Shaker Table

"Tilter" is a Shaker invention where a ball & socket on the back legs allowed one to lean back in the chair without denting or scratching the floor.

 

Tilters on my chair.


And the "Bowling Pin" finials which means, Canterbury NH

 

I remember that my friend found a few Shaker chairs because he knew about that feature.

 

Do you have more Shaker built pieces in your home?

 

Nope, does not, my one and only Shaker piece.
Shaker's heyday was mid 19th century which is out of my area of interest by about 150 years or so.
I keep it in their honor though, Shaker is the ONLY 100% American designed and built furniture. Also, their woodworking skill was a religious tenet with them and world-renowned so reason # 2.
I would note that despite all the moaning & groaning about the depression in "brown furniture" prices, period Shaker pieces have & continue to hold PREMIUM prices.
There is a reason "Shaker Style" cabinets are still the #1 style cabinet in America for kitchens & baths and, it's been that way for decades.

 

I would add that a competitor of theirs in a different style, John Henry Belter, it is said, would drop chairs from a fourth-floor window of his store to prove their quality & strength.
Evidently, there was a lot of "junk" being produced at the dawn of the industrial age here and high-end cabinetmakers felt the need to stress the high quality of their machined furniture construction. In Belter's case, I'd say he was trying to prove that his laminated (plywood) furniture was stronger than solid wood.
" He became famous for his promise (carried out frequently) to drop one of his chairs out of the window of his workshop at Third Avenue and 76th Street to prove how strong it was."
Not positive this is true but, I love the story!

 

Although not early enough for you to collect, you appreciate the workmanship. I did not know that it is the ONLY 100% American designed and built furniture. That's my something new learned today.

I'm familiar with Belter's name......

 

Yes, a GOD in the Victorian furniture collector world.

OH BOY! the BEST of the BEST! Absolutely FLAWLESS woodworking skills. When you get up close & in person with a piece, it's very easy to see.

Odd today to think that cabinet/furniture shops/factories in the mid 19th century had to market quality construction, the general public was NOT IMPRESSED with the quality of this new-fangled machine-built furniture.
It seems that then, as now, A LOT OF JUNK was floating around.

 

Yep is, we borrow, adopt, adapt, fiddle with, remodel, etc. but, the Shakers were having none of that. A truly all-American furniture style, they spent an enormous amount of effort on their designs and, it shows.
Even a simple pantry box is not overlooked, every detail is well thought out.

 

JUNK! I say.
And, a fair amount of it seems to float in here.

 

John Henry Belter (1804–1863)



This detail shows Belter’s showroom, which was located at 547 Broadway from 1853–61. Frederick Heppenheimer (d. 1876). Broadway from Spring to Prince St., 1855. Hand-colored lithograph. Museum of the City of New York (39.253.8)

 

Anytime we got a guy throwing chairs out the window just below the arrow above, we got a junk problem folks!
CASE CLOSED! ANOTHER JUNK MYSTERY SOLVED!

 

My Grandfather worked for the Shakers in the early 1900's in Pittsfield MA breaking/training and caring for their horses. Someday I hope to find a Shaker item from that Shaker Village. My great grandfather (his dad) was a carpenter and I think he may have learned from the Shakers. They had a farm down the street from the Shaker Village. Nice place to visit if you are in Western Massachusetts.

 

I've only been to Canterbury, but I can't imagine any of the other villages not being of the same quality. I think a visit to any one of them would be well worth it.

It certainly impressed me.

 

It does surprise me somewhat that they would have outsiders working for them. I really don't know very much about their culture.

If you have something made by your g grandfather, there may be some signs of the Shaker influence.

 

Yep, Belter IS a Victorian God o' Furniture. His patented multi-layered rosewood construction is some of the strongest/lightest furniture ever made. The picture above is his lower Broadway location, not the E. 76th Street location where he purportedly dropped chairs out the window. Maybe he did that in both locations...pretty dramatic salesmanship, although honestly I've never heard that story.

What I wouldn't give to see lower Broadway when it looked like that! Beautiful, low-scale buildings housing the best furniture makers on Earth. R.W. Hutchings down the street from Alexander Roux, Belter, Leon Marcotte, George Hunzinger.....sorry, no Shakers.

Thing is, Belter's stuff was so ornate that a four-story fall would be bound to tear off some rosewood roses, even if the frame came out OK. In fact, it wasn't poor construction that laid Belter to rest; the fact was that his insistence on top-quality carving, and lots of it, created a situation where his pieces took so much time that he was actually losing money. His firm went to his in-laws (Springmeiers) after his death, but it was gone in a couple of years, before 1870. The Rococo Revival was over; probably best that Belter was gone, too.

So, I have total admiration for the Shakers; they really know how to strip things down to basic principles. But it's so plain and so perfect that it hurts my eyes to look at it. Chalk it up to differences in taste. I know there are lots of folks on the Shaker side, as evidenced by the premium prices. I'll stick to the c-scrolls and roses.....

 

Yeah, hard to imagine Belter threw this chair out the window. At the MET.
Slipper Chair


But this one would probably survive, so-called Belter "Salon" or "Springmeyer" chairs

 

thanks James. Good information. I just haven't been around much shaker since i was too young to know. had a couple chairs, one was upgraded with plastic office chair casters. these were at the auction tonight.