Monterey Furniture refers to several lines of furniture made from 1930 to mid 1940s in California. Uniquely western, the line comes from Spanish and Dutch Colonial style, California Mission architecture and furnishings, farm furniture, and cowboy equipment as can be found in warehouses (lariat and branding irons). Mason Manufacturing Company, founded by Frank Mason and his son, George, is credited with the original style of his time. Other lines were created by the Imperial Company, the Angeles Furniture Company (a line called Coronado), Del Rey, Brown, and Saltman, but even Sears (La Fiesta) and Stickley created the Monterey-style furniture.
Mason Monterey is generally made of Oregon alder, and the "classical period", from 1930-1932 painted with a live Mexican palette smeared with glaze asphaltum that creates the look of antique furniture. Many layers of paint go into the final finish in the Mason line. Color used thick: Spanish Red, Spanish Green, Spanish Blue, Yellow Orange. Neutral has an ancient charm in Straw Ivory and Old Wood. At first most pieces have some sort of decorative element, such as "river of life", festive streaks, or flower decorations. Mexican cartoonist Juan Intenoche heads the paint department, and the most precious piece of Monterey contains his strange design. Donkeys, caballeros, sleeping men with wide hats, cactus, and other pictures are his trademark. Masons branded most of their furniture with horseshoe and the name, "Monterey," though not all branded. The smoke of the brand is sometimes too thick for the workers; in those days they stop the brand. The company produces furniture for 14 years, and undergoes the following periods: classic, transitional, and intermediate. Towards the end of his manufacturing career, the company began to make rather ordinary furniture that did not look like the Monterey style, but was a colonial American revival.
Hollywood and Barker Brothers were influential in the creation of Mason's furniture line, where Barker Brothers approached Frank Mason with the idea of ââcreating furniture lines based on furniture seen in the popular early "talkie", In Old Arizona by Fox Film Corporation , 1929. Spanish revival houses were built all over Los Angeles, and Barker Brothers wanted a line of furniture that could complement the style of the houses. The largest public collection was purchased for Chateau in 1933 at the Oregon Caves National Monument; most of the collections are from the early classical period. In 2010, two dozen pieces of the first Monterey Mason were preserved and restored.
Imperial Monterey is made of mahogany. It is a heavier, well-constructed and well-designed line, with a working quality of iron to strengthen the structure. Color palettes sometimes contain ornamental floral designs, but Imperial is known for finishing simpler chocolates similar to those of Old Wood of the Mason line. The largest original public collection of Imperial Monterey has recently been preserved, and is used in the home of the Crater Lake National Park supervisor, now the Center for Science and Learning.
The Coronado line is generally a lighter blonde color than antiqued oil paint, and the design contains more corners and has a wrapped winter decoration. Intenoche appears to be bathed in moonlight at Los Angeles Plant, because its design is also found in Coronado furniture. The company is branded with a crown featuring the word Coronado .
Video Monterey Furniture
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Source of the article : Wikipedia