The desk is in company suited to its age, the larger powder-horn hanging above it being a veteran also. It is seventeen inches long and ten inches broad at the largest end. It bears the following inscription cut in quaint old letters on lines drawn so that they should go straight:
"This is William Norton's Horn made at Qubeck y^e 10 day of Aprill 1776. I powder with my Brother Ball we wound them all that in Our way may chance to fall."
The smaller horn bears the date 1810, and the two swords were used in the General Training days of the first quarter of the nineteenth century. All these relics belong to Anthony Killgore, Esq., of Flemington, N. J.
During the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and even a little earlier, houses were built with wainscoting and panelling, and it was the fashion to build into walls cupboards for the display of china and plate. Frequently they were placed in the corner of the room, and were either with or without doors. Such a cupboard was called a "beaufait," which was sometimes shortened to "bofet," or "buffet," according to the taste of the owner. [Figure 49] shows a specimen. The house from which this beaufait came was built in 1696 in Vernon Place, Boston, Mass., by William Clough. Two years later he sold it, and it passed through several hands by inheritance and sale till in 1758 it was bought by Captain Vernon, who with various members of his family held it for seventy-five years. The cherub's heads which ornament the cupboard are somewhat unusual on a piece of furniture of this kind, and it has also a very handsome shell at the top. It is now at the Old State House, Boston.
Mention is also made in many inventories of "Court cupboards," and "livery cupboards." The former were light movable shelves, making a kind of sideboard, and used to display plate and porcelain. A livery cupboard was somewhat similar. It had usually but three shelves and stood upon four legs. It sometimes had a drawer for linen, but no doors. Mugs and cups were hung from the bottom of the shelves, and a ewer stood below. These were put in what was called the dining-parlour, a stately room on the second floor never used to dine in. (See [Figure 50] showing the banquet room at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, with the beautiful moulding, wainscot, and over-mantel which were seen in handsome houses in the middle of the eighteenth century.) It was many years before the dining-room was set apart for meals. At first only a screen gave privacy, but gradually the dining-room grew in favour. The early dining-rooms held beds, as well as the parlours, they being given to guests on account of the warmth. Joint stools were there, and Flanders chests, in which the mistress often rummaged, so that the guest should see the goodly store of clothes and linen owned by the family.
As was the custom in England, many wealthy men had their furniture made to order, often in their own houses, where the cabinet-makers came and worked. Sometimes they imported their own woods, as in the case of Mr. Champlin, a merchant of Newport, R. I., who brought home with him in 1762, from a voyage in the West Indies, some logs of mahogany, from which he had several pieces of furniture made. Watson, in his "Annals of New York," says that the use of what was foreign and modish was noted earlier in New York before the Revolution than elsewhere.
"They earlier used carpets, wall-papers, foreign milliners, dress-makers, Windsor chairs, glass utensils, jewelry, dentistry, watches, umbrellas, stage-playbills, etc.
Windsor chairs were advertised in 1768 as made and sold by William Gautier in New York. He also had high-backed, low-backed, sack-backed chairs and settees, and dining and low chairs. A pair of Windsor chairs are shown in [Figure 51].
