These are really more country chairs. Chairs that you would find outside of the major style centers of New York and Philadelphia.
Now, we've just done what you shouldn't do with chairs. You need to pick up chairs by the seat.
And everyone always learns this the hard way. But if you've ever picked up a chair, you can sometimes feel it crack.
And this is pictured in your book.
This is called a fancy chair. And fancy chairs were very popular in England and came to America and are popular between 1790 and about 1810, 1815.
So they're Sheridan. Exactly.
And this lovely seat.
And wonderful old seat. Probably not the original. You can see the old Rush seat covered up with a new Rush.
But this is still old. This Rush is still old. And this is this wonderful ground color Venetian red.
Somewhat aged here. This is all original. This is all original.
In fact, this is part of a larger set and every single chair has a little bit different pattern of wear.
It's part of the character of having the whole set. But these are neoclassical motifs.
Here is a bow and an arrow and a quiver in this bow knot.
And then up here is a spread eagle flanked by two cornucopia with fruits and vegetables coming out of them.
And this is a gilding technique.
And what else to look for in this chair? Oh, here's beautiful detail.
Isn't this lovely? All along here so that nearly every surface has some kind of gilding on it.
That's lovely.
And it's fun to think about this period where there was only candlelight and gaslight at night.
And so the gold would just shimmer and sparkle. They were painted to harmonize with the entire room.
And this is a gilding technique on faux grained wood.
Now this is another case where it's nice to have a flashlight with you.
Because if you see this patina of age, it looks quite dark.
But if you take the flashlight, you can see that this is grained to look like rosewood.
A very popular, hard, high-style wood used in the Empire period.
So that has faux graining. And on top of that is this gilding.
And we see again this spread eagle with the scrolling acanthus leaves that has been gilded.
We have two cornucopia that's finished with an eagle's head.
So that's a lovely detail.
And this kind of gilding is characteristic of New York.
Rather than having the details in ink, the details have been removed with a stylus to give that effect.
Now what about the fancy feet?
These are very fancy feet, typical of New York. A hairy claw foot is carving.
It was also found on mahogany furniture of the same period.
Some of the mahogany furniture had gilt mounts on it.
And this gilding is an imitation of mounts.
But this was a high-style piece of furniture.
Very beautiful. So one of a set?
No, there is only one other known chair of that. That's a single chair. It's very rare.
Very nice.
This chair belongs to my co-author, Susan Klein.
And she found this while we were writing the book.
And I loved this chair because every surface is wonderfully hand-painted here.
So you really see the eye of the ornamental painter in this chair.
And you can see all the striping details.
Every little form has details all the way through it.
Shading, you see here, and then these wonderful stylized shells. Not quite accurate, but they have a wonderful way about them.
Well, a primitive approach, but very beautiful.
And the bell flower. So those are our wonderful chairs.
Well, there's so much to see when you look at one piece of furniture.
So much to learn about. Not only the style of the chair and the make of the chair, but also the decoration of a chair.
And if you have your magnifying glass and your little flashlight, you can be like Cynthia and go around and investigate and find what appeals to you.
Thank you so much. It's a very good introduction to painted furniture.
It was a pleasure. Thank you.
The paint used to decorate these beautiful chairs was not available in cans ready for use as it is today.
It had to be mixed by hand using dry pigments or colors, which were ground and mixed with oil in a time-consuming process.
So Cynthia and I have put together some of the tools and ingredients to show how paint was mixed in earlier times.
Ready to do our experimenting.
Yes, I am.
To you by Sears.
If you'd like to know how paint was mixed more than 100 years ago, Cynthia Schaffner is going to show us.
Cynthia, I'm so excited that you brought all the tools to explain to us how this was done.
Well, I had a wonderful time discovering all of this with the help of Deborah Bigelow, who has a furniture restoration conservation center.
This is glass.
This is blown glass. This is a muller.
This is the slab, and this is what was used in the 19th century and centuries before that to grind pigments.
And then I went to Kramer Pigments, which is in New York City on Elizabeth Street, and they have the wonderful old pigment colors.
Italian Venetian Red, which is that color of that chair.
Can we mix some of that up?
Yep.
So this would have been ground in a mortar and pestle like this.
That's right.
So is that like a clay or something?
Yes.
Yeah.
Many pigments are dug from the ground as clay and cleaned, and then they would have been ground in a mortar and pestle, but now it's ready to go.
So you take about a tablespoon of the pigment, and you add linseed oil, and then take the muller, and in a circular motion, grind the pigments and the oil together.
The longer you grind, the better paint you get, and this was a time-consuming process.
Oh, look at this.
Every once in a while, you have to take this off with the palette knife.
Put it back.
There we go.
We're getting a nice consistency.
You want to try it?
Oh, sure.
There are recipe books from the 18th and 19th century that talk about, for example, mixing the Prussian blue and a yellow together to form a green.
Exactly.
For a long time, secrets of the proportions of pigments were kept within the trades.
The varnish is for the last stages, I guess.
Once we get a nice consistency here, we put it in a paint pot, and depending upon the kind of finish you want, you can add varnish and turpentine, which will give it more gloss.
Oh, that's great.
Let me tell you, this is not as easy as it looks because this muller is really slippery and heavy.
And you can still hear the sound of the particles, so we need to make it so it's very, very clean.
Almost quiet.
A 17th century book recommends that you put the paint in small shells such as these.
Because they're hard.
And they're hard, and they're non-porous, and you could have all your different colors.
Take it over to your chair, and then you take a tiny brush like this.
This is a sable brush.
This was used for striping in very thin lines and could be used for in-painting, if you wished.
And so then you can just take your shell and add the paint to it, and there you go.
I'll just paint this on a little stick just to see how it works.
See what it feels like.
Isn't it a beautiful color?
It's so rich and deep.
It goes on beautifully, too.
Oh, that's wonderful.
That's great.
And this is called a damar varnish.
A damar varnish, exactly.
This is quite potent.
So we're wearing gloves, and I would suggest if anyone mixed pigments that they do that as well.
Oh.
Oh, that's glorious.
Oh, it is.
Well, there's all kinds of ways to use these extraordinary pigments, mostly, I think, for restoration purposes nowadays.
Thank you so much, Cynthia, for bringing this nice little setup here with you today.
I'm delighted.
This opens another world of artisanship and craftsmanship to our viewer.
Thank you.
Keeping track of all the various colors that you use for different painting projects around your home may seem rather difficult.
It's really important to keep a record, though, and I've written them in books and lost the books.
I've even had pieces of paper taped into a cupboard so that I wouldn't lose it and the paper disintegrates.
Well, I finally discovered a way that's really easy to keep your record right at your fingertips and very accurate.
It's paint stirrers themselves.
Once you use the paint stirrer, and here we have one that's already dry, you just write on the paint stirrer with an indelible pen like a little Sharpie,
the color, which is cashmere, the number so that you have it.
You can just reorder more paint if you need it, F-O-H, and this is for dining room chairs.
And also, don't forget, put down if it's gloss or flat or oil-based or latex.
This was a latex flat.
Now, drill a hole right in the top here.
You could use a punch if you want, but I find that drilling the hole really is very, very safe.
So I now have a hole, and I add this to all the other colors in my collection and thread them on a string,
tie them together, and keep them as an excellent, visible record.
These can be hung inside a closet where you keep your paints or stored in a drawer.
One thing you'll be sure of, not losing your paint swatches.
Paint stirrer swatches, like this, they're a good thing.
To subscribe to Martha Stewart Living Magazine, please call our 800 number.
We all know that furniture polish smears glass,
and glass cleaner leaves wood looking dry,
so it can often be very frustrating cleaning combination furniture.
Now there's a way to end that stress.
New Pledge Wood and Glass, made from a balanced cleaning formula with natural citrus extracts.
It brings out your wood's inner beauty and leaves your glass sparkling.
Pledge Wood and Glass, a clean combination.
Essie Johnson Wax.
Watch their eyes light up to a world of imagination.
Give the kids a colorful start this year with a bright new variety of school supplies from Crayola.
There's only one childhood and only one Crayola.
There are those among us with very simple tastes.
They only want the best.
And for them, there's Fancy Feast gourmet cat food.
Exceptionally moist and delicious.
Fancy Feast.
Good taste is easy to recognize.
Get ready for some fun.
When you visit the California State Fair,
enter for your chance to win one of five Disneyland family vacations to experience Tomorrowland.
You'll soar on the Astro Orbiter or go 3D and beyond with Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.
Stay at the Disneyland Pacific Hotel and fly on Southwest Airlines,
which offers seven flights a day from Sacramento to Los Angeles.
It's a new Tomorrowland only at Disneyland.
To enter, stop by the News 10 booth at the California State Fair.
Mom, I'm not going to the prom.
But you look beautiful.
No, I don't. It's this wart.
Who made it go away?
Compound W.
It's easy. Just one step.
Cover the wart with a Compound W pad and it dissolves away.
No one ever has to know it was there.
Hi.
You look beautiful.
This is for you.
It's gorgeous.
Compound W one-step pads, now in new kid colors, too.
Granddaddy McFugal started the tradition.
He'd say, save every penny.
And then Pop said, never pay retail.
Even Junior's first word was, b-b-burgers.
Save 40% on a seven-piece cookware set by Chantel just $59.99.
Save 50% on a Bell South 25-channel cordless phone only $19.99.
Save up to 74% on designer bras just $4.99 each.
So come to McFugal. It's like a new store every week.