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 GOLDEN OAK
by Fred Taylor
AMERICA'S GOLDEN AGE
America has had several periods that might be called the "Golden Age" where furniture was concerned. The 18th
century saw great art in isolated locations like Newport, RI and New York. The Federal period of the early 19th
century saw a prolific expansion of American furniture craftsmanship but it was, after all, dependent a great deal
on English designers. Then there was the great Rococo Revival period that rehashed 18th century French
extravagances followed by the Renaissance Revival that celebrated architectural concepts. Even the great "people's"
style of Arts and Crafts began in England and was based on medieval English traditions.
So when was America's true Golden Age? It began in the 1870s as a confluence of four major events. The first was
the increasing scarcity of walnut used so prolifically in Victorian styles for three quarters of a century followed
by the prosperity of America following the Civil War. The American middle class emerged from the war hungry for
some "status." This all occurred as the American furniture industry became increasingly mechanized and the concept
of "mail order" began to take hold.
Wealthier families acquired bigger houses and they wanted bigger furniture to fill them. Renaissance Revival filled
that void for a time with its "battleship" furniture but walnut was running out. What was next? Our old friend
oak.
Oak was one of the first woods used in the Colonies for furniture and was used in great quantities for building
ships. It had not been a very popular wood for refined furniture construction since the Jacobean period of the 17th
century in England but that was about to change.
Some of the earliest great oak furniture was hand made and elaborately hand carved by such masters as Robert J.
Horner and designed by the likes of George Hunzinger and the natural beauty of these pieces and the oak itself was
enhanced by two methods. The primary wood was white oak, a pale wood with little natural color. Both color and
texture were improved by the process of "quarter cutting" an oak log to reveal the startling pattern of the flecks
of the medullary rays, the "tiger's eyes" in the oak. The other improvement came with the application of coats of
orange shellac sometimes tinted with yellow ochre to produce the famous golden oak look of the late 19th century.
This led to the "Golden Oak" period of American furniture that lasted from the 1880s to the second decade of the
20th century.
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