This oak sideboard shows traces of the latter part of the Golden Oak period. Quarter cut veneer is used only on the top two drawers. Flat cut oak is used on the large drawer, the doors and the case. The carvings are all applied.

But as relatively wealthy as the emerging middle class was, it couldn't afford to hire Horner and Hunzinger on a regular basis and was much too impatient to wait for new finery. They wanted it now! That led to the catalog sales books promoted by Sears, Eaton's of Canada, Montgomery Ward and Larkin. But there had to be a trade off. Since these companies were capable of shipping a specific item from a book full of furniture across the country, there had to be some standardization and some compromises. Instead of shipping furniture to a local agent for any needed assembly and repair, the designs had to be simplified enough to either ship the furniture as an assembled unit directly to the customer or in such a simplified condition that the customer could assemble it in the home. By the 1890s expensive hand carving was replaced by machine cut applied carvings and moldings and surface decoration moved from carving to pressing. Sharp metal dies with an intricate design were pressed over chair backs under great pressure to produce the "press back" chairs of the period that had the look of hand carving. In addition the overall size of individual units began to decrease from commercial pressure. Smaller pieces cost less to ship and used less raw material to construct. This became increasingly important as the seemingly inexhaustible stretches of old oak forest began to disappear.

In response manufacturers began to use substitute woods like red oak, elm, ash and hickory in less conspicuous places instead of using all old growth white oak. Then came the use of veneers. Quarter cutting an oak log is very wasteful of the raw material but thin slices of quarter cut oak veneer could cover twenty five times as much surface as solid quarter cut wood. Some factories even went one step further. Using a textured roller an oak looking grain pattern could literally be printed onto a piece of wood painted the correct background color. It often takes a discerning eye to see the difference even today.

The "Golden Oak" period was briefly interrupted early in the 20th century by the Arts and Crafts influence which tended to use a darker finish caused by exposing the raw wood to ammonia fumes, the "fumed" finish, or by using nut brown stains to tone down the gold colors. But the darker colors faded around World War I as the public grew weary of the severe styles of the movement and popular taste turned back to the golden choices.

By the 1920s the desire for styles from the country's past overtook the hunger for oak as the Colonial Revival period rolled onto the scene with its traditional designs in dark walnut and mahogany. The Golden Oak period was over.

Visit Fred's website at www.furnituredetective.com.  His book "HOW TO BE A FURNITURE DETECTIVE" is available for $18.95 plus $3.00 S&H (U.S.). Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor's DVD "IDENTIFICATION OF OLDER & ANTIQUE FURNITURE", $17.00 + $3.00 S&H (U.S.) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of "COMMON SENSE ANTIQUES by Fred Taylor" ($25.00 + $3.00 S&H (U.S.) are also available at the same address. For more information call (800)387-6377, fax (352)563-2916, or e-mail info@furnituredetective.com.