Popular Woodworking 2008-04 № 168, страница 39

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even years ago I made my first piece of Greene & Greene-style furniture, a coffee table of my own design. It contained several elements the Greenes commonly used: cloudlifts and ebony pegs. As with many pieces inspired by their designs, it is somehow lacking.

While their design elements are easily appropriated, there is something more elusive in using them to create a cohesive whole. Slapping on cloudlifts and ebony pegs doesn't automatically create inspired, or even good design. There is no substitute for experience - aiming high and sometimes falling short, as with my coffee table. This piece is farther along the evolutionary scale, due in part to furniture maker Darrell Peart, who helped me work through several details.

Charles and Henry Greene established an architectural practice in 1893. Early in the 20th century, a personal style began to emerge. Inspired by Arts & Crafts designs, their work took on the clean lines and exposed joinery of that movement. Charles, in particular, was also influenced byJapanese architecture and Chinese furniture, and these elements began to appear in the Greenes' work.

The final piece of the puzzle came from a warm climate and casual California sensibility. The Greenes melded these disparate influences into a unique style.

By 1904, they began to create furniture and decorative arts for their commissions and soon were designing nearly every item in the home. Houses and furniture shared a common vocabulary, one that evolved at an amazing rate between 1905 and 1909. The Greenes' symbiotic relationship with builders Peter and John Hall resulted in some of America's most remarkable residences and furniture.

Blending Old and New

The materials here, as in most well-known Greene & Greene pieces, are mahogany and ebony. S omewhat unusual for this style is the frame-and-panel construction. The decorative inner stiles recall the "sunburst" detail used in windows and doors of the Greenes' Gamble house. They are inverted in this piece with the angle at the bottom to help anchor the chest visually. These angles make the front and rear panels more visually interesting. They also complicate construction.

The chest consists of four assemblies: the base, the carcase, the bottom panel and the top. I began with the base, though in retrospect it would have been better to make the carcase first. In the event of any deviation from plan, it is easier to fit base to carcase than vice versa. I concluded with the bottom panel and the top, as both must be fit to the completed carcase.

It's all in the details.

Proud finger joints, ebony plugs, cloudlifts and overall attention to detail are hallmarks of Greene & Greene furniture. Here they are combined with pleasing proportions to create a new work that honors the originals.

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