Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Traditional Revival. Recapping Colonial. Season 2, Episode 38.
44 Plays3 years ago
This week we begin talking about Traditional Revival furniture which leads to a refresher on Colonial furniture.
Affiliate Links:
20% off of Myaderm CBD Pain Relief
Use AMERICANCRAFTSMAN at www.myaderm.com
15% off your order from Bits and Bits:
Use AMERICANCRAFTSMAN at www.bitsbits.com
10% off of Vesting USA finishing products:
Use AMERICANCRAFTSMAN at www.VestingUSA.com
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.
Follow us!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greene_st_joinery
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenestreetjoinery
Support us on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/Greene_st_joinery
Visit Us at https://www.greenestreetjoinery.com/
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-american-craftsman-podcast/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor Thanks
00:00:21
Speaker
All right, folks, welcome back to the show. Yeah, here we are known as the American Craftsman podcast. Episode 38. Yeah. Wow. Can you believe it? Not really. And that's just 38 for this season.
00:00:39
Speaker
Yeah, we're at we're getting pretty close to 100 episodes. I know. I know 10 more. Yes, episode 90. Should thank our sponsor bits and bits. So if you guys don't know, you've probably heard this time or two. You're listening to episode 38. Yeah. So bits and bits, they they manufacture spiral router bits and they also Astrocote
00:01:08
Speaker
their own bits that they manufacture as well as Whiteside bits from 1 32nd width of cut to half inch in spiral bits and their Astra coding the full line of Whiteside bits the only You know third party third party second party. What is the second party?
00:01:27
Speaker
I don't know. I think I've never heard a second party use. Me neither. It's always third party. Maybe we're the second party. What happened to the second party? Lost at sea. So yeah, they're the only authorized folks to actually, you know, coat the white side bits and white side makes some great bits. If you're looking for edge profiles and stuff like that, we're just using the half inch radius round over. Everybody wants these like bullnose looks and stuff these days.
00:01:56
Speaker
We use those Astra coded from bits and bits. They sell festival accessories, the Domino, you know, consumables, stuff like that, router accessories. So check them out. I think it's bit bits bits.com. I want to say there's a link in the description. Use the code American Craftsman. Save yourself 15%. It's a good deal. Sight wide.
Introduction to Traditional Revival Furniture
00:02:22
Speaker
Well, we'll get this ad down at some point. Yeah, it's a lot. You want to talk about my derm? Yeah, I definitely want to talk about my. Maybe we'll we'll save it for a little bit, maybe towards the end. All right. Yeah. Because, you know, we don't want to buy terms on an ad, but something that we want to talk about.
00:02:44
Speaker
So yeah I guess yeah let's get into uh we're on to traditional revival this week yeah traditional revival is probably the furniture that we all grew up with unless you know yeah you know it's middle american furniture it's all the reproduction stuff that you buy at the big box stores and even the nicer furniture makers like
00:03:09
Speaker
Ethan Allen and Bassett where they used to make furniture down in the Carolines and stuff like that wood furniture.
Colonial Revival Furniture Discussion
00:03:17
Speaker
It's all basically falls under this traditional revival umbrella which kind of spans 1920 to 1950 although
00:03:29
Speaker
it never stopped really i mean they're still churning it out now it's all that stuff on facebook marketplace that people are or i don't even know what they call it repurposing i guess yeah they find the queen and dresser on the side of the road and then they paint it with a right gray paint or a turquoise and they make it like farmhouse chic they call it
00:03:57
Speaker
traditional revival is this sort of like this catch-all phrase that when they ran out of things to do as far as design concept, they just started looking back and manufacturing knockoff furniture.
00:04:15
Speaker
Yeah. And with homes, it's the same thing in the same era. You know, people say, oh, yeah, my home's a colonial. Well, it's not. It's a colonial revival from nineteen thirty thirty. You know, right. It was a couple hundred years earlier. Right. Yeah.
00:04:33
Speaker
Your house wasn't built in the 1600s.
Simplification and Decline in Craftsmanship
00:04:36
Speaker
And as far as like the main categories that were knocked off, you have your colonial, we're speaking of, and the federal periods. And what they did was they kind of took the straight lines of the federal period and then they would apply, attach all this sort of ornamentation. Again,
00:05:03
Speaker
This is sort of almost I hate to say it but like a real Bastardization. Yeah. Yeah, it's like as far as the craftsmanship and and Design innovation. It's a real low point in in this whole story. We're telling hmm less than the Shakers
00:05:26
Speaker
Yes. As hard as we were at the Shakers, traditional revival is much, much less than the Shakers.
00:05:40
Speaker
as hard as I looked there were no like designers that made their name during this period based on this you know there were designers that that were between the 20s and the 50s but they didn't make their name doing with traditional revival furniture and there were no craftsmen who
00:06:02
Speaker
made their name doing traditional revival. It was all the, you know, under the, you know, the hand of the main, the big manufacturers of the day.
Personal Connection to Early American Furniture
00:06:17
Speaker
They would take something, sort of simplify it, the base of it, and then to make it look fancy, they'd stick stuff on top. Like, yeah, we got this brass backplate hardware.
00:06:33
Speaker
What can we do to make this, you know, cost less at the factory? Right. So it's sort of, it's really the beginning of the end until we get to mid-century modern, you know, which we're going to talk about in our coming episodes. It's the beginning of the end of real design work in these 12 periods of American furniture. Oh, great. That's exciting.
00:07:05
Speaker
Is this a link we got right here? Yeah, open up. I found one link, a traditional revolve, because mostly what you find is a store selling it. You know what I mean? Yeah. And this picture here, it could be any of our friends or family's dining room grow as we grew up. This picture has a smell.
00:07:33
Speaker
We had something like this growing and not this gaudy like with the claw. I think it does have ball and claw feet. Yeah. Yeah. But there's no like distinctive style to this at all. No, you know, they borrowed from every group. You know, the chair like how many elements can we throw in your ball and claw like an urn egg and dart.
00:08:01
Speaker
Right. If it wasn't all staying the same color, the chairs don't even match the table. You know what I mean? Like the chairs are all straight lines. Yeah. I'm telling you, this picture smells like stale cigarettes and. I don't know. Smelly rugged. Yeah, it's really.
00:08:25
Speaker
It's funny because no matter how old you are, you know, I'm 60. You're in your low 30s. We're all familiar with this kind of furniture. Oh, yeah. It's just so present in American middle American lives.
Exploration of True Colonial Furniture
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, this the sad thing is as as heinous as this is, this was built
00:08:51
Speaker
10,000 times better than 90% of the stuff that's around today. Yeah, this thing is still kicking around somewhere this exact table.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah. If it was built, you know, between the 20s and the 50s, it was all wood for the most part. You know, all the joints and the chairs probably have those triangle braces in them. Yeah. Then they have mortise and tenons, I'm sure. Yeah. So, I mean, that's just the decline in manufacturing as they try and make it cheaper, cheaper and cheaper. Yeah.
00:09:29
Speaker
I mean, I have friends through the years who've, you know, I've repaired their dining room chairs. They say, Rob, can you fix this? You know, and it's some sort of traditional revival and you get it to your shop and everything's all cracked and loose and, um,
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's funny. So I figured, you know, we would just do a refresher on the two biggies, which are colonial and federal because there are a couple of big names come up. And one in particular is, you know, kind of he kind of became like our shining star of the series, and that's Chippendale.
00:10:18
Speaker
So what is colonial furniture? I mean, true colonial furniture was made during the colonial period of America. Local materials, very practical. We're talking 1700 in and about that time. And then it combined in colonial furniture drew from earlier stuff like
00:10:46
Speaker
Here's that word, Jacobean. Jacobian. We still don't know how to say it. Carolian, which refers to King Charles, William and Mary, Queen Anne, and Chippendale styles. So the best colonial furniture drew from those influences.
00:11:10
Speaker
Although it tended to be more conservative, less ornate than the European models it emulated. You know, a lot of it was due to the, you know, the lack of craftsmen that came over and the lack of tooling and, you know, whatever machinery was available at that time, you know, it was quite limited. And perhaps the most important piece of early American furniture was the chest.
00:11:40
Speaker
from its origin as a plain box to a box with a drawer into a chest on chest until it finally became the high boy and the low boy and our modern chest of drawers, the chest is what all this early American furniture was built around. And we found out something really
Influences on Colonial Furniture
00:12:00
Speaker
interesting when we did this. So you want to talk a little bit about that?
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, I guess if you missed, it was probably episode two of season two. It was one of the first four. It was either two or four or three. It definitely wasn't the first one. Nicholas Disbro came over from England.
00:12:28
Speaker
with the Puritan Great Migration, you know, in like 16, 30 something. And, you know, it was a furniture maker amongst other things and built this chest called the Heart for Chest. And for a while there was considered the oldest verifiably American piece of furniture.
00:12:53
Speaker
That's pretty awesome. Yeah. So that means that this piece of furniture had a signature on it. Right. And so we we can trace back its origins definitively to your ninth great grandfather. Yeah. Pretty crazy.
00:13:16
Speaker
And before this 400 years ago, you had no clue you had any ties to anybody in the trades. No, no, I knew I had, you know, ancestors that came here in the Puritan Great Migration. But yeah, never knew any specifics about this this guy in particular. Yeah. And he was also one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut, wasn't he?
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah, one of a hundred people they went with. The pastor, priest, I forget his name, from Cambridge, Massachusetts. They traveled to Hartford and founded Hartford. So, yeah. That's furniture royalty there, buddy. Yeah. You all hear that?
00:14:05
Speaker
So that was that was a great little sidestep. Yeah. And that was a lot of fun to discover. Yeah. So aside from the chest, what else were they making during colonial times? The turn chair.
00:14:23
Speaker
also called the spindle chair, the cane chair, which was a really important form. If I remember my notes, I don't know if I included it in this version of the story, but I remember cane chairs being important because they started to sort of split up the labor among different shops.
00:14:48
Speaker
like one shop would do the caning and one shop was making, you know, the turnings, et cetera, et cetera. The wainscot chair, which had turned front legs and joined back legs with a carved back, backless stools, little wooden benches called settles. And we're making sort of a modern
00:15:14
Speaker
rendition of a saddle.
Evolution of Furniture Styles: William & Mary to Queen Anne
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah, right now. There's one in the shop that's like a real, you know, I don't know. It's a real interpretation of that.
00:15:28
Speaker
Now, which one with the with all the spindles, you know, because it sort of has elements of like a Windsor. Yeah. But it's like a full on modern take on it. Yeah. Tables, we remember the trestle table. Yeah, it might save your life.
00:15:49
Speaker
that's right the trestle table for those that don't know had its shape and size because they would like push it over and hide behind in case it was like a battle or you know an attack it's crazy it will stop a sword
00:16:08
Speaker
drop leaf table, gate leg tables, the desk box, which was a small chest with folding side panels for writing, beds like a four poster. They are much heavier than a modern four poster, trundle beds and cradles.
00:16:30
Speaker
That's in the cradle. Yeah. So that was like the earliest influence on colonial furniture. And then, of course, what was done during the revival. Then you have the Jack of being influence. And I think we saw some of that in that glorious photo. Yeah. Let's see what we got. Why does it open? Look at that chair. Yeah. I remember this chair from
00:16:58
Speaker
from the initial episodes. It almost looks Aztec. It's so chunky and... Yeah, real heavy, blocky, lots of carvings. Of course, the first time around, those were real carvings. Right. During the revival periods, those are just flat pieces of wood with some sort of embossed applique just stuck on top.
00:17:25
Speaker
Um, if I sound a little disparaging, it's because, I guess, yeah. Makes sense. You guys should be used to that by now.
00:17:41
Speaker
If nothing else, we are opinionated here at the American Craftsmen Podcast. But, you know, they had strong symmetrical lines, rectilinear shapes, real straightforward. Lots of heavy carvings, again, which were sort of, you know, co-opted during this. What's the word? This period. Yeah. Yeah. And we could see it in that initial table that we looked at. Yeah.
00:18:11
Speaker
So the carillon. Again, more Gothic. Yeah, kind of macabre looking. Same basic form as far as like the the angles and stuff like that of the chair kind of, you know, straight ish angles. But a lot of real heavy, flowery curves, right?
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's like they took the Jacobian and then they carved away. They carved these things out of it like this. Like it was like a block of stone and they they, you know, took some of it away and left still a heavy look. But that's a good way to describe it. Not quite as blocky. Looks like it's got some caning in there as well, right? Is that the seat? Yeah, back. You can see see straight through it.
00:19:07
Speaker
that might be a photo editing. Yeah. When I was growing up, we had chairs in a dining room that had that kind of caning with like the circles. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What are they? That's not because we were doing that design with the retain. Right. Like there's radio weave. There's I forget what they call that one with the circles. But that's where it came from. That was.
00:19:33
Speaker
We were owners of traditional revival with some caning in the seats. So William & Mary was another influence for those that don't remember. That was also influenced by French furniture traditions.
00:19:54
Speaker
and by Italian Baroque furniture designs. William & Mary emphasized unity so that all elements contributed to an overall shape of the look. Lots of high relief carving, strong curves, you know, not too far away from the Carolinian. And again, despite all these things, it was still fairly squat and heavy looking, obviously sturdy looking.
00:20:24
Speaker
Let's see a picture of William and Mary. Yeah. Right. Why it keeps keep sending our links over to the other screen. But that's that's not too not too far off the Carolin. Yeah. Let's see it. A little more tasteful. Right. Slightly lighter. You can see there's kind of an evolution to, you know, what would be our sensibilities of style. This I don't mind. No.
00:20:50
Speaker
I mean, there are a lot of parts to those turnings for the back legs.
Appreciation for Chippendale Furniture
00:20:57
Speaker
But everything is nice and distinct. You see in the traditional stuff, these all get real lazy. That's like you see, if you do any type of interior carpentry work, like your two and a quarter inch colonial casing,
00:21:13
Speaker
It's like they took something that was a real thing and it probably it wasn't two and a quarter was bigger, but was a real profile back in the day and they just it's like it was eroded over time and everything became super eased and the all the curves, you know, they they made the radius is bigger. So they were less distinct. You know, this is still I mean, look at these little I don't know what you would call these. Yeah, those little flares.
00:21:42
Speaker
I mean, they're super crisp and distinct. Yeah. Very sharp. You're right. Whereas the modern take, it's it's very, uh, so lazy. Yeah, like a lazy curve. Then after you add like six or seven coats of paint to it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The stuff they sell now, the colonial case, and you paint that four times, it's just clamshell.
00:22:14
Speaker
After William and Mary comes clean and now we're talking 1720s to the 1760s is also known as early Georgian. These are all named after the monarchs, of course. The furniture starts to become a little bit smaller and lighter. Chair back start to conform to the person using the chair as opposed to, you know, sort of that that straight line where it doesn't look that comfortable.
00:22:45
Speaker
Cabrio legs start to appear. Sort of a newly emergent fluidity. Scallops. Sacklop. Yeah. Cushion seats.
00:23:01
Speaker
And more of an emphasis on line and form rather than the ornamentation. And here's a fun fact about the term Queen Anne. First applied to the style about a hundred years after it was fashionable. Yeah, during the... Well, I guess not the revival, but... Yeah, the 1800s. And here we go, the other computer again. Yeah, there's that Cabrio shape.
00:23:30
Speaker
This is a little spider table. Yeah, this is nice. I mean, not something I'd have in my home because it's not my personal taste, but it's a beautiful piece of furniture.
00:23:41
Speaker
I feel like if I had the money and I had a big house, I would need a library that I could just put old furniture or reproductions of nice period furniture like this in. I couldn't have this in my living room.
00:24:00
Speaker
A lot of little pieces that are sticking out to break off, right? Yeah, just the look is, you know, it's too much for just these casual spaces of your house. Like, nobody has a traditional parlor anymore or, you know, a super formal dining room.
00:24:20
Speaker
You know, that's a really good point because these pieces of furniture went into formal rooms even back then. Yeah. Now, like you think of like a chic kind of like dining room. Everything is is way more understated for the most part. Yeah. But it looks like nice veneer work or, you know, matching. Yeah. Burls there on the
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's a little drawers, right? I love these drop finials.
Thomas Chippendale's Influence
00:24:52
Speaker
Yeah, bangs. So the Queen Anne style. Now, mid to late 1700s, we start getting to our man, Thomas, Thomas Chippendale.
00:25:09
Speaker
He follows Queen Anne, he shares many characteristics, although Chippendale's got a preference for mahogany. And we did a whole episode on mahogany and it's all its impact and what it meant to the furniture makers and indigenous people.
00:25:31
Speaker
And some examples of Massachusetts made that's that's pretty hard to say Massachusetts made Chippendale are some of the most sophisticated American furniture ever produced We got a picture there No, I got it way zoomed in oh, there we go
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah, we go. There she is with the ribbon. Interlocking ribbon backs black. You can sort of see the Asian influence even in that, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. With this print. Mm-hmm. Her Santhemums. Not.
00:26:12
Speaker
I was talking to your brother-in-law at the at the party the other day, you know, he's British. Oh, yeah, Simon. Yeah. And so what we share with Simon and I is then the I don't know if he loves the shows like I do, but he knows of all these British TV shows that my wife and I watch.
00:26:33
Speaker
and we've been watching this show called Lovejoy and the main character is an antiques dealer and he's what they call a divvy so he can kind of tell a real antique and authentic piece from a repro or an out and out fake
00:26:54
Speaker
and Chip and Dale and Sheridan come up all the time and there are all these references that I don't remember everything about it because you know these episodes were you know 30 weeks ago some of them
00:27:12
Speaker
But it's really funny how sometimes life goes like that. You know, it's like, oh, yeah, I can see that. I know. Yeah, that's because the the antiques part of it is pretty authentic. Right. You know, they took his his dialogue. They must have like a real what do you call those people on TV shows that work as a technical adviser?
00:27:42
Speaker
But it's really funny and I was like and sometimes I'll say something to the wife and she'll say, how do you know that? Like, well, the podcast, I do make furniture for a living. Yeah.
00:27:57
Speaker
They forget, don't they? Yeah, until it's time for something to be made. I got to say, this chair doesn't look very comfortable. I mean, it looks to me like the seat angles forward a little bit, which is like, you know, you feel like you're going to fall out of it. Not a lot of cushioning. No, but too much cushioning isn't a good thing on a chair.
00:28:21
Speaker
And the back, probably not one you want to lean against too much. I guess everybody was kind of a stiff back then, too, you know. Right. They probably were sitting upright, not touching the back of the chair. Yeah, you don't get comfortable till everybody leaves. All your dinner guests. Yeah, yeah. They didn't want people hanging out too long anyway. Yeah, I know that feeling.
00:28:44
Speaker
but I was looking at some chairs the other day in the show and I'm like, is that a Sheridan or is that a Chippendale? Because they're kind of similar.
00:29:01
Speaker
I Sheridan in Chippendale, you know, we're so closely related time-wise. Yep. And they had a lot of similar characteristics as far as like producing drawings and and people built their stuff. That was one of the things. Was it Sheridan who died and then his wife published? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Good memory. That might have been hepple way. I don't know. It was one of those guys that we talked about. Yeah.
00:29:28
Speaker
So, you know, the original notes here, I say, compare, contrast the Jacobean chair and all the others to the Chippendale. And just to think about the changes that occurred, you know, the sophistication. I kind of did that unprompted. Yeah. Fun fact, Chippendale Furniture is the first to be named after the maker rather than a monarch.
00:29:55
Speaker
That's pretty cool. Yeah. Couple of surprises in doing the podcast. One was
00:30:04
Speaker
how much I got into Thomas Chippendale, which, yeah, you never would have convinced me beforehand that I would have been like a fan of Chippendale. And, you know, on the opposite end of that was the Shaker thing. Like I used to think I was a huge Shaker fan and Chippendale just wasn't my thing.
00:30:30
Speaker
We came away with so much more admiration for Chippendale, didn't we? Yeah.
00:30:39
Speaker
Some experts consider Chippendale Britain's greatest cabinet maker ever. And he can be compared to the Shakespeare of English furniture makers. So he's right up there in the top tier. Although some people think Shakespeare was
00:31:03
Speaker
The heck? No, like a non person like he was. Like lots of people are the real Shakespeare. Oh, I think I've heard that before. But isn't it like historical fact that he was a guy? You know how conspiracies get started. Oh, yeah. This is the age of the conspiracy. Yeah. Brings us back to the secret space program.
00:31:34
Speaker
just got back from my four year stint on Mars fighting vampires and zombies. What was that? Secret Space Program. I know, but how did we come across that? I can't remember. I found a video on YouTube, a guy who interviewed, you know, people have these regressed memories. Oh, God.
00:31:56
Speaker
that.
00:32:10
Speaker
Well, you know, Robert Copley, he's the international head of furniture for Christie's. What do you guys have heard of Christie's? And according to him, Thomas Chippendale is without question Britain's greatest cabinet maker. He excelled in every style he worked in from the whimsical Rococo.
00:32:35
Speaker
and the fashion for all things Chinese in his early career, to the neoclassical with its straight lines derived from the ancient world. Chippendale, his reputation spread far beyond the shores of his homeland, and his genius is reflected in the number of beautifully designed and executed pieces of furniture that survive in excellent condition nearly 250 years after his death.
00:33:03
Speaker
I mean, what else can you say? He built some great stuff. He directed the building of some great stuff. Yeah. Influenced a lot of people. Yeah, tons.
Impact of Chippendale's Book
00:33:18
Speaker
And, you know, definitely elements of his furniture are there.
00:33:28
Speaker
brought forward into the traditional revival period, you know, not with much grace. How many people have it? For the most part. But, you know, if you're going to copy somebody, you might as well try and copy the best, right? Yeah. So Chippendale is one of the the big
00:33:55
Speaker
big influences on traditional revival furniture. And surprisingly, not much is known about Chip Mendoza early life. He was probably trained by his father.
00:34:06
Speaker
Um, he probably apprenticed with a guy named Robert Wood. Uh, and, uh, we do know for a fact that he married twice and had 12 kids. Sounds like we might not even know if Chippendale was real. Yeah. Him and Shakespeare. Yeah. Maybe a hit for the same guy.
00:34:29
Speaker
We're going to get to now one of the most important things that Chippendale did in 1954. He was working on 1754.
00:34:42
Speaker
He was also ageless. Dorian Gray in 1754, Chippendale was working in London, overseeing a large company with around 50 journeymen cabinet makers. And the name of this place was the Cabinet and Upholstery Warehouse. Yeah, sounds like a place you find in Edison, New Jersey on, you know, Route 1.
00:35:07
Speaker
What's that one road that we took? 22. Yes. On US 22 in East Orange, New Jersey. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. We're having a fire sale and we're going out of business.
00:35:23
Speaker
Yeah, well, this is what sort of makes Chippendale's career in one sense. He publishes The Gentleman and Cabinet Makers Director.
00:35:38
Speaker
Uh, it was a trade catalog. It really launches his career. Uh, we got a link to see a picture from it. And I remember that. Yeah. Back simile of a page in Chippendale's director. The original is folio size. I wonder what that is. Big? Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:00
Speaker
This is like an alternate an alternate top. Yeah. Yeah. Oh Or is it or is it this?
00:36:12
Speaker
Well, it's it's a pencil drawing. It's you know, it's a hand drawing. Shows front view and a side profile with the sort of shows the different elevations. Yeah. And depths of a pretty complicated piece. Say that again. It's like it's really impressive.
00:36:37
Speaker
that like imagine being a cabinet maker back then and here's what you get it's like okay Jeff make this lickety split um one guy five minutes i think the quote you're looking for is one guy ten minutes ten minutes yeah yeah
00:37:03
Speaker
For those who are in the know, it's one guy 10 minutes. So what is the gentleman and cabinet makers director? Now we went out and bought this book, you know, it's still being printed. That's how important this book is. You could still buy it in a paperback form and it's really reasonably priced. Oh, yeah. Less than 20 bucks. Probably 10 bucks.
00:37:31
Speaker
And although we don't plan on making anything in the near future, it's just something cool to have and to lead through and just sort of think about its place in history and things like that. So what is it? It's a book with 160 plans for furniture that can be built for clients or that others could copy. Chip and Dale,
00:38:01
Speaker
made this so that other cabinet shops could make his designs. It makes me kind of think of how Apple and like PCs started out. I don't know if you if maybe are you too young to recall how how that thing went down. I've definitely watched things on it, but it's not committed to memory.
00:38:28
Speaker
Yeah, well, Apple, they, you know, were convinced they had the better machine and the better operating system. And the machine was expensive. And the PC was this platform. I don't know if it was IBM.
00:38:51
Speaker
They just licensed out the operating system. And that's why Dell and Acer and all and IBM and Hewlett Packard and they all made it. So was it Microsoft? Yeah, Microsoft. Yeah. There you go. I'm forgetting the biggest, the biggest player in the bastard, Bill Gates. Yeah. Trying to sterilize us all.
00:39:18
Speaker
That's what I heard. I heard I can't confirm nor design. Yes. So he's thought I'm going to go for the long game and let everybody use my stuff for free. And they were crushed Apple. Oh, yeah. If it wasn't for the iPod. Yeah.
00:39:37
Speaker
There there might not be any Apple. I mean they were on the ropes. Yeah until the iPod came out. Yeah, that was like two thousand and what five maybe. Yeah, I'm trying to think I got my niece an iPod and I was in high school. I know that. Yeah, it was it was a big deal because it was like that little tiny thing. It wasn't even the big.
00:39:56
Speaker
thing yet. Yeah, it was like about like this. Yeah. Yeah. With the wheel was right. It was like, whoa, it's like not a button. It's like you put your finger on it and.
00:40:08
Speaker
Yeah, I remember pretty sure this kid, John Macaluso, was the first kid that that I saw that was like rich. Yeah. No, no, he wasn't even. I don't know. His parents must have just been up on like, you know, technology or something. But yeah, I was like, man, this thing is freaking cool. Yes. Yes. Then they came out with the iPod touch, which
00:40:31
Speaker
You know how to like a color screen it played little videos and stuff crazy, but yeah, so What's his name Chippendale was like Microsoft mm-hmm he wanted his name and his designs out there and he said buy my book and make them and You know he lives in history now. Yeah um
00:40:59
Speaker
in the in the gentleman and cabinet makers director. It had designs for household furniture, which chairs, sofas, beds, commodes, which in French means convenience. Did you know that?
00:41:12
Speaker
I think we talked about that. Yeah, that actually came up in an episode of Lovejoy last night. It's like a Jeopardy question. So it could mean anything, like a dresser or anything to put your clothes in, writing tables, bookcases, all sorts of stuff.
00:41:31
Speaker
in Chippendale's Gothic style, his take on the Chinese style, and at the time the modern style, the modern style back in Chippendale's time would come to be known today as French Rococo.
00:41:51
Speaker
So since the director was used by other cabinet makers, a lot of recognizably Chippendale furniture was built. Dublin, Philadelphia, Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Hamburg are a few big cities of note that produced their share of Chippendale designs.
00:42:14
Speaker
So if we were working back then, well, we're probably not the best example because we're designers. Not to toot our own horn, but we're certainly influenced by people we love and admire.
00:42:33
Speaker
We like to come up with our own plans. Oh, yeah. But there are plenty of shops that just kind of work in the style of the day. Yep. And they would have this book on hand. Somebody would come in. They say, you know, Mr. Smith, we need a bookcase. You'd leaf through here on page 140. What do you think of this? Build you this? Yeah. And I'm sure, you know, they would customize little elements to the to the client.
Legacy of Chippendale's Designs
00:43:05
Speaker
Did you know there's four main styles in the Cabinet Makers director? I did. Yeah. The English style with deep carvings. French Rococo and the style of Louis XV. You got the Gothic with the pointed arches and the quatrefoils and fretwork. And you got the Chinese with the lacquer and the latticework. Yeah.
00:43:30
Speaker
so he knows Chippendale railing panels. Yeah, as we've been going on and on about, Chippendale wasn't a stoop businessman and it was aimed at promoting his trade. He intended to sign up 400 subscribers who'd received 160 designs for 1.14 shillings.
00:43:53
Speaker
You know how much that is in today's money about five dollars in today's money. That's nothing. I know. Wow. I wonder how it was one point one four. How did the I don't know.
00:44:09
Speaker
Thanks. Quick books for the loud e-mail sound. I wonder if that would be like, you know, maybe I'm saying like a dollar 14 or something. I guess one point one four and it'd be even less one point one. Oh, shillings. If you got it unbound for the for the cheapskates. Yeah. And you'd pay 50 percent down if you were a subscriber. And if it was it was published as a book, you'd get a discount.
00:44:40
Speaker
That must be per design, no? Because why would you only have to put 50% down on $5? Yeah. I know. So it'd be more like... That makes a lot more sense. That's $800. Yeah. You know, it doesn't say that, you know, in my notes, but that makes a lot more sense. So like $800. Like maybe you get one once a week or something like that. Yeah.
00:45:09
Speaker
Like, because it's a subscription. Mm hmm. So you'd get it, you know, like one at a time, I guess. You know, like if you're getting a magazine subscription. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder how that I wonder what how that works. Maybe like three a week. Yeah. Yeah, it's possible. It'd be one hundred and six. No, that'd be one hundred and six. No, one hundred and fifty six.
00:45:43
Speaker
Either way, either way was a good deal So what do you want 400 people initially 308 subscribed
00:45:53
Speaker
mostly craftsmen, but architects, sculptors, and members of the nobility. That's all you need. A couple of those. Yeah. Spread the word. Needless to say, it was a huge success because we're still talking about Chippendale today. Uh, how many hundreds of years? Uh, let's see, it'd be 250. Yeah. 250. Um, it was reprinted even in 1762.
00:46:22
Speaker
And beyond furniture and cabinetry, Chippendale worked in a similar fashion to a modern day interior designer. He chose paint colors, fabrics, soft furnishings, you know, things like pillows and such. And he directed other specialist trades.
00:46:43
Speaker
Chip and Dale oftentimes receive large scale commissions. I put here Think Downton Abbey. Everybody's seen at least one of those shows. Not me. No, you never saw that. You know, like those big English estates. I was going to say, I think maybe when we get right here to federal. Yeah, we should cut that. OK. And that'll be another episode. All right.
00:47:10
Speaker
Is it? Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is going to be a long episode. We keep going. We're at 50 minutes, basically. All right. Good. So what's the Chippendale's relevancy today? And we'll wrap it up. We got to talk about my term, too. Oh, yeah. Cool. So let's take a look at that Chippendale cabinet. Is that is that a link there? We can go out at it a little bit.
00:47:33
Speaker
Yeah, I remember this one Cabinet is putting it. Oh my god, and I just ate. Yeah, holy smokes It's amazing I mean the design is is of course cool But to think that people you know made it's like we we make stuff and I'm looking at this in awe. Yeah, I mean look at all this
00:47:58
Speaker
veneer work like the marketry and that and that concave half circle and the sides angle out and bow in. Yeah, I mean. It's really an amazing piece of work. Yeah, he did these chairs, too. Yeah. And then they they slap a piece of glass. I know. Just can't keep people away from it.
00:48:26
Speaker
I know, I know. They put this ugly clock on there. It's great to develop, you know, not necessarily an affinity for this type of furniture, but a true appreciation for the design work, the craftsmanship, because you can carry that
00:48:50
Speaker
those ethics, the, you know, forward. Yeah. Even if, even if you don't, you know, file the design, I mean, there's marquetry is like, you know, a Roman or Greek woman in a toga or something. You know, I didn't notice the first time around the gold on these legs.
00:49:12
Speaker
I mean, yeah, stunning amount of detail. Yeah. I mean, so much texture with the different, you know, quilted wood veneers and all the figure. And I mean, look at this thing over here. I know. It's like the thing they put around a sound hole acoustic guitar. You know, right. Yeah. Everywhere you turn.
00:49:37
Speaker
little fans in the corners of the panels. It's just insane. All this molding here. Yeah, it is. It's an astounding amount of work. Yeah, these are like little acanthus leaves, leaves, even marquetry on the feet on the feet. Yeah. So I you know, I know I did it the first time around, but I really urge everybody listening.
00:50:07
Speaker
So just take a quick look at some of Chippendales pieces. Just to get an idea.
00:50:16
Speaker
It's really rewarding. So what's Chippendale's relevancy today? And of course, to the traditional revival. I mean, we're still talking about design and furniture and cabinet making that happened 250 years ago. So he's influenced us. I mean, he's still relevant in that he's an important forefather of what we do.
00:50:46
Speaker
I mean, there are surviving Chip and Dale antiques selling at high end auctions. Half a million dollars isn't an unusually high price tag for something made by Chip and Dale. It costs us that to build that thing we just saw.
00:51:10
Speaker
in 2010, the Harrington commode sold at auction for over $5 million. And here we go. The fun fact, the word commode comes from French meaning suitable or convenient.
00:51:27
Speaker
So in the middle, there are scores of businesses specializing in reproduction furniture like Chippendale. Some small shops, artisanal work, and some mass produced in Asia. And on the bottom end, you can pick up a quote, Chippendale style piece at Raymore and Flanagan, $4,000.
00:51:47
Speaker
It has as much to do with Thomas Chippendale's work as chicken parmesan has to do with actual Italian food. You're making waves. Making waves. But the correlation persists in the public's mind. Yes, you know there's no such thing as chicken parmesan in Italy.
00:52:07
Speaker
If you see it on a menu, you know, it's a tourist trap. Yeah. They have that craft cheese on the table to the green in the green can. So, you know, it's cheese if it doesn't have to be refrigerated. Yeah. Thomas Chippendale's influence is definitely still felt. And you could argue that the designer and cabinet maker born 300 plus years ago is the most influential person in the craft ever.
00:52:34
Speaker
Pretty much.
Introduction to Myaderm CBD Product
00:52:35
Speaker
Yeah. Does it mean he's the greatest, the most skilled? That's not the same thing. But if you ask, you know, let's say a random hundred people, if they ever heard of Chippendale, Chippendale Furniture, you probably get, you know, 90 yeses. Maybe I'm overestimating the that. But I mean, it's more than more than if you said, yeah, like Nakashima. Yeah.
00:53:02
Speaker
I mean, even the folks today, they didn't even Sheridan or white. Yeah, and they know furniture, right? So he's a household name 300 years later, and you can't diminish that. Yeah. So there you go. I mean, I got a little excited doing Chippendale.
00:53:25
Speaker
Um, and I'm not even a period furniture maker. Yeah. Yeah. So next episode, we're going to get into, uh, the federal period and you know, how, how, what a recap and, you know, how it influenced the traditional revival. But, uh, before we leave you, obviously we want to tell you to, uh, you know, go check out bits and bits.
00:53:48
Speaker
Vesting, support us on Patreon, you can go give us a review on Apple, tell your friends, all that kind of stuff, always to support the podcast. And we just started the affiliate program with a company called MyAderm, which was something that we actually, they sent to us and we tried out for
00:54:11
Speaker
I don't even know what a month. Yeah. Six weeks before, you know, before we even talked about doing any type of affiliate thing. But so my Aderm is it's the only water based CBD. What would you call it like a pain relief? It's it reduces inflammation.
00:54:31
Speaker
Yeah, primarily. You know, we sat and talked with the two gentlemen, Brian and Eric from Ioderm. They're out in Colorado. And, you know, they told us all about the product. Basically, it's like imagine you could take ibuprofen and apply it topically.
00:54:50
Speaker
Yes, it has basically the same sort of pain relief. But none of those, you know, side effects of ibuprofen, that stuff's bad for your stomach. I think you're what, your liver or something, your kidneys, maybe. I mean, we've been using it like crazy. We're gone through six, six containers of it. Knees, neck, elbows, back. I mean, all over the place.
00:55:17
Speaker
The crazy thing is like I was total skeptic. Yeah, it actually works. Yeah. You know, like if I'm working on the computer a lot, I got my wife using it now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My wife's used it. We got Joe or plywood delivery guy. Yeah. Forget about him. He was he was totally shocked.
00:55:36
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's crazy. It actually works like you put it on you rub it in and like within a couple minutes It stops hurting. Yeah, you know, you know, maybe it doesn't knock if you're really hurting like my knees Nothing could take all the pain out of my knees, right? But it it it really makes a big difference. Um
00:55:57
Speaker
For me, it lasts about four hours. And you could, you know, you can use it as often as you want. It's not like something like Avville where you can only take it every, you know, they say take it every four hours and only this many times a day, whatever. So there's no, you know, there's no ill effect from using it all you want. They said you could even use it on sunburn. But yeah, I mean, we've been, we've been real.
00:56:21
Speaker
pleasantly surprised one of those things where it's like you hurt all the time when you I mean, I guess maybe not everybody we heard all the time and it's not something I ever really did something about because I don't like taking Advil or Tylenol or anything like that, but I don't hesitate to use that because you know, it doesn't have all the bad bad stuff in it. So it's nice to be able to knock off some of that pain.
00:56:46
Speaker
when in the past I kind of just pushed it off because I didn't want to you know have to deal with you know screwing up my stomach from taking Advil every day or something like that so yeah the thing that's it's kind of funny is that we got this stuff and we were both like get out of here and we both were sort of like reluctant to tell the other one that we thought it was yeah you know because
00:57:13
Speaker
You're trying maybe imagining it like is it uh, yeah, like is this really is this me or is this really working? Yeah The best the best reaction though was from joe. Yeah He's like, oh he was delivering some plywood. We were talking talking just about aches and pains and oh my shoulder, you know every morning I'd say give me one second I ran back into the shop and we had one that we hadn't opened up yet
00:57:43
Speaker
And I gave it to him. And the next time he came, he actually, usually he calls us. We go out to the truck. He actually walked back to the shop and he's like, man, he's like, I gotta tell you that stuff. I couldn't believe it. It worked and it, yeah. Yeah. He was, he was really Johnson.
00:58:00
Speaker
And that's, yeah, that's what made me actually reach back out to them because I was kind of like, eh, you know, it's just another thing that we try and push on the people that listen to the podcast. Not that we push really push anything, but just, you know, we try and remain authentic. So we don't want to feel like we're trying to sell you guys stuff.
00:58:20
Speaker
But yeah, when he had that reaction, I was like, I guess it's not just us, you know? So, you know, if we can tell everybody about it and it could be good, you know, for everyone and it could be a good affiliate program, then it's worth talking to them about. So how do you spell it? M-Y-A-D-E-R-M. So I'll put a link in there. And same thing. American Craftsman actually gives you 20% off.
00:58:44
Speaker
Which is a good deal. They said they don't really they never really do that only that's like a holiday only kind of thing I do like, you know sales with 20% off. So yeah, that's substantial. Yeah I mean I would try it they we've been using the the sport
00:59:00
Speaker
which is 2400 milligram the RX 10 I think it's called which is a 5000 milligram that's my favorite and the therapy which is another 2400 milligram I Mean it's nice the water base is great. It doesn't leave a greasy kind of residue
00:59:19
Speaker
I don't know. Don't take our word for it. Right. Check it out. You know, it's everything's available on the Internet nowadays. Like you could read up on it and check its authenticity and all those things like that. Yeah. We're just the advocates of anything that can help whether it's and this is just like a tool. Yeah, it's.
00:59:39
Speaker
I mean, we keep it in the shop and we do, you know, after after jointing 200 board feet, I'm rubbing it on the arm. Oh, yeah. The shoulders, the elbows. Yeah. So, yeah, check it out if you want. If you have any questions about anything, you know, the vesting, the Maya derm, anything, you can always reach us on Instagram. I message everybody back. So, yeah, thanks for listening.
01:00:05
Speaker
Yeah, everybody have a great day out there. We'll see you next week.