Graining has become so common that we may almost call it a rage. Like other senseless fashions, it will have its day and pass away. It would be some satisfaction to us could we be instrumental in shortening its reign by a single hour.
—Henry W. Cleaveland, William Backus, and Samuel D. Backus, Village and Farm Cottages, 1856
Prior to the early nineteenth century, “grain painting” had long been used by ornamental painters to make common pine resemble more expensive woods or marble. This mode of decoration saw a great spike in popularity with the rise of the Fancy style between 1800 and 1840. Ornamental painters such as J. D. Green, who painted the clock seen here, used bright yellow paint and brown washes to create dramatic swirls and loops that looked even more exuberant than real mahogany or rosewood. By the mid-nineteenth century, the fad for Fancy grain-painted furniture and interior architectural woodwork was waning. Village and Farm Cottages, a design book for house carpenters, advised against the “rage” of graining and put it squarely in the category of “senseless fashion.”