Federal Style Patterns

How It All Began

by MaryBeth Mudrick

“Look here.  Tell me what you think of this!”  While I was watching television in the den, Larry had come in from the cabinet shop with something that he’d made and wanted me to see.  I looked up and smiled when I saw that he had hung a three-foot section of Federal style cornice molding to the top of the wall just below the ceiling.  The cornice was painted white, made of wood, had an orderly procession of perfectly matched dentils with drill holes, and a row of wooden beads marching across the length of it. 

I couldn’t take my eyes away from the now-transformed wall, and I could hardly say a word.  Here, in our own house, with eight-foot high ceilings was the beautiful woodwork that I had only seen gracing the soaring 10-12’ ceilings of historic house museums. The original cornice design that he had started with was much larger because it had been made scaled for a room with 12’ high ceilings. Larry changed the proportions and scale of the original design and made the same cornice in a smaller size.  It was a perfect fit for the eight-foot ceiling of our den. 

Both of us were convinced that he had rediscovered a secret that, although it had once been commonly known, was now lost to many and that the Federal Style was so lovely that it shouldn’t be relegated to museums.

The “secret” that was rediscovered is that the best examples of Federal Style architectural treatments and furniture owe their enduring good looks to a small handful of Golden Section ratios.  The 18^th century architect and designer understood this notion and used the ratios to proportion each design for a specific location.  That is why the cornice hanging in our small den was so eye pleasing when stock moldings had all seemed too large and overbearing.

Larry returned to his shop and over the next few months, he constructed samples of twenty-four cornices, two mantels, and a half dozen 8’ x 3’ full order designs using Asher Benjamin’s 1806 edition of The American Builder’s Companion, William Pain’s 1762 edition of The Builder’s Companion and Workman’s General Assistant, and four measured drawings of historic homes made by Frank Chouteau Brown in the 1930’s. 

He constructed the samples to find out if this 18^th century style could be manufactured today using modern circular-turning power tools like a tilting arbor shaper or adjustable router table sled.  It can.