Kitchen Remodeling Pictures And Ideas

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during the two centuries of its existence. The fashion of it was rare,
and had probably been evolved by some early American cabinet-maker, for
while it had all and even more than the grace of the high-backed
Chippendale patterns, it was better fitted to the rounded surfaces of
the human body. It was a spindle chair with a slightly hollowed seat,
the rim of the back rounded to a loop which was continued into
arm-rests, which spread into thickened blades for hand-rests. Being very
much in love with the grace and ease of it, I took it to a manufacturer
to be reproduced in mahogany, who, with a far-sighted sagacity, flooded
the market with that particular pattern.

We are used--and with good reason--to consider mahogany as a durable
wood, but of the half-dozen of mahogany copies of the old oak chair,
each one has suffered some break of legs or arms or spindles, while the
original remains as firm in its withered old age as it was the day I
rescued it from the "out-kitchen" of the Long Island farm-house.

For the next fifty years after the close of our colonial history, the
colonial cabinet-makers in New England and the northern Middle States
continued to flourish, evolving an occasional good variation from what
may be called colonial forms. Rush-and flag-bottomed chairs and chairs
with seats of twisted rawhide--the frames often gilded and painted--
sometimes took the place of wrought mahogany, except in the best rooms
of great houses. Many of these are of excellent shape and construction,
and specially interesting as an adaptation of natural products of the
country. Undoubtedly, with our ingenious modern appliances, we could
make as good furniture as was made in Chippendale and Sheraton's day,
with far less expenditure of effort; but the demon of competition in

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