The first element of its greater value, perhaps, is superior design. Along with a higher standard of living in general, and education in better homes and interior furnishing, there has come an increasing demand for woodwork of better proportions and pattern than are found in ordinary “stock millwork.” The Curtis Companies, led by this demand, re-designed Curtis Woodwork to make it harmonize with the newer furnishings. In this work, the authoritative help of the architectural profession was sought. The present beautiful and authentic designs of Curtis Woodwork are the work of Trowbridge & Ackerman, architects, of New York City, who are acknowledged experts in interior details of homes.
This quality of good design adds nothing to the cost, for it is just as cheap to make a good design as a poor one, and often involves less material rather than more, and simpler forms rather than more ornate ones.
Your architect will not hesitate to recommend Curtis Woodwork for your home, because it is correct in every detail, and will save him and you the labor and expense and delay of specially designed items.
“But how,” you ask, “can Curtis Woodwork be beautiful and be well made without increasing the cost?” Briefly, because it has been standardized and is produced in quantities.
Standardization
By standardization, we mean that production has been limited to those designs, sizes and kinds of wood indicated in Curtis literature. These are of sufficient number and variety to cover all needs and all types of houses, but eliminate those sizes and patterns not in demand. Thus waste is eliminated by not producing and keeping in stock material that is little called for.
The woodwork items pictured in most “millwork” catalogs as stock are seldom actually on hand; they are a collection of suggested designs which have been detailed and which will be made up upon receipt of your order. The items shown in the Curtis catalog, “Architectural Interior and Exterior Woodwork, Standardized,” are made up in quantities, and an effort is made to keep a supply on hand ready for shipment upon receipt of your order.
Quantity Production
These standardized items of Curtis Woodwork are produced in large quantities. It is easily understood that a hundred sideboards, for instance, can be produced at a much lower proportionate cost than a single one. Accurate “details” must be prepared and if these can be used again and again, a large factor in the cost of production is eliminated. In making a sideboard, no less than 19 operations are necessary. For these, intricate machines must be set and adjusted, and material prepared. This can be done in practically the same time for 100 to be run through as for 1, thus distributing the cost.
Construction