Chamber Pot Hidden In Functional Furniture

The lift-top commode was a very functional piece of 19th century furniture. The heyday of the pine bedroom sets was in the last 30 years of the 19th century, and most sets included one of these commodes which held the chamber pot, bowl and pitcher, and other parts of a standard washstand set.

The most popular sets had a single drawer and a door. Less common are those with two doors.

The better pieces had plank sides and round corners. Many of them were painted by itinerant painters and one of these with the original art work, in good condition, is very desirable.

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First Suspenders Used To Hold Up Socks

The very first use for suspenders was to hold up a man’s socks. They began to be used to hold up the trousers during the French Revolution in the early 1800s. Following that war, they made their way to England, where they were adopted by the nobility.

The original name for suspenders was gallowes. Later on, in England, they were called braces and that term continues to be used in England. It was the men of New England who adopted the more descriptive term of suspenders.

They have had an increase in popularity in recent years, and one can find men wearing suspenders as decorative accessories, in everything from the colors of their favorite sports team to Hawaiian prints.

Old suspenders are being sold on the secondary market. Collectors are especially interested in pieces produced by the Trafalger Limited Edition line, which are replicas of early suspenders.

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Steam Treated Wood (Bentwood) Used
In Furniture Manufacture

Bentwood is the term used for steam-treated wood that has been formed into a shape for making furniture. It is assumed the technique was derived from methods used by early boat builders and wheelwrights.

The use of bentwood goes back to at least the Windsor chairs of 18th-century England. An American named Samuel Gragg patented a bentwood chair in the early 19th century, and several German designers used bentwood parts in the early- and mid-1800s.

Undoubtedly the greatest of the German furniture makers using this technique was Michael Thonet. His skill attracted the attention of the Austrian chancellor Von Metternich in 1842. Thonet was summoned to Vienna and spent the next five years working on the Lichtenstein Palace there.

Thonet’s success was due in large part to his patented process for making bentwood furniture. It used steam to bend thin strips of wood into shape; several strips were then laminated together to make lightweight chairs and tables. By 1853, he had a large factory, mass-producing chairs, tables, hall trees and so forth. He made 50 million of his most famous chair, the No. 14.

Because the furniture pieces were lightweight, shipping to foreign markets was easy and profitable. Displays in London at the 1851 and 1862 International Exhibitions helped promote a worldwide trade.

Thonet’s patent expired in 1869, and many imitators quickly followed. By 1901, there were more than 52 companies making chairs from Thonet’s patterns, and hundreds more made copies of similar pieces. Even the practical Shakers used adapted Thonet designs.

Thonet died in 1871, but his sons continued the business. The company headquarters were moved to the United States in 1939. In 1962, Thonet in America was purchased by the Simmons Company.

At about the same time Thonet was developing his business in Europe, John Henry Belter was developing another type of bentwood process in New York. The mechanical processes he invented enabled him to produce furniture of plywood sheets in laminated layers, bent in sweeping curves. His furniture could then be carved.

Belter’s curved and carved sheets of wood were strong and simple, and eliminated some of the joinery that had traditionally been used with certain furniture parts.

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