INTERIOR WOOD FINISH
Mantels and staircases, the most important architectural features of
interiors, were very properly elaborated considerably beyond the
somewhat negative character of background accessories by the builders of
Colonial times. Virtually furnishings as well as necessary parts of the
house, the application of tasteful ornamentation to them seems amply
justified. Each is a subject in itself, as indicated by the fact that
stair building and mantel construction still remain independent trades
quite apart from ordinary joinery. For that reason two separate chapters
of this book have been devoted to these important subjects, the present
chapter being devoted to interior woodwork in general.
What the interior wood trim of the average eighteenth-century
Philadelphia house consists of is shown by accompanying photographs,
especially those in Stenton, Mount Pleasant and Whitby Hall. It is found
that the principal rooms of pretentious mansions, such as the hall,
parlor and reception room at Stenton, were sometimes entirely paneled
up on all sides. About this time, however, hand-blocked wall paper began
to be brought to America, and a favorite treatment of Colonial
interiors, including halls, parlors, dining rooms and even the principal
bedrooms of large houses, combined a cornice, or often a cornice and
frieze, and sometimes a complete entablature, with a paneled wainscot or
a flat dado with surbase and skirting, the wall between being papered.
Sometimes a dado effect was secured by means of a surbase above the
skirting, the plaster space between being left white as in the parlor at
Cliveden or in the hall and dining room at Whitby Hall, or papered like
the wall above, as in the parlor at Whitby Hall and in some of the
chambers at Upsala. Later the skirting only was frequently employed with
a simple cornice or picture mold, even in the principal rooms of the
better houses, as in the dining room at Whitby Hall. Several
accompanying illustrations show it with the dado, while a few interiors
of Mount Pleasant, Upsala and Cliveden show it with the paneled
wainscot. This general scheme constitutes a pleasing and consistent
application of the classic orders to interior walls, the dado, the wall
above it and whatever portion of the entablature happens to be employed
corresponding to the pedestal, shaft and entablature of the complete
order respectively. In a room so treated the dado becomes virtually a
continuous pedestal with a base or skirting and a surbase above the die
or plane face of the pedestal. Usually this surbase is molded to
resemble the upper fascia or the complete architrave of the various
orders. Again it may be hand-carved with vertical flutings, continuous,
as in the parlor at Upsala, or in groups of three or more in alternation
with an incised flower pattern, as in the Rex house.
For the most part the surmounting cornice and frieze of the room was of
wood, beautifully molded and often hand-carved, the architrave usually
being omitted. In the library at Solitude, however, is to be seen a
handsome cornice and frieze entirely of plaster or composition work in
the Adam manner, including familiar classic detail in which enriched
cavetto and ogee moldings, festoons, flower ornaments and draped human
figures are prominent. When chandeliers for candles began to be used in
private houses they were hung from ornamental centerpieces of plaster on
the ceiling, the motives usually being circles, ovals, festooned
garlands and acanthus leaves. Such a centerpiece and ornamental
treatment of the ceiling is also a feature of this room.
In most of the better houses during the Provincial period, important
rooms had paneled wainscots, papered walls and molded cornices, as in
the parlor and second-story hall at Mount Pleasant and in the parlor at
Upsala. Sometimes the plaster walls were left white or painted, as in
the hall at Cliveden and the library at Stenton. A fireplace with
paneled chimney piece was an important feature of most rooms, and the
entire wall including it was often completely paneled up, closely
relating the fireplace, doors or windows in a definite architectural
scheme, as already shown by examples in Stenton, Whitby Hall and Mount
Pleasant. Embrasured windows with two-part paneled folding shutters and
seats jutting somewhat into the room were customary in early brick and
stone houses, as at Stenton. These were fastened by bars of wood thrust
across from side to side and fitting into slots in the jambs. Later,
outside shutters came into vogue, and the jambs and soffit of the
embrasures were paneled, as at Whitby Hall, the treatment of the
Palladian window on the staircase landing in this house being an
especially fine example.
The parlor at Stenton is among the most notable instances in
Philadelphia of this architectural treatment of the fireplace in a room
with wood paneling throughout. Along Georgian lines and decidedly
substantial in character, it is essentially simple in conception and
graceful in form and proportion, the spacing of the large bolection
molded raised panels being excellent. First attention properly goes to
the wide chimney piece with its unusual, but attractive overmantel
paneling, low arched and marble-faced fireplace opening, beautiful brass
fender and andirons. The symmetrical arrangement of two flanking china
closets, with round-headed double doors recalling those shown at Whitby
Hall and Mount Pleasant, is most effective. The work is executed in a
masterly manner, the proportions being well calculated and the precision
of the hand tooling remarkably well maintained. Both the doors and
embrasured windows of this room merit careful study.
Of more modest, but generally similar treatment, is the paneling of the
reception room at Stenton, the fireplace opening here having been closed
for installation of a Franklin stove.
At Whitby Hall there are two interesting and characteristic examples of
embrasured windows with paneled jambs and soffits, and molded architrave
casings. In the dining room the embrasures are cased down to the window
seats, while in the parlor the casings with their broader sections at
top and bottom do not extend below the surbase, although the embrasure
continues to the floor. In this latter room one of the Colonial
builder's favorite motives, ever recurring with minor variations
throughout many houses, occupies the string course of the cornice. This
double denticulated member or Grecian fret band is formed by vertical
cross cuttings, alternately from top and bottom of a square molding, the
plain ogee molding beneath giving it just the proper emphasis.
Conforming to the characteristic panel arrangement of the time, most of
the inside doors of Philadelphia have six panels, the upper pair being
not quite square and the two lower pairs being oblong, the middle pair
being longer than the lower. Like outside doors they were for the most
part molded and raised with broad bevels, although occasionally, as on
the second floor at Mount Pleasant, they were flat and bolection molded,
giving the door a considerably different aspect. Generally speaking, the
workmanship was excellent, the beveling of the panels and the molding of
the stiles and rails manifesting the utmost painstaking. A simple knob
and key-plate, usually of brass, completed the complement of hardware,
apart from the H hinges of early years and the butts which soon
followed. It will be noted that all of these six-panel doors have stiles
and muntins of virtually equal width, any variation being slightly wider
stiles. Top and frieze rails are alike and about the same width as the
muntin, but the bottom rail is somewhat broader and the lock rail the
broadest of the four. Moldings are very simple and confined to the edge
of the panels, with the splayed or beveled panels of earlier years
gradually being abandoned in favor of plain, flat surfaces.
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXIV.--Interior Detail of Main Entrance, Congress
Hall; President's Dais, Senate Chamber, Congress Hall.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXV.--Gallery, Senate Chamber, Congress Hall.]
Architrave casings were the rule, sometimes extending to the floor and
often standing on heavy, square plinth blocks the height of the
skirting beneath its molding. There are instances of both types at
Mount Pleasant and Whitby Hall. The thickness of the walls in houses of
brick and stone encouraged the custom of paneling the jambs and soffit
of doorway openings to correspond with the paneling of the doors, the
effect being rich and very pleasing. Generally the architrave casing was
miter-joined across the lintel, as at Upsala, but in many of the better
houses this horizontal part of the casing was given an overhang of an
inch or two to form the doorhead. How pleasing this simple device was,
especially when a rosette of stucco was applied to each jog of the
casing, is well exemplified by the doors on the first floor at Whitby
Hall. Very similar door trim without the rosette is to be seen at
Cliveden and in numerous other houses.
At Mount Pleasant, and in several of the more pretentious old Colonial
mansions of Philadelphia, this type of door trim was elaborated by a
surmounting frieze and heavy pediment above the architrave casing. The
first floor hall at Mount Pleasant presents the interesting combination
of a pulvinated Ionic pediment with a mutulary Doric cornice and frieze
about the ceiling. Here one notices the flat dado and doors with raised
and molded panels as contrasted with the paneled wainscot and
bolection-molded, flat-paneled doors of the second-story hall. In this
latter, also, some of the pediments are complete, others broken,
illustrating another whim of the early American builders. Here the
cornice is also Ionic with jig-sawed modillions, and the ensemble is
generally more pleasing. In proportion and precision of workmanship this
woodwork is hardly excelled in Philadelphia. The simple, carefully
wrought dentil course of the doorheads lends a refining influence and
pleasing sense of scale that seems to lighten the design very
materially.
Philadelphia has no handsomer example of the enriched pedimental
doorhead than the interior treatment of the entrance doorway of the
Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street. Above the horizontal overhang
of the architrave casing across the lintel two beautifully carved
consoles, the width of the frieze in height, support a cornice which is
the base of a broken pediment. The familiar Grecian band or double
denticulated molding in the string course gives character to the
cornice, while an attractive leaf decoration in applied composition
adorns the recessed frieze panel. Projections of the cornice above the
consoles lend an added touch of refinement. This elaboration of the
white wood trim is further emphasized by the dark red-brown painting of
the door to simulate old mahogany, which became a frequent feature of
the houses of this period.
Round-headed doorways here and there, not only at the front entrance,
but elsewhere, as in the hall at Hope Lodge, provided a welcome
variation from the customary square-headed types and have been a
pleasing feature of Colonial interiors since early times. As framing the
glazed doorways of china closets already referred to, they were a
charming feature of the interior wood finish. At the front entrance the
round-headed doorway was utilized to provide an ornamental yet practical
fanlight transom over the door which admitted considerable light to
brighten the hall. As contrasted with this more graceful arrangement,
the broad front entrance to Whitby Hall, with its severely plain
unmolded four-panel double doors and wrought-iron strap hinges, bolts,
latch and great rim lock, is of quaint interest. The accompanying
photograph shows well the dado effect secured by a surbase and skirting,
and one notes with interest the cornice with its prominent modillions
and the heavy plinth blocks on which the architrave casings of the doors
stand.
Round-headed windows were employed for landing windows in stair halls,
as at Whitby Hall, and in the central part of the Palladian windows over
entrances, as at Mount Pleasant, where they became decorative interior
features of the front end of the second-floor halls.
Elliptical-headed openings are rare in Philadelphia, and in most
instances were arches across the main hall, as at Hope Lodge. Sometimes
they framed the staircase vista at the head or foot of the flight,
where they became one of the most charming features of the best Colonial
interiors.
The illustrations of interiors at Stenton accompanying this chapter,
serve, as might many others, to show that white-painted interior
woodwork, although one of the greatest charms of the Colonial house,
finds its principal mission in providing the only architectural
background that sets off satisfactorily the warmth of color and grace of
line possessed by eighteenth-century furniture in mahogany and other
dark woods. Bright and cheerful, chaste and beautiful, it emphasizes the
beauties of everything before it, yet seldom forces itself into undue
prominence. It is a scheme of interior treatment which has stood the
test of time and indicates what excellent taste the Colonial builders
manifested in resorting to its subtle influence to display their rare
pieces of furniture brought from England and the Continent.
The admirable work of Philadelphia joiners indicates conclusively the
many possibilities of white-painted soft woods. Unlike hardwood finish,
the natural grain of the wood is concealed by painting, so that broad
flat surfaces and simple moldings would be monotonous. Beauty of form is
therefore substituted for the beauty of wood grain. Classic motives and
detail are brought to bear upon the interior woodwork in such a manner
as to delight the eye, yet not to detract unduly from the furnishings
of the room. And the charm of much of the resulting woodwork indicates
an early realization by American craftsmen of the fact that a nice
balance between plain surface and decoration is as important as the
decoration itself. It was by their facility in the design and execution
of this woodwork that skilled wood-carvers were able to impart that
lightness, grace and ingenuity of adaptation to which the Colonial style
chiefly owes its charm.