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The Shakers Furniture
The Shakers furniture        The dream of a Utopia bring to mind a perfect society to live in. However, the majority of people think that a utopia does not really exist and it is impossible to live in Utopia. Even so, some people gathered and established their own utopian societies in America in the 18th and 19th century. Shakers is one of the most stable and successful Utopian community. This community formally called as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, which originated from England. They improve their own technologies and made many inventions. At one time, the Shaker were known not only as a successful utopian American society, but also as inventive people with outstanding artifacts. Based on their religious convictions, they created distinctive and unique artifacts; especially, Shakers furniture is well known for its unusual style and has gained popularity still today.        At the beginning, the Shakers were founded in England in 1770 by Ann Lee and consisted of five men and three women. Ann Lee was considered “Mother” by her followers. Early Shakers had been dissatisfied with the Anglican church and its system, so they left England and came to America in 1774. After they arrived America, they settled in Wateryliet, New York, and Albany. The main reason they escaped England was to establish a utopian society that they wanted. Nearly 6,000 Shaker believers lived together from Maine to Indiana in 19th century (Vincent, 2). They were the largest and most successful group, however, only one Shaker community group remains in Sabbath Day Lake, Maine today. The Shakers opposed the values of American society, so they have their own
value and philosophy. There are three principles of their faith: purity, community, and separation. These essential principles of Shaker’s faith based on celibacy, equality of sexes, utility, simplicity, community of goods, oral confession of sin, pacifism, honesty and withdrawal (Pratt).         Shaker dissented other societies’ value or objects. They tried to separate from the outside world and they have to make all kinds of things. As a result, they became a self-sufficient society and they grew their own food and made all kinds of stuff that they needed. For this reason, Shakers had great artisticdevelopment. Shaker’s furniture is a distinctive style of furniture compared to other American styles. Well-made furniture showed the Shakers’ principles of honesty, utility, simplicity and other factors. They rejected excessive ornament in their furniture such as carvings, metal pulls, and inlays because they thought it encouraged the sin of pride and damaged their values (John, 2). As a result, furniture makers avoided using other ornaments, focused on overall form, proportions and comfortable usability. Materials to make furniture include cherry, maple and pine lumber(Swank, 158). They could painted the furniture blue, yellow or green. Designs of Shaker furniture was given inspiration to modern furniture designers. The Shaker obtained patents for the wooden ball and socket chair tilter which is a representative model for Shaker furniture and this style can be found in all types of chairs today. Their simple design influenced not only America but also Japanese and European furniture designs as well.
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By: lee0912
Submitted: November 30, 2015
Essay Length: 915 Words / 4 Pages
Paper type: Research Paper Views: 515
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