Cottage Furniture

cottage furniture, mass-produced type of furniture popular in the United States in the mid-19th century. In The Architecture of Country Houses (1850), A.J. Downing recommended it for use in rural surroundings and favoured in particular the work of Edward Hennessy of Boston. He pointed out that a complete bedroom suite in this style could be purchased for the price of a mahogany wardrobe.

Cottage furniture was usually of softwood painted white, gray, lilac, or pale blue and sometimes decorated with floral motifs. The style often featured turned legs (i.e., legs shaped on a lathe), split spindles, and other hallmarks of earlier periods. Turned furniture of this type was also called “Jenny Lind,” in honour of the famous Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whose American concert tour with the American showman P.T. Barnum during the period of this style’s introduction made her name widely familiar.