This Hudson Valley Queen Anne chair might be a "Centennial" chair. Is it a Colonial Revival chair? You bet.

But is it really "Centennial" furniture? There were no antiques or reproductions on display at the Centennial Exposition other than one small exhibit featuring a Colonial kitchen and few personal items belonging to George Washington including his favorite elm chair which was a reproduction. The American furniture on display was the in the popular styles of the period, Rococo Revival and Renaissance Revival. The only true "Centennial" furniture of the time were some reproduction chairs of the sort that probably were used by children around the time of the Revolution and were labeled as "Toy chair of 1776."

The reason for the use of the term "Centennial" by some dealers and auctioneers is to try to differentiate between late 19th century bench made furniture and other less carefully made examples of Colonial Revival furniture. To some, these examples of quality goods are far and away superior to the "run of the mill" Colonial Revival pieces of the Depression era. In most instances that may be true and the distinction well deserved but like all rules there are exceptions and some equivocations.

There have been in the 20th century a number of makers who employed similar skills and artistic talents to their furniture making craft as did Sypher and others. One prime example is that of the Margolis family of Hartford, CT. Nathan Margolis immigrated to America from Russia and opened his cabinet shop in 1893. His son Harold eventually took over the business in 1925 and continued to produce outstanding bench made examples of Colonial Revival furniture to rival any of the so-called Centennial pieces. Another example is Baker furniture. In 1925 when Hollis Baker became president of Baker & Company, having been greatly influenced by the Arts and Crafts industry, he set out to design and build a line of authentic 18th and early 19th century reproductions. And he succeeded. But the most famous name had to be Wallace Nutting who created some of the best reproduction furniture ever made in the 1920s. And in spite of the obvious quality you would be hard pressed to call this furniture "Centennial."

Then of course came the factory induced mutations designed by engineers of the 1920s and 1930s that have given the term "Colonial Revival" such bad press and elicited turned up noses from the elite collectors. However, there is no accounting for taste and as much as any one person may find fault with a factory made piece that incorporates stylistic elements from several Colonial styles into one mishmash of a design, the fact remains that the elements themselves are derived from the Colonial period. The only quarrel is with the assembly and interpretation of the elements and sometimes the quality of the work and material. The furniture is still properly classified as "Colonial Revival" and deserves to be studied more closely.

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