Early American Home Furnishings
The term "Early American" is used to describe home furnishings made during the 17th and early 18th centuries. The items were typically created individually by craftsmen. Some collectors refer to these items as "primitives," although many were designed and made by master craftsmen both in Europe and in the American Colonies. Does this Spark an idea?
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Furniture
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Welton USA's Furniture Glossary defines Early American furniture as items adapted from the European Jacobean, William and Mary, and Georgian historical periods. Many modern collectors group the Colonial period (items produced from the earliest settlements through the American Revolution) and the Federal period (items made from immediately after the American Revolution until approximately 1820) into the Early American category. Most Americans did not have the means to purchase imported furniture; so, they created utilitarian items from the hard and soft woods available near their homes, according to historian John Demos. The most important furniture pieces in the Colonial home were a sturdy bedstead and a large table with a set of chairs, called a harvest table, which served as a dining table as well as the center for home activities. The chairs, which were acquired as the family expanded, frequently these did not match each other.
Fiber Items
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Early American homes featured either homemade cloth woven from hemp and flax fibers and dyed with natural plant pigments including indigo, bark, walnuts, roots and berries or imported textiles from China, Britain or India, according to research done by the historians at the Colonial Williamsburg Museum and historic site. These fabrics were used to make quilts and pillow coverings. Looms were constructed in the Colonies to make woven coverlets for use as blankets and decorative covers for beds. As the Colonies became populated, quilting began to incorporate purchased fabric designs as decorations. Many of the "broderie perse" (a term used to describe a popular Persian embroidery available only to the wealthiest Colonists) flower designs were printed on chintz cotton and imported in America to be used as decorative appliqués.
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Kitchen Wares
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The earliest Colonists used items imported from Europe, but, as Colonial craftsmen became established, these items were produced in the Colonies. Wealthy families purchased kitchen wares while poorer families constructed their own cooking utensils from wood and fired bowls and mugs from native red, white and yellow clays. The native production was crude when compared with European craftsmanship, but the items were easily and inexpensively produced. Clay glazed bowls, butter churns, paddles and molds, shifters, cast-iron teakettles, Dutch ovens and cooking kettles, wooden hammers and pestles, pickle pots (also known as firkins), chopping knives, wooden spoons, metal ladles and metal forks were commonly found in early American kitchens.
Utilitarian
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Utilitarian items for housekeeping included metal and wooden rug and bed covering beaters, iron fireplace spits, and tools to keep the home fire going. The wealthy homes also imported these items from India and England, but families with lower incomes created homemade straw fireplace brooms and iron spits for roasting meats. Metal pokers were used to stoke the fire, and metal pans were fashioned to take coals from the fire to warm the beds in cold weather.
Decorative
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The earliest American homes had little formal decoration, but as more Colonists arrived, especially those with disposable income, the variety of decorative elements expanded. Early Colonists featured practical items as decoration. Clay-fired bowls were decorated with liquid clay (called slip) flowers and patterns. Young girls who were asked to learn practical homemaking skills constructed samplers for practicing various sewing stitches. Although these were learning tools, they also served as framed art. Samplers frequently incorporated basic math and spelling skills and included number lines and alphabets. As artists arrived in the Colonies, oil paintings began to appear as home decoration. These often featured the homeowners or the home itself. Candlesticks were the main source of light for rooms without fireplaces, and these were also used as a source of decoration by adding swirls of metal and ornamentation that included flowers and leaves.
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