Signpost is a free ezine from Bob Dillon Windsor Chairs. It is the mission of this monthly ezine to explore the history and contruction of Windsor chairs as well as other aspects of life in early America. For more information please go to Signpost Info. To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE, see below.

***Signpost***

An Ezine from Bob Dillon Windsor Chairs
Issue No. 14 -- May 10, 2001

Contents:

  • The Painted Windsor Chair
  • The Louisiana Purchase
  • A Short Story

The Painted Windsor Chair

From their earliest days in the 18th century, the preferred finish for Windsor chairs has been paint. It is often said that paint was chosen to cover up the use of different woods in the chair. But another view has it that paint was anticipated from the start and the chairs were designed accordingly. Instead of broad surfaces which would show off a wood's grain, a Windsor is made largely of thin, round parts. These parts are better at displaying their own shape than the wood they are made of. In the words of chairmaker and teacher Michael Dunbar: "A paint finish allows the viewer to see the chair instead of the wood." He goes on to say:

The lines of a Windsor chair are its most important visual element. The curved lines of the seat contribute to its three-dimensional , sculptured form. The legs have bold, turned outlines and are set at pronounced angles to support the chair visually as well as physically. The spindles, bent bows and bent arms are strong lines, carefully placed to achieve symmetry. A paint finish coalesces all these lines, and in addition, separates the various parts of the chair from the background.

Which brings us back to the original argument -- knowing that their chairs would be covered with paint, chairmakers were free to combine different woods on the same chair. They could choose these woods for their engineering properties rather than appearance.

Up to about 1780 most chairs were painted green. This fashion is believed to have started in England where the Windsor was originally used as a "garden" chair -- what we would call a lawn chair. The colonials, who looked to London for the latest fashions, did likewise; early Windsors were sometimes referred to as "green chairs."

By the early 19th century red had become popular and many Windsors, already 20 to 40 years old, were repainted to the new color. Later in the century black was in fashion. Those who study antiques report a remarkable number of 18th century Windsor chairs with this very succession of colors: black over red over the original green.

Stripping antique chairs of their paint was an early 20th century passion. Maybe they wanted to rid them of an old decaying finish or they considered paint cheap and unworthy. More recently, it was recognized that the finish is part of the antique, and the succession of colors, the wear and the deterioration part of its history. Today a stripped chair is worth less -- sometimes far less -- than that same chair would have been with its original paint.

The original paints used for Windsors were made from white lead, turpentine, linseed oil and earth pigments. The lead was the most expensive ingredient and seems to have been used in less than adequate quantities. The result was thin-bodied, slightly transparent paint. Today this finish is most often imitated with milk paint which is also colored with natural pigments and lacks the body of a high-quality modern paint. For more information about milk paint see The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company, and also my Milk Paint Page.

The Louisiana Purchase

The United States acquired Louisiana from France over 190 years ago. On April 30, 1803, one of the greatest real estate deals in history took place - one that would double the size of the country and put the United States in a position to become a world power. Over 900,000 square miles - nearly 600 million acres - were purchased for 15 million dollars (an average of only four cents an acre!). This magnificent domain was aquired by peaceful means and without the shedding of a single drop of blood - in striking contrast to the methods of the large empires of the past, which conquered their territories by force of arms.

The sale of Louisiana to the United States by Napoleon Bonaparte was the result of a complicated chain of events involving the rivalries of France, Spain and Great Britain. France ceded the territory known as Louisiana to Spain 1762 and it was under Spanish rule for nearly forty years.

As Spain began to decline as a worldpower, France became interested in Louisiana and eventually forced Spain to return the territory to France. When news of the trade reached Thomas Jefferson in the States, he instructed the Minister to France, Robert Livingston, to negotiate for the purchase of New Orleans and the territory east of the "island" of the western part of Florida. Two years later, after realizing that it could no longer defend the Louisiana Territory, Napoleon Bonaparte convinced officials to sell the entire territory. After some debate, the land known as Louisiana was sold for 15 million dollars.

Thirteen states or parts of states have been carved from The Louisiana Purchase Territory. They are as follows: Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, lowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Colorado and Montana.

From INFO Louisiana

The following is reprinted from "DataBoat Newsletter"

A Short Story

An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while, Seņor." The American then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, Seņor."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA, and eventually NYC where you would run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But Seņor, how long will this all take?" To which the American replied, "15-20 years." "But what then, Seņor?" The American laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions." "Millions, Seņor? Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Sources

  1. The Windsor Style in America, by Charles Santore
  2. Make a Windsor Chair With Michael Dunbar by Michael Dunbar
  3. INFO Louisiana
  4. DataBoat
Further Links:

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