In the manufacture of furniture at one time or another nearly every variety of wood has been used, if not for the body of the frame, then for its enrichment, and every quarter of the globe has been laid under contribution. The island of Borneo yielded Amboyna wood, with its beautiful mottlings and curlings, and a very splendid cabinet was made of it for the ill-fated Marie Antoinette by the famous cabinetmaker of her day, Riesener. Ceylon, held by the Dutch as a colony from the middle of the seventeenth century until nearly the nineteenth, produced splendid ebony which was used for whole pieces of furniture as well as for decoration. The French term ebeniste, or worker in ebony, was given to the French makers of fine work.

To what abundant usage oak, walnut, and mahogany was put we know. Rosewood, too, was another of the choicer materials. Satinwood, with its brilliant colour; tulip-wood, more showy still; kingwood, dark and rich; zebra wood, with its black and white effect, as well as leopard and partridge woods, - were all in use before 1800. There were, besides, cherry, yew, pear, walnut, cedar, fir, olive, beech, sycamore, cypress, chestnut for timber work, poplar, acacia, with lime-wood and boxwood for carving.

Figure 98. KITCHEN OF WHIPPLE HOUSE. IPSWICH. MASS.

For furniture which was to be painted and gilded common deal was used. In America hickory (nutwood, as it was called), was very popular among the native workers, and all the other woods were gradually imported, except those used for inlaying, an art never much practiced by American cabinet makers.

After the first leather coverings of cured bull-hide there followed Spanish or Cordova leather, Turkey-work, cane, rush, tapestry, brocade, woollen plush, etc., as styles altered from time to time and luxury increased. In an earlier chapter mention has been made of stuffs that were in use in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for bed and window curtains, draperies and upholstery. Besides all the varieties of English goods, large importations came from East India of such unfamiliar materials, as bejurapants bafts, gorgorans, mulmuls, jainwars, sallampores, and many others.

Miss Singleton in her "Furniture of Our Forefathers," gives a list of eighty different stuffs, seersuckers being the only familiar name among them. Presumably some of these were imported here, and Boston merchants before 1725 advertised linceys and flowered serges, bangalls, shalloons, Persians and fustian, kersey, silk crepes, cherry derry and grass. Worsted, or hair plush, plain or striped haircloth, damask, furniture dimities, moreen, harrateen and tammy were all to be bought in the larger cities. Nor were these goods by any means cheap. Harrateen cost about four dollars a yard in the middle of the eighteenth century, and a set of curtains of this same material was valued at $210. Other goods were in proportion; some bedsteads without beds coming as high as $100. But, once acquired, these household goods were valuable assets and passed from one generation to another, often mentioned with great particularity by will.

There are various small details which are of assistance in determining the approximate period of a piece of furniture, and none of greater value than the handles. The different styles of these, particularly of brass, are quite definite. The earliest of them is the drop handle, shown in Figure 99, and also on the old oak chest depicted in Figure 5. The escutcheons were similar, and the material of the drops on some chests of drawers was iron, but brass was more commonly seen, and was either hollow or solid.

After the drop handles followed bail handles of a primitive type, the handles being fastened in with wires. These handles also were of brass and were sometimes engraved. The shape of these handles and escutcheons is known as willow, and appears later in a much more ornate form. See Figures 56, 57 and 59. By this time the handles were fastened by screw and nut. By the latter half of the eighteenth century there were in addition to the elaborate willow brasses (see Figure 64), oval ones of various styles. This shape was much affected by Hepplewhite on his sideboards, and by Sheraton in his earlier style (see Figures 35 and 38).

There was a handle starting from two small plates, either round or oval, frequently seen on swell-front bureaus and desks of 1780 and thereabouts. One is shown in Figure 99. Beginning at the top of the page the various handles in use in the eighteenth century are shown in the order of their appearance.

Drop Handle. 1675-1720.

Early Willow Pattern. 1720-1760.

Bail Handle. 1760-1785.

Pressed Brass oval 1780-1810.

Rosette and Ring. 1790-1820.

Inset Ring 1800.

Rosette 1820.

Figure 99 HANDLES, ESCUTCHEONS, etc.

There was also a round handle with a ring lying close within it (Figure 37); and when the Empire-style was in favour a rosette with a ring was used on sideboards, bureaus, writing-tables, etc. See Figures 42 and 60. The rosette with a ring was not the only Empire style, but there were round knob handles of brass (Figure 37), glass (Figure 38), and brass with medallions of china or enamel. The glass ones, either transparent or opalescent, were held in great esteem, though they are extremely ugly on pieces of dark furniture on which they were usually mounted. In many cases they have been removed, and wooden knobs substituted; yet if one desires an Empire piece to look as it did when made, it will be necessary to hunt out, if possible, a set of these knobs to put on it. This is not so difficult a matter as might be imagined; for even if the handles come from divers places they will generally match, as there was small variety in the patterns used.