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The American Empire: Who, When, When, Where? Season 2, Episode 18.
44 Plays3 years ago
This week is the intro to the American Empire period. This is where things really start to get interesting.
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Introduction to Episode 18
00:01:06
Speaker
All right, welcome back to the American Craftsman Podcast. Yes, indeed. Episode 18 of season two. Yeah, we're stepping into the empire period. Yeah, like that movie, TV show. No. About like, was he like a rap producer or something? Yeah, I think so. This is a completely different empire. What's that guy's name, that actor?
00:01:36
Speaker
I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen the show. He was in you ever seen the movie Hustle and Flow. No. He's the main character in that movie. OK. That is a good movie. Yeah. But like a a guy in Memphis Tennessee who wants to become a rapper. And Anthony something or another is in it. And this goofy white dude.
00:02:06
Speaker
You'd have to see it. It is a good movie though. Check it out. It's a big time TV movie. It's always on because they probably got it for nothing. It's like Shawshank Redemption. You can always watch that. My wife's never seen Shawshank Redemption.
00:02:27
Speaker
That's a classic. It is. It is. It's a great movie. My wife's like that too, though. There's all these movies that she hasn't seen, but then she's seen all the terrible movies. She's like, what do you mean you haven't seen, uh, you don't like 10 things I hate about you? I'm like, no, I don't like that movie. She's seen Ernest Goes to Camp. Probably.
00:02:48
Speaker
so uh...
Exploration of the American Empire Period
00:02:49
Speaker
empire or it and for our purposes the american empire period uh... episode eighteen is going to deal with who what where and when but not necessarily in that order went away and how the why and how i i think it's in there i probably just didn't type it
00:03:08
Speaker
Who, what, when, where, why, how? Do they still teach that in school? I feel like that was like something that they put too much emphasis on when I was in school. Yeah, when I was a teacher, we had the do now. Do now. Did you have do now? No. That was something that somebody up in Albany. Yeah, Albany, exactly, decided they needed to get the kids into the class and have them working right away.
00:03:37
Speaker
Before, before you even did the lesson, they had to do now. Good. Yeah. It was like a, well, like a writing prompt or something. It was, you'd have to have it on the board and.
00:03:49
Speaker
You know, the kids, as soon as they came in, were supposed to be doing it while you were taking attendance and all that other nonsense. Like, we know the bell hasn't rung yet. It's like at work. They want you to work before you're even clocked in. I know. It's all super nonsense. So who, what, where, why, when, how, who? I'm confused. What is American Empire?
00:04:19
Speaker
the the reason um... i mean i i like this stuff and that's one of the reasons we go through it but to set the the background i think is important because
00:04:29
Speaker
It shows how all these world events and everything sort of influences what becomes style. Well, it gives context to the when and the why. Right, exactly. So we just left the federal period, which even though it was influenced by
00:04:54
Speaker
French and English primarily, designers and style, it was still called federal. This is really almost wholly French inspired.
00:05:10
Speaker
and indirectly French-inspired as well as we'll get into. It's another neoclassical style like Federal, so they're going to draw from the Roman and Greek architecture and all that stuff that was discovered not that long ago, rediscovered, I should say.
00:05:34
Speaker
And it's the first French Empire under Napoleon. So we're talking about late 1700s, early 1800s. Two of the main dudes, Napoleon's architects were Percier and Fontaine, and they're names that will crop up.
00:05:57
Speaker
the future as being real heavy influencers of the style because they were instrumental in developing all these things for Napoleon.
Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign Influence
00:06:15
Speaker
by the grand puba to do these things. Exactly. That's a good way to describe Napoleon. Now, it's something that maybe everybody doesn't know, like the time frame. So in 1798, Napoleon begins his Egyptian campaign, and that's sort of where a lot of this comes from.
00:06:41
Speaker
It starts off, you know, like all these things about money and power, but there's a lot of scientific research that comes out of it. Napoleon heads over into Egypt, Syria, under the pretense of, you know... Find the ancient aliens?
00:07:06
Speaker
No, this is, this is pre pre ancient aliens. Let me backtrack a little bit. So 1798, Napoleon begins his Egyptian campaign.
00:07:22
Speaker
A lot of science and research is the result of it. There's a lot of archaeological discoveries, especially in Europe, because this is all new to the folks in Europe. And I'm sure you've seen the pictures, the photographs of some European on a camel, and the sphinx is buried up to its head in the sand.
00:07:51
Speaker
And I think that was as soon as the early 1900s. I don't think they unearthed the Sphinx until the 20s or something. Yeah, so this is the beginning of all that stuff. You can imagine how remote it is compared to how it is now.
00:08:10
Speaker
Right. That's a really good point. Maybe not remote. That's sort of like a that would be like a dig against the people who live there because there are people there. It's not like not like Napoleon went and discovered Egypt. But
00:08:25
Speaker
No, I understand what you're saying. It's that information isn't disseminated the way it is now. It's a distant land from Europe and America, and that's where we're discussing. So the lifestyle, the culture, it's unknown to most.
00:08:50
Speaker
on this side of the world. So all the military campaign and then the scientific campaign influences fashion and art, which takes up Egyptian themes and motifs like Sphinx, a winged lion, lotus blossoms, chariotids. You ever hear that word, a chariotid?
00:09:16
Speaker
Uh, no. I had to look it up. It's like a katydid. A karyatid is a stone carving of a draped female figure. Believe me, I had no idea that's what that was going to be. And scarabs, of course, you know, that's a big Egyptian thing.
00:09:40
Speaker
So all over Europe, Egyptian motifs as well as those as we spoke of from ancient Greece and Rome, they were to become prominent features on what will develop as the empire style. The sumptuous empire style and decoration.
00:10:01
Speaker
So we'll talk a little bit about how Napoleon gets over there. As I said, this is 1798, the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. Now the Ottomans were controlling that part of the world at the time.
00:10:18
Speaker
And Napoleon, he decides he's got French trade interests and he's going to go over there. He joins forces with the Indian ruler, Tipu Sultan.
00:10:33
Speaker
And the British are there, too, in India, as everybody knows that part about history. And France and England have always had it in for each other. And that was, of course, one of Napoleon's big aims was to get Britain out of that area.
00:10:58
Speaker
but uh... britain winds up winning in the end you know they stayed over in india and they you know uh... were big imperial power uh... so he's there but
00:11:13
Speaker
Aside from the military campaign, as we discussed, there's this whole scientific campaign that happens, and I didn't know this either. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone is at this time. Oh wow. And everybody's heard of the Rosetta Stone. The thing that makes it so important is that it was the first bilingual text
00:11:38
Speaker
discovered so you have all these hieroglyphics and nobody knew what they meant but the the second language was I guess Greek because it was written in this Hellenistic language and that Hellenistic is is Greek right so they were able to decipher now all these hieroglyphics
00:12:07
Speaker
because they could understand the Greek translation. This created more intense interest.
00:12:21
Speaker
It's, you know how that goes with all these rich people go ahead and go with it. You know, archeologists were at first just a bunch of rich Europeans. I'm seeing it now with the new interest in space.
00:12:38
Speaker
Right. Exactly. That's a great analogy. Like, we got all this interest in space and who gets to go up? All these rich folks that can buy a ticket on, you know, Blue Horizon or whatever the hell it's called. Blue Origin. Blue Origin.
00:12:57
Speaker
All right, well, despite early victories and initial successful expedition into Syria, Napoleon and his Armée de Orient were eventually defeated and forced to withdraw. And so Napoleon suffers defeat in Egypt and Syria. And it's not unrelated to what then happens in America at the time.
00:13:26
Speaker
So who are they fighting? Are they fighting the Syrians and the Egyptians? They're fighting the Ottomans. Yeah, the Ottoman Empire.
00:13:36
Speaker
And of course, I'm sure the Ottomans have enlisted the native Syrian and Egyptians, but it's the Ottoman Turks. I was gonna say, yeah, that's like Turkey area, right? Yeah.
Louisiana Purchase of 1803
00:13:50
Speaker
Well, so 1803 now comes around and that's a big day in American history because that's when we get the Louisiana Purchase.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah, he must have been hurting. Exactly. So he's hurting from money. He wants to stick it to Britain. And now America is still young and Britain still has a lot of influence and a lot of interest in the continent because there's still a lot of unsecured lands.
00:14:29
Speaker
especially down in that southern kind of area because you have the islands in the Caribbean and England is the powerhouse down there. That's right. And France has what is now Louisiana and all those states north and west of that that go up into basically the heartland of America now.
00:14:57
Speaker
So he's worried that Britain's going to be able to come in from the west and sort of take over that part of it.
00:15:08
Speaker
What he does, he makes a sweetheart deal to America, selling his land, so first to raise money because of his defeats, all those expensive wars he's lost. And so for $15 million, he sells 530 million acres to America. That comes out to about $18 a square mile. Yeah, now, I mean,
00:15:38
Speaker
An acre, a square acre, like I feel like a thousand dollars is like the cheapest you can find that like in the middle of the woods with no access. Right. I mean, and that included New Orleans. It includes places that are, you know, well-developed. Yeah. It's right, you know, it's on the Mississippi River. It's a vital shipping port. It's a big deal.
00:16:08
Speaker
uh... so napoleon raises money and sticks it to the british uh... will backtrack again we'll talk about empire furniture specifically uh... and when did that happen
00:16:24
Speaker
1790s into the 1830s. Starts with Napoleon. He takes over. Everybody knows he had this pension for grand gestures. So you could imagine the furniture that he's having designed for his royal court and everything like that.
00:16:51
Speaker
The American Empire as a style gains popularity in the 1820s here in America, which is sort of what they call the second phase of neoclassical style. And it's not unrelated to the tail end of the federal style. Like when we saw that piece, that pier table,
00:17:20
Speaker
That had a lot of what is sort of considered empire elements. Yeah, those black elements like, I don't know, to me kind of screamed Egyptian.
00:17:36
Speaker
Also, as a 19th century design movement in the US, Empire encompasses architecture, furniture, and decorative arts, as well as the visual arts. I'm guessing that implies painting and all these other things.
00:17:55
Speaker
I think that's going to be a pretty common theme you know moving forward starting with the with the federal where these design periods are not they're not just furniture they're sort of everything.
00:18:09
Speaker
Exactly. Good point. The federal architecture, we saw those cool homes. And I guess, do we have anything like that now? I mean, where I guess the bungalow or cottage style might have cottage style furniture.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah. Well the bungalow was kind of like an arts and crafts thing. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's what I mean. Like now you know typical furniture and house doesn't really match like. Well they're of the same quality. Both garbage.
00:18:55
Speaker
That was a good one. So in American furniture, who is one of the leading, or who are some of the leading proponents of empire? Duncan Fife, his name comes up again. Yeah, we saw when we looked at him last time, the furniture, he was starting to go into that direction. You can tell like these real wacky kind of, and we even said, Egyptian looking.
00:19:23
Speaker
yeah exactly remember that chair yeah so uh... because he was kind of young and during the federal period right uh... and so now he's he's made it through uh... those past couple of decades and now empires big and five based out in new york is still a hot name he's still big and he's he's uh... current will will say
00:19:49
Speaker
Um, and another big name I came across was, um, a Paris-trained, uh, cabinet maker named Charles Honoré. And these French names are tough. La-la-noire. I'll go with that.
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah, L-A-N-N-U-I-E-R, for those of you who are following along at home. Maybe it's Lanier. Lanier. Yeah, Lanier. Lanier. I don't know. I'm not sure where the U falls in the pronunciation for France. I wish there was a... For French.
00:20:30
Speaker
a, um, like a pronunciation thing built in this. Oh, that would be cool. Right click. Not that I can read any of his menu right now because the screen is about five feet away, but. Um, so as I said, uh, we're going to call him Charles Charles on array. He was a French Chuck.
00:20:53
Speaker
uh... will discuss his uh... episode will discuss his career in uh... when we get into the more like the whole uh... which is uh... i think the second episode where we dive into the failure yeah yeah that's a that's a tease as we say in business if the if they find anything on oak island hey that's on tonight you know the next week will say tune in next week uh...
00:21:20
Speaker
I thought it was important to note that it's at this period of time where the Empire period emerges that the Industrial Revolution is starting to take hold. And this guy Joseph Meeks, his name pops up in a couple of
00:21:44
Speaker
future and not uh... not just episodes but uh... like uh... when we get into victorian his name pops up again uh... because all these these periods are kind of crammed together will joseph meek's he's a furniture maker in new york and he winds up starting basically a factory uh... for like seventy years and he he made pretty good stuff
00:22:15
Speaker
uh... uh... there's uh... there's a link down there will get to it's called the meek's broadside and that's basically like you know how we would uh... paste up stuff like posters yeah that's that's sort of what a that is uh... so and uh... in eighteen thirty three meek's
00:22:39
Speaker
prints up this broadside this big poster and he's got thirty nine pieces of furniture uh... couple of you know decorations like that drapery and such and says you can have this and this is what it costs uh... uh... from what i learned is pretty much a breakthrough like that was the first time somebody ever done anything like that right uh... although
00:23:09
Speaker
when we were doing the Pennsylvania Dutch didn't that guy what was his name again with an L lab yeah didn't Henry lap have something yeah like a sketch like a book a little handmade sketches right yeah that's more akin to maybe like the Chippendale and the Sheridan kind of stuff but I guess this guy is almost like gorilla marketing where you're walking by and you're like what the hell is that right and it's all these pictures of furniture
00:23:38
Speaker
And it's this exact piece, we'll make this exact piece here at our factory and it costs $149. Maybe that's what we got to do. We'll start, we'll go to like the mall and we'll put a piece of paper under people's windshield wipers.
00:23:56
Speaker
You know it makes me remember my marketing class from college. You know what they said the return is on something like that. One in one thousand or so. Yes. One in a thousand for even a mailer. But any kind of interest. We're not talking like a sale we're just talking about action. Yeah. Like somebody might inquire
00:24:19
Speaker
What we'll do, we'll put it under the passenger windshield wiper. So when they get in, realize they got to walk all the way around the side of the car. Yeah, piss them all off. Do you ever do flyers? No. Yeah, when I was a kid, I think I had one or two jobs where it was to go out to mall parking lots and put flyers. I think it's pretty well-banned now.
00:24:42
Speaker
Yeah, must be. Yeah. Must be. Because it just turns into litter. Exactly. You'd go there, and you'd see them all on the floor. Because people, you know, they get blown off, or people get pissed off, and they take them out, and they throw them on the ground. It's like now you see the masks all over. Oh, yeah. It's terrible. Who's using a single-use mask, anyway? If you don't have a mask. By this point?
00:25:08
Speaker
Get with the program. You've had time to purchase a multi-use mask. Hunter's mask is pretty cool, that mesh. Where'd you get that? I don't know. My wife got that so much. I like that. It's supposed to be some kind of, I don't know, some wacky thing. I like that. Well, Meeks's furniture was a simplified American empire style. So what he did was he kind of dumbed it down.
00:25:39
Speaker
the quality was pretty good uh... and the guy was successful the broadside included prices and was intended to be a catalog the consumers could use to order furniture from mexico this is a good this is a good aside
00:25:59
Speaker
Here's what I found. Instead, judging by the large quantity of furniture and the style of the broadside, either not signed or known to be by other cabinet makers all over the East Coast, Meeks' broadside was often used by customers to specify to local cabinet makers what was wanted. So it would be like,
00:26:23
Speaker
somebody coming in with a picture of somebody else's piece and saying us here can you build this. Yeah that happens more often than we'd like. Yeah. Except back then the prices were sort of even across the board. Yeah. There was just one one real
00:26:45
Speaker
standard of fabrication and pay and all those other things. It's not like a shop like ours trying to compete with a factory or overseas production. It's pretty cool. Wow, look at that. That's super Egyptian. All these canopy beds.
00:27:07
Speaker
That's, uh, yeah. Looking like a little more like empire. Or, uh, sorry. Uh, federal. Mm-hmm. Yeah, a lot of crossover. Mm-hmm.
00:27:21
Speaker
Um, some of the things you could see are, uh, you know, even reminiscent of like the, is that a fireplace around or is that just a badly drawn dresser? No, the other thing. Yeah. Oh, that looks like a fireplace around, right? That looks like a desk. Oh, I can see if I can zoom in. Man, it's getting cold down here. Yeah.
00:27:48
Speaker
For you guys on the East Coast, it's 19 degrees out right now. Oh, shit. At 11.40, which is, that's pretty cold in New Jersey. So we got like a, what is that, like a? I don't know. I don't know what those are. Are those doors? Doors, maybe a stone top there, marble top and a mirror. Something you'd set in the hallway or? It's like a drop leaf table maybe. Yeah.
00:28:18
Speaker
It's like one of those peer tables. Now, you can see a lot of these elements have survived into furniture you'd see at any mass-marketed furniture store. This is almost like a Queen Anne-style chair with this splat. Look at that. The first chaise lounge that I see. Yeah, yeah. I don't remember. That seems like an Egyptian kind of deal.
00:28:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's big. It's big in the Victorian era, too. These are like these, like, basin. Yeah, I guess you're putting a wash basin on. Mm-hmm. It's like a secretary. What do they call these mirrors that have the pivot? Is that an Ettege? Yeah, that's a big thing, that pivoting mirror. Look at this couch.
00:29:11
Speaker
And there's the price list down below. Oh, wow. I don't think we'll be able to see that. Yeah. No. That's a shame. That would be interesting, though. Yeah. I know. And nice color pictures. And there's the factory. Yeah. Broad Street, 43 and 45? Yeah. Broad Street, New York.
00:29:42
Speaker
Well, I like this thing. Yeah. It's pretty cool. I mean, it's very interesting to see this stuff. That's the real historical documents. Yeah. Um, it's amazing that it survived piece of paper like that. Um,
00:30:03
Speaker
Yeah, so you could go in and say, yeah, give me number 43. The side of fried rice. Can I add the egg roll? Yeah. Did you know the word Luddite refers to a person who's opposed to technological change?
00:30:22
Speaker
The term's derived from a group of early 19th century English workers who attacked factories and destroyed machinery as a means of protest. Oh man, that sounded all too familiar. Yeah, yeah. Meeks having the first big factory there in New York. They were supposedly led by a man named Ned Ludd, though he may have been an apocryphal figure.
00:30:52
Speaker
So there you go, that's why I threw that in there. Meeks was not without his detractors. And of course the Industrial Revolution, we get into that more in the Victorian, which is two sections up. What do we got, Shaker between? Yeah, Shakers. Shakers are an interesting group, the Shakin' Quakers. What's this ad for a portable sawmill?
00:31:22
Speaker
Oh, look at that painting. Landy's portable steam engine sawmill. Sainsville and Newark, Ohio. Yeah. You could see how this is starting to, um, look at that. It's like a freaking train. It is. Yeah. That's like the locomotive of a train. And then that's a pretty good quality picture.
00:31:49
Speaker
Yeah, I imagine there's some belts that attach it to the blades. That's a nice scene here. We got a little lake, a little chateau up on the hill, train going by, horse and carriage. Yeah. These guys are... Everybody's happy. What are they doing? They're stacking boards. Yeah, they got a big... Oh, wow.
00:32:12
Speaker
I was thinking band sawmill for some reason. It's a circular sawmill with a big bottom blade and a small top blade. That looks safe, right? What does this say? Blandy's portable engine and sawmill are owned and operated all over the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Uh, something central. Oh, Mexico, Central America, West Indies, industrialized something.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah, so a little industrialization. Wow, I can get really close to this one. West Indies, South America, Europe, and even far off Asia. Wow. You got a woman in a fine dress, man in his top hat. Yeah, where's the wigs at? Did I get rid of the powdered wig?
00:33:10
Speaker
You got the rich guys over here looking at the people working. This is the portable engine and sawmill that took the first
00:33:22
Speaker
Perimium at the US fair at Cincinnati. Over six competitors cutting 960 feet. Something lumber. Finish lumber? Finish lumber, fresh lumber out of two logs in eight and a half minutes. Something taken the
00:33:49
Speaker
First premium everywhere. I don't know. Well first premium seems to be like the prize. Yeah. Yeah. And it's capitalized like first premium. It's a proper noun. Zanesville Newark Ohio. Blandy's Patton and I apologize just trying to read this old ad and it's like it's kind of grainy. Blandy's
00:34:21
Speaker
patent portable steam engine and sawmill are undoubtedly the best in the world. They warrant all, they warrant all their machinery, their T eight. Oh no, that is for descriptive circulars report of upper something.
00:34:44
Speaker
Say operators. Operators and price lists address the manufacturers. Oh, so you can send away. For descriptive circulars, report of operators.
00:35:09
Speaker
1867 six hundred and fifty. Does that say six hundred fifty three dollars? Or is that just oh not say maybe I thought it said 1653. Yeah. I thought it maybe was just like some kind of note. But yeah maybe that's what that says six hundred fifty two dollars something March 9th 1867 wild filed March 9th 1867 John something something that's pretty cool.
00:35:38
Speaker
So you got Meeks with his factory, you got these steam engine sawmills. That's a great ad. It is, isn't it? I'd like to have a printed out thing of that, like in a frame, that'd be cool. And so the American Empire is probably the first style that's becoming mass
Mass Production of American Empire Style
00:36:04
Speaker
produced. Right.
00:36:06
Speaker
And the real center for it in America was New York. I mean, it's all happening on the East Coast anyway, because there is no real West Coast. Ohio's the West Coast at this point. Well, they got Blandy sawmills out there. They said they got them in the Pacific. When was Lewis and Clark? That's a good question. We got the internet.
00:36:36
Speaker
So many examples of American Empire cabinetmaking are characterized by antiquities inspired carving, gilt brass, furniture mounts, and decorative inlays such as stamped brass, banding with egg and dart, diamond or Greek key patterns, or individual shapes such as stars or circles.
00:36:59
Speaker
I put note here I didn't know this that the egg and dark patterns go all the way back to ancient Greek and Roman architecture. It's funny you know we talk about like how now like everything is so unoriginal and there's not any new styles and it's all just borrowed from I mean that's exactly what they were doing these were all I know
00:37:19
Speaker
The federal was, you know, and so is this. Yeah, it's amazing how much of this stuff is brought forward. The most elaborate furniture in the empire style was made around 1815, 1825. Again, it's after we've been able to synthesize all these new finds in Egypt and everything.
00:37:43
Speaker
often incorporating columns with rope, twist, carvings, animal paw feet, which we saw some great examples of, and thymion. I don't know what that is. I usually look it up. Oh. A palmette. It's a fan-shaped leaf of a palm tree. Yeah. Variants, let's see.
00:38:17
Speaker
I guess just another word, another name for a palmette, which is like a fan kind of deal.
00:38:28
Speaker
So there's a lot of ornamentation, stars, acanthus leaf, sometimes with gilding, and vert antique, which is an antique green simulating age bronze. And the Red Room at the White House is a fine example of American empire style.
00:38:52
Speaker
The White House was gutted in 1814. All of you history buffs will remember when the British set fire to the White House and burned Washington to the ground. No, War of 1812, anyone? It was largely reconstructed during the administration of President James Monroe, and the door and window frames and doors themselves date to this era.
00:39:21
Speaker
Monroe purchased furnishings for the Red Room in the Empire style as he had for the Blue Room to furnish the rebuilt White House. It's like reservoir dogs. Yeah, so the Red Room. Yeah, Mr. Pink, Mr. Brown. The Red Room is a simplified version of American Empire furniture, often referred to as the Grecian style.
00:39:44
Speaker
I didn't know that. Generally, it's displayed as a planer style, more curved forms. It's highly figured mahogany veneers and some gilt stencil decorations. And a lot of this stuff survives, you know, stuff in the White House especially. That's why these are great historical examples.
00:40:10
Speaker
That'd be a nice gig. You're like the conservator of furniture for the White House. Yeah. Have you ever seen the workshop they have there? No. Yeah. I think it was on 60 Minutes. They went and they did a tour of it. It's cool. I mean, it's really cool. But they got like old new Oliver. No. No, definitely not.
00:40:34
Speaker
No, it reminded me of like a really, really big, cool school, industrial arts kind of thing. Yeah. Because you could imagine all the old pieces and stuff that they have to save to reference and everything. Speaking of Oliver, a little aside, I forgot to tell you, I had a dude reach out. He does a lot of milling and stuff. I didn't get to dive too deep into his Instagram.
00:41:04
Speaker
He's out in Washington State, and there's an Oliver Planer for sale, same one that we had. And he messaged me. He's like, hey, a bunch of people told me to ask you about this thing. I did some digging, and I found your posts and whatever. What's the deal? And I said, just go to episode 33 of our podcast and listen to it. And I told him some stuff and sent him some videos and stuff. But yeah, needless to say, he's not buying it.
00:41:33
Speaker
mission accomplished another poor soul saved so uh... red room of the white house it's it's a good example of uh... american empire it's got uh... massive chested drawers with scroll pillars glass pools uh... work tables have scroll feet and some fiddle back chairs uh...
00:42:01
Speaker
Elements of this style had a brief revival in the 1890s. So what's that? You know, 70 years later? Particularly the chested drawers and the vanities.
00:42:15
Speaker
and dressing tables uh... usually executed in oak and oak veneers uh... the americanized interpretation of the empire style continued in popularity in conservative regions outside metropolitan centers well past mid-nineteenth century so there was a little behind out there in the uh... outskirts that's that's basically it i mean that's that's what that sentence
00:42:42
Speaker
says while the trends are moving in and out of the major cities. They hang on. They take a little bit longer to get there to the outskirts and they hang on a little bit longer.
00:42:59
Speaker
Because you know, you guys just aren't as sophisticated as us city folks. We like to think we're sophisticated, don't we? We don't even live in the city. We're close to it though.
00:43:14
Speaker
The American Empire period begins in 1815, last through 1840. Popular, really peak popularity in the 1820s. Just recapping this and let's take a look at some of the furniture. Let's look at this Empire sofa. Lost my mouse again.
00:43:37
Speaker
Eight hundred five. We want to learn how to spot American empire pieces. Empire today. You guys have empire rugs on your area. What happened. Download something was this a virus. Oh wow. There you go. Wow. That's an empire sofa. That is some picture too. Yeah that's definitely from the museum.
00:44:07
Speaker
So how can we describe this sofa to our listeners? This is classic empire sofa. It's like a charcoal upholstery. Oh, I wish it was a little more high res. A lot of gold gilding. Look, it's the return of the little wheel. Yeah.
00:44:32
Speaker
Is this like a monkey's head? I don't know what animal part that is on the foot of this sofa. Let's see how close I can get. I can get pretty close, a little blurry. I mean... Uh, no, it's like a foot and then it's kind of on something. Yeah. It's a sideways animal paw. Yeah. With acanthus leaves.
00:45:01
Speaker
some fruits maybe yeah and the shape of the sofa itself is is sort of like I'm I think the best way I can describe is like a sled a sleigh right yeah it's like a like almost yeah like a sleigh bed it has a scroll he's like scroll ends I'm liking this thing it's very classy it's yeah I mean it's a little too boisterous for me but the the shape in general
00:45:29
Speaker
Who would like this, Jacqueline? This is like? Oh, yeah. I mean, if you take out the gold element, whether that's gold leafing or what have you, you could see it fitting in to a modern home. Yeah. Like if it was just wood and upholstery? Yeah, yeah. Maybe ditch the claw feet? Yeah. I mean, even with the claw feet, it still works.
00:45:59
Speaker
Yeah, maybe a little not so much carving here. Just tone it down a bit. Give it the Joseph Meeks style. Yeah, the budget. We'll value engineer it. Yeah, very, very cool. Yeah, I love these cutaways here. Yeah, you can see now definitely this is its own distinct thing away from Federal. Yeah, wow.
00:46:26
Speaker
It looks pretty comfortable, too. Yeah. Got a pretty thin pad down here. I mean, up until this point, we're not seeing a lot of upholstery. Yeah. Wow. That's a good one. All right. Identifying empire and American empire furniture characteristics.
00:46:57
Speaker
certain characteristics define American empire furniture make it easy to identify an antique shops if let's say you're looking for us an empire sofa dresser etcetera it's heavy and substantial like the Jacobian yes that's right because none of this stuff is getting invented out of thin air
00:47:19
Speaker
Um, empire pieces are not delicate and fragile looking items. You'll see thick columns, pillars. Sorry, I just want to open this up so I don't, uh, sorry. That's all right. Um, they got heavy drawers and shelves, sturdy looking. Let's see this bookcase, see if it holds true. What are these old freaking downloads? Oh, see, this is like, looks totally different.
00:47:51
Speaker
Yeah. Like that motif in the middle there almost looks like that federal piece. This is very Gothic. Yeah. These arched lights with these circles down here. Look at this. I don't even know what the hell you call that. It's like a raised, elongated diamond. But it's totally. It's pillowed. Yeah, like completely radiused here. Wow.
00:48:19
Speaker
All the veneer work, definitely. Stone top again. Yeah, Hawkins back to the federal. Again, a ambiguous animal foot. These same thing. Yeah. These little, little, there was a name for these diamonds. Huh. I mean, gorgeous veneer work.
00:48:49
Speaker
And the top almost looks like it has a whole separate scheme to it, except for the columns that tie it together. Right? Yeah, the doors on the top and the doors on the bottom look like they come from two separate pieces. Then you have that piece in the middle, that waistband. Yeah, it's big. And there's a big overhang.
00:49:14
Speaker
Yeah, very, very eclectic looking piece. Yeah, big sort of bonnet top. Mm-hmm. Very interesting. Yeah, this is cool. So, so far for identifying empire, we have they're big. They're heavy pieces. They're symmetrical.
00:49:38
Speaker
Sweeping curves, bold lines are an important part of the style. Additionally, American empire furniture relies heavily on symmetry. I see. Ornate carvings, especially on the feet. Antique clawfoot tables, dressers, ornately carved pillars.
00:50:05
Speaker
Look for egg and dart molding, star carvings, and Greek key patterns. That's another good way to identify empire pieces. Yeah, we saw that at the bottom of the meek sad. Yeah. Like there's an empire foot. Yeah, it was like a cat foot. Yeah, I mean they seem to be some kind of big cat always. Yeah. With going up into a leaf pattern. Yeah.
00:50:34
Speaker
We got a flowery kind of guy right there. Interesting. What's this empire table? What are these, PDFs? Oh, there it is. Wow. See, that's very simple compared to some of the other things we've seen. Yeah, just some carving right there. Yeah.
00:51:00
Speaker
This is a round table. Kind of like a palmette. There you go. See, we're learning. It's a heavy, broad apron. Mm-hmm. Round marble top. Mm-hmm. Single pedestal. Super chunky on the pedestal. Yeah, all those three feet you'd call it? Three legs? Yeah, it looks like it.
00:51:29
Speaker
but they're about three inches thick. Yeah. Three inches thick and five inches high. Yeah, it's substantial. So I guess that's the part. I mean, that apron is monstrous. Yeah, it must be veneered. Yeah.
00:51:47
Speaker
What else we got for Empire characteristics? Guilt and brass details, gold. Some pieces from the American Empire period include details of inlaid brass banding, have gilding to add warmth and sparkle to the dark woods. That's true, everything we've seen has been fairly dark.
00:52:10
Speaker
carved, could have carved wooden knobs and pulls, but you also see a lot of brass and bronze pulls with those ornate back plates. Yeah, that's been pretty commonplace from the colonial period for those brass back plates. Yeah. And I mean, I know it goes all the way to the Victorian and even arts and crafts. Yeah, yeah. The cabinetry often features glass panels on the doors. We've seen that.
00:52:40
Speaker
Some have raised panels that are, you know, really well carved, expertly carved to show off the workmanship of the time. And lastly, fine woods and veneers. Everything's dark, rich. They favored mahogany and walnut. And, you know, use veneers in the same way we discussed during the federal period.
00:53:09
Speaker
Oh, wow. I tell you, one piece to the next that you could see some reminiscence from the table, that foot shape to those. To these pilasters? Yeah. But that almost looks modern. Yeah. Like if you told me this was from the forties, I'd believe you. I mean, this is from the 1800s. Yeah, the early 1800s too. Yeah.
Characteristics of Empire-Style Furniture
00:53:38
Speaker
Wow.
00:53:40
Speaker
Look at this. We're laughing because it's on brown carpet with like a and there's like a painted over outlet. Yeah. You can see the chip paint and stuff like that. Look at this is some water damage here. Yeah. It's taken from pictures taken in somebody's home. Yeah. It's like the landlord special.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yeah, really like cheap baseboard and three inch clamshell baseboard. But I'm seeing, I guess, Egyptian in the form of it. Yeah. Yeah, definitely an Eastern kind of look. Mm hmm. These like this stacked deal here. It's a really cool looking piece of furniture. I mean, yeah, these are scrolls. But the back are turned, it looks like.
00:54:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I see that, yep. So it's a dresser, three drawers in between these, I don't know, I mean, how to describe those balances because they're, they're curved.
00:54:42
Speaker
In a scroll, it's like a scroll, right? But we're seeing the edge of it instead of the side of it. Yeah, yeah. There's a keyed drawer here at the top. It's sort of like this. Or maybe it folds down. Yeah, a rounded sort of... Yeah, a cove right down the middle of it.
00:55:06
Speaker
And then the top section, those stacked drawers. I don't know if this is like a flips open, if it's in the open position now, or if that's just a decoration. It's like a splash. Very cool. Yeah. Very cool. This setting is... Yeah. That piece deserves to be in a museum. Yeah.
00:55:32
Speaker
So obviously it's in a private, private setting. Empire Chester drawers. Primary woods went over this, but I'll add rosewood, mahogany. They even used maple and local woods if it had some really, really nice figure.
00:55:54
Speaker
That's just for the country pieces. Yeah, yeah. And this was surprising. The secondary wood during the Empire period was frequently pine. Some notable forms. The Clismos chair was probably the most, I don't want to say famous because I never saw it.
00:56:25
Speaker
this form comes up time and time again. And this is, it's definitely Egyptian, you know, that rounded back. Um, and remember the Duncan five chair, the one that we thought was so we did that had caning like, yeah. And I think the front rail might've been something similar to that. Yeah. Look at this curve.
00:56:49
Speaker
Yeah that's the thing that the Clismos chair has. So if you're listening it's like the the seat.
00:57:02
Speaker
curves right into the splat. Yes. It's hard to explain. It's almost like if you looked at the chair sideways, the back was like a quarter of a circle. Yeah. That met the seat. It's like a half pipe, like a quarter pipe. Quarter pipe.
00:57:27
Speaker
Um, scroll and sofas and cetes, cetes. That's like, yeah, like what we, uh, looked at before. Mm-hmm. That's the same, same one, yeah. Um, the sleigh bed. Okay, that makes sense. There's an- Yep, look at that. That's like, man, who's sleeping in that? That better be for a kid. That looks painful.
00:57:52
Speaker
Is that a crib right next door? Yeah. Yeah, it's about the same size. I know. This has some brass, clothy. Yeah. So you can see that that sleigh motif. Yeah. It might be carried over from like, I'm imagining like, you know, Cleopatra and the ships, you know, the way they carried her around. Now Cleopatra was what in the,
00:58:21
Speaker
She was an Egyptian. But what time period like it was like pre 500. Yeah I think it was when Rome was in power because didn't she have like an affair with Caesar right. Mark Anthony. What's that peer table look like.
00:58:44
Speaker
Oh, look at that. Similar to that dresser. Yeah, that motif. I wonder what that's called because it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's like a scroll. I guess you call it like a scroll. A scroll, but it's the orientation of it that makes it. Yeah, almost looks like the F hole in like a violin. Yeah.
00:59:07
Speaker
Yeah. So see, they have this same sort of cove thing going here. There's definitely some differences in the pieces, like different subsets of the style.
00:59:22
Speaker
So to wrap it up, put it in a nutshell. Oh man, we still got another page to go. The Empire period furniture has a lot of prominent Greek and Roman motifs. Heavy visual weight to communicate strength and stability. A lot of ornamentation to communicate prosperity.
00:59:46
Speaker
And these are the things that people who wanted this furniture wanted to align themselves with and sort of signify. It's like, you know, I'm prosperous, I've got power, and I'm trying to align myself with these past empires that are, you know, great, Rome, Greece, Egypt.
01:00:18
Speaker
So how? Let's just touch briefly on this. Industrialization, industrial revolutions beginning, circular saw, veneering, the spinning jenny, which is this thing that makes spools of thread.
01:00:41
Speaker
This is all leading to reducing the cost of upholstery materials.
01:00:50
Speaker
Now the spinning jenny is replaced by the spinning mule, which... Sounds like a downgrade. Well, it's not because the spinning mule could have 1320 spindles and be 150 feet long. So it's spinning 1320 spindles.
01:01:13
Speaker
spools at a time and like these factories would have like sixty of these machines going.
01:01:23
Speaker
And now you could see how all this stuff is tied together. In England, they have these spinning factories. What are they spinning? Cotton. In America, they're growing cotton in the South. They got the slaves picking the cotton, sending the cotton to England. The cloth comes back made. The triangle.
01:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's all connected. The power loom is invented in Britain, and in 1850, a little bit outside the time frame we're talking about, there were
01:02:00
Speaker
over a quarter million power looms operating in britain so empire furniture is starting to be made more cheaply than previous uh-oh uh-oh sin down for
01:02:19
Speaker
As we wrap it up, still Empire furniture could be made cheaply.
Impact of the Industrial Revolution on Furniture
01:02:24
Speaker
By the 1830s, the expanding middle-class market had created a nationwide furniture industry that began to replace the craftsman's workshop. Son of a bitch.
01:02:37
Speaker
This is where it all starts to go wrong. So what did all this mean for furniture? Sofas in particular? Well, the mass production of textiles made them more affordable so furniture designers could use more fabrics in their work.
01:02:52
Speaker
And this is when furniture makers stopped upholstering just the seats and the backs of the sofas and started covering the entire frames. So upholstery, not wood, was the new focus on the sofas during the empire period. It made them more comfortable. Yeah. They start to lose their... I mean, they look so much cooler when there's...
01:03:15
Speaker
So what do you what would you say? What's your impression of the empire period? I mean, I like the way it looks. That's for sure. Yeah. And what else do you think? Well, what were your big takeaways? Well, as we're seeing here at the end of the episode, it's the sort of sorry, it starts to be sort of the down
01:03:40
Speaker
downturn of the craft of furniture making use. I mean, it goes hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution. And it has overarching effects on the entire world, aside from furniture. But yeah, I mean, not surprising. It's the beginning, isn't it?
01:03:59
Speaker
I mean the woodworking part is still pretty much, except for some small instances in the biggest of cities, which is Meeks in New York City. Outside that, furniture is still pretty much a craft trade.
01:04:17
Speaker
but, um, it's, we see the writing on the wall, don't we? So with that note, yeah. So next week, let's see. Next week we get into, uh, we'll dive a little deeper into the furniture, the specifics of it. Yeah. We're going to talk about the Clismos chair.
01:04:43
Speaker
Um, what else? The revived Clismos chair, Fife's interpretation, the sleigh bed, table, psyche mirror. Yeah, that's what that tilting mirror is called. It's a psych or psyche? I think psych. Psych mirror. We've got a lot of pictures to look at and discuss. Yeah.
01:05:12
Speaker
Well, that's cool. I'm looking forward to that. Well, you'll be hearing that in several weeks. We'll be getting into that here in about an hour or so. Yeah, we gotta eat some lunch. Yeah, that's for sure. All right, well, thanks as always for tuning in. Yeah, everybody take care. We'll catch you next week. Ciao.
01:05:46
Speaker
Ain't no shame, but there's been a chain