I just got my copy of "Early American Life" magazine in which I was listed in the "Directory of Traditional American Crafts". I was included in the "Furniture, Formal or Painted" category. The title annoys me a little. I'm not sure there's always a distinction between formal and painted. Certainly japanned or lacquered pieces were among the most formal. But, okay, I get it. It's semantics.



Under my name they added a description of my work, "18th c painted furniture". I'm not sure that's a great description of what I do. When I think of painted furniture I think of decoratively painted furniture, not faux finishes or faux grained. I'm not writing to complain. I'm thrilled and honored to be included at all. But I think the subject of painted furniture is interesting. Here's what I know about it:

• Paint was sometimes used to make cheap wood look like expensive wood. Curly maple and cherry were prime candidates for faux finishing. The goal was to make something look like mahogany and these two species could get you close. I've heard that there was very little naturally finished maple. Maple was almost always painted.
  
  
• Some items were routinely painted. Post and rung and windsor chairs were typically painted. Benno Forman tells us a wide range of colors were used in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. I would expect that variety of color would have continued throughout the 18th and probably 19th centuries as well.
  
  
• We usually associate painted furniture with middle class or lower furniture. Sometimes that's true, sometimes not. Certainly, faux graining was a very high end finish.
  
  
• Painted finishes don't last. As the paint wears off, people seem less and less thrilled with their furniture. Refinishing or mistreatment usually follows, resulting in far fewer surviving painted pieces. That's one of the things I love about making painted furniture. Surviving examples from the 18th c are incredibly rare. In my opinion, such pieces are perfect candidates for reproduction makers.

Philadelphia's Powel House in 1933
The Powel House is still standing at 244 S. 3rd Street

During the Great Depression, the U.S. Government instituted a program through the WPA that paid architects to photograph or draw plans of historic buildings. The program was called the Historic American Building Survey or HABS for short. Today the entirety of this government funded program is available online through the Library of Congress Website. If this link doesn't work, just go to the Library of Congress's main page at www.loc.gov and type "HABS" in the search box.

You can do a search on geographic areas or date of construction and find photos and often measured drawings of some darn fine old buildings. Some of the plans include detailed drawings of interior woodwork, including windows, doors, wainscots, stairs, etc.



Fairmount Park's Mount Pleasant

Fairmount Park's Mount Pleasant was carefully drawn in detail including its fantastic interior woodwork. Independence Hall aka the State House is a marvelous structure whose interior was also carefully measured, drawn, and photographed. A search for Philadelphia's "Powel House" (top) reveals photos of it's impressive interior but no plans that I could see. The Powel house was probably one of the finest urban homes in Colonial America and affords a glimpse at what the first Presidential Mansion may have looked like.

You can search your own State or Town. You may have a gem in your own area or more likely find that a fine old structure was torn down for the new Starbucks. No bother. Drive over anyway. Sit and have a latte and surf over to HABS on your iPhone using Starbucks' free wireless router. Take a detailed tour of the building that used to be there.

For those interested in traditional or historic woodwork all across the USA and from a range of time periods, the L.O.C.'s HABS offers a virtual tour with project plans attached. What more could any woodworker ask for? Some biscotti perhaps?

Adam