More Information About Antique Furniture
New Mexican WPA Furniture
Of the many programs initiated in the early days of the first Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to deal with the massive unemployment of the Great Depression, few were as successful as the Works Progress Administration.The WPA, as it was popularly known, was generally associated in the public mind with large-scale construction efforts building roads, bridges and dams which created thousands of new jobs for the country's laborers. But there was an equal effort to create employment for the country's artists and craftsmen.
See Morning Star Traders' New Mexico WPA furniture here.
Artisan Projects
A theatre project provided employment for playwrights, actors and theatre technicians. A photography project sent hundreds of photographers across the nation to document America's many natural wonders on film. Painters worked on scaffolds in public buildings in dozens of cities creating murals telling the story of the country's development. Musical archivists traveled miles of back roads transcribing early folk music from every region of the country. There were programs to employ composers, musicians, filmmakers, potters, weaver, virtually every imaginable kind of artisan.
Unique among these was a program initiated in New Mexico in 1933, where unemployment exceeded seventy percent among unskilled workers. Hispanics in remote rural areas and Pueblo Indians were particularly affected. The WPA program recruited established craftsmen to teach their skills to unskilled workers willing to learn. The pieces the participants produced were sold at fairs and festivals scheduled throughout the year, and also were marketed through stores and catalogues. Crafts included straw appliqué, pierced tinwork, woodcarving, painting, pottery making, weaving, but a particular emphasis for obvious reasons was placed on furniture making.
New Mexican Carpinteros
There were a number of recognized carpinteros in New Mexico at the time producing furniture that served as the basis for what we know today as southwestern style. The carpinteros were highly skilled craftsmen who were fine carvers as well as cabinetmakers. They produced pieces the old-fashioned way mortised, tenoned and pegged, without the use of nails, screws or metal braces. Most pieces were carved, either gouge- or chip-carved, with incised carvings of rosettes or shell designs, rope-carved legs and gracefully turned spindles. Some carried cutout geometric designs, some were painted, but all were products of superior workmanship.
The carpinteros taught their students to make furniture in the same way, with the same designs, the same meticulous carving, the same attention to detail. The effort produced a generation of new carpinteros who turned out distinctive furnishings, tables, chairs, chests, dressers, trasteros, sideboards, decorative boxes that were in continuous demand and, today, are highly sought by collectors.
The New Mexico WPA project lasted only ten years, until 1943. Then, the labor demands of World War II made the project unnecessary and the Federal government discontinued it. Fortunately, the new carpinteros carried on the tradition of teaching their craft to another generation. Today, their sons, grandsons, and even great-grandsons are diligently applying their skills in their own workshops, producing beautiful New Mexico-style furnishings that would make the old carpinteros proud.
Of the many programs initiated in the early days of the first Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to deal with the massive unemployment of the Great Depression, few were as successful as the Works Progress Administration.The WPA, as it was popularly known, was generally associated in the public mind with large-scale construction efforts building roads, bridges and dams which created thousands of new jobs for the country's laborers. But there was an equal effort to create employment for the country's artists and craftsmen.
See Morning Star Traders' New Mexico WPA furniture here.
Artisan Projects
A theatre project provided employment for playwrights, actors and theatre technicians. A photography project sent hundreds of photographers across the nation to document America's many natural wonders on film. Painters worked on scaffolds in public buildings in dozens of cities creating murals telling the story of the country's development. Musical archivists traveled miles of back roads transcribing early folk music from every region of the country. There were programs to employ composers, musicians, filmmakers, potters, weaver, virtually every imaginable kind of artisan.
Unique among these was a program initiated in New Mexico in 1933, where unemployment exceeded seventy percent among unskilled workers. Hispanics in remote rural areas and Pueblo Indians were particularly affected. The WPA program recruited established craftsmen to teach their skills to unskilled workers willing to learn. The pieces the participants produced were sold at fairs and festivals scheduled throughout the year, and also were marketed through stores and catalogues. Crafts included straw appliqué, pierced tinwork, woodcarving, painting, pottery making, weaving, but a particular emphasis for obvious reasons was placed on furniture making.
New Mexican Carpinteros
There were a number of recognized carpinteros in New Mexico at the time producing furniture that served as the basis for what we know today as southwestern style. The carpinteros were highly skilled craftsmen who were fine carvers as well as cabinetmakers. They produced pieces the old-fashioned way mortised, tenoned and pegged, without the use of nails, screws or metal braces. Most pieces were carved, either gouge- or chip-carved, with incised carvings of rosettes or shell designs, rope-carved legs and gracefully turned spindles. Some carried cutout geometric designs, some were painted, but all were products of superior workmanship.
The carpinteros taught their students to make furniture in the same way, with the same designs, the same meticulous carving, the same attention to detail. The effort produced a generation of new carpinteros who turned out distinctive furnishings, tables, chairs, chests, dressers, trasteros, sideboards, decorative boxes that were in continuous demand and, today, are highly sought by collectors.
The New Mexico WPA project lasted only ten years, until 1943. Then, the labor demands of World War II made the project unnecessary and the Federal government discontinued it. Fortunately, the new carpinteros carried on the tradition of teaching their craft to another generation. Today, their sons, grandsons, and even great-grandsons are diligently applying their skills in their own workshops, producing beautiful New Mexico-style furnishings that would make the old carpinteros proud.
Traditional Spanish Colonial Furniture
In 1521, Hernan Cortes and his Spanish invaders conquered the Aztecs in Mexico. Fourteen years later, Francisco Pizarro and his troops conquered the Incas in Peru. The events marked the beginning of the Spanish Colonial Period in the Americas, a period of Spanish rule that was to last nearly 300 years.
A new architecture reflected Spanish styles and the new culture was heavily influenced by Spanish Catholicism. A great deal of the furniture and decorative art made in the early period was intended for use in churches and monasteries.
Craft guilds were established to control both the styles and amounts of furnishings produced. Furniture made for wealthy landowners and government officials was usually styled according to what was popular in Europe at the time. The furniture commonly used in the sixteenth century was Spanish in style, though it began to acquire individual characteristics as native craftsmen adapted it.
Carpenters copied Spanish designs, mirroring the styles that were in vogue in the cities where they lived, including intricately carved armoires and chests and lyre-leg refectory tables in walnut, cedar, cypress and mesquite. The best of the trained guild craftsmen were commissioned to produce furniture and elaborate altarpieces for churches and furniture for government buildings.
Independence came to Mexico and Peru in the 1820's and the colonial guilds were dismantled, creating an opportunity for more imaginative interpretations which were not only more varied but also more affordable.
Designs from the colonial period weren't abandoned, but without ordinances regulating sizes and designs, the furnishings became less labor intensive and, as a result, less expensive. The lighter woods, which came into use, made the pieces easier to transport, and the less ornate designs made them more versatile
In rural areas, furniture makers worked with more primitive tools and, as had been the case before independence, with greater freedom of expression since the guilds had little influence outside the cities. They used whatever materials they had at hand and crafted pieces to suit their needs and traditions.
Occasionally, they interpreted Spanish styles that had made their way from the cities to the countryside, but these interpretations were modified to be more workable and durable in rural settings.
Carved lyre-legs became sturdy A-frame legs, carved panels on armoires were streamlined into flat panels, turned spindles on cupboards were simplified into slats, and layers of paint covered sometimes inferior woods. For country woodworkers, ingenuity was every bit as important as skill.
Over time, they created a simple, appealing style of furniture that remains popular and sought-after even today. Independence brought with it the freedom to experiment and artisans working in the decorative arts took full advantage. In Mexico and Peru, silversmiths, potters and weavers began to develop a variety of interesting new styles and designs. In Mexico, wrought iron work candelabras, sconces, gates, railings, etc. began to be produced in far greater quantities.
Painters continued to emphasize religious themes in their work from canvas and wood to metals, copper and tin, as well as paintings on objects. All of the decorative arts conveyed a freedom of style and a more personal touch than any produced during the colonial period.
Morning Star Traders has an outstanding selection of museum-quality Spanish Colonial furniture and decorative arts...
Chests, tables, corner cabinets, framed mirrors, pottery, silver, retablos and santos from Mexico, South America and Spain, many pieces dating to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. See our Spanish & Spanish Colonial furniture here.
We also have a varied selection of Mexican country furnishings: trasteros, ranch tables, butcher's tables, corner cupboards, Mennonite hutches, mesquite doors and chests.
In 1521, Hernan Cortes and his Spanish invaders conquered the Aztecs in Mexico. Fourteen years later, Francisco Pizarro and his troops conquered the Incas in Peru. The events marked the beginning of the Spanish Colonial Period in the Americas, a period of Spanish rule that was to last nearly 300 years.
A new architecture reflected Spanish styles and the new culture was heavily influenced by Spanish Catholicism. A great deal of the furniture and decorative art made in the early period was intended for use in churches and monasteries.
Craft guilds were established to control both the styles and amounts of furnishings produced. Furniture made for wealthy landowners and government officials was usually styled according to what was popular in Europe at the time. The furniture commonly used in the sixteenth century was Spanish in style, though it began to acquire individual characteristics as native craftsmen adapted it.
Carpenters copied Spanish designs, mirroring the styles that were in vogue in the cities where they lived, including intricately carved armoires and chests and lyre-leg refectory tables in walnut, cedar, cypress and mesquite. The best of the trained guild craftsmen were commissioned to produce furniture and elaborate altarpieces for churches and furniture for government buildings.
Independence came to Mexico and Peru in the 1820's and the colonial guilds were dismantled, creating an opportunity for more imaginative interpretations which were not only more varied but also more affordable.
Designs from the colonial period weren't abandoned, but without ordinances regulating sizes and designs, the furnishings became less labor intensive and, as a result, less expensive. The lighter woods, which came into use, made the pieces easier to transport, and the less ornate designs made them more versatile
In rural areas, furniture makers worked with more primitive tools and, as had been the case before independence, with greater freedom of expression since the guilds had little influence outside the cities. They used whatever materials they had at hand and crafted pieces to suit their needs and traditions.
Occasionally, they interpreted Spanish styles that had made their way from the cities to the countryside, but these interpretations were modified to be more workable and durable in rural settings.
Carved lyre-legs became sturdy A-frame legs, carved panels on armoires were streamlined into flat panels, turned spindles on cupboards were simplified into slats, and layers of paint covered sometimes inferior woods. For country woodworkers, ingenuity was every bit as important as skill.
Over time, they created a simple, appealing style of furniture that remains popular and sought-after even today. Independence brought with it the freedom to experiment and artisans working in the decorative arts took full advantage. In Mexico and Peru, silversmiths, potters and weavers began to develop a variety of interesting new styles and designs. In Mexico, wrought iron work candelabras, sconces, gates, railings, etc. began to be produced in far greater quantities.
Painters continued to emphasize religious themes in their work from canvas and wood to metals, copper and tin, as well as paintings on objects. All of the decorative arts conveyed a freedom of style and a more personal touch than any produced during the colonial period.
Morning Star Traders has an outstanding selection of museum-quality Spanish Colonial furniture and decorative arts...
Chests, tables, corner cabinets, framed mirrors, pottery, silver, retablos and santos from Mexico, South America and Spain, many pieces dating to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. See our Spanish & Spanish Colonial furniture here.
We also have a varied selection of Mexican country furnishings: trasteros, ranch tables, butcher's tables, corner cupboards, Mennonite hutches, mesquite doors and chests.