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Pennsylvania Dutch Furniture: Who Were The Makers? Season 2, Episode 11.
42 Plays4 years ago
In this episode we dive into the WHO in terms of Pennsylvania Dutch furniture. Sorry for the late upload, enjoy!
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Transcript
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Introduction to Pennsylvania Dutch Furniture
00:01:06
Speaker
Season two, episode 11.
00:01:11
Speaker
The origins of Pennsylvania Dutch furniture. Get my little thing open back up here.
00:01:22
Speaker
There we go, we're locked and loaded. Oh yeah, don't forget, Secret Santa 2021. I just extended the signups until, was it December 10th? And I changed the date from Christmas Day to New Year's Day because really, it don't matter.
00:01:46
Speaker
I figured I'd draw it out a week. It's the holiday. Yeah. Yeah. 12-11. You got till the 11th of December to sign up. So this will be coming out. I don't know. Something around that time. This will be coming out on the 3rd. So you have a week after that. So sign up. Get involved.
00:02:16
Speaker
All right.
Amish and Mennonite Furniture Making History
00:02:17
Speaker
So here we go. I'm going to start getting into the furniture that the primarily the Amish and we call them Pennsylvania Dutch. Um, that's sort of this overarching term. All the people that came from the Rhine river Valley. Um,
00:02:37
Speaker
But the Amish kind of became the, the predominant furniture makers as far as we can see today. Like we, we refer to them as the Amish today, don't we?
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, and I think they probably. Getting all lumped together. Yeah, yeah. At some point, Mennonites and the Quakers. Yeah, I mean, I don't even think of Quakers anymore, but. Like I said in the last episode, when I take Mennonites, I thought that they were Amish anyway. Yeah, well, they're definitely linked. I mean, the Amish sprung from the Mennonites. Simon Menno. Menno Knight.
00:03:21
Speaker
So not long after arriving in America, the Amish began establishing their quintessential self-sufficient way of life through farming and woodworking. But it's natural that they become furniture makers. I mean, they're all carpenters and farmers. The principles of simplicity extended to all aspects of Amish life, and these pursuits were no different.
00:03:47
Speaker
I couldn't find any written information as to the the reasons why but the Amish on the use of mechanical tools for the most part and we're opting to work by hand and this is you know back in the day of course nowadays they got their mini factories oh yeah
00:04:11
Speaker
Uh, I guess I wouldn't, you know, what would have been cool is to be able to go out there and, and sort of like interview, uh, some amishes. Yeah. Because, uh, you know, we're just taking this, I mean, a lot of it was written by, um, uh, people who were related to or.
00:04:33
Speaker
Whether that in my blood or by geography, the Amish, at least the articles outside of like the, you know, the scholarly writings. But it would have been interesting to say, why don't you, you know, why do you guys opt to use hand tools instead of those are the devil's tools.
00:04:54
Speaker
probably. I mean, there's probably quite a bit of truth in that. Um, so the time we can go out there. Yeah.
00:05:07
Speaker
I was hoping to take a trip out to Pennsylvania. Yeah, that's true. Their insistence on constructing my hand would later serve to propel the popularity of Amish made furniture as a society, our society, mainstream society, experienced several different phases of backlash to ornate complex furnishings
00:05:31
Speaker
Punctuated of course by the arts and crafts of the 1920s and another in the late 20th century was probably mid-century modern so it's funny how you know in this 12 periods of furniture like they refer to the Pennsylvania Dutch as a period and the dates being
00:05:49
Speaker
But really, the popularity of the furniture wasn't seen until later because it didn't leave the community at that time in the 17, 1800s. It was localized there. And then like you're saying, it wasn't until the 19, you know, the 19 teens that it started to get out there into the public canon.
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's sort of like going back and forth over this 200 year span almost. And I kept getting confused as I was, you know, trying to compile this information. What's actually happening now? What happened then? Because so many of their habits and ways are, you know, the same. And so it was really, uh,
00:06:40
Speaker
pretty interesting. So the Amish, they also felt really and feel really strongly about cultivating a sense of community and engaging the youth in manual labor. So good for the soul. Yeah, exactly.
00:06:56
Speaker
They, they send the kids to school, usually not all Amish, but many only till the eighth grade. And I think that's enough. And then it's time to get into the wood shop and farm full time. Uh, they can contribute to the family's income at that point in time, uh, and, and learn the ways.
00:07:21
Speaker
So the it sort of promotes their and stabilizes their way of life. That's that's the whole thing. Yeah. There's a lot of amish sawyers, too. Yeah. So they're cutting the wood and and working the wood.
Amish Craftsmanship vs. Modern Consumerism
00:07:39
Speaker
The techniques utilized by the Amish, and we spoke of this last week, really just a couple hours ago, have become staples of quality in furniture making and the Buy It For Life movement. It's these traditional values that they espouse that we do too.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, and you see sort of all of these periods, everything was being built that way. You know, we'll see as we get into these later ones, maybe there's a turning point where the engineered obsolescence or just the throw away sort of culture comes in.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure we'll have, you know, an episode as we get into the arts and crafts movement, because that was basically the, you know, the rebuttal to manufacturing. Yeah, when the Industrial Revolution hits and, you know, cheap manufacturing becomes a thing. Yeah, so. And all these techniques, as we know,
00:08:51
Speaker
They take time to master. And you may never master them, but you continually grow and improve. Imagine if we had been taught from the time we were in eighth and ninth grade how to do what we are doing now.
00:09:07
Speaker
uh, how much further along we'd be. We're kind of, you know, learning from, uh, a little bit from others, a little bit from YouTube videos, a lot of from trial and error. Yeah. I mean, I didn't build a cabinet until, and this is like a site built cabinet probably until 2014. Yeah.
00:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, I built my first kitchen in the house.
00:09:40
Speaker
as an experiment just to see if I could possibly do it. You know, and I mean, it's knock on wood. It's still standing, but it's no marvel. It's nice though. Um, it's funny because you know, I basically did it by reading books and whatever influenced me the most at the moment is in my kitchen. Yeah. Um, so it's definitely of its time and place, but
00:10:09
Speaker
It would have been cool to have that sort of education. So, you know, they're learning to cut dovetails and mortise and tenon and all this other stuff from the time they can probably hold a saw and, you know, cut to a line.
00:10:31
Speaker
Um, the, the conservative nature also of the Pennsylvania Dutch life, it tends to preserve the old world tastes and traditions. So the styles they develop in the 1700s, they don't really vary too much. You know, they keep bringing that same stuff forward. Yeah. I mean, the Amish are pretty unchanged.
00:10:57
Speaker
Mm hmm. And just because there's some kind of new fad or new style in the big city like Philadelphia, they don't jump on that. Mm hmm. They pretty much stick to their guns. I guess you can't use that phrase for the Amis because they're pacifists. They're definitely. Yeah, that's right.
00:11:24
Speaker
All right, so I wrote this down. Unlike those pieces made in urban areas, Pennsylvania rural furniture displayed sturdy skills of the joiner and turner. I guess I wrote that down because we're starting to see there is this divergence that you kind of alluded to.
00:11:51
Speaker
Yeah, we saw in the Queen Anne some of the stuff that was coming out of Pennsylvania and it was like high-end furniture. Both those chairs and stuff. Yeah.
00:12:09
Speaker
Pennsylvania Dutch Furniture develops early and stays the course, doesn't really get out of the community for almost 200 years. And it's pretty utilitarian. I did note that, and I mentioned this last time,
00:12:29
Speaker
It was a custom to
Symbolism in Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Art
00:12:31
Speaker
have a handsome piece of furniture made for a special occasion, such as a wedding anniversary. But you'd have to be kind of prosperous to do something like that for your wife or your daughter generally. They didn't adopt quickly any of the new fads or fashions and they, you know, they stood with their old designs.
00:13:00
Speaker
Um, so Amish furniture styles. Let's see what I got here. Oh, we're going to talk about the, the soap hollow school and the Jonestown, or I've seen it Jonstown as well.
00:13:19
Speaker
Jonestown. Yeah, Jonestown made me think of drink to cool it. Yeah, that and Jonestown. We know Jonestown, Pennsylvania, the Jonestown flood. So. No, I don't know about that. Oh, you don't know about that? No. No, I'm not privy to the Jonestown flood. OK. I used to think it was like folktale, but apparently it was some real incident in history. You want to tell the people about it?
00:13:49
Speaker
Well, I don't really know that much about it. But what was it? It was a natural or current is like a devastating flood in Johnstown, PA. And it's referenced in like song and things like that. So that's, that's how I learned of it.
00:14:09
Speaker
All right. This is a little bit of a recap here. Because Amish beliefs prevent the use of electricity, many woodworking tools in Amish shops are powered by hydraulic and pneumatic power run on diesel compressors. That's more or less, that's modern day. So I don't know how that got in there. That's an Amish, we call it Amish workaround. Yeah.
00:14:34
Speaker
Most communities, they permit some technology, and allowances can be made in the case of woodworking, as the craft often supports multiple families within the community. So there you go. That's the Amish workaround. They're like, well, you know, if you're doing it to support your family, a little devil ain't going to hurt you.
00:14:57
Speaker
Amish woodworkers pride themselves in their work and view their products as both pieces of art and furnishings to be used and lived in for generations. We know that. All right. Folk art. I wanted to touch on exactly, maybe not exactly, but a little bit what folk art is. Art done by folks.
00:15:25
Speaker
Yeah, well, what is folk art? Handmade, unique, one-of-a-kind, definitely not mass-produced. Something fun on Etsy.
00:15:39
Speaker
Well, I mean, up to up to this point, that's true. Folk art, the community has something usually a great deal to say about what passes for acceptable folk art. And it's recognizable within the framework of the community.
00:16:03
Speaker
Here's something that's interesting, too. The artists don't necessarily recognize themselves as an artist. It's just like some crazy person who just slept a bunch of stuff together. Well, this is another thing. And again, I'm not saying that this is the be all, end all definition of folk art, but the art
00:16:27
Speaker
Should have been originally utilitarian Created to serve a function. Yeah Not like you know Let's say though like a statue or something like a lawn art but you know some of those things like windmills and and Things like that when you think about that sort of yard ornament So
00:16:57
Speaker
As a way of showing thanks for arriving safely on new shores, the Amish and Mennonites began decorating. They did hand carved furniture, even tombstones. That's sort of the basis for those stars that they have on their barns, which we call hex signs. That's what a hex sign is.
00:17:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. They even put designs and religious symbolism into their waffle irons. I didn't know that the Pennsylvania Dutch were known for their waffles. No, they're big wafflers. We'll learn about that later. Are they Dutch waffles? Not Belgian? The hex sign. A stroup waffle? Yeah, that's why you brought that up. Yeah, the hex sign. Note the term hex sign was not used until the 20th century.
00:17:50
Speaker
Now, if we look at it, it's it's got a lot of I picked that one because it's got a lot of the real classic images of the little birds and hearts. Tulips are another one that's really big. Tulips were huge in early America.
Amish Furniture Styles and Designs
00:18:07
Speaker
Mm-hmm The the the name hex it doesn't really go with that does it yeah, it's like you're gonna get like a curse put on you Right. It's a it's a really pleasant Pretty kind of design Yeah, this is what you think of when you think of vomit like mm-hmm Dutch At least for me
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah. And apparently this is something that the Swedish and the German settlers brought with them that these designs to commemorate special life events.
00:18:48
Speaker
And they enjoyed decorating everything. And this is what comes to be an essential part of the design work on Amish, Pennsylvania Dutch furniture.
00:19:03
Speaker
We are familiar with it to a certain degree, but for folks that aren't, um, that's one of the cornerstones. Yeah. Like imagine a brand of like, there's that birch beer. I don't know what the brand, you know what I'm talking about the red label. Like you could see this and they have something like this on there.
00:19:25
Speaker
They look to nature for the design influences, hence the birds, the flowers, things like that. They would put designs like this on their birth certificates, marriage certificates, plates, utensils.
00:19:45
Speaker
And, um, we're being, uh, you know, plain Jane. They're getting awfully decorated. Right. And who else did we talk about? It's been like a month now, but weren't we talking about, um, the Puritans in the same way? Yeah. Everybody can kind of get pigeonholed. Yeah.
00:20:09
Speaker
It's easy for outsiders like ourselves to categorize folks. So they put these things on everything. And of course, the furniture. They painted these designs on doors, walls in their home. And as far as the hex signs on the barn, they used to just paint them right on the sides of the barn.
00:20:33
Speaker
Uh, and then gradually they started painting them onto the wooden discs and mounting them. Um, they're, they're big. Uh, um, what's the word when you go and get something on a trip and bring it home souvenir. Yeah. They're big souvenir items for
00:20:53
Speaker
people who went for the side of the shop. Yeah, traveling out there. That's that would be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so the stitches had machines.
00:21:08
Speaker
the workaround they're posing as Amish. Yeah. Well, the Amish built the shop, you know, that's what I'm saying. They have sheen. That's funny. I forgot all about that. He should have told him, told him to bring a hex sign. Yeah. Um, so they started, uh, I don't know if I have it in here. I can't remember cause you know, I wrote this a couple of weeks ago. Uh, we'll see. The six pointed star, um, is a big thing with these hex signs.
00:21:37
Speaker
Is that a pentagram? Yeah, it is. Or no, that'd be a hexagram. Oh, well, and the gram would be five. We're thinking that maybe since the German word for six is sex, S-E-C-H-S, the hex sign could also come from that. Again, like the Pennsylvania Dutch, Deutsch,
00:22:04
Speaker
Hex sex. And this was a good one. And I saw this a couple of times. The German word that means or words that mean which is foot is hexafoo. What the hell is which is foot have to do with that?
00:22:24
Speaker
I don't know, but I saw it a couple of times. You know, the other thing that I found, one person said that once and now it's just on every website. Yeah. That's, that's one danger of like doing research on the internet is that I found so many reprinted passages. Yeah. And I found the same thing when I was doing the Nicholas Disborough stuff. It was like every website that mentioned him had verbatim the same.
00:22:52
Speaker
Right, they just cut and paste and they weren't given credit, they weren't footnotes or anything like that. So the combination of folk magic and symbolism has a strong influence on hex signs, circles, stars, geometric designs,
00:23:10
Speaker
And they symbolize divinity and the circle of life. And we're talking about the hex signs because these are going to be things that are incorporated into the design on furniture. Yeah. I think of like a blanket chest with the heart cut into the thing with the
00:23:31
Speaker
Yeah. And of course, the more conservative groups, the Mennonites and among the Mennonites and Amish, they reject the hex sign. Party poopers. Pagan superstition and all that stuff. Who do pagans ever bother? Everybody hates the pagans. That's a good question. I hate on the pagans. I don't even know anything about the pagans. Did you know there's a welcome hex sign?
00:23:58
Speaker
It makes sense. Yeah. It's a large red hot in the center with tulips encircling the heart. So how could that, you know, like, how could that be a bad thing? It's a devil sign. The tree of life hex sign, you know, which is part of our logo. Again, another Amish link, um, includes a large tree is the focal point of the sign.
00:24:21
Speaker
And again, I talked about it. Stars, hearts, tulips. They're almost always... It's like the Lucky Charms. Stars, hearts, horseshoes, and red balloons. Speaking of which, I got some Lucky Charms upstairs. Lucky Charms. A little bit more on hex signs. Some of them use them for healing.
00:24:43
Speaker
Oh, we're getting into some witchcraft here to bring abundance and material goods. It doesn't sound like Amish. Yeah. Some farmers believe hex signs could start to stop the rain and they thought it would protect their barn from lightning. So that's enough on the, on the Amish hex sign.
00:25:10
Speaker
It I guess if you know you're listening somewhere and you you're you don't see the You know, you're not watching so you can't click on the link or see what we're showing
00:25:25
Speaker
Oh, continuing to use the word hex sign is probably misleading. You're probably thinking of like something scary to Graham, you know, like the the, you know, the stuff you see with a goat's head in it. Right. No, this is like a. I don't even know what to I mean, the one kind of looked like the little Woodstock bird.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like a dove. Yeah. Yeah. A dove's a big one, but they're, they're generally circles. I mean, sometimes stars, geometric shapes, but bright colors, flowers, birds, hearts. Once, once you see it, if you just look it up, you'll know exactly. And you've seen it all over.
00:26:11
Speaker
Yeah. So let's get into the furniture a little bit more. Style versus utility is the heading I have. When we start to look at the Pennsylvania Dutch furniture, there's one thing we keep in mind and that it's colonial furniture.
00:26:30
Speaker
made by people thousands of miles and we're living in a very rural and, you know, in remote communities for the most part. So we've been talking about trends, especially with the last episode, last set of episodes. But for the for the Amish, it was really about
00:26:55
Speaker
you know, what's going to do the job, what materials are available and how am I feeling this day? What's my, what are my individual tastes as a maker? They were dancing to the beat of their own drum, those Amish. They were. I mean, it's kind of like, you know, when you made Hunter's bed, we had that cherry available. So, all right, there you go. I made it. No, I made it out of maple.
00:27:25
Speaker
That's- that bed's not cherry? No, it's maple. Are you sure? I'm positive. Because we had all that maple. We still have all that maple. I could've sworn we made it from cherry. No, that- well, his other- the bed across the street's made out of cherry. That you and Deadwood built. Hmm.
00:27:49
Speaker
I don't remember. You know, that's like more of like an arts and crafts style, but like a mission style bed. Okay. The one with the Dalles that's maple. Yeah. I'm going to have to go upstairs and look at it. Solid maple. I know. So, but points the same. Yeah. We had the, we had the maple. So that was your material choice. And you went with it, you know, a lot of these numbers, zero biscuits got your room. Well, no, we didn't, there are no biscuits in that bed.
00:28:19
Speaker
Uh oh, I just got an email from Elizabeth Lewis. Meeting this afternoon? Hi there, unhappy with expensive business phone service that's sluggish, goes down, or just overall meh? Would you like to, would like to introduce my company? Function Telecom. We're cutting. Is it Function with a K? No. Oh my gosh.
00:28:43
Speaker
The spam never stops. Yeah, sorry to interrupt. No, that's okay. You know, that's the modern age, isn't it? We're all tethered. Yeah. I thought it was something important. I'm like, meeting? I didn't know we had a meeting.
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah, but you got to make that bad. Basically, it was utilitarian in nature. But you did it the way you wanted to do it. Yeah. So it's got your stamp on it. Your fingerprints are on it. We had those owls. Yeah.
00:29:19
Speaker
It was like making dinner with what was in the fridge. I have a bunch of footage of making that bet. I got to do something with it. But yeah, yeah, that's a that's another story for another day.
00:29:31
Speaker
but there you go. That kind of sums up how these folks were working. Um, and it's, it's funny how a style then develops, I guess because the community is so tight that you know, these things sort of, um, you know, people can't step too far outside bounds.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah, there's a limited circle of influence. There you go. True Pennsylvania Dutch furniture was produced from 1720 to 1830 and basically by German furniture makers. They brought their German woodworking techniques with them.
00:30:18
Speaker
but they started to also incorporate techniques and styles they found in the nearby English colonies, English settlements. And I also learned that they refer to basically all outsiders as English. Just like they were getting called Dutch. Right. They were getting Dutch. The English. They were Deutsch. I think to some extent they still do. Yeah, I have heard that.
00:30:48
Speaker
Um, you ever watch that show? It like was Amish right here. No, I'm not sure that shows all fake. No, you know what I did in my reading. I did come across articles about those shows and breaking Amish and all that stuff that I did read. And for the most part, it's the equivalent of like Jersey Shore. Yeah.
00:31:14
Speaker
where it's, yes, there's truth in it and those things do happen, but it's they're exaggerated examples. Yeah, it's made for TV drama. Right, right. Like when they came to you in the place where you were working and when, what was it, the bar rescue or whatever? Yeah, and they wanted to manufacture. They're like, so who here really bothers you? I'm like, not really anybody.
00:31:44
Speaker
It's all manufactured. They're like, oh, yeah, no, we're not helping you guys. So the Pennsylvania Dutch furniture, as it's developing, it's got its roots in those German traditions. But it's heavily influenced by their circumstances and their new life and goes back to
00:32:10
Speaker
basically starting over. These are folks that came from more industrial, using that term loosely, living conditions in Europe, basically go out to the middle of nowhere. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you think it's pencil tucky now. It was, it was literally just trees and, and ground. Yeah.
00:32:38
Speaker
So there's that, there's their, you know, really diving into their lifestyle. This is a whole new community based around their religious beliefs. And this all leads to the development of what we're going to call style in air quotes.
Sustainability and Quality in Amish Values
00:32:59
Speaker
We're like thereof. Right. So we got a photo of a Pennsylvania Dutch chest there.
00:33:08
Speaker
There it is. That's, um, that's the quintessential example, isn't it? Yeah. Um, it's a simple chest on bracketed feet
00:33:22
Speaker
And it's painted. Yeah, with the little unicorns. I don't know. Is there a horn on the top of that thing? Certainly looks like it. Yeah. Doesn't the unicorn have wings? It does. Or that pegasus? Oh, that's a pegasus. Yeah. But does a pegasus have a horn? No. A pegasus has wings and no horn. What's it if it's got wings and a horn? That I don't know. I mean, a unicorn I think just has a horn.
00:33:52
Speaker
That's far less interesting than, uh, than wings and a horn. Yeah. It's just a horse with a horn. That could just happen. I wouldn't even be all that surprised. Yeah. If he grew up next to the, uh, power plant. Yeah. So how can we characterize Pennsylvania Dutch furniture? Straightforward and direct. Yeah.
00:34:21
Speaker
um nothing really elaborate but you know the painting is pretty uh ornate it is it is but if you compare it to you know artwork that's already been done it it's oh it's yeah it's almost childlike yeah and it's very naivete yeah um straight lines right in the yeah in the construction yeah yeah aside from the little bracket feet
00:34:51
Speaker
Right, right. Very little bits of ornamentation outside the painting, which is kind of what they're bringing to the table here.
00:35:03
Speaker
It's very distinctively painted. And you think about it to paint that versus like let's say that was all carved. You're talking a fraction of the time. That's right. That's right. And if we think back to that original German example, the German chest and compare it to this.
00:35:24
Speaker
yeah i mean if you ever seen on like how it's made like things that are hand-painted like i don't know sometimes see like plates or stuff in like eastern europe the bank something like this out in like five minutes yeah yeah um and the motifs are pretty repetitious so when they did the next chest it was similar stuff so you're constantly
00:35:47
Speaker
Maybe not repeating the exact design, but you know, you're using the same vocabulary. Yeah.
00:35:56
Speaker
I gotta say, it's cold down here. It's getting chilly, huh? Yeah. Gonna speak to the landlord. Yeah, what the hell? You know what it is? I closed up all the vents down here. Oh, because it was, yeah. It was too cold in the summertime. I put in italics. Perhaps the most definitive characteristic of Pennsylvania Dutch furniture was the way it was decorated.
00:36:19
Speaker
I can agree with that. I mean, I mean that could be any old chest right if it that could be a flea market find and you could sort of It's a really you know, it's a real show
00:36:33
Speaker
now flea market flip it's called okay you ever heard of that no yeah they got to go find something and then they have to like fix it up or you know change it to two yeah two different groups
00:36:49
Speaker
Um, yeah, so it's how it's decorated while the other furniture and the other colonies were making furniture was polished, varnished, finished with veneers and stuff like that. Um, you could see this is probably maple or pine pine birch painted.
00:37:15
Speaker
with, you know, green, red, and then some kind of design on top. That same lady looking for you now? That's New York, New York. They're calling in from the big city. Want to check your car warranty? Yeah.
00:37:32
Speaker
Probably that guy that called me that one time was like, I'm looking for a table. You know, head of like whatever company, New York, New York. And then he's like, my budget's like twenty two hundred dollars. Yeah, I'm on a Fortune 500 company. Over to Bob's Furniture. Maybe it was Elizabeth Lewis calling about the meeting that we have for telecommunications.
00:38:00
Speaker
All right, so we touched a little bit about the style. But another part of the Amish ethos, I will call it, is sustainability. Interesting. That's part of ours as well. Building furniture with longevity, multi-generational pieces. The furniture needs to be useful.
00:38:26
Speaker
You're not going to just make something that's a design piece, a decorative piece, and not have a function. That'd be frivolous and could not be considered sustainable by the Amish. Hey, 718, that's Brooklyn, isn't it? It is. Brooklyn and Queens. Yeah.
00:38:50
Speaker
So how would you compare? Because I say it's interesting to compare this Amish point of view to our now modern mainstream societies. I'm going to say disposable nature. I mean, we struggle against that ourselves. Yeah.
00:39:12
Speaker
It's definitely not the I mean you're seeing certain groups of people going back towards that sort of thinking But it's definitely an uphill battle mm-hmm this whole sort of craft movement has been going on probably since I Don't know we think it started in like the
00:39:34
Speaker
it probably started in like the 70s or 80s. Yeah, it's really just ramping up, you know, now and getting more popular since like the mid 2000s, maybe. Yeah, the thing that I see as kind of
00:39:50
Speaker
the particular battle we're engaged in is that we make kind of, without Sound High Flu, we kind of make high-endy furniture, you know? It costs a lot to produce these things. So the people that generally can afford it are the same people that want to throw it away in five years because they want something new.
00:40:14
Speaker
Yeah. The high end is the symptom though and not the, you know what I mean? Yeah. Oh yeah. No, it's that the, the, the folks who could most utilize and value the work that we do, they haven't
00:40:32
Speaker
been able to wrap their mind around the idea of of buying expensive furniture because it's it's not been a part of our lifestyle. Yeah. You know, we all grew up in the disposable furniture age. And so we have these fixed ideas of what a piece of furniture like a desk should cost.
00:40:53
Speaker
Yeah, and other things have taken, you know, presidents over. Right. You know, the cost of living is so much higher now than it was. So there is less, there's less money to spend on furniture. Right. You know, back in the day, you weren't paying whatever, $1,000 a month per person for health insurance. And the cost of housing was more in line with income. Yeah.
00:41:17
Speaker
the same people will, you know, a woman might have a thousand dollar purse or, you know, several pairs of $800 shoes. I always say people have money. It's just they have to decide what they want to spend it on. Yeah. You want 10 pairs of shoes or you want a coffee table?
00:41:47
Speaker
You're going to have to sell it better than that. Well, that's the reality of it, unfortunately. It is. It is. You want to pay for half of your new car or you want that built in over there? Right. Because that's 20 grand. But we pitched sustainability as part of our thing, too. I mean, we didn't do it this year. We should probably
00:42:11
Speaker
I'd like to maybe do it again in 2022, but we planted over 100 trees through the Arbor Day Foundation the year before, which is a nice thing.
00:42:25
Speaker
You know, we take a portion of each job and donate to the Arbor Day to plant trees, which was pretty cool. Now we're supporting Popcorn Park Zoo. The monkeys are going to be swinging on those ropes. That's right. I can't wait to get some pictures of that.
00:42:51
Speaker
You got to tell him, put him up now. I want to see the monkeys on him right now. Put him up now. I want to tag off. Can we do that? That guy up there did look kind of like a little, uh, you look like a little chimp, didn't you? Not as, not as cute though. No, definitely not.
00:43:15
Speaker
All right. So with this idea of mine of sustainability and usefulness, it's going to kind of set some boundaries for what types of furniture the Amish are going to be making. Remember when we talked in the past, some of the other groups, like about an important piece and can't be left alone. The trestle table was a biggie, wasn't it? Yeah.
00:43:44
Speaker
Well, it turns out that the Pennsylvania Dutch have the sawbuck table. I think I know what this is going to look like. Yeah. Yep. There you go.
00:43:57
Speaker
And you could see the relationship, you know, the top probably comes off and it's an oversized table that could hold a large family, plenty of heavy German food. And rather than resting on individual legs, the Sawbuck tabletop sat on two X-shaped supports, giving the large table greater stability.
00:44:27
Speaker
It looks almost like a picnic table we might call it. Yeah, you know a little bit nicer top, but it's the x brackets and That's the cornerstone of their You know kitchen they probably
Cultural Significance of the Hope Chest
00:44:43
Speaker
worked on it ate on it had their meetings around it and
00:44:49
Speaker
Um, the sawbuck table. So that was something I learned. I didn't necessarily relate that directly to, um, the Amish. Yeah. I mean, either. And I, I, you know, seen that design, but never known it as a sawbuck table. And you could see it's, there's not a wasted motion or wasted piece. It's just, it's all there.
00:45:17
Speaker
It's as utilitarian as it gets. Yeah, yeah. The next thing that was pretty important was the hope chest.
00:45:27
Speaker
Yeah, we all know the hope just at least at least I know it. Um, so yeah, we're getting back to chests, which, um, in all of the early forms, yeah, that was another good example. That's on the hope chest. I know, but man, what a grainy picture. Yeah. I mean, I couldn't, sometimes I couldn't find like a good image of a good example.
00:45:55
Speaker
Now, the thing that struck me about this is the primitiveness of the painting. I mean, it really is a notch or two down from the last example we were looking at. Just get a voicemail. Hey, I sent a thing for your website and get a response. I responded to your email.
00:46:24
Speaker
Yeah, this to me, it almost looks Greek. Yeah, yeah. One of those maybe urns? Oh yeah, yeah. That's pretty cool. What's the next one look like? Wow, so we're seeing some blacks. Yeah. And those are camels. Johann Miller.
00:46:52
Speaker
Yeah. So he definitely came and we'll get into this later on from the soap hollow school of furniture making. And the reason I know that now is because he put his name on it. That's something that they did.
00:47:07
Speaker
only the folks from the soap hollow school. This was another thing when we, when we get on the episode of well-known furniture makers, they worked in anonymity. You know, it's like trying to find anybody that could would take credit for any of those things.
00:47:30
Speaker
Oh, the spice can. Well, we're still with the hope chest. Um, so the, I've got here a Pennsylvania Dutch home was not complete without a brightly colored hope chest. They put their fine linens if they had any, and it was usually for the dowry of a young woman. Right. Um,
00:47:57
Speaker
Pennsylvania, German furniture makers made a trademark out of their hand, made it handmade, handmade, hand painted hope or dowry chest. So that was their thing. You know, you could, you'd make it so you could be identified by your particular style and your take on it. Um, hope chests were customarily painted blue.
00:48:20
Speaker
Although the two examples we have there, they seem to be darker than that. Maybe they've darkened with age. And here's something to reinforce what you thought earlier and paint it with a variety of decorative accents such as vases of flowers, tulips, stars, birds, angels, and unicorns. Who knew? I had no idea. Is the unicorn like a German?
00:48:51
Speaker
I don't know. That's pretty interesting though. And that really nice piece.
00:49:02
Speaker
the spice cabinet where you could see it's like, um, you know, got a clear finish on the wood and everything that was really, uh, for the, for the upper crust. The 18th century spice cabinet is the ultimate form of Pennsylvania furniture.
00:49:23
Speaker
The concept originally from Holland came to America via England. Only the most prosperous, prosperous families could afford these miniature case pieces, which house expensive spices for medicine and cooking, as well as small valuables. I was going to say just having spices was right. I mean, look at that. Yeah, that's some serious veneer work.
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. And people didn't place their spice cabinets in their kitchens as they do today, but rather in their parlors where they'd harmonize with the other furnishings. Many have a series of small drawers hidden behind a door and a secret drawer behind them or a drawer hidden beneath the molding.
00:50:16
Speaker
So we've come across stuff like that from other builders, the secret drawer. What about the Deacon's bench? Ah, there we go. That's got some Pennsylvania Dutch. Yeah, that's screaming it, isn't it? Yeah.
00:50:33
Speaker
Although of a more modern era, the Deacon's bench is a good example of Amish design and practice. Very practical and straightforward, straight back and seat, dovetail joinery in lieu of mechanical fasteners, and very simple curves for embellishment.
00:50:52
Speaker
There you go. That's that screams, you know, very simple, plain Amish as they're called. Yeah, that's what it was. It's plain Amish and fancy Amish refers to the people as far as, you know, more lenient or strict. Right. Do I have a picture of the dough box? There you go. Look at that.
00:51:16
Speaker
The dough box, the primary function of the dough box was to serve as a trough to store rising bread dough. A proofing box. That's right. Made primarily in Pennsylvania from 1700 to 1840, you had a single or multiple board top with cleats at each end that often slid into dovetail slots. And the top was used as a work surface to knead the dough. And then, of course, you'd proof the dough below.
00:51:47
Speaker
So it looks like, you know, that's definitely a kitchen item. Oh, yeah. This is looking pretty Amish, too. Yeah, yeah. I love the, you know, the single board tops on these old pieces. Yeah, this looks like there's a one glue joint. Right. Right there. Mm hmm. Even so, big, big wide boards. This front looks like one piece, though. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, right there.
00:52:18
Speaker
That's a nice looking piece. I mean, you could put something like that in your house today and it wouldn't really look out of place. No, this is like some, you know, you see it in antique antique store.
00:52:32
Speaker
And, you know, they painted and decorated them at times, but probably the ones that, you know, needed to get right into service. Nothing. Just. Straight pie. That's right. Straight pie. No finish. No chaser. Straight. No chaser.
00:52:52
Speaker
The last picture I have is of the Pennsylvania style chest cupboard. So that's pretty fancy. It is. It is. And that you could see is somewhat bring angle on this. Yeah. Related to that first German case.
00:53:13
Speaker
Right. Are those inlays there on the doors or are those carvings? Hard to tell. Looks like marquetry almost. No, maybe paint. Yeah. These are carvings, these little corner pieces. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So but all in all, it's a storage unit and it was known as Akaz, K-A-S.
00:53:37
Speaker
from the German kasten meaning cupboard or or shrunk as it was known in German shrunk so law it's a large wardrobe had an upper section might have shelves
00:53:53
Speaker
Over one and two or three drawers. Yeah. It wasn't unusual for a piece like this to be seven or eight feet tall and seven and a half feet wide. Jeez. Twenty five to 30 inches deep. Like raising a board. Really. So this really is a close, you know, a closed closet. It is a shrunk. Yeah. Shrunk. Honey, I shrunk the kids.
00:54:24
Speaker
Um, cabinet makers outfitted these large cases with removable pins and wedges so they could be completely taken apart for transportation or to fit through doorways. Smart.
Impact of Consumerism on Amish Values
00:54:39
Speaker
That's amazing. It's like going up to the Hoboken eighth floor. Right. But I mean, that's a nice piece. Could you imagine building it in a way that you could take it apart? Yeah. What going on?
00:54:57
Speaker
Yeah. That's all that's almost a in line with our, uh, our coffee bar, our coffee shrunk. Yeah. Oh gosh. That, that job's still not that's it's sitting in the foyer. Still haven't even gotten final payment on that because I don't have the heart to ask for it. So that wraps up our origins of Pennsylvania Dutch furniture episode. Yeah. Wow.
00:55:23
Speaker
Interesting interesting stuff more going on with the Amish than I was expecting Yeah, that's usually the case isn't it? Yeah You know, we got a couple more things to dive into with the PA Dutch but I think in series this series
00:55:46
Speaker
nine through or 10 through 13 14 on when we go into federal we're gonna start getting into furniture styles that people are a little bit more familiar with yeah and maybe a little more be less historical in nature as far as like the background there's only so much we could get get into with these so simple yeah
00:56:14
Speaker
Um, but I mean, what do you, how do you think the, what kind of influences you think the, their furniture made by these folks has on us or in general, the people like us? Um, well, I don't know about us. I'd say furniture in general, I think the, this sort of farmhouse look definitely pulls from this simple Amish, you know, flat with the,
00:56:44
Speaker
I mean, I feel like in like the 90s, you saw a ton of that Amish style, very flat pine furniture with the the fretwork on it and stuff for maybe those big curves, fretwork is in the right term. But yeah, those big round curves and stuff like that.
00:57:06
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I mean, it definitely was borrowed, we'll say. I don't think they gave it credit as Amish, but when you say fall house. Country furniture. Yeah, that's a good point. I would say that the most recent fad of country style furniture is a direct lift from those early Amish pieces.
00:57:37
Speaker
What about their not their aesthetic, but like their their ethics, their work ethics? You think any of that's bled through? Yeah, but it I you can't attribute it to them, I think specifically because really every furniture maker was preaching the same thing. Right. You know, that's a that's a modern thing where where the idea of something being a temporary kind of piece came about.
00:58:07
Speaker
Right. Have wealthy patrons. You're more worried about selling them something again. Well, even the Newport furniture makers who are making stuff for these mercantile class clients, they were building that stuff to last 200 years. Just because those people were rich, they weren't making it to fall apart. Excellent point.
00:58:34
Speaker
So I think that's been the goal forever. But in the last, let's say, 150 years is when you saw a disposable mindset sort of coming into play. It's just a product of consumerism and businesses trying to make more money because they need to
00:58:59
Speaker
You can't sell furniture if people don't need to buy new furniture, like cars. Why do you think they come out with a new car every year? Yeah, that's a really good example. I remember when I was studying history, I took a class in 20th century American history.
00:59:18
Speaker
and it dealt with the advertising age and the auto modern auto industry. It was fascinating because to read documents where you see the, the, the light bulb go on in somebody's head at like general motors that said,
00:59:35
Speaker
Hey, man, we we're not going to make it if we just sell one car every 10 years. We got to sell people a car every three, four or five years. Yeah. And we're going to base our whole model on that. And it's like, wow, they they could make things that lasted. Yeah. And they could have been doing it for 60, 70 years. They just chose not to. Yeah. Since 1909 or something.
01:00:05
Speaker
Everybody does it. Yeah. Light bulbs, cars, furniture. Phones, computers. Mm-hmm. Everything. Oh, yeah, the phone. Tools. Don't get me started on that phone. Yeah. You know, Apple, they got sued successfully for putting a shortened lifespan on their stuff. Yeah. Yeah, now they're getting hit with the right to repair. Yeah. So you'll be able to repair your own phone.
01:00:36
Speaker
That's cool. Well, that's all we got for you this week, folks. Yeah, you probably got your fill of the Amish by now. Yeah, well, you better buckle up. You got two more episodes. You're going to go looking for a Shoe Fly Pie now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's coming up. Don't you worry. Don't forget.
01:00:54
Speaker
Calavera 10 save you 10% at Calavera tools vesting vesting finishes 10% off American craftsman at RPM coding solutions comm you know the Montana American craftsman 10% off Montana and Giving it away. Yeah That's all good stuff Everybody take care. Hope you had good Thanksgiving and
01:01:23
Speaker
Christmas is coming pretty soon. We'll see you next week.