Popular Woodworking 2006-02 № 153, страница 74

THE GRAIN IS THE SURFACE DECORATION

In addition to focusing our attention on the basic forms of a piece of furniture, the removal of ornamentation has other consequences. One of these - long understood by Shaker craftsmen - is that the simpler the basic form, the better the setting for the display of figured material. This magnificent curly cherry secretary stands in one of the rooms on the second floor of the Meetinghouse. If the secretary had been decorated with carving or veneering or moulding, the effect of the curly cherry might have been compromised.

—KP

tacked to the opening in which the drawer front was housed.

Cock beading provided an appealing detail to high-style furniture, but it represented a significant investment of time, an investment that makers of simpler, county furniture could not always justify. As a result, country furniture makers in Kentucky and elsewhere often created a simulated cock beading around drawer fronts. In the case of very large drawer fronts, that cock beading might be created with a side-bead plane (a kind of moulding plane), but much more often the craftsman would use a shop-made tool called a scratch stock. A scratch stock is simply a bit of thin metal fixed in a wooden holder. The bit of thin metal would be cut with the shape of a bead and quirk - a narrow recessed part of a moulding. It would then be drawn around the perimeter of

the drawer front, scratching out a little bead, which - at least at a distance - resembled a cock bead. In the hands of a skilled craftsman, this lowly tool could produce a reasonable facsimile, but more often scratch-stock cock beads - particularly on the ends of drawers where the scratch stock had to be dragged across the grain - were often crudely formed.

Such deviations from the theoretical foundation of Shaker furniture do not - in my view - detract from the beauty of that furniture. The bits of decorative turning and scratched cock bead are nothing

more than minor imperfections that serve to put a human signature on the work of the Pleasant Hill craftsmen.

Laboring for God

It's impossible to understand the Shakers without appreciating the importance of work in their culture. Their movement began at a time when the mere maintenance of human life required a significant output of labor. But of course, the Shakers of Pleasant Hill did much more than maintain life. In the first three decades of the 19 th century, they erected a commu-

nity in the Kentucky wilderness that remains today as a monument to human effort.

Anyone who tours the enormous restored Shaker community at Pleasant Hill will be struck by the amount of labor the community represents. The Centre Family Dwelling, shown on the first page of this article, was built to provide accommodations for 100 Shakers. It's made of hand-cut limestone blocks, each one quarried by the Shakers, each one transported to the building site by the Shakers and each one hoisted into place by the Shakers. Then, once the huge facility had been erected, it was fitted with windows and trim - all made by hand - and filled with furniture - also made by hand.

This single structure at Pleasant Hill represents an enormous investment ofhuman labor - labor that the Shakers offered as an act of devotion to God. It is in this context of sanctified labor that the third element of Shaker furniture-making comes into play. It wasn't enough that furniture be simple and functional; it also had to present a physical manifestation of the sanctity of work.

Simplicity, function and sanctity - these are some of the identifying characteristics of the best Shaker furniture, and these are characteristics that can be read in much of the furniture attributed to Pleasant Hill makers.

Different than Eastern Shaker Communities

Pleasant Hill furniture makers were aware of the work being produced in the outside world. Many of these makers were simply converts who came into the community as adults, bringing with them intimate knowledge of the world they'd left behind. Plus, throughout its history, the Pleasant Hill community was actively involved in trading with

"Most pieces (of western Shaker workj are very well constructed, convey a feeling of strength, and... are honest expressions of cabinetmakers working in a style they knew best"

—John Kassay in "The Book of Shaker Furniture"

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