Furniture exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum comes loaded with options
A TV commercial for Cadillac automobiles asks, “When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?” Just as most car buyers today would prefer a state of the art luxury sedan to the staid Model T, visitors to the Henry Ford, the renowned museum established by namesake automaker Henry Ford in Dearborn, Mich., often pass over antique furniture for newer, more streamlined exhibits.
Overshadowed by historic aircraft and presidential limousines, the museum’s American furniture exhibit titled “Fully Furnished” shouldn’t be dismissed by visitors. Those who take time to read the concise descriptions and observe the pieces can begin to understand why curators have chosen them for display and, more importantly, why furniture we use today looks the way it does.
The furniture exhibit not only presents a sampling of furniture styles from 17th-century Colonial America to 20th-century Modern design, but also highlights innovations in form and construction that continue to influence furniture design. Eighteenth-century Chippendale and Queen Anne dining chairs are displayed across the aisle from an 1870s adjustable invalid chair, which evolved into the ubiquitous recliner of today.
“Henry Ford was particularly concerned with associations connected with the furniture – people who inspired him or famous people, or antique dealers coming to him and saying, ‘You need this. It’s important,’” said Donna R. Braden, Curator of Public Life at the museum. Mr. Ford may have been deemed an ornately carved Rococo Revival center table at the entrance to the exhibit “museum quality” because Mary Todd Lincoln purchased it shortly after the slain president’s widow moved from the White House in 1865. The same may be said for a drop-leaf pedestal table that once belonged to author Samuel Clemens, or a rustic rocking chair owned by industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt. The latter two pieces are included in the exhibit.
Rather than focusing on formal furniture styles, the exhibit at the Henry Ford invites visitors to consider practical aspects: Is it comfortable? How would it look in your home? How could you use it? These are the same questions people ask themselves when considering the purchase of antique furniture. Simply attaining the century milestone does not guarantee a piece of furniture status as a valuable antique.
“It depends on the piece rather than on its age,” said Martha Hamilton, furniture specialist for Skinner Inc. in Boston and Bolton, Mass. “I find that the Rococo Revival pieces that were en suite – originally composed of about seven pieces – in a parlor around 1870, have been broken up. People found them uncomfortable and heavy to move about. I don’t find just because they are over 100 years old that people are flocking to buy them,” she said. Hamilton noted an exception was furniture produced around the 1850s by John Henry Belter of New York. “They’re beautifully carved pieces of laminated wood. They’re more elegant and sought after. That’s my point; it’s not based on age as much as form,” she said.
Hamilton said that buyers of Victorian homes often don’t furnish them with antique furniture of that era. “There has been a resurgence of interest in those homes because they have large spaces and high ceilings, which the current generation is seeking, and yet they don’t necessarily fill them with Victorian furniture because those who are going into their first or second homes are often looking for something that’s comfortable,” she said.
Comfort was on the mind of furniture buyers in the late 1800s, who grew tired of sitting in formal parlor furniture. Development of the coil innerspring launched the manufacture of deeply cushioned furniture, said Braden, mindful of social attitudes pertaining to furniture design. “It’s an interesting chicken-and-egg question. Did attitudes about comfort and propriety change because this furniture was possible, or did this furniture get made because attitudes toward comfort and propriety changed? I don’t know the answer, but all of a sudden here’s this very cushiony furniture,” said Braden. She noted that a Turkish bazaar and café at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia influenced attitudes toward deeply cushioned furnishings. The Henry Ford exhibit reflects that trend with an 1885-1895 overstuffed armchair in original mohair upholstery and decorated with a Shiraz rug.“We have a whole set of this furniture, which was probably not used in a parlor, but in a library or another room like that,” said Braden.
One of the accompanying pieces in that set is a platform rocker, a form invented as an improvement on the traditional but inelegant rocking chair. “The platform rocker was a wonderful invention of that era. It used springs to make it look like a chair, but you could still rock. It’s a nice blend of comfort and propriety,” said Braden.
Wicker furniture, made of rattan, willow, cane and other natural materials, was made in America during the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th century, and has never been out of favor. “The Heywood-Wakefield forms were commonplace in American homes in the 1880s. They’re light and airy, can be moved easily, are reasonably comfortable and not very expensive still. When we have a Heywood-Wakefield center table, it’s a popular item, said Skinner’s Hamilton.
Braden concurred, noting that wicker enjoyed a reputation of being more sanitary than upholstered furniture.
Displayed at the Henry Ford is a wicker sofa made by Lloyd Manufacturing Co. of Menominee, Mich. Company founder Marshall B. Lloyd invented a loom, patented in 1917, that could weave a less costly manmade fiber 30 times faster than a worker could by hand – hence the casually elegant and highly collectible vintage furniture known as Lloyd Loom.
Renaissance Revival style, large forms that featured prominent Renaissance and Neoclassical motifs, gained popularity in America from 1850-1880 at the same time Grand Rapids, Mich., was becoming the country’s first industrialized furniture center. The Henry Ford Museum has finer examples of Renaissance Revival furniture, but examples from Grand Rapids are conspicuously absent from the collection.
“I think the reason we don’t have is because until recently the people who collected our furniture were interested in pieces that predated the Victorian era,” said Braden, acknowledging that the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s Furniture City exhibit has a more extensive collection of Grand Rapids-made furniture.
Hamilton noted that the quality of Renaissance Revival varies greatly. “True Renaissance Revival is elaborately carved and large in stature. I think it’s doing better than 10 or 20 years ago, but I don’t find it as hot an item as materials that are either earlier or later, like Arts & Crafts or Modern,” she said.
The most prominently displayed piece from Grand Rapids at the Henry Ford is an Arts & Crafts, or Mission-style, oak dresser manufactured by Charles P. Limbert about 1910.
“Mission style is considered the first truly American style because it was oriented toward everyone. Everyone could afford this furniture that was stylish and in good taste,” said Braden, adding, “This furniture was oriented toward the bungalow and the masses, and was viewed as being very democratic.”
Colonial Revival style, which freely interpreted American designs of the 18th century, became the dominant style of the early 20th century, especially after Mission style diminished in popularity after 1915.
“Colonial Revival was very big at the same time as Modernism was going on in the 1920s and ’30s. I think Colonial Revival was more popular than Modernism here in the Northeast at that point,” said Hamilton.
A few furniture makers produced exact copies of antique furniture. “Wallace Nutting made furniture that was pure Colonial Revival. It was popular then and remains so because it’s a known quantity and very often branded,” said Hamilton.
“I think Colonial Revival of good quality is very popular now as it was then. As the market gets hotter for 18th-century and early 19th- century forms, Colonial Revival – again, good quality – is a favorable alternative for people if they can’t earlier pieces,” said Hamilton.
Nevin Heller, president of Flomaton Antique Auction in Flomaton, Ala., said the U.S. Centennial sparked Colonial Revival style in 1876. “The Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia was a time of focus back to our founding fathers. A lot of that furniture is a mix of Renaissance Revival with the Colonial. It could be a Renaissance Revival chair with a ball-and-claw foot. Then over the last quarter and getting closer to 1900 it was more of an eclectic mix. You’ll find pieces with ball-and-claw feet, as in Chippendale, that have Sheraton features and inlay like Hepplewhite. It was a conglomeration of styles. Then after 1900 it developed into more authentic copies,” said Heller.
Based on his constant observation of the auction market, Heller noted: “What I see is (that) middle and low-end manufactured Victorian-era furniture, especially post Rococo, has gone down in value.”
Henry Ford Museum directors and curators have added to the collection since Henry Ford died 60 years ago. “We had a president, Donald Shelly, from the 1950s to around 1977, who hugely built our furniture collection,” said Braden. “He was a connoisseur. He basically positioned the museum collection as a one-of-a-kind benchmark destination. You have to go see it.”
Henry Ford Museum is open seven days a week, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Visit www.thehenryford.org for ticket prices and other information.
Skinner Inc., auctioneers and appraisers of antiques and fine art, Boston and Bolton, Mass. is online at www.skinnerinc.com.
