Furniture was of Jacobean type, some of it brought from England, but for the most part made here from oak, pine, maple, and other native woods. The forms were few and simple and included cupboards, chests, trestle tables, and chairs of the turned or wainscot types. Most furniture was left unfinished. Later there came the chest of drawers, and chairs of the Cromwellian and Carolean types, often with spiral turned legs and scroll feet, and either caned or with seats and backs upholstered in needlework.
Near the beginning of the eighteenth century the open-construction rooms began to give way to complete interior finish, with paneled walls. The American form of the Windsor chair which reached its highest development at about this time, was mostly of hickory because of the adaptability of that wood for bows and spindles.
Courtesy Merchandise Mart News Bureau.
Figure 14.—Harmony in periods in rugs and furniture is shown by this figured Axminster, accurate reproduction of an old floral hooked rug shown with Early American. The design is red, rust, and green on wood tones, harmonizing with the green of the ivy in the wallpaper pattern, and the rust of the draperies.
THE LATE COLONIAL PERIOD
By 1750 the production of good furniture was well under way, with designs based upon Early Georgian models, and 10 years later, in the period of the strongest Chippendale influence, the fine homes of the Colonies were filled with very distinguished furniture of American design, of which the highboy is a perfect example.
The Adam influence appeared here shortly before the Revolution.