Are you thinking that furniture restoration and repair is only a fairly recent thing? Not really. It has been around nearly as long as furniture itself. For example, Joseph Moxon affirmed in his preface of the 1703 edition of Mechanick Exercises that ‘…it is very well known, that many Gentlemen in this Nation, of good Rank and high Quality, are conversant in Handy-Works: And other Nations exceed us in numbers of such’.
Given this observation, it should not be surprising that copies of Moxon had found their way into the various libraries of gentlemen, including the vast collection of Samuel Pepys, who also owned copies of Félibien and Stalker and Parker, and that branches of woodworking, especially ornamental woodturning, had been a popular pastime in certain circles of high society and royal families. Aficionados of the mechanical lathe included Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, Queen Sophie-Magdalene of Denmark, George III of England, Louis XVI of France and Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia. Learning a trade had become part of educating princes in the spirit of the Enlightenment and to that end, royals received instruction for improving their dexterity and understanding of mechanics and read books on the subjects of their interest. Peter the Great, who incidentally also had dabbled in ship carpentry, owned a copy of Plumier’s treatise on turning and had translations made in Russian and Dutch.
Those less privileged but equally dexterous—like Edward Carpenter, the cabinetmaker’s apprentice from Greenfield, Massachusetts—spent leisure time ‘loafing around,’ reading books, taking dancing lessons and attending lectures on a variety of subjects, including phrenology. The growing industrialization and mechanization in the workplace that took place during Carpenter’s lifetime dramatically transformed the social and economic landscape in Europe and the United States. The complex changes were manifold and, among other things, gave birth to a new order of educated middle-class citizens. Shorter working hours meant increased leisure time, which became an economically interesting commodity, especially in the twentieth century. ‘Now, as far as time is concerned, it may be pointed out at once that the most hard-worked man has his Saturday half-holiday and the Bank-holidays, to say nothing of the summer evenings when there is light enough for handicraft work even after 9 o’clock.…’.
The new middle class gained access to an incredible array of manuals for self-education about the rapidly evolving world around them and for advancing socially and economically. Among these were builders’ assistants, cabinetmakers’ and upholsterers’ guides and carpenters’ companions, written for craftsmen and laymen alike. The French philosopher Jacques Maritain observed in 1958 in Reflections on America that ‘Everybody is working, and working hard. In this sense all are fundamentally equal, as working people (and people burdened by mortgages and deferred payment systems) who work to make a living, and who, after their daily hours, busy themselves again with any kind of task handicrafts, improving their houses…and they are prouder of their hobbies than of their jobs’. Publishing houses discovered a new and copious audience of readers eager to find a practical pastime, capitalizing on the perception that it was sinful to let time pass by wasted. Various popular branches of woodworking were explored and proved extremely suitable for the new ‘home handyman.’ Francis Chilton-Young proclaimed in the preface of Every Man His Own Mechanic of 1882 that its pages were seeking ‘….to furnish the Amateur Artisan with hints and suggestions regarding all that he may undertake in Constructive and Decorative Work at home…’. While filled with basic woodworking projects of all sorts (bearing in mind that complicated work remained the domain of trained craftsmen) the amateur was also directed in making his own repairs: ‘Yes, reader, mend your broken chairs and crippled furniture…’. Similar publications aimed at hobbyist woodworkers and professionals alike appeared on the market and included, for example, Domestic Jobbing by Paul Hasluck (1907) and Furniture Repairing and Re-upholstery by Charles Taylor (1919).
In a parallel progression with professional cabinetmakers, amateur woodworkers began to restore furniture, ranging from the vernacular to high-quality museum pieces. One such amateur was Henry H. Taylor, who was an avid collector and hobbyist restorer of American furniture. Taylor relayed his experience in Knowing, Collecting and Restoring Early American Furniture, which was published during the Depression in 1930. His perspective on furniture repair and refinishing strongly reflects his personal taste as well as a practical collector’s point of view that antiques had to be functional in the home. Taylor felt that ‘Household furniture will be put to strenuous daily service, while the furniture of a museum is for inspection only’. While he may have possessed the sophistication to differentiate between restoration philosophies based on ownership and might have been concerned with preserving evidence of age, many of his working methods were thorough and ensured that objects were sound and functional after restoration.
Taylor provides some fictive examples in order to show the difference between the ‘wrong and right’ approach in restoring early American furniture. Referring to the ‘right’ approach he commented that ‘The whole table is cleaned with varnish remover, possibly leaving a bit of old paint in the turnings, about pins, or under the top’. After several steps of sanding, light scraping and another rubbing with steel wool, he envisioned the table to be finished with shellac and wax. ‘The result is a table which still appears old, but is clean and sound, and glows with a subdued and honest finish’. Thus, the imaginary furniture restored by Taylor became transformed into objects with well-groomed surfaces.
The wonderful thing about furniture restoration and repair is that it is available to everyone. It is just a matter of starting.
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