As soon as the Chippendale furniture was produced in England, importations to the Colonies began, and very soon the cabinetmakers of the New England States reproduced Chippendale models. Gradually from this reproduction was evolved throughout the North a simpler and less ornate style in chairs, tables, beds and side pieces. These were known as New England Colonial.

The chairs are particularly interesting since they represent so many types of the late modified Georgian in England. These had seats made of rush, braided husks and sometimes cane, while they were not infrequently upholstered in some foreign material. These straight-backed Puritanic forms made in birch, beech, maple and other Colonial woods, small in scale, restrained in style and without ornament, constituted what is known as the New England style. Mahogany, of course, played a large part in this development and found its way into the structure of the interior in the form of solid doors, wainscoting and balustrades as well as furniture.

Colonial furniture having become the vogue, it was found essential to repeat its motif in doors, balustrades and the like, in order to tie it successfully to the room of which it was a part. This particular point should be of interest to every person who is using the Colonial idea or who is enamoured of the mahogany medium. Some consistent repetition of the idea is essential to produce the desired design effect and also to give it, in the least, the classic quality of consistency in its distribution.

We have dwelt at length upon the Northern Colonial because in the largest sense this expression of Colonial has influenced the others, and in later times is the phase most generally admired, copied and adapted. In considering this let us remember that the Colonial is but the child of a European mother, that it is by no means a new idea, but is the younger generation's version of the older generation's expression of their religious, political and social life. Naturally, it differs from the original, but in essentials it is the same, its differences being just those that any adaptation to other circumstances than its own should show. A copy cannot express anything except those ideas for which the original stands. New modes of living and new ways of doing things must result in new forms of production in the materials used.

The Southern Colonial is perhaps the next in importance considered with reference to our modern times. As has been stated, the Southern colonies were settled by the English. In most cases they were people of some financial standing and were many of them communicants of the established Anglican church. Maryland was an exception, inasmuch as it was founded by people representing the Roman faith, who were also drawn from the better English classes. Larger financial resources, a less Puritanic religious viewpoint, a broader social horizon and a warmer climate, each in its way produced an influence distinctly felt in the evolution of the Southern house. The Southern gentleman's property was in a large estate. This necessitated a larger, a somewhat more pretentious and a less conservative house.

The Colonial mansion, with its roomy proportions, its splendid verandas with classic columns, its finely wrought cornices and other classic details, gives the most impressive example of the different ideals held by the two sections of the same country. The furnishings did not differ radically from those of the North.

The mahogany type of Queen Anne and Chippendale became the standard furniture of the South, with an occasional introduction of Hepplewhite and Sheraton, original pieces from England or the very best copies procurable in the united colonies. Larger resources made it possible to import these things from the mother country.

Occasionally in the North the Dutch influence was felt. This was almost entirely lacking in the South, and the Anglo-classic architecture with the Queen Anne and early Chippendale became its paramount expression. New York, or New Amsterdam, was the natural expression of the Dutch-Netherland idea. This decided Dutch feeling, the same that William and Mary brought to England in 1688, is the foundation fact in the so-called Middle Colonial type. The architecture of this section was strictly Dutch, the classic idea having scarcely modified it at all. The Flemish scroll, the Dutch gable, the Dutch proportion and detail dominate not only the exterior, but the interior architecture. Furniture, too, was structurally Dutch.

These three expressions of the Colonial are sufficient to give the feeling for the Colonial types. They should enable one to perceive clearly two quite individual phases of the classic idea and to contrast these two with a somewhat non-classic evolution which characterized the Dutch constructive manner. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware represent the mixed Dutch and English influences in a remarkably interesting way. Philadelphia alone presents sufficient examples of both types for the intensive study of what the combination effected in combining two original ideas.

These manifestations, gradually evolving, received a remarkable jolt in the later days of Louis XVI. After the recognition of the independence of the Colonies, there arose diplomatic situations between them and France which caused the exchange of ambassadors. Lafayette came to the States, and Benjamin Franklin was sent to the French court. Picture, if you can, Benjamin Franklin in his New England clothes and top boots at the court of Marie Antoinette. On the other hand, it is quite as impossible to imagine the refined and gallant Lafayette as entirely at home in the united colonies, although undoubtedly Washington and the diplomatic set around him were more nearly congruous than was Franklin at the French court.

The ladies of the American capital took most graciously to Lafayette and his manners. The Louis XVI style through his influence was espoused and became the fad of the time. Washington's house at Mount Vernon, Virginia, in its interior finish and its furnishings, is so strongly affected by the Louis XVI style that people frequently call it a Louis XVI interior. This vogue spread throughout the South and greatly influenced the interior decoration of the next half century. At the accession of Victoria, however, this impetus was exhausted and a new idea prevailed.