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Hickory Furniture: Once Humble, Now Hot
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A hickory high chair, c.1931 |
By Susan Eberman
NY-PA Collector
Friday, November 15, 2002
During the early 1800s settlers heading west crossed the Smoky and
Appalachian Mountains to reach America's western frontier, which is now
Indiana. They had to depend on the spartan wooded land for their very
survival. The spindly hickory tree more than carried its weight in helping
those early Hoosiers form their economic base.
Hickory trees grew abundantly amidst much larger poplar and oak trees.
They formed very straight trunks as they strained to reach for sunlight
between their massive neighbors. Yet their diameter rarely reached over two
or three inches even when they were decades old. They provided an excellent
source of firewood and were also used for smoking meats. Because of their
dense cellular growth they were considered the strongest and most durable
wood by craftsmen. (Even today craftsmen who work with many types of wood
say that hickory is the strongest and most durable wood.) Each tree had
different bark texture, color, and knots.
Small industries developed around these unique characteristics. Some
factories built carriages and wagons while others made spokes for wagon
wheels, barrel hoops, gun stocks, fence posts, or handles for tools and
brooms. Still others created durable, yet beautiful, hickory furniture.
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A 1920s ad from the Old Hickory
Chair company. |
The actual construction of hickory furniture was not very complicated.
Trees were cut in the winter when the sap was down so that the bark would
stay on the wood. If trees were cut in the warmer months when sap was
rising, the bark would not adhere to the wood. Trees were then kiln dried to
kill insects. The cut lean trees, which resembled poles, were soaked in very
hot water or steam and then bent into the desired shape. When this wet wood
dried, it retained this shape without splitting. The poles were formed into
furniture, and rolls of bark were cut into strips for use as chair seats and
backs.
Around 1890 Billy Richardson made his living selling rustic hoop chairs
every weekend in Martinsville, Indiana, about 25 miles southwest of
Indianapolis. Originally a lumberman and gardener from North Carolina,
Richardson made chairs and settees at his nearby Morgantown, Ind., shop. It
took him about a day to make a chair, and a little longer to complete a
settee. On Saturday he loaded his week's work on his wagon and sold his
wares on Martinville's square. Historians have been able to identify his
works because all of his finials are pointed and all the joints are cut
completely through the posts. A local legend is that one of Richardson's
customers was "Old Hickory" himself, Andrew Jackson. Other sources say that
a North Carolina family produced the chairs that gave America's seventh
president his lifelong nickname.
These early pioneers were mostly craftsmen and not business people, so
sketchy records provide few details of early furniture companies. It is
documented that Richardson was among the men who formed the Old Hickory
Furniture Company in Martinsville in 1892, incorporating in 1899. Over a
century later at Shelbyville, Indiana, the company still makes the same
chair that put it on the map as well as "newfangled" items such as bar
stools, upholstered sofas, ottomans, and entertainment centers. About a
dozen other furniture companies soon followed throughout south central
Indiana.
At the end of the 19th century, drillers attempting to locate gas or oil
around Martinsville found pure mineral water. Soon the area had 13 health
spas, known then as sanitariums.
People came from all over the country for mineral water baths to cure
their ailments. On summer evenings they relaxed on the spacious lawns dotted
with hickory chairs unlike anything they had seen before. As soon as they
realized how comfortable these rustic chairs were, they wanted to buy them
for their homes. Visitors to Martinsville were essential to the
establishment of the hickory furniture industry. Charles Limbert and Gustav
Stickley, Arts & Crafts furniture makers, both visited Martinsville. Limbert
became a sales agent for one hickory furniture company from 1896 to 1905
even as he had his own line of Mission furniture. The natural lines and lack
of embellishment characteristic of the Arts & Crafts movement is believed to
have been influenced by the styles in hickory furniture.
The American Industrial Revolution, which lasted from about 1790 until
the start of the Civil War in 1861, brought an influx of workers from rural
areas to factories in northeastern states, where jobs were plentiful. Long
hours in polluted sweat shops and cramped urban living conditions prompted
workers and their families to head to wilderness areas for relaxation
whenever they could.
Resorts and lodges sprung up in the Adirondacks, the Rocky Mountains, and
the Appalachians. Craftsmen built both one-room camps and massive log
dwellings to house these visitors. These same craftsmen also built furniture
out of logs, twigs, sticks, bark and antlers.
Collector and dealer Rod Lich, of Georgetown, Indiana reports that
hickory furniture was discovered by collectors, "when 'Twin Peaks' aired in
1990 and used hickory furniture on its sets. About this same time the
beautiful ads for luxury home products, such as linens by Ralph Lauren, also
featured photographs of hickory furniture."
Lich explains that every time a new group of collectors discovers hickory
furniture, or any other collectible, increased demand makes prices go up.
"Most recently mission oak and Arts & Crafts collectors have realized
hickory furniture is really an organic arm of those types of furniture.
There's also a lot of appeal to southwest collectors. Right now the highest
demand is for old furniture signed Old Hickory, Martinsville, Indiana.
They're still much more affordable than signed Stickley. Unusual shapes,
such as large tables, gliders, and sculptural pieces demand the highest
prices, while chairs and rockers are the most common pieces."
Collector and auctioneer Jerry Griffin of Martinsville, Ind. believes
decorating books by Ralph Kylloe, a leading authority on rustic furniture,
also began increasing interest in hickory furniture about a decade ago. "Kylloe
has written several beautifully illustrated books that give people excellent
ideas on how to use rustic furnishings in their homes. Even though older
hickory pieces are becoming more expensive, they're still more affordable
than mission oak or Arts & Crafts furniture. Yet their rugged good looks fit
right in with these styles. Kylloe's books show how attractive it is to mix
styles and blend the old with the new."
People who like decorating with Arts & Crafts or mission antiques but
currently find them a bit pricey have found new hickory home furnishings to
their liking. Its warmth and timelessness can rekindle memories of
vacationing at a lodge or rocking on grandma's porch. Its natural appearance
brings the outdoors right into any home, from a rustic lodge to an urban
condo. Whether it's a massive table and chairs set or a waste basket, a
piece of hickory looks as if it's been there forever. Part of its universal
appeal is the ability to blend with a few older furnishings, or create a
look from the past all its own.
Hickory furniture, both old and new, is at home in diverse locations
ranging from EuroDisney in Paris to the homes of Dolly Parton, Robert
Redford, Barbra Streisand, and Oprah Winfrey. National parks have used
hickory furniture in their lodges for a century. Dining room chairs made by
Old Hickory Furniture Company for the 1906 opening of Old Faithful Inn at
Yellowstone National Park are still in use today!
Like a string of pearls or crystal pitcher, the classic beauty of hickory
furniture never goes out of style.
For more information:
A History of the Old Hickory Chair Company and the Indiana Hickory
Furniture Movement by Ralph Kylloe is the most comprehensive ever
written on this subject. It presents a concise history of 10 companies who
made hickory furniture between 1892 and 1972 as well as 600 illustrations.
Ralph Kylloe Rustic Design P.O. Box 669 Lake Luzerne Rd. (Rt. 9N) Lake
George, N.Y. 12845; (518) 696-4100
www.ralphkylloe.com |
