—"choice India and Japan gilded Tea Tables, square Dressing ditto, of which sort none were ever seen in America before."
The rate to be charged for putting on these brasses was set down in "The Journeymen's Cabinet and Chair-makers Philadelphia Book of Prices," 1795, mentioned before. Common castors cost 2½d each, and 1d extra for letting in the plate; a set of sockets "when the legs are tapered, to fit in, per set," 1s 2d. Iron or brass rollers were 8½d per pair. Fitting on a box lock was 1s 4d, while a patent lock came extra and cost 2s. Lifting handles could be put on for 1s 4d per pair. Letting in an escutcheon was 2½d for each one, and letting in plates for rods in the tops of sideboards were 8d for each plate. Ivory escutcheons cost 10d each, and those of holly just half that.
If a person chose to have his furniture made on the premises it was an easy matter, for many cabinet-makers worked in this way, and the furniture could be built to suit exactly the prospective owner's taste and the place it was to occupy. None of the furniture made in America and little that was imported here, had the superb handles and escutcheons which were put on French and Dutch pieces. These mounts were executed and designed by artists, and made a decidedly beautiful addition to the furniture.
Another distinctive feature of old furniture is the foot, which in many cases points to period and country as well as if the piece was dated. After the turned chairs with their heavy lines and clumsy construction, the furniture which was gradually finding its way from Spain and Holland seemed very beautiful. The Flemish foot, so called, turns outward, and is found on very early chairs enriched with carving and having cane, rush, or turkey-work seats. This style belongs to the last quarter of the seventeenth century. (For illustrations see [Figure 100].)
Chairs of this same period also came from Spain and Portugal, being covered with the splendid leather of Cordova, which has now a world-wide reputation. The woodwork of the frames was handsome enough to correspond with the leather. These frames were carved, and the foot turned out like the Flemish, but it was of quite a different shape and fluted (see Figure 100).
This Spanish foot retained its popularity a long time, appearing on many varieties of chairs almost as late as 1750. It was associated with cane, rush, leather, and stuff bottoms, was seen on arm and side chairs with slatted backs, and backs of cane and leather. Sometimes on the "roundabout chairs," as those having a square seat set with one angle pointed forward were called ([see Figure 57]), only the front foot was in Spanish style, the others being turned knobs which accorded with the turned legs and rails. Even on some of the so-called Queen Anne chairs with spoon backs, a modified form of Spanish foot was to be found, but this eventually gave way to the familiar ball-and-claw cabriole leg, or the regular Dutch foot ([see Figure 11]). It is curious that the cabriole leg with ball-and-claw foot was seen on pieces of furniture like both the high and low chests of drawers before it was used on chairs ([see Figure 57]), and the earliest of these Queen Anne chairs had the bandy leg with the plain Dutch foot. This foot is used with the solid splat and the spoon-shaped back with rounded ends to the top.
Chippendale, in his earliest work, began to use the models then in vogue, and, with the bandy leg which was found only on the two front legs of chairs, used also a modified Dutch foot. Very soon he used instead the ball-and-claw foot, with or without the underbrace, and with the more ornamental foot the splat became pierced and carved and very ornate and rich. The later straight legged Chippendale chair (see Chapter III) came into favour, with or without underbraces, and late in the eighteenth century the other great cabinet-makers came along, each with his distinctive styles and characteristics. The first of these is Hepplewhite, who never achieved the success of Chippendale, who preceded him, nor of Sheraton, who succeeded him, yet whose work is often very beautiful. He did not, of course confine himself to any one style of foot or leg, yet on many of his chairs, tables, and sideboards he used what is called the "spade foot." This was varied in many ways, but the most common form is shown in [Figure 100].
Both Hepplewhite and Sheraton, as well as the other makers of the eighteenth century, used a variety of shapes of feet, for bureaus, desks, bookcases, and other pieces which were in no way distinctive. Each maker used the bracket foot as suited him best, adding curves to suit his fancy or the exigencies of the case, or inlay or even carving. A plain bracket foot is shown in [Figure 100]. The French foot (Fig. 100) is more ornate and slender, and comes on chests of drawers, bureaus, etc. Inlay is very often used for its decoration, and it adds a graceful line to the piece it is used on, which is always of choice wood inlaid or painted.
