RWW 37: 18th Century Furniture Styles: A Trip to Winterthur

This past weekend I took a special “behind the velvet rope” tour of the Winterthur Museum with Chuck Bender of The Acanthus Workshop. This week I will share a little of what I learned about the many regional characteristics of British and early American furniture construction and styles. Chuck distinguished himself as a walking encyclopedia of furniture styles and was able to discover provenance or a little about the craftsman with the slightest glance at a piece.

I have written about my previous trip to Winterthur here, but this time was a totally different experience as our tour was a full 2 hours long and went into parts of the museum that the standard tours can only dream of.

Here is Chuck (in the maroon golf shirt) pointing out some details on a Queen Anne Highboy made in the Newport area.

This is the same highboy, but a detailed look at the ball and claw feet where you can see the undercutting at the talons that is typical of the Newport area.

Also on this same piece is evidence of the Queen Anne period with the familar scallop carving.

This chair is a great example of the blending of the Queen Anne and Chippendale periods. As I mention in the podcast, Thomas Chippendale did not use ball and claw feet but rather this was a holdover from the earlier Queen Anne period. Chippendale did however carve the back splat as you can see here. Also evident is the scallop carving but also the double scallop pattern to the crest rail which is indicative of the Queen Anne period. This chair is most likely a late example from that period since it has the obvious Chippendale influence in the splat.

Here is another beautiful example of a blended Queen Anne and Chippendale period chair. I took this picture because of the beautiful carving in the splat and along the crest and back rails. My wife has already decided that she wants a set of these for our house. Add this to my bucket list.

Finally here is a complete shot of the above mentiond highboy. A lot of discussion was centered around why the craftsman enclosed the top section in the bonnet and although no definitive answer came of the discussion, the consensus was that to leave it open would give too delicate of a feel to the top of an otherwise massive piece and throw off the balance. There were other examples in the galleries where the bonnet was open and the look and feel was completely different. In every instance the open top was of British origin so perhaps colonials and early Americans were trying to differentiate themselves.

Stay tuned in the future for more about Winterthur as I know I will be back many more times. I have enrolled in a class at the Acanthus Workshop in July so you will all be hearing more about Chuck Bender in the future.