Where are the Newport export "red cedar" desks, etc.?

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wallysandcrab

Well-known member
Where are the Newport export "red cedar" desks, etc.?

In reading accounts of Newport cabinetmakers, such as described in Morrison Hecksher's book or Moses' book, I often encounter the description of the Newport cabinetmakers having had a vigourous export trade.  Many of these items were made in "red cedar".

So is there a bunch of undiscovered Newport furniture in the Bahamas or someplace?

Has anyone ever seen a desk made in "red cedar", which I suspect is what we call Spanish cedar?

JD
 
I think they were local cedar. Pat Kane's recent RI furniture study may have some info on any discovered pieces, but as you said, they're probably scattered around Bermuda, the West Indies and South America. I suspect these were simple pieces, but that's a guess.-Al
 
Al:

Do you mean you think it's eastern red cedar (aromatic) then?

The stuff I can get in this wood is quite full of knots, acknowledgedly not old growth though.  I've never seen any that would yield a clear board of any width.

I'm going to put together a few references to support my idea that it's Spanish cedar.


Is the recent Pat Kane work published?

Thanks
JD
 
First, the contenders:

1.) Red Cedar, Juniperus Virginiana.  Eastern/aromatic red cedar.  From "The Directory of the Historic Cabinet Woods" by F. Lewis Hinckley.

"The red cedar, Juniperus virginiana, also known as the pencil cedar, is indigenous to the eastern half of this country and to the West Indies; attaining a height of about ninety feet and a butt diameter of more than three feet.   .........
Supplies of red cedar were received in England during the seventeenth century.  The wood imported from Virginia was noted by Evelyn as "nearest to the Bermuda juniper, both yet exceeded by that from North Carolina." "

2.) Spanish Cedar.  From the above resource: "The Spanish Cedar, Cedrela odorata, is native to tropical America and in particular to the West Indies, producing an important hardwood timber that is alternatively known as Havana cedar, West Indian cedar, bastard Barbados cedar, swamp cedar and cedrelas.  This tree is not a cedar in the botanical sense, as it belongs to the mahogany family (Meliaceae), but the wood does possess a fragrant scent which is quite similar to that of the true cedars....  Supplies of Spanish cedar are available in dimensions up to forty feet in length and forty inches in width......
   Prior to the middle of the eighteenth century "Spanish Cedar" was also received in the American colonies, and stocked by our leading cabinet shops.  However, where "Cedar" or "Red Ceddar" are mentioned in old inventories of raw materials or home furnishings, or "Red-Sedar" - appearing as early as 1711, it is problematical whether these names apply to Spanish cedar or to the native red cedar, Juniperus virginiana, for both of these woods have been referred to as red cedars in the past."

3.) A possible third contender is "Bermuda Cedar".   Again, from Hinckley:

"Bermuda cedar, Juniperus bermudiana, provided the colonists of this small island group with a principal material for the construction of their furniture.  Accounts of the earliest visits to Bermuda mention a great abundance of cedar trees resing above the other endemic growths....The oldest specimens are recorded as attaining trunk diameters of about three feet, a measurement contrasting to the very small size of timbers later observed by Laslett.........
Bermudian craftsmen employed the island cedar in constructing chairs, tables.....chest, cabinets,...
Prohibition against the exportation of Bermudian timbers [in 1632]........was cirumvented to some extent by embodying cedar planks in packing cases......These planks were frequently used in width up to thirty inches or more......"
 
I think the study by Patricia Kane that Al mentioned can be found at:

http://rifa.art.yale.edu/

Yours is an excellent question. The journal American Furniture devoted an entire volume in 1999 to Rhode Island furniture. I'll look at it again and see if there is anything there. Most of the text from various issues is on the journal's website. Try:

http://www.chipstone.org/framesetpublications.html

The actual journal is profusely illustrated, and well worth buying, but the text should be there if you would like to look. Other years also had Rhode Island related articles.
 
Margaretta Lovell wrote a paper on export furniture from Newport, maybe mostly on Cahoon, who exported a lot. Don't know where to find it.-Al
 
There is another article by Jeanne Vibert Sloane, "John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry," that was in the book "Old-Time New England: New England Furniture: Essays in Memory of Benno M. Foreman."
 
Johnny D said:
The stuff I can get in this wood is quite full of knots, acknowledgedly not old growth though.  I've never seen any that would yield a clear board of any width.

I'm going to put together a few references to support my idea that it's Spanish cedar.
Click to expand...

I would rather doubt that the "cedar" referred to in historical inventories would be Spanish Cedar.  In the 18th century, shipping was harshly expensive, and Spanish Cedar would've been nearly as expensive as mahogany.

Eastern Red Cedar can be obtained in remarkably clear and large boards if you are lucky enough to find a Woodmizer operator with access to forested land along the Eastern seaboard.  The reason most commercial red cedar is full of knots is that most of it comes from fence lines in open fields.

One other candidate - while not a "red cedar", another juniper species that colonial crafstmen on the Eastern seaboard would've had easy access to is Atlantic White Cedar or Northern White Cedar.  Most drawer bottoms in pre-Revolutionary War Philadelphia furniture is made of atlantic white cedar, and until it was over-harvested in the late 18th century, it existed in very large, clear dimensions.
 
I've seen many references to juniper being referred to as white cedar in period records. All the references I've seen used white cedar as a secondary wood, and red cedar mostly as a primary, and sometimes as a secondary.
 
1.) Thanks for the references; these are very helpful.  I'm just returning from a trip into the Yale archive, which I didn't know about.  It's very good.

2.) The Yale archive shows "red cedar" desks.  The photos are not too great, but the wood shown looks like it could be red cedar.  It has those quasi-characteristic large "eyes" one sees in red cedar.

2.) I got the idea that it might be Spanish cedar from an old time description I once read referring to the colonial cedar as possessing a "disagreeable odour".  I cannot locate it at this time.  I rather like the smell of Atlantic cedar, but Spanish cedar smells awful when worked with power tools.
 
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