A LITTLE HISTORY OF RUSTIC FURNITURE
"Of all the things I’ve seen in America, this is the strangest"Sigmund Freud
TO DISCOVER RUSTIC FURNITURE BY A GLIMPSE
![]() |
oots
of Rustic Furniture : "The
first piece of rustic probably emerged when an early humanoid rolled a log over
and sat on it in front of a fire " writes Ralph Kylloe in Rustic
Traditions . Each culture has some examples of furniture which integrate
natural forms -among them the Chinese tradition seems the oldest; a scroll
called the
Scholars of the Lui-Li Hall depicts a man seated in a rustic chair,
this dates from the tenth century. The 1754 English publication A New Book of
Chinese Designs illustrated sophisticated applications for rustic work in
formal gardens. Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) brought these ideas to
American readers in his writings of landscape design as well as in The
Horticulturalist, the periodical he founded in 1846. |
![]() |
ndimensioned
aspects of Rustic Furniture:
What
is it exactly? “undementioned”, one might say, or as Craig Gilborn also
states, “tree art or objects fashioned from a recognizable part of the
tree".This clear definition sounds like a solid foundation but often acts
as a springboard from which at times organic, at times eccentric, but almost
always
unique bodies of work are launched. In any case, “Nature abhors a
straight line”, the credo of landscape painter and architect William Kent
(1684-1748), applies to the end result. |
![]() |
ettlers, shanties and summer camps : From humble hunting shacks crudely furnished with forest materials scavenged on-site to the stunning Adirondack great camps that W.W. Durant and William Distin built and designed in the early 20th century for the likes of the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, and J.P. Morgan, this historical gamut is an evocative application of an ingeniously indigenous branch of architecture. Fortunately, this activity seems to be finding an updated clientele with contemporary benefits that the Rockefellers may have wished their camps had incorporated. Things like modern insulation, lots of low E glass, and in-floor radiant heating... |
![]() |
wigs,
branches and logs
. It takes a highly disciplined eccentric to categorize and warehouse material
and time for an endeavor as unruly and fundamentally prototypal as rustic
furniture making. A visit to any shop involved in such activity should quickly reveal solutions to storage challenges not normally encountered by the vast
majority of the populace… racks and bins, nooks and crannies, bundles of
similarly shaped curved sticks or forked branch, occasionally spilling over into
the out of doors, frequently accumulating at a faster rate than can be utilized,
but each containing far too much potential to be merely discarded, or oxidized
for the heat contained
within… |
![]() |
|
![]() |
arpenters, craftspeople, artisans, artists, woodrights? Yes, and who makes all this rustic furniture? Good question... Indeed it takes all kinds - See bibliography and links for more information – Thanks |
To
KNOW MORE : BIBLIOGRAPHY AND LINKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
|
GILBORN,
Graig. Adirondack Furniture And The Rustic Tradition. Harry N.
Abrams. New York. 1987. |
|
GILBORN,
Graig. The Rustic Furniture Movement |
|
HILL,
Jack. Country woodworker. How To Make Rustic Furniture, Ustensils And
Decoration. Chronicle Books. San Francisco, 1995. |
|
KYLLOE,
Ralph. Rustic Furniture Maker. Gibbs-Smith Publisher. Salt Lake
City.1995. |
|
MACK,
Daniel. A Weekend Workshop with Dan Mack. Lark Books, 1999. |
|
MACK,
Daniel. Making Rustic Furniture. Lark Books, 1992. |
|
MACK,
Daniel. The Rustic Furniture Companion. Lark Books, 1996. |
![]() |
O’LEARY,
Ann Stillman. Adirondack Style. Clarkson Potter / Publisher, 1998 |
LINKS
![]() | Rustic woodworker www.angelfire.com/ca/rusticfurniture et www.greenwoodworking.com |
![]() | Daniel Mack www.danielmack.com |
![]() | John Alexander www.msys.net/tom/lynch/about.html |