Shaker furniture: Clean by design

The Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts is a museum where visitors can see the simple, practical furniture designed by the Christian sect centuries ago. Richard Schlesinger finds out why their designs were innovative, and how they endure.

[Joseph]

I have to address the false understanding of Shaker's design philosophy in the video, as the Shaker's believe, "Don't make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don't hesitate to make it beautiful" They did not exclude the objective of making furniture pleasantly looking but rather focusing on the function of it first.

[LJ]

The woman at the start saying they "wouldn't find them beautiful", really? Find that hard to believe. There is clear design and commitment to a style. There are arches. There is polishing, symmetry and lots more design elements.

[Debbiesnc]

This is a great visit to the past for me, as my family traveled to an aunt's house in Freeport, Maine within close visiting distance to the Shakers' home. My mother loved antiques and held onto some collected family pieces including the incredibly designed beautiful "button-boxes" made of the curved wood that are now in my own home. I recall the town being austere, interesting and rather clean even to the eyes of a child!

[samsson]

So why build the blanket chest with legs?

[chriskappert]

Those ladderback chairs look remarkably similar to the Dutch " knopstoel " .
You see these chairs allreddy on 17th century Dutch paintings, so 400 years back !
I have got 6 of these in my home and love their shape and YES !
These chairs sitt much better than you would asume on first glance, but thats probably why we Dutch make them for 400 years now to this day .

[Oldiesyoungies]

I love CBS sunday morning!! It's like 20/20 for the family :D

[thomaszaccone]

Love their furniture. Awesome people.

[Quiselott]

I've been in many a classroom and I've never seen the swiveling back post on any of my chairs...

[ShakespeareCafe]

How does she know their sense of beauty wasn't as acute as our fascination with Shaker furniture?

[MariajoseHernández-mn]

Investigando sobre el origen de las escobas me enteré que los shakers fueron quienes perfeccionaron una idea más primitiva al usar la escoba.

[macmom]

Can you please provide captions for this video?

[jeffhildreth]

Shaker design may influence modern furniture makers; Swedish design influenced the Shakers. Much of what is attributed to Shakers was born of Swedish origin.

[birddogfreemann]

This woman does not know what she's talking about. The Shakers were devoted to aesthetics, form and function in design.

[Mimi-mlty]

I had shakers in wallin's in the Daniel Boone in elementary school and they were supposed to be some of the best furniture makers... And Quaker is a talking bird

[abcofurniture]

Nice video.
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[Mrosh]

Why are they called shakers? This was not addressed.

[Mrosh]

A furniture company by the name of WOOD YOU makes furniture like this.

[Mimi-mlty]

And is the janitor's name in Kentucky from the 1980s when we had shakers in our classroom when I used to play pee wee baseball for true value pope and Cawood lumber and supply... My father and my uncle in Harlan Kentucky Daniel Boone in the 1980's

[krachenford]

Beautyful furniture, ridiculous curator.

[glenangelos]

They should have though twice about the no kid rule!