Shaker furniture

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Shaker furniture (English shaker furniture ) is furniture that was made by the members of the Shaker , the supporters of a Protestant free church in the USA , especially in the 19th century. Today they are classified as an independent and important contribution to art history, as they also influenced the functionalist- oriented modernism in architecture and design .

features

The Shaker's ascetic ethos of life is reflected in their furniture - everyday objects should not distract from work and devotion with superfluous ornamentation. By dispensing with ornaments and decorations, the furniture style of the Shaker in the 19th century clearly set itself apart from the prevailing and changing styles of historicism . In their formal rigor, clear lines, orientation towards usefulness and high functionality, the Shaker furniture shows parallels to the English arts and crafts movement. The objects are made of local woods (for example pine , maple , walnut ). Typical for the living rooms of the Shaker was a circumferential horizontal wooden strip into which turned hooks were embedded at regular intervals. There clothes, tools, clocks and chairs could be hung up while the floor was being cleaned.

history

Since they emigrated from England to America in 1774, their craft skills and especially carpentry have been one of the main sources of income for the Shaker, even if the furniture was initially mainly made for their own use. Their high-quality turned wooden furniture found national approval, even if the simple, unadorned and unadorned execution of the pieces was often criticized by their contemporaries. Their rocking chairs ( Salem rocker ) are particularly famous .

The Shakers were open to technical innovations and introduced the circular saw to the USA. When they offered their furniture during the world exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, they got to know the bentwood process developed by Michael Thonet and subsequently began to manufacture their own bentwood furniture.

With increasing demand, their carpentry workshops soon switched to series production and some of them turned into furniture factories. Today, original Shaker furniture is extremely rare and hardly affordable, but replicas are made around the world. The Shakers themselves have become extinct, apart from two remaining trailers.

Examples of Shaker furniture

  • Simple hook rail for hanging clothes, tools, etc. Ä.

  • An 1840 clock on a hook rail in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

  • Furnished lounge with oven in Hancock, Massachusetts

  • Probably a conference room in Hancock, Massachusetts

  • Forged doorknob in Hancock, Massachusetts

  • Built-in lockers in Hancock, Massachusetts

  • Interior of a room in Mount Lebanon

  • Secretary in Mount Lebanon

  • Stairway in Hancock, Massachusetts

  • Stair railing in Hancock, Massachusetts

  • Run of stairs with handrail in Hancock, Massachusetts

  • Winding stairwell of the Shaker Center Family Trustees' Office in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

  • Shared room in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

  • Two rocking chairs in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

  • A kitchen in Hancock, Massachusetts

  • Two wooden boxes ("Oval Boxes") in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

  • Rocking Chair the Shaker

literature

  • Douglas R. Allen; Jerry V. Grant, Shaker Furniture Makers , Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield 1989, ISBN 978-0-87451-488-9
  • Edward Deming Andrews, Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect , Dover Publications, New York 1937. ISBN 0-486-20679-3
  • Stephen Bowe; Peter Richmond, Selling Shaker: The Commodification of Shaker Design in the Twentieth Century: The Promotion of Shaker Design in the Twentieth Century , Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2007. ISBN 978-1-84631-008-9
  • Jean M. Burks; Timothy D. Rieman, Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture , Schiffer Pub., Atglen 2003. ISBN 978-0-7643-1928-0
  • John Kassay, The Book of Shaker Furniture , The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 1980. ISBN 0-87023-275-4
  • David Larkin; June Sprigg, Shaker. Art, craft, everyday life , Maier, Ravensburg 1991. ISBN 3-473-48364-8
  • Kerry Pierce, Shaker Furniture: History and Crafts in Pleasant Hill , HolzWerken im Vincentz Network, Hanover 2008. ISBN 978-3-86630-929-6
  • Henrietta Wilkinson (Ed.), The Art of Shakers. An appreciation of the excellent craftsmanship of the Shaker , Könemann, Cologne 1996. ISBN 978-3-89508-190-3

Web links

Commons : Shaker Furniture  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Gonzales, One Of The Last Shakers Dies , NPR , Jan. 3, 2017; and: The Sabbathday Lake Shakers (maineshakers.com): Sister Frances Carr . Both web links accessed February 4, 2017.