Quoted from the post, Country Furniture from the Canadian Encyclopedia.
The phrase "country furniture" aptly describes most surviving antique Ontario furniture held privately and in museum collections. Settlement began after the American Revolution and intensified during the 19th century. In those first years, the pressures of pioneering life ensured that most families had little time or money for high-style furniture, let alone access to it.
Ontario country furniture was fashioned of native woods (eg, walnut, maple, cherry, birch, oak, basswood, pine), by hand, usually with some skill. It can be divided into 3 categories: copies of high-style furniture of British and American derivation; furniture with form and decoration of French, German and other European ethnic origin; and sturdy utilitarian furniture that was used almost universally in town and country and in the less important rooms of city homes.
All of the Georgian, Empire and Victorian styles were reproduced, alone or in combination, with varying degrees of success. Ontario cherry and figured maple provided excellent substitutes for imported mahogany and satinwood. Stain and paint were employed to simulate costly woods, veneers, inlay and carving, when cost or lack of skill or tools forbade such embellishments. Especially during the early years, cabinetmakers were more likely to use hardware (ie, hinges, handles, etc) that was readily available rather than what matched the style of the furniture. Decorative motifs such as the German 6-sided star and French diamond-shaped panels sometimes were used on country furniture that was British or American in form and style.
Relatively few tools were needed to construct utilitarian furniture so it could be undertaken by most carpenters as well as joiners and cabinetmakers. Dual-purpose, space-saving forms included a chair with a back that could be lowered to form a table top, and a bench with a seat that unfolded to a full bed.
Country chairs fall into 3 groups: slat-backs, Windsors and Fancy chairs. Slat-back chairs had 4 turned legs, the rear ones extended and joined by several slats at the top to form a ladder back. A variation, the banister-back, had 2 slats, pierced by several vertical spindles. Woven ash splints or elm bark formed the seats.
The Windsor, a chair of English derivation, was constructed like a stool with a back attached to the seat. Such chairs were named according to either the style or the shape of the back, eg, Sheraton, loop- or bow-back, arrow-back, low-back or Captain's, comb-back, spindle-back, short spindle-back or chicken coop, and gunstock. Slat-backs and Windsors were made as side chairs, armchairs and rockers; most were painted.
Fancy chairs were side chairs with back, seat and leg patterns derived, at least in part, from Georgian and Victorian styles. Decorative, figured wood often was used; the seats were made of cane or rush. Many Windsors and Fancy chairs also were produced in early Ontario furniture factories.
The high, heavy, 4-post, rope-spring bedstead and accompanying trundle bed were succeeded by a lower, lighter spool-turned bed with slats. Hired-man cots, with spool-turned ends, became country settees when spooled or solid backs were added. Tables and stands of all sizes and for all purposes had tops that tilted, lifted, pivoted or were detachable, and leaves that could be dropped, drawn out or detached.
Country schoolmaster desks with slanted lift tops might be attached to or detachable from a long- or short-legged frame below and a postmaster cupboard with pigeonholes above. Drop-front desks were composed of a cupboard front that dropped to form a writing surface, supported by a table or a lower cupboard.
Country cupboards of one or 2 pieces, with glazed, solid, or no doors, some having a pie shelf sandwiched between the upper and lower parts, were built into corners or walls or were free-standing. They were made in many sizes and shapes for storage of food or dishes and as dry sinks. Linen presses and wardrobes were constructed with fixed parts or, for ease of relocation, detachable ones. Most cupboards were painted or stained dark. Lift-top box chests, the earliest and best made of 6 dovetailed boards, were numerous and even incorporated into the top part of early chests of drawers.
Written by Elizabeth Ingolfsrud
Elizabeth Ingolfsrud wrote several books about Ontario furniture.