Bench

Description

Windsor-style bench with pine seat and three pairs of maple legs with a single cherry stretcher between the front and back leg of each pair. Curiously, the front legs at center and proper right end extend through the seat while that at the proper left is blind. Cherry crest rail supported by 54 lathe-turned spindles of birch and cherry. Natural finish; has been refinished.

Notes

Like Windsor-type furniture made by the world, these long meetinghouse benches were constructed around slabs of pine that served as seats. The seat was the central structural member of the bench because all of the legs and spindles were doweled directly into it. The benches used in the New Hampshire communities at Canterbury and Enfield demonstrate that some Shaker communities included Windsor chair makers alongside turners and joiners, whose products are more readily associated with the Shakers. Windsor chair making is different than the two other methods of furniture construction, turning and joinery, whose products include chairs with tape, cane, or rush seating (turning), and settles and other benches (joinery). Making Windsor-type furniture, like making turned or joined forms, was a skill requiring years of training to master. To make this bench, the pine seat was first hewn and the contours of the seat carved. Holes were drilled for the spindles, all of which had to be exactly parallel, and the legs. Owing to the flexibility, strength, and light weight of birch, it was commonly used for the thin spindles. The shape of the seat, legs, and back mimic the Enfield meetinghouse bench in the collection.