and bits. We didn't think bits and bits. What do you know about bits and bits? I know that they are, um, uh, one of the, well, not one of, they are the only company that has a proprietary coding and Astra coding that they apply to their own bits as well as white side bits. That's right.
00:15:27
Speaker
And they actually manufacture their own spiral bits from 1 32nd cut to half inch cut. And they also sell Festool accessories.
00:15:41
Speaker
your dominoes and such, your festival consumables, router accessories, domino accessories, all that kinds of good stuff. And if you use our coupon code American Craftsman, you can save 15% over on their website. They're US located, so they're good local. Yeah, they're out in Oregon, super fast shipping. We always get their stuff really fast.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's our go-to spot for for router bits and that's exactly the truth I mean we use them we need a bit we just we don't really need to shop around
00:16:13
Speaker
Yeah, they always have, I mean, obviously you want to use our coupon code, but they always have a good coupon code. So you always, you know, knock off 15% off your order. So the prices are really good. Whiteside bits are not cheap and their bits, their bits are actually really, really well priced. But yeah, you know, when you're buying $150, $100 router bit to knock off 15% is, it's really good. So it is.
00:16:38
Speaker
Check them out. Stop using that crap from Home Depot. That's burned up after one shot. These, you know, you can get them sharpened the last way longer before they ever need to be sharpened. So they, they pay for themselves, especially if you're running a CNC router, anything like that. They have all the feeds and speeds, all that kind of stuff. So check them out. Just in general, the, the, the Astra coding is a biggie because it keeps
00:17:02
Speaker
Keeps a bit. It's cooler. Yep. And if you've ever had a bit from, let's say like, um, I guess I shouldn't say a name, but from depot, you know, one of the, one of the inexpensive purveyors of, uh, bits and things like that.
00:17:20
Speaker
use it
Exploration of Federal Period Design
00:17:21
Speaker
once or twice and it's got that burned edge on it. It's like anodized. It's useless then after that. So what's the point? Not only are you wasting your money, but you're throwing that now in the landfill.
00:17:37
Speaker
or in a drawer like us, and then you have a drawer with 300 router bits in it. You got to get rid of every single one of them because they're just all junk. So we're slowly as we need. We just buy a good bits and bits router bit and stick it in the drawer. And you know, then you don't need to have as much around. Yes. Streamline. So back to
00:18:04
Speaker
Traditional revival. Traditional revival. We're talking about the federal period today. Yeah. Just to sort of bring everybody back up to speed, what was traditional revival? It was a design period from around 1920 to 1950, where they ran out of ideas. That post-war, you know, they were just totally shot out.
00:18:29
Speaker
I mean, cut them a little bit of break. They did roll through the depression. Yeah. And, you know, come off of World War One. Then two. Then? Yeah. Three of them were, I guess, was late 50s. Yeah, yeah. Coming out of World War Two, actually, a lot of that spurred, you know, what went into the modern. Yeah.
00:18:52
Speaker
because, you know, like all the stuff that they developed for the war effort in World War Two. But the traditional revival was primarily a revival of the colonial and federal periods, although they beg borrowed and stole from everything that preceded them. The main difference being they did it really in a hacky kind of fashion.
00:19:22
Speaker
Like I said last week, the traditional revival never really went away. We kind of used 1950 as the cutoff, but it is very pervasive
00:19:40
Speaker
to this day. I mean, oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, you got a big Bob's furniture, whatever the hell you want to do. And that's what it is. Yeah. Especially if you're like over the age of whatever. Yeah. 65. You're probably, that's probably what you're still buying. Yes. And you grew up with it. That's your normal furniture. You don't even, you just think of it as furniture.
00:20:02
Speaker
You don't even know that it's like a mashup of four or five different legitimate styles that preceded it.
00:20:13
Speaker
I want to sit in the design room when they're like, yeah, I think this and that this. You know what they do. I wish I knew there's this name for writing poetry where you have all these words cut up and you like you just mix them up and put them together. Yeah. That's that's what the design room is like. Yeah. So the platypus of furniture. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:43
Speaker
So what was the federal period and, you know, when was it? Of course, it's referring to the federal period in American history. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution. For those of you who don't remember, a lot of people think that it ended in 1777.
00:21:12
Speaker
you don't remember 10th grade American history. The Treaty of Paris was in 1783. It ended the American Revolution and recognized formally the independence of the United States of America. A new nation is born and
00:21:32
Speaker
The country now is given a chance to begin to build its own government constitution traditions and what we call the federal period begins roughly running from about 1780 to 1820 So who's our first president George Washington and he's elected in 1789 just so
00:22:00
Speaker
again to reiterate, not 1770. Who was the president for those first 12 years? We didn't have one. Who was the president for the first six years? I guess George Washington was just, you know, whatever. He was, you know, they were hashing it all out. John Adams.
00:22:22
Speaker
the second president in 1797 and Jefferson's his vice president. This is like the big names here. You could see Washington actually like handed over the presidency. You know, he, there were no term limits before that. Now we go to eight year, we go to four years for John Adams, eight years for Jefferson, eight years for Madison.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yeah. He didn't want her. They wanted him to keep, you know, staying in office, but he didn't want to. He didn't think it was a good thing for the country. How poignant. I mean, this is, it's happened so many times as we've gone through the podcast, just the character of people compared from today to those times.
00:23:15
Speaker
You know, we have Jefferson, as you said, from 1801 to 1809, and James Madison, 1809 to 1817. Everybody taking the full two terms. Madison is worth mentioning because he co-authored the Federalist Papers with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. And, you know, we're talking about the federal period. It was the Federalist Papers were
00:23:45
Speaker
basically 85 separate essays, and they were written to persuade folks to adopt the Constitution over the Articles of Confederation. Again, we're getting back to 10th grade history, but, you know, one favors, you know, a stronger federal government while the other ones want, you know, the powers to remain mostly in the states. That's the simplest way to put it.
00:24:17
Speaker
So we're back in the federal period. We got the second us census showing a little over 5 million people, 5.3 million people and almost a million slaves. Well, about one in six people are slaves in the eight and 1800.
00:24:36
Speaker
Does that is that three fifth is eight eight eight hundred ninety three thousand three fifths or is it? I think that's a head count. And actually. Yeah. Yeah. Not for voting, you know, purposes. Yeah. Like when they would count population. OK. Yeah. I'm sure if the census, if they took the census numbers and then calculated. Yeah, they did that because they didn't want the south to have more power. Right. Yeah.
00:25:05
Speaker
I mean, it just the hits keep coming, don't they? Yeah. It's these are things we learned in high school, but to think about them as an adult with, you know, knowledge, especially in today's times, you realize how, you know, messed up it really was. And you wonder why we got all this stuff to overcome that we just didn't deal with.
00:25:34
Speaker
The Indiana Territory is formed out of the larger Northwest Territory, and the Treaty of Montefante is signed with France, ending the quasi-war builder.
00:25:51
Speaker
It was an undeclared war along the East coast in the Caribbean and it revolved around the US suspending repayment of loans made by France during the revolution. So France loaned us some, some dough during the revolution and we didn't pay it back. That's real nice.
00:26:13
Speaker
Let's see what else happens in, in 1800, we got the industrial revolution. Of course this is, you know, these are roundabout numbers. It wasn't like it didn't start on a specific day, but it's, it's good to know that the industrial revolution is occurring around this time.
00:26:33
Speaker
Because in 1790, we have what we consider one of the first factories in the US. It's a cotton spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. And Rhode Island will become one of the furniture centers, you know, in Newport. Yeah, the Newport Shill. Yeah, that's right.
00:26:54
Speaker
1798, we get the cotton gin. Boy, you like Whitney. That's right. Ruined the middle class. Probably back in 1798. Iron industry starts growing in Pennsylvania.
00:27:08
Speaker
And canal and railway construction really, really changes things. So we're talking about traditional revival, copying everything that came before it. Colonial and federal are the two biggies, but also in there were early American and Pennsylvania Dutch, which
00:27:29
Speaker
doesn't really in my understanding of in everything I see in traditional revival, the Pennsylvania Dutch doesn't really make an appearance. That's probably
Influence of Neoclassicism on American Furniture
00:27:40
Speaker
starting in what the 1960s, 70s, 80s kind of the folk art. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. That's a, that's a good pin out there. The folk art movement.
00:27:54
Speaker
So, what's the characteristics? What are the characteristics of federal furniture and what did the traditional revival latch onto? Of course, we're talking about furniture that was made in the federal period and decorative arts at this time is moving away from the more ornate look of what was the past.
00:28:22
Speaker
away from the heavy carvings, the massive looks of Rococo, the Jacobean, all the things that sort of the colonial furniture we spoke about last week was kind of influenced by even things, you know, by a boy Chippendale, the carvings, the cabrioles, federal stuff.
00:28:52
Speaker
It's characterized by sharp geometric forms. Legs are almost always straight. They're not curved. There's contrasting veneers. Geometric inlay patterns are on otherwise flat surfaces. Really different from that Chippendale piece that we saw to end the show.
00:29:15
Speaker
The legs are one of the most distinctive things I found is when you see a piece that you know is of that time period and it has like fairly skinny, tapered, straight legs, like it's almost always going to be a federal piece. Oh yeah. Or they've taken those federal legs. Right. Yeah, definitely.
00:29:41
Speaker
And like when they had pictorial motifs, it was almost always something referring back to the federal government, like eagles. Stars. Stars, yes. And the geometric shapes were the basic shapes, squares, circles, triangles, rectangles.
00:30:06
Speaker
uh clean edges and um just mirror the text turned to gray yeah i don't know i could yeah it looks like it's right there like am i going blind from the laser um have been staring at that laser for two days yeah right through the glass so it
00:30:26
Speaker
During the federal time, they're trying to create something that seemed contained and rational and all these other things. Intellectual, I guess, might be another way to put it. That's what the world thinks of when they think of the United States. Intellectuals.
00:30:50
Speaker
You know, back then they did, you know, really. I mean, it was a big experiment, you know, in democracy and the form of government. And not everybody was sure that it would survive. But I mean, think about those founding fathers. They all were intellectuals. Yeah.
00:31:15
Speaker
I mean, the writers of the Constitution and even of the articles. So back to federal furniture, it sort of, not sort of it, it obeys the basic aesthetics of classical art and architecture, but with more modern comforts in mind. And when we talk about the classical form, we're usually talking about, you know, Greek and Roman times.
00:31:43
Speaker
Those, again, were defined by the rational use of geometry, strong devotion to symmetry, order, and logic in the design. And they took these elements and translated that into furniture, into chairs, sofas, and tables, things like that. So according to the Columbus Museum,
00:32:11
Speaker
There are several clues that a piece of furniture is from the federal period or at least inspired by it. Contrasted dark and light veneers. Yeah. Light blue interiors. I didn't know that. Still popular ceiling color. Yeah. Yeah. Clean edges and straight lines.
00:32:32
Speaker
And if there's carvings, it'll have things like ribbons and swags, fruit baskets, grapes, wheat
Cultural Shifts in Furniture Design
00:32:44
Speaker
shafts, half moons and eagles, the cornucopia, which is that, I guess that horn bell shaped thing, bell flowers, fans and drapery.
00:33:01
Speaker
Isn't swag and drapery the same thing? Yeah, I guess so. I wonder if drapery would be more like something that was hanging straight down and the swag is the curve, you know? Like we saw the Chippendale One Piece from before with that convex that had swags on it. Yeah. Oh, there's a couple more carvings, urns and shields. Slowing shield. So why?
00:33:30
Speaker
drove the designers and the tastes of, you know, the federal period. So in the mid 18th century, you know, let's say 1750s, Europe is becoming more and more fascinated with ancient Rome. And the reason was they were archeological excavations in 1748 that uncovered the buried city of Pompeii.
00:33:58
Speaker
So it gave people a glimpse into Roman life. And each nation handled this new fascination in a different way. Most Roman monuments are made of stone and even Pompeii preserved little in the way of usable furniture. So how does neoclassicism translate into interior furnishings? You might ask yourself that question. I ask myself it constantly.
00:34:28
Speaker
And for the British, the revival in Roman interest was largely handled by architect Robert Adam, who toured Rome in the 1750s. And he spent time, he observed how the rest of Europe was handling all this neoclassical influence, the movement, and it sort of revitalized the artistic forms of ancient Greece and Rome. Like the Clismos chair.
00:34:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. That's a great example. He brings back what he's seen and learned. You know, we don't have the internet. We don't have any sort of really fast communication. So a lot of this information is funneled through just a few individuals.
00:35:20
Speaker
And Robert Adam goes back and he develops a distinct form of neoclassicism now called the Adamesque, which I never heard of it really. The style was very popular in England. But by that point, the American colonists were starting to reject British ideas. So Adamesque doesn't really enter America until the end of the American Revolution in 1783.
00:35:47
Speaker
They were anti-Adamesque. Yeah, anti-Adamesque. It wasn't because they were interested in modeling themselves off of Britain, but they do start taking an interest in Adamesque because they wanted to model themselves on ancient Rome. Let's hope that story doesn't unfold.
00:36:09
Speaker
in the same fashion. The young American Republic wanted to create a direct parallel between themselves and the last great Republic of European history, the Roman Republic. So in a sense, federalism, a federal design is a look backward to the classic Rome.
00:36:33
Speaker
It does. You know, you could see that influence in it. Yeah. It took the long way around to saying it, but that's really it. American neoclassicism flourished as a way to encourage civic and national pride in the Republic.
00:36:51
Speaker
So, you know, creating a civic society meant filling every aspect with reminders of this proud legacy. And Adam-esque furnishings were adopted, altered, and translated into a distinct version of American neo-classical furniture, perfect for the homes of patriotic Republican citizens.
00:37:16
Speaker
I mean, in today's divisive society, it's very hard to conjure up images of, you know, folks being so cohesive. Yeah, cohesive and proud of the country and everything and enthused. But this federal style, this new federal style... Oh, there we got a faux page 10. Uh-oh.
00:37:45
Speaker
We're at it. We're out of note. This federal style was adopted in a way that people could really get behind. Yeah. Um, it, and it, it's funny to think about how like a design aesthetic could play that role even. Yeah. Now there's no link between, uh,
00:38:13
Speaker
you know, the interior design of your home and the state of the country or your level of patriotism. They're totally not linked right in any way and you would never even think them to be.
00:38:28
Speaker
Right. Nowadays, people signal those things through all sorts of other. Right. I guess. And maybe that's that there's more channels now for, you know, sort of whatever displaying your allegiance to whatever. I mean, think about just how like think about going out on the roadways.
00:38:45
Speaker
Yeah. All the signs and stickers and flags and just even the way your vehicles outfitted, you know, people are really looking to send that message of, you know, what clan they belong to.
00:39:00
Speaker
Hopefully it's not with a K was that a faux pas? It was like a Freudian slip. Freudian slip. Yes. Yes. That's exactly that. That was a Freudian slip because, you know, unfortunately that's kind of, you know, where a lot of that stuff leads.
00:39:19
Speaker
Yeah. And on both sides, you know, on both sides. On all sides, yes. Extreme is just the easiest one to point out. Yeah. Yeah. Back then, you didn't have your horse and buggy with a George Washington sticker on the back. Right. Right.
00:39:37
Speaker
You know, I suppose if you could afford like a new piece of furniture, you wouldn't go for something that screamed European influence, right? Because when people come to your house, they think, oh, man, what's up with Rob? He's got this freaking Caroline. Yeah. Was he a loyalist? Yeah, right.
00:39:56
Speaker
Um, you know, so you'd want something of the federal period, want something with an eagle emblazoned on it. Um, you know, so yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. Um, so what do you see as far as traditional revival and the federal period? What, you see any links there? Like if you think in your mind's eye, um,
00:40:25
Speaker
like in terms of like the signaling or anything like that. I tend to see it more like the colonial actually if we were like wrapping it up. Yeah. I mean to me like I really think of like that Queen Anne kind of style when I think of this, this traditional revival stuff.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah, it is a little frou frou, you know, it's got a lot going on. Yeah, definitely. I guess the carvings are more akin to like sort of the colonial stuff, these flat, more flat kind of things. But a lot of kind of bulbous turnings and, you know, all like the the scrolled aprons and stuff from the Queen Anne. Yeah.
Future of Traditional Revival Furniture
00:41:07
Speaker
I couldn't find any real surviving examples of like traditional revival of that time period like the 1920s to the 1950s that exemplified
00:41:21
Speaker
federal period furniture, you know, with those tapered legs and how they have like the marquetry on the legs for the nicer pieces, you know, the contrasting veneer workers. That little scallop is kind of, I don't know what you would call that, that relief that starts, you know, like six inches up from the bottom of the leg and goes up.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think maybe they're so dumbed down and they've been mixed with probably, and this is, I haven't really seen things that are that old, like 20s to 50s, but thinking more about the furniture I saw in my childhood, like the 90s, whatever.
00:42:01
Speaker
you know, things that were mixed with, you know, thin tapered legs mixed with sort of a more Victorian thing with, you know, I think it just got so mashed up that. Yeah, I mean, calling something traditional revival pretty much leaves you open to just about anything. Yeah. It's like transitional style. Transitional, exactly. Because everything is traditional.
00:42:31
Speaker
in that sense, like it just means that it predates whatever. Right, right. It was, that's sort of what that word has come to mean. Not like there was a tradition of some sort, but that it, it's, you know, it's older. Yeah. The federal style, I see more
00:42:56
Speaker
That's more of like a reproduction scheme for me, like a more high-end kind of thing. I agree. I mean, because it tends to be a little bit lighter furniture, not something that I...
00:43:13
Speaker
Like picture with the traditional revival. That stuff's heavy. Yeah. You know, that's durable. That's, you know, when they started having things like the family room and the den. Yeah. Like heavy solid oak kind of furniture. You know, no, no veneer work. Like you would see on most federal style stuff. I mean, the federal style doesn't translate well into like cheaply made because right.
00:43:38
Speaker
I mean, it was marked by veneer work, contrasting veneers, stuff like that. So it's kind of hard to do that on the cheap and make it still look like federal furniture. Yeah. When I think about the, now we had a dining room growing up.
00:43:54
Speaker
that the chairs had thin tapered legs on them. So that might be the closest thing I could think of. That was the dining room that we weren't allowed to go in. Did you have one of those growing up?
00:44:10
Speaker
No, because you had to go through it to get to the living room. We had a dining room that you weren't allowed to be in. It was like for company. You've heard of course the famous Italian tradition of putting plastic on the furniture.
00:44:29
Speaker
My family growing up didn't do that, but there was family within the family. My mother had this stuff. It was like plastic.
00:44:45
Speaker
runner. So it was sort of like this soft plastic kind of, whoa, runner with like little spikes on the bottom that would stick to carpet. That's like what you used to put under like the computer desk. Yeah. And she, it was rolled out in the, in the house with the spikes up. No, no.
00:45:05
Speaker
Don't walk here. It was to show you where you were allowed to go. And there was no runner into the dining room. We had this sort of like L shape where it was the dining room and a fancy living room that was like an L. And that's where our traditional revival furniture lived. And my two uncles were upholsterers.
00:45:34
Speaker
So they upholstered this furniture and I can still see it to this day. It was like this deep green and gold, like, you know, like those curls in the paisley pattern. And it was like
Closing Thoughts & Future Episodes
00:45:54
Speaker
velvet raised up over like a, like a cream colored background.
00:46:03
Speaker
living the American dream. My mother made drapery long floor ceiling to floor drapery for the big windows in the same fabric.
00:46:25
Speaker
I wouldn't want to sit on it even if I was allowed to. Can you tell we are an immigrant family that made it? Yeah. You know what I mean? That's the clap. So we're talking about the 70s, of course. I mean, it goes back to the same thing as a federal. It's signaling, you know? Yes. Look, you know, came here and we made some of ourselves. I mean, we're classic immigrant first generation parents.
00:46:55
Speaker
Well, my mom was born there, you know, so I guess technically our first generation, but you know, she grew up here. Yeah. You know, only half a pot to piss in, but you got to make sure that you have nice living room. And yeah, exactly. And it, it really said, you know, we've arrived. We were, we're, um, success story now. Yeah.
00:47:21
Speaker
So I guess that's what traditional revival was all about.
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah, you know, trying to, you know, the people that that bought it and loved it were kind of, you know, living their own success story in a way. The heiress, they were, you know, trying to feel like the aristocracy of of times past. So maybe traditional revival is really the middle class
00:47:55
Speaker
version of, you know, this American furniture, you know, getting your piece of these, you know, more sought after pieces. Yeah. And, you know, you can imagine like after World War II, you got like your Levittown and stuff like that, all these, you know,
00:48:18
Speaker
suburbia exploding and people need to fill their homes with something and they feel special because they're they finally own a home and they want to you know feel like they're somebody so they buy these things that are you know that they relate with with
00:48:38
Speaker
you know, people of the past who were somebody had something, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I kind of, uh, you know, after we've like come full circle on traditional revival, I kind of have more of like a warm, fuzzy feeling for it. Yeah. When you think about it, you know, you think about what our parents were trying to do and, you know, create something nice and feel, uh, you know, successful. And yeah,
00:49:07
Speaker
converts. It's funny how like talking out loud about this stuff and just, you know, discussing it, how you, you, you come, come away with a little bit more admiration for something. Yeah. Couldn't have predicted this path of no, no, no, start out full cynics horrible.
00:49:30
Speaker
Well, you know, if you focus on the the production methodology and sort of like, you know, the lack of innovative design as opposed to the end user, you know, then we can be cynical and say, you know, this stuff sucks. Right. But if you think about the end user and reasoning behind. Yeah, it's it's a better story. Yeah. Interesting, right. Don't judge a book by its cover. There you go.
00:50:01
Speaker
So there we have our traditional revival. Yeah, I think that's all we got on that. Remind you guys to head over to Bits and Bits, help support the podcast. You can get yourself some vesting finish. You can get yourself some myoderm, get rid of those aches and pains. Yeah, big time. Yeah. If you haven't checked it out since you heard about it last week, if you did,
00:50:26
Speaker
Do it. Do it. I mean, it's, it works. I mean, it definitely works. I think you can get it at places locally too. If you live like by a GNC or something like that. GNC sells it. I think Dick's Sporting Goods sells it, but you can't use your coupon code there. No. Although I did see, I think GNC had it like buy one, get one 50% off. Yeah. Which that's pretty good deal. That's like 25% off.
00:50:52
Speaker
But yeah, you can you can check out the Instagram, the Patreon, the YouTube channel, all that stuff. Links are in the description. You can leave us a review on Apple Podcast. That's a big help. Oh, you know what? I should say this. If this is happening, this is coming out next Friday, right? Yeah. The what's today? Today's the 16th, 17th, 20th, 24th. Yeah. If you're in the vicinity of Belmont, New Jersey. Oh, yeah.
00:51:19
Speaker
Oh man, smoking hot band, the New Soul Rebellion, playing for free. 9th and Main Streets in Belmont, New Jersey. What day? Friday, the 24th of June. Oh wow. Rob is the singer and guitar player of this band. He also writes all the songs. 6 to 8 p.m. Wow, two hours set. Yeah, although there's going to be a break in the middle, but yeah.
00:51:46
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, I'm gonna have to take a nap that day. Yeah. You have to tell Ali. We're gonna clear my schedule. We're gonna, we're gonna have to take a, I have to be down there four o'clock. I didn't tell you. So we're gonna have to leave at about 12 with the beach traffic. Oh my God.
00:52:05
Speaker
Don't even say I didn't even think about that. Took me. Yeah, it's bad. Oh God. Yeah. Luckily, Belmar's not that far. You could take ocean. Yeah, I'll take the streets. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you heard it here first. You want to see Rob play live. Yeah. Friday, the 24th. Belmar, New Jersey. You can always reach out to us if you need more info.
00:52:31
Speaker
But yeah, aside from that, we'll see you next week. We're going to get into, what, the modern mid-century modern. We now refer to as mid-century modern. MCM. All right. Thanks for tuning in. Take care, everybody.
00:52:59
Speaker
Ain't no shame, but there's been a chain