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Federal Furniture: Who, What, When, Where, and Why? Season 2, Episode 14.
44 Plays3 years ago
Now we're getting into the meat of truly American furniture. This week we begin our section on the period of furniture (and architecture,) known as Federal.
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Transcript
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Podcast Episode and Holiday Greetings
00:01:08
Speaker
Well folks, here we go. We're jumping in. This is what week 14. It would have been, let's see, 4-8. It would have been
00:01:25
Speaker
Well, it would have been 13, right? Yeah, so this is 14. It's 14. OK, I wasn't sure how many extras we had. Oh, I know why I made it 15 because we were going to do a Christmas episode. That would actually be this episode. Yeah, that would be. Yeah.
00:01:44
Speaker
I mean, it's not too late. We haven't started. I don't know what we're going to talk about. We don't really have, we don't have any information on that episode. Well, tomorrow's Christmas. Merry Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. Merry Christmas to all and to all good night.
Introduction to the Federal Period
00:02:01
Speaker
So this is episode actually 14.
00:02:06
Speaker
14 to go 14 to 17. Not that changing this on here is going to come. So we're into the federal period. Yeah. We're out of that boring Pennsylvania Dutch period.
00:02:18
Speaker
Um, and the, the first one is usually, you know, we set this, we set the stage for, um, time period, who was involved and, and all that stuff, just to kind of, um, you know, give everybody an idea of what's going on. And, um,
00:02:38
Speaker
So even though we kind of know what the federal period is named after, the Revolutionary War ends and so now America is America. It's the United States and we have a federal government. So it's 1783, the Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution and we have the United States of America.
00:03:07
Speaker
The war-ravaged country was given the chance to begin and to build its own government Constitution and traditions and the so-called federal period began roughly running from 1780 to 1820
00:03:24
Speaker
So that's the time period where really only looking at about 40 years. And and you see a lot of these things overlap. That's that's one thing I noticed. It's funny. You know, a lot of times you forget that the Revolutionary War happened after 1776.
00:03:42
Speaker
It's like that's what started the war was the Declaration of Independence. We take it like, yeah, the country was formed in 1776.
Early U.S. Presidents and The Federalist Papers
00:03:50
Speaker
Right. Technically, like if you ask people on the street, like one of those late night shows and you ask them, when was George Washington elected president? What would they probably say? 1851. No, they would probably say 1776. You'd be lucky if they even look at that.
00:04:12
Speaker
but, but Washington's elected president in 1789. Wow. Yeah. You know, so we don't even have our first real president until 1789. Then we got, he runs two, he serves for two terms.
00:04:27
Speaker
Then you got John Adams with Jefferson as his vice president for a term. Then Thomas Jefferson for two terms and James Madison for the final term. Those are the four presidents during this federal period. I wonder what their taglines were.
00:04:48
Speaker
I wonder, I wonder if John Adams ran and said, make America great again and Washington guys screwing everything up.
00:05:00
Speaker
I don't think there was as much mud slinging going on back then. But I could be wrong. Yeah. So James Madison, he co-authors the Federalist Papers with John Jay and the now famous Alexander Hamilton, you know, the Broadway play
00:05:19
Speaker
brought Hamilton into popular culture. You know, only the history nerds knew mostly of Hamilton. And is John Jay, who the college's name? That's it. John Jay. Yeah. John Jay College of Law in New York. Now I taught history and I didn't even remember that the federal's papers were 85 essays.
00:05:42
Speaker
So it was a lot going on back then as the government's forming that it's these things
Industrialization and Expansion in America
00:05:50
Speaker
are still going on now. I mean, if you look at our politics.
00:05:55
Speaker
There was a group that wanted more like states' rights, we'll call it. That's the simplest way to put it. And that was the Articles of Confederation, where you had a confederation of states, each having more power. And then there were the Federalists who wanted the federal government, the overarching government, to have more power.
00:06:19
Speaker
And that's what the federalist papers were about. It was trying to convince the people who had the power to vote on this.
00:06:30
Speaker
that the federal government was the way to go with more powers. So let's take a look at what's going on in 1800. The second US census shows there's 5,308,000 and change people. So we have almost five and a half million people
00:06:52
Speaker
living in America, the United States, and about one in six of those are slaves. That's, that's pretty sobering, isn't it? Yeah. Almost a million slaves out of 5 million people. Now, is that taken into account? The
00:07:14
Speaker
Was it the three fifths? Yeah, I don't know. The three fifths compromise, I think, happens later on as, you know, the states are joining the union. Right. Yeah. So if you don't know, three fifths compromise said that like a slave was only considered three fifths in the census was so you have five slaves. They only count that as three people in the census.
00:07:39
Speaker
Right. Right. It was all because the number of people who lived somewhere meant they had more representation in the government. Which is still true. That's how the census is how funding is distributed to different states and stuff like that.
00:07:58
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so I mean, when you think about our history, it's it's fraught with all of these, um, you know, details that we
00:08:14
Speaker
kind of have chosen to forget and overlook.
Federal Furniture Style and Influences
00:08:18
Speaker
Um, so, uh, the Northwest territory is formed out of, well, Indiana is formed out of the Northwest territory. I misspelled Northwest, the Northwest territory. You got a, you got a spell check turned off on your computer. Oh, no wonder. See, I got all these red lines. You got nothing over there. No,
00:08:46
Speaker
No wonder I have so many mistakes. So Indiana territory, I mean, it's not even a state yet. I was trying to remember which states were around, of course, all the Northeast. And I was surprised that Kentucky was one of the states.
00:09:06
Speaker
Yeah, so you have the whole Atlantic seaboard and Kentucky. And the Treaty of Mortifontaine is signed with France. I never heard of this ending the quasi war.
00:09:23
Speaker
That's actually what it was called. It was a naval battle. It was basically an undeclared war because the government, Congress didn't have the right to declare war yet in 1800. And it was fought along the East coast and the Caribbean. And it was because the US stopped repaying the loans that France made during the revolution.
00:09:46
Speaker
Oh, that's bull move. More nonsense, right? One in six people are slaves and we're not paying France back. It's a glorious beginning, isn't it? We're going to file for bankruptcy. I keep losing my mouse. There it is.
00:10:11
Speaker
Closer to what we're going to get into is the Industrial Revolution is starting to hit the United States. In 1790, the first factory appears in Rhode Island in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It's a spinning mill, a cotton spinning mill, because as we know from grade school and such,
00:10:38
Speaker
uh 1798 the cotton gin Eli Whitney yeah we just like spent way too much time talking about that in school like i mean that was the beginning of the industrial revolution but still the fact that i can remember Eli Whitney and that's completely insignificant to anything
00:10:58
Speaker
that it is currently right. Yeah. But, you know, growing cotton in the South is, you know, it's part of the triangle, a trade that helps America grow.
00:11:10
Speaker
The iron industry starts growing in Pennsylvania and canal and railway construction begins. Yeah, we just rode along the DNR canal. Yeah. I wonder when that I want to look that up. The DNR canal. I remember reading that.
00:11:31
Speaker
Like the Erie Canal, which was one of the first biggies, it sped up transportation to goods like 90 percent. Oh, yeah. It was, you know, some amazing thing. The Delaware and Rarin Canal is a canal in central New Jersey, United States, but on the 1830s served to connect Delaware River to the Rarin River. Efficient and reliable means of transportation, a freight between Philadelphia and New York City, especially coal from the anthracite fields in eastern Pennsylvania.
00:12:01
Speaker
Yeah, cool. I mean, it's one of the reasons that New York grew. When I was looking at the census, New York was by far the most populous state. In fact, even without the upstate counties,
00:12:16
Speaker
it was still the most populous. And a lot of that was spurred on by the canals that brought all that, all the, you know, the ease of access into New York Harbor. Yeah. Yeah. So like they would literally have like a barge and they would have
00:12:34
Speaker
whether it was horses or I think typically it was like oxen or mules and stuff on the sides and they pulled these barges down these canals. Yeah. And they could, you know, cover a lot more land that way because they're not there's no roads. I mean, think about it. Yeah. Couple of, you know, like pack animals pulling a boat down the down the water.
00:12:56
Speaker
I shouldn't say there was no roads, but the roads were, you know, yeah, it is. I mean, obviously there was no mechanized transportation. Right. So.
00:13:09
Speaker
So let's recap where we are with our furniture. Uh, we started
Neoclassicism in America
00:13:13
Speaker
with early American 1640 to 1700, then colonial 1700 to 1780. Um, our last series, the Pennsylvania Dutch 1720 to 1830, which you see overlaps completely the federal period of 1780 to 1820. Um,
00:13:36
Speaker
So let's get into it. Yeah. Wow. Pennsylvania Dutch is a big swath of colonial and the federal. Yeah, exactly. And as we probably those of our loyal listeners will remember that it really wasn't even noted until like a hundred years after after it ended. Yeah.
00:14:00
Speaker
So federal furniture refers to American furniture produced during the federal period and named after the federalist era in American politics That's that's hard to say federalist federalist I'll take your word for it
00:14:21
Speaker
So we're referencing the period following the Revolutionary War really rather than one specific style of furniture. Although as we get into it we'll see that there's definitely some strong characteristics from this period and it's lived on. I mean you can still find like if you Google
00:14:46
Speaker
Federalist furniture. You'll find shops and big companies that specialize. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, our buddy Robert Bliss, I know, does a lot of federal. Yeah. The federal is coming back, they say. Yeah. There's a lot of federal architecture. I will say a ton of federal architecture still around.
00:15:08
Speaker
So The decorative arts at this time moves away from the ornate look That Rococo piece, let's see we'll open up that link Here And for our patrons they can have a copy of this and you'll see all of the links and
00:15:38
Speaker
So what Rococo means in relation to antique furniture? The Spruce Crafts. Look at that. That's who we stole the toy periods from. That's right. Spruce Crafts is actually a pretty good reference source. Surprisingly enough, the name makes it sound awfully suspect.
00:15:59
Speaker
But there's them, Wikipedia, Britannica, study.com is another biggie that I've been using. I had to actually create an account for them. Remember LexisNexis? That was a good one. That you had to pay for. Yeah, I got an educator. I signed up for an educator for study.com. It was free, but you know. We're educating.
00:16:27
Speaker
We are so anybody asks. You know what to say. You could see that for those of you who are watching. Most people probably are listening. That's what our data shows. But we'll save these moment. Yeah. You know the Chippendale was one of the biggies from
00:16:47
Speaker
the colonial period where he's introducing curves. And in this Rococo example, there's a lot of carvings, which federal employees just not in the same manner. Yeah. Yeah. This is definitely reminiscent of the Chip and Dale stuff. Kind of got this year, which which is similar to like a block and shell kind of thing going on. Yeah.
00:17:11
Speaker
It's that's it's a nice piece. I mean, yeah, just the grain in the in the wood in that. And it's in the face of it. It's I mean, obviously they pick something beautiful. Almost looks like. And this has the grain of cherry. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably mahogany, but.
Key Figures in Federal Furniture
00:17:34
Speaker
I'll mention it as we get down to it in the notes, but darker woods were really favored during the federal period, and cherry was actually one of the common woods used, cherry and walnut, I believe. That nice red colored cherry.
00:17:54
Speaker
so um people like cherry they don't even know it we went up to this job i laugh because it's so true and uh up in closer which is four yeah and uh
00:18:10
Speaker
You know, the designer has these whatever your inspiration boards. Yeah, that's that's what they are. And they have a swatch of this thing and they're like, yeah, we don't know what it is, but they like this. It was so blatantly scary. I thought it was because I sent her pictures of this and these. Yeah, because the other job with the solid cherry cabinets, I sent pictures of these as examples and my bed.
00:18:37
Speaker
And it looked it looked just like one of these does I'm like, that's cherry like People like cherry. They just think that they don't right because most of it that they see in the store is this awful red Stay fake cherry. It's it's maple with red stain on it. Yeah, and you know May maple is so difficult to stain. Well, yeah, I think typically it's really just like a tinted lacquer. Yeah, I
00:19:04
Speaker
So what are the hallmarks of the federal period and its furniture? It's characterized by sharp geometric forms, legs that are usually straight rather than curved. And a biggie is the contrasting veneers and the geometric inlay patterns on otherwise flat surfaces. Pictorial motifs when extant. I had to look up.
00:19:32
Speaker
with the word extant men. Surviving. Surviving, right. So pictorial motifs usually reference the new federal government with symbols such as the eagle. Interesting. So yeah, there's a lot of patriotic imagery in the marquetry and things like that. The inlays, the eagle with the shields. Yeah.
00:20:02
Speaker
Federal furniture tends to emphasize basic geometric shapes, generally squares, circles, triangles, rectangles. It's usually refined and well crafted with clean edges and straight lines. That's important since the idea is to create something rational, cool, and contained.
00:20:23
Speaker
I like the sound of it. Yeah, yeah. Additional features like tapered legs are also common as they may evoke the sense of a classical column.
00:20:34
Speaker
Federal furniture obeys the basic aesthetics of classical art and architecture, but with modern comforts in mind. Classical forms were defined by the rational use of geometric shapes, a strong devotion to symmetry, and a cool sense of order and logical design. Sounds a lot like what we're trying to.
00:20:57
Speaker
it. I think that often, you know, you can see how even though we don't work in this vernacular, is that the right use of that word? Even if you don't work in this style.
00:21:10
Speaker
You can see how a lot of this seeps in and and it wouldn't just be us. It would be everybody who's building furniture. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you see this common thread that if you if you are a furniture maker and a real furniture maker, there's a certain set of ideals and sort of goals that everybody shares. Mm hmm. You know, no one's trying to create something that's disordered and illogical. At least I hope not.
00:21:38
Speaker
No, but you could see that they're thinking of the design and is influenced by the sensibilities of this new nation that's growing, which is interesting in and of itself. That's what you had to draw inspiration from before there was Pinterest.
00:22:05
Speaker
That's funny. You'd be making some effed up furniture if you were using the federal government as inspiration now. Imagine that now. It's just a couch on fire.
00:22:24
Speaker
You're on this morning. So according to the Columbus Museum, I'm citing my source here, there are several clues that a piece of furniture is from the federal period or at least inspired by it.
00:22:38
Speaker
We got contrasted dark and light veneers. This is something I didn't know. Light blue interiors. Clean edges, straight lines, and the carvings. It's a bigger part of federal period furniture than I
00:22:58
Speaker
originally thought but you could see the the link to the classic and by classic we usually refer back to like Roman and Greek times. Ribbons, swags, fruit baskets, swag is like you know that like a curtain swag you know like okay
00:23:20
Speaker
Not like the modern. Like heaven's swag. Wheat shafts. Half moons. There's our patriotic eagle. The cornucopia. Bell flowers. I'm not sure. I guess that means a flower with like a bell shape. I don't know. Yeah. Here's one for you. You know the Fruit of the Loom logo? Yeah. Is there a cornucopia in it? Yeah. There's not. There's not. It's just the fruit. It's just the fruit.
00:23:48
Speaker
That's one of those things. Yeah. It's a Mandela, another Mandela effect. Oh man. Explain what the Mandela effect is. Uh, Mandela effect is like, maybe we could cover this on the Patreon. Oh, okay. But I'll give you a quick, uh, well here, let me, there's, I'm sure there's somebody who has described it really well so that I don't have to try and search for words. Yeah. That it's a really cool thing.
00:24:16
Speaker
Yeah, and it's, you know, most of it is and probably all of it is. In 2010, the shared false memory phenomenon was dubbed the Mandela Effect by self-described paranormal consultant Fiona Broome in reference to her false memory of the death of South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela in prison in the 1980s.
00:24:38
Speaker
actually done twenty thirteen it's a the idea that there's this collective false memory of different things like big one is the baron stein bears if you're my age you know in your your mid thirties you remember these books grown up and they're still around the baron stein bears.
00:24:57
Speaker
But it's not the Berenstain Bears. It's the Berenstain Bears with an A. There's all kinds of stuff. Another big one is the people remember this movie with Sinbad called Shazam or something like that, where he was like a genie. It doesn't exist.
00:25:23
Speaker
there's all kind of thing it's that it's a collective right it's it really it's a powerful thing because it incorporates so many people yeah so another one is the fruit of the loom logo I remembered it as having a cornucopia you did yeah there's no cornucopia there's no record of there ever being a cornucopia
00:25:45
Speaker
But there's other things too, like there's articles that infer that there, you know, maybe someone was writing about something with Fruit of Loom and they like inferred something about a cornucopia. So there's all these weird. But the picture itself? Yeah, no cornucopia. So the carvings, again, include the cornucopia.
00:26:09
Speaker
some bell flowers, fans, drapery, which is kind of like the swag, except straight down urns and shields. So this was pretty interesting, too.
Federal Influence on Modern Design
00:26:23
Speaker
Why does the federal period look the way it does? Excuse me. So in the mid 18th century, we're talking about the the mid 1700s. Europe was becoming more and more fascinated with ancient Rome.
00:26:41
Speaker
The reason was a pretty simple archaeological excavations. Well, tongue tied expectations in 1748 uncovered the buried city of Pompeii, giving people a glimpse into Roman life. So if we all kind of know, but I'll I'll spell it out.
00:27:04
Speaker
Pompey was buried by Vesuvius, the volcano. And so in 1748, it's uncovered for the first time and people are seeing what life was like because it froze this moment in time. That was what, like 600 AD or something? You know, I should have looked that up.
00:27:26
Speaker
We can get that quickly. Yeah. So, uh, each nation in Europe handles this new fascination in a different way. Um, now since most Roman monuments are made of stone and even 79 AD 79 AD. So it's basically a long time ago, 2000, you know, 15. Yeah. Beginning of, uh, current, uh, what do they call that? Uh, um, C E current, uh,
00:27:58
Speaker
So how does neoclassicism translate into interior furnishings? Neoclassicism meaning like a new classic.
00:28:12
Speaker
So for the British, the revival in Roman interest was largely handled by architect Robert Adam. Adam, he toured Rome in the 1750s, then spent time observing how the rest of Europe was handling this neoclassical movement, which Hawkins back to Greece and Rome. And he brings all this information back to England
00:28:38
Speaker
And through his work as an architect, he develops this distinct form of neoclassicism
00:28:48
Speaker
classicism now called Adam esque. You notice people, they really love naming stuff after themselves. Talk about, uh, uh, you know what I'm saying? Whatever the word is, everybody, that guy, that, that's another one named after the person.
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, so this style is very popular in England. But by the time it gets to America, you know, America is rejecting British ideas. So Adam S. didn't really enter America until after the end of the American Revolution. You know, 30 some odd years after the time it hits Britain. Right. And.
00:29:41
Speaker
It sort of does peak interest in America, not because it was British, but because now America wants to compare itself to Rome. Right. It's funny to think of, but young America wanted to create a direct parallel between themselves and the last great Republic of European history, which is the Roman Republic.
00:30:08
Speaker
Yeah, it looks like we're following the same path now going crash and burn. You know, we often cite that, don't we? Yeah. Yeah. So American neoclassicism, that was pretty good. American neoclassicism flourished as a way to encourage civic and national pride in the Republic.
00:30:30
Speaker
creating a civic society meant filling every aspect with reminders of this proud legacy. And so Adam ask furnishings were adopted, altered, translated into a distinct version of American neo classical furniture, perfect for the homes of patriotic Republican citizens. Man, that sounds like some propaganda.
00:30:58
Speaker
This was the federal style. Um, so where's this happening?
00:31:05
Speaker
Obviously, we're talking about America, and I touched on it earlier. Federal furniture took off in the US around 1789. Again, when the Federalists were duking it out with the anti-Federalists over what the new American government should take. And furniture was most, excuse me, I might have to get some water.
00:31:35
Speaker
This furniture is most sought after in large cities and port towns along the US. Boston, Philly, New York, Baltimore, and Charleston, South Carolina are sort of the hotbeds of federal furniture.
00:31:52
Speaker
And these towns are home to many wealthy people. They still had significant ties to Europe. So they're going to be, you know, information doesn't travel the way it does now. So the regular guy on the street, he has no clue what's going on in Europe. But if you're familiar, you know, you know, the more things we're on episode four already.
00:32:18
Speaker
the more they stay the same. Here's what I want to know. Why is it saying that you spelled too wrong? These towns were home to many wealthy people. Huh. Maybe it's a it's a bad sentence construction. I keep losing my goddamn mouse. Yeah. Yeah. These towns were home to many wealthy. No. Yeah. I want to do that.
00:32:43
Speaker
It's trying to change it to home TOO many. Yeah, that's so I had it right there. These towns are home. These towns were home to many wealthy people with significant ties to Europe, you know, their business dealings, America and Britain. The the even though they're separate nations now, the the money is changing hands all the time. You know, business and industry are important. They're important partners.
00:33:14
Speaker
So not only were these cities important,
00:33:20
Speaker
Centers for the people who bought and and used this furniture, but they also became important cities for the manufacture of those pieces So who who was who are the big names? There's two English furniture designer cabinet makers primarily credited with bringing federal style furniture to America and
00:33:46
Speaker
Furniture nerds will have heard of these people and to some lesser extent General public will have heard these names and maybe not known who they are. Mm-hmm. We have George Applewhite and Thomas Sheridan and we're gonna see some parallels between these guys and Chippendale and
00:34:10
Speaker
because George Hepplewhite, in 1788, he writes a book, The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, and Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book. Man, they were some original... The titles are nothing to get excited about. Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director. I know. They're like, let's change out Gentleman for Upholsterer and flip it.
00:34:41
Speaker
So these guys had such a huge influence that sometimes federal furnitures refer to as Hepplewhite and Sheraton style. And it's interesting to note that the influence of both Hepplewhite and Sheraton are as designers and not as cabinet makers.
00:35:00
Speaker
Most sources that I used and could find stated that there are no surviving examples that can be directly attributed to either man, meaning they built them themselves. Rather, the furniture survived and thrived that it was built in the styles that they illustrated and directed in their books.
00:35:24
Speaker
So I thought that was pretty interesting. Yeah, because up till now People of note were where guys have built the furniture, right? Yeah, a chip and maybe Chippendale was the guy that kind of because he had a whole crew of people underneath of them Maybe he was the beginning of that where He was doing a lot of design work, but not quite as much building
00:35:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And I put a little note here to remind myself and the audience that it's about 30, it's 34 years since Chippendale's book. That's that's a pretty good amount of time. Yeah, I mean, he's probably dead by then. You got to figure in those days, that's almost two generations. Yeah, those are big shoes to fill. Yeah.
00:36:20
Speaker
And I did come across somebody who's pretty noteworthy. It's John and Thomas Seymour of Boston. They were father and son and they were actual cabinet makers. And that's a link down there. Their Seymour dressing table. They actually built
00:36:41
Speaker
in the style of, um, hepple white and Sheridan, but they had also their own take on it. And, and that's a pretty nice piece. I mean,
00:36:57
Speaker
this like figured mahogany it's it's gorgeous you could see there's the carving and the legs they're straight rather than curved but which I like I'm not big on like no Gabriel legs and these curved
00:37:15
Speaker
legs gives a weird stance yeah yeah the curve was only added up there in the mirror mm-hmm yeah these uh scrolls yeah that's a good way to put it the scroll work there I mean look at the figure in the frame yeah they started working in veneers and um
00:37:41
Speaker
can see it in the drawer fronts there I love this I know there's a name for it I'm not sure a little round yeah yeah I wonder what that's called they have it on like these tea tables too it's like where you put your cup yeah that's that's a gorgeous piece of furniture mm-hmm
00:38:04
Speaker
That, I mean, I know that a lot of the source material I use is probably citing the same deeper source material, but that picture came up quite often for the seam wars. They related to the Flanagan's? The Raymore and Flanagan. The Ashley's.
00:38:32
Speaker
No, I doubt it.
00:38:37
Speaker
Oh, man. So the dressing table with mirror features Thomas Seymour's meticulous construction details, his adaptations of English Regency style and blister figured as maple veneer. Wow. Which, you know, that's the thing that maple gets so dark after a couple of years when you see it's like it looks like shellac. Yes. Yes.
00:39:04
Speaker
Yeah, so it's got a nice amber orange right a hue to it And it's oh Which has the figure locally dramatized by scorching with a hot iron? Interesting right thermally modified thermally modified and Seymour's favorite carver the English immigrant Thomas Whiteman
00:39:30
Speaker
contributed leafage carving to liar supports for the dressing glass, blossom and seed carvings and dressing chest legs. Oh, that's the end of our hour. Did we make it? We're at 38 minutes. Oh. I looked at the clock before it was like a half hour. I'm like, man, we're going to run along on this one.
00:40:01
Speaker
But we could discuss we could discuss these cabinet makers. Oh, yeah. I mean, we're going to go through it in in the next episode. Is it the next episode where we talk about the cabinet makers? No, we talk about furniture. So be in two episodes. Yeah. But there was something I wanted to bring up about. Oh, Sheraton is actually considered one of the periods of furniture. Yep.
00:40:31
Speaker
But it's totally a subset of federal furniture.
Podcast Reflection and Promotions
00:40:36
Speaker
So that's the next one. Yeah, it is. But I couldn't really find because, you know, once I was wrapping this one up, the thing that I found most was it was the most copied.
00:40:52
Speaker
style like his book was so big and popular that it's the most copied federal style.
00:41:02
Speaker
Yeah. So maybe federal is really most of what was going on in that time period was actually what they would consider Sheridan. Yeah. Which is just a style of federal furniture. Yeah. So it's weird. You know, we don't know how the how the big wigs get together and made these classifications. Yeah. Like why the Pennsylvania Dutch became one of the important movements.
00:41:36
Speaker
Where do you think charcuterie is going to say that's coming in about 1990? No, 2009. You know, it's interesting to think. Well, what was the last big movement that we could think of? Would it be mid century? I mean, what comes after mid century?
00:41:57
Speaker
Big wigs over there, it's Bruce Crafts.
00:42:05
Speaker
Is it just a rehash of everything after that? No, I mean, there's been contemporary styles. I don't know if maybe they just haven't been named yet. Right. I mean, you think about the 90s and the early 2000s, you know, 90s style furniture like the shabby chic. Yeah, I don't know. Like I think of like. It's still at my parents house, like my sister's bedroom set, like this white washed.
00:42:32
Speaker
But I don't even know what the hell you will call it. Was it distressed? No, no. Yeah, I wonder in a hundred years time, if we if we make it. What we're what people are going to be talking about it, you know, there can only be 12 periods by then. There's going to have to be more added to it. Right. And is there going to be something significant?
00:43:02
Speaker
You know, come out of this. See if I can find. Yeah, everything had like that pickled look to it like that. Yeah, because everything it's sort of like. I mean, almost like music.
00:43:27
Speaker
It's it's taking stuff and and reimagining things that have happened and sort of combining and recombining. See if I can find.
00:43:48
Speaker
I'm not having any work, but yeah, I mean like something like that. Mm hmm. That's very 90s looking not to finish, but yeah. Um. There you go. Honey pine. Honey pine.
00:44:12
Speaker
That's undeniably 90s. Well, you see, it's kind of got some shaker influence. I was going to say, when you look back, you're going to, you know, is there going to be, uh, will they set 70s? The 70s. Yeah. I mean.
00:44:32
Speaker
I mean, I guess as would 70s definitely had a style, too. I mean, that wasn't mid-century or even anything resembling. Right. As woodworkers, we're kind of. You know, we immediately go to that style where it's predominantly wood. But you think about the 70s, it went to that big upholstered look. And maybe you'd have like those little pieces of wood in the front. Yeah.
00:45:01
Speaker
What will they say about the 70s couch with the plaid pillows and the crochet blanket?
00:45:13
Speaker
I mean, I think it's like anything like the nice examples are are always going to be nice. But the run of the mill BS is always going to be junk. Yeah. You know, that's a great thought because we're looking at the surviving pieces that are considered probably the finest examples of the work and go, oh, ah,
00:45:35
Speaker
it would be nice to look at some of the stuff that was done by, you know, Joe cabinet shop on the corner, the stuff that fell apart. You know, I didn't make it. Yeah. Cause yeah, this is just the stuff that people found nice enough to hold on to and to care for and was built well enough to survive 300 years.
00:45:58
Speaker
Yeah, there must have been some hacks back then, too. Oh, God, I'm sure. You know, you think there were like, you know, your equivalents. I wonder if they spray painted their tools green. There was no spray paint, but.
00:46:16
Speaker
milk paint. Milk painted green. Nobody takes all these combination squares. Better paint them green. What would be the equivalent tools? I don't know. All my pencils. Yeah.
00:46:38
Speaker
Yeah. I wonder what they were using as, were they using strictly marking knives? Marking knives, probably. Yeah. I mean, they did. They had, they had pencils back then. It was a pencil invented. Yeah. That's a good question. When was the pencil invented? 1795. Right. So we are scientists serving the army of Napoleon Bonaparte invented it.
00:47:07
Speaker
It's probably safe to say that pencils are not a part of the cabinet makers, uh, tool chest at, at this point in time during the federal period. Maybe once we get into the next couple, what's after Sheridan? Um, I can't remember. Um, yeah.
00:47:31
Speaker
No, we could we could we could save that in the bank. Yeah. In the vault. You have to tune in six weeks from now to find out 10 weeks from now. So what'd you think of of this initial episode? Interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing more examples and. Yeah, there's a lot there are a lot of links in the in the coming episodes.
00:48:06
Speaker
As I say that I don't where are they? Oh, there's Oh, yeah. It's funny. Some of them are blue. Ah.
00:48:18
Speaker
See, like, this one's blue. Yeah. These ones aren't. Oh, yeah. The ones that are like that, where it says, like, federal desk, I renamed them. And the ones that are in blue are from the source material. The ones that I put in. Oh, so this, like, that's pasted. Yeah. Yeah. So that's from the source material. And then the other ones, I went out and found them.
00:48:49
Speaker
Yeah, so this episode's coming out the day- Jesus, what the hell? Coming out the day before, uh, Christmas. Wow. On Christmas Eve, I guess you could say. Everybody's nestled in their beds, they're drinking their hot cocoa. Mm-hmm. They're- they're, uh, gonna be dreaming of Federal-style furniture. And sugar plums. And, yeah, and, uh, and, uh, all the veneer work and tapered legs.
00:49:21
Speaker
You know, the one thing I like doing all this research and doing these, I do miss the weekly feedback from our listeners. That's the only thing, you know, where we had more of a timely kind of give and take. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
00:49:46
Speaker
It would be nice to hear, like, people write in and we would be able to respond to, like, you know, questions or comments. Nothing's stopping them. Yeah. What happened to our listeners? I don't know. Are they out there? They're out there. People are still listening.
00:50:08
Speaker
They got the riders block? According to the statistics. Are we still big in Slovenia? Yeah, I think so. We're big in China now, apparently. Number 56. Wow. We must be on the government list. Yeah, better watch out. We're influencers in China. Especially now that they're cozying up with Russia.
00:50:31
Speaker
Well, on that note, I think we'll call it a day. All right. Yeah. Thanks for... Oh, well, I will tell you guys. Hey, get yourself a little Christmas present. Head over to RPMCodingSolutions.com. Get yourself some vesting finishes.
00:50:44
Speaker
Yeah, we're big fans. Yeah, we got more on the way. Well, we will have had it now. Yes. Listen to this. Get some more in for some samples. We're going to start messing around with some of these colored LED oils. We've got more of the clear coming in because that's our bread and butter. We're still running on the first can. So you're afraid of the cost. Don't be don't be because we finished, you know. A lot. Yeah, we I mean.
00:51:14
Speaker
sizable projects. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a ton. We finished a ton of stuff with one of the cans of the LED finish. Right. We're not talking about like just a couple of boards or something like that. And even the small can, you know, that did all the new stuff for the for the church. Wow. And they're still finishing there. Yeah. Yeah. So it goes a long way. A little goes a long way. I mean, that's part of the key of putting on a finish like that anyway.
00:51:41
Speaker
Right. Yeah, because, you know, you put too much on, it's just it's going into the garbage. Yeah. So, yeah, use the coupon code American Craftsman. Save yourself 10 percent there. It helps out the podcast because we are affiliates with vesting finishes and we use it in the shop. So check it out.
00:52:00
Speaker
All right. Merry Christmas. Yeah. We'll see you next week on. Yeah. Must be New Year's Eve. The next week will be New Year's Eve. Yeah. I hope everybody's sober enough to learn and listen. Well, come out at 5 a.m. if you're starting early. You're toasted by that. Yeah, you're in trouble. But depends where you work. That's true. You might have to show up at work in a little grease.
00:52:28
Speaker
I lost my mouse again. Alright, we'll see you guys next week. Take care.