Toward the end of this century, craftsmen created some of the most aesthetically pleasing furniture of the period. These furnishings are known for their decorative legs, which often ended in a paw shaped design. 17th century furniture was simplistic, used high quality woods, and had other unique attributes that separates it from the furniture of other time periods.
Chair seats were a notable point of 17th century furniture. While other time periods contained chair seats that were crafted in a variety of shapes, such as squares, circles, trapezoids, and many other types of polygons, 17th century furniture chair seats were almost always square. It is an excellent example of the purposely simplistic designs created during this time. During the 17th century, furniture was created in larger quantities than in the past, and square shaped chair seats were much faster to create than their circular counterparts. This is one of the reasons historians have found predominantly round chair seats when studying the furniture of this century.
Craftsmen built the furniture using the wood of a variety of trees, which included black walnut, ebony, fruit-wood, and holly. Black Walnut is arguably one of the finest woods used when constructing 17th century furniture. The Black Walnut is known for its chocolate brown appearance and was often used when constructing furniture because of its beautiful look. Its light weight only provided further reason for 17th century craftsmen to use Black Walnut.
There was much more to 17th century furniture than the type of wood used and the simplistic designs. There were some areas where craftsmen spent more time to differentiate their masterpieces. One such areas relates to the drawer pulls on chest and desk drawers. These pulls came in all shapes, sizes, and varieties, many of which had the classic wooden knob pulls. Also prominent in 17th century furniture were the slightly more modern ring pulls that were attached by a knob and oftentimes rested against a small metal back plate. Some of the more elegant furniture even contained teardrop pulls that were also attached to knobs and rested against metal back plates.
Despite the simplistic structures, one thing is certain when exploring the furniture of the 17th century, it will never be forgotten. The furniture created during this time is marked by carefully selected woods and sound construction techniques. One could definitely say, without any hesitation, that 17th century furniture makers were craftsmen in the truest sense of the word. |
