Logan Cabinet Shoppe

Dustin,
I do think that the customers were as critical as we are now, however, I think there was a different sense of what was important. Keep in mind that the household was a lot different than it is today. Light came from windows during the day and candles and fireplaces at night. Minor differences like the dovetail angles or the repair by the back leg would likely never be seen due to the very dimly lit rooms. Put the side with the apron repair away from the window and it would be shadowed all the time, hiding the fix. In addition, I would imaging the pieces would get covered in grunge and soot fairly quickly under their conditions, and this would further hide most imperfections. I don't think the finish we are accustomed to on furniture today is what they would have been accustomed to. So priorities were different.

Shannon,
Excellent points. However, I wouldn't necessarily say that Philadelphia was the only place to embrace the more highly ornamented designs, but perhaps the most bold. There were plenty of high style pieces from Boston, New York, and let's not forget two very well known families from Newport. I think this piece is more a representation of what one might expect from a more rural shop. The Dominy shop, located in East Hampton Long Island, wasn't what would be considered close to a major city at the time. Several days travel at least. It was definitely more rural and therefore the high style of the cities was likely slower to get to these areas. As for the message, I don't think we need to relax our standards per se. I still think we should strive to make the best pieces we can make, however, I think it's important to focus our efforts more holistically on the piece and worry less about how tight the dovetails are or how tearout free the surface is. One could build a 1 foot wide by 7 foot tall chest of drawers with perfect dovetails and a glass smooth hand planed surface, but would it be considered a truly great piece of furniture? Not likely. While I certainly don't consider the piece pictured above a masterpiece of early American furniture, it is clear that the maker was more concerned with the overall aesthetics of the piece as a whole, and not worried if the dovetails didn't match. After all, in the dimly lit rooms of 1791, minor tearout and non matching dovetails would dissapear. I think as furniture makers, we should apply this same type of thinking to the pieces we build today and consider more than just the joinery. Tight dovetails are nice, but if the rest of the piece suffers, the pretty joinery doesn't make up for it.

Mike,
I agree, and I don't consider this particular piece to be a masterpiece either. I wouldn't even consider it a legendary shop. It was actually a rural shop on Long Island, well away from most of the big cities of the time. I think it has become legendary today because of the museum and the print it has received in magazines and such. However, the piece does point out that there are more important aspecs to a piece than perfect dovetails. Looking at the second picture (the one of the entire chest) the flaws are not immediately obvious, until you go looking for them. I think as woodworkers, we look for them, because we know where to look. However, are these things that our non-woodworking customers (spouses, children, friends or actual paying customers) are really going to notice? Will they really pick out that shim in the dovetails of the drawer? Will they really notice that little bit of tearout on the side aporn of a table? I tend to doubt it. But I do think that they will notice if the legs look too heavy or the top molding too small or the drawers not being graduated. These are things that jump out at you, even from a distance. I think these are the things that deserve the attention we tend to give the drawers' dovetails.

Larry,
I hope so. When I build a piece, I should hope that my [wife, kids, neighbors, etc.] aren't scrutinizing the joinery and missing the bigger picture. I think we need to step back and do the same.