The common problem, yours, mine, everyone’s, is not to fancy what were fair in life provided it could be—but finding first what may be, then find how to make it fair up to our means.—Browning

Not so many years ago, home-builders of good taste who wished to have in their homes a background of beautiful woodwork with architectural value found it almost impossible to obtain such woodwork except by special order, at necessarily great cost. The Curtis Companies have done much to change this—to make this one thing that is “fair in life,” “fair up to our means.” The object of this booklet is to tell you how it is possible for you now to obtain woodwork of excellent design and guaranteed construction at lower cost than you could have done a few years ago.

What is meant by “lower costs?” Curtis Woodwork is not the lowest priced woodwork on the market, but it is the greatest value, dollar for dollar. You may be able to buy, for less money, woodwork that looks something like Curtis material. Cheaper material cannot, of course, have the same quality as Curtis Woodwork all the way through. We do not claim to make the cheapest woodwork on the market, but only the best. You will find that woodwork bearing the Curtis trademark represents better value, rather than lower first cost.

Design

The first element of its greater value, perhaps, is superior design. Along with a higher standard of living in general, and education in better homes and interior furnishing, there has come an increasing demand for woodwork of better proportions and pattern than are found in ordinary “stock millwork.” The Curtis Companies, led by this demand, re-designed Curtis Woodwork to make it harmonize with the newer furnishings. In this work, the authoritative help of the architectural profession was sought. The present beautiful and authentic designs of Curtis Woodwork are the work of Trowbridge & Ackerman, architects, of New York City, who are acknowledged experts in interior details of homes.

This quality of good design adds nothing to the cost, for it is just as cheap to make a good design as a poor one, and often involves less material rather than more, and simpler forms rather than more ornate ones.

Your architect will not hesitate to recommend Curtis Woodwork for your home, because it is correct in every detail, and will save him and you the labor and expense and delay of specially designed items.

“But how,” you ask, “can Curtis Woodwork be beautiful and be well made without increasing the cost?” Briefly, because it has been standardized and is produced in quantities.

Standardization

By standardization, we mean that production has been limited to those designs, sizes and kinds of wood indicated in Curtis literature. These are of sufficient number and variety to cover all needs and all types of houses, but eliminate those sizes and patterns not in demand. Thus waste is eliminated by not producing and keeping in stock material that is little called for.

The woodwork items pictured in most “millwork” catalogs as stock are seldom actually on hand; they are a collection of suggested designs which have been detailed and which will be made up upon receipt of your order. The items shown in the Curtis catalog, “Architectural Interior and Exterior Woodwork, Standardized,” are made up in quantities, and an effort is made to keep a supply on hand ready for shipment upon receipt of your order.

Quantity Production

These standardized items of Curtis Woodwork are produced in large quantities. It is easily understood that a hundred sideboards, for instance, can be produced at a much lower proportionate cost than a single one. Accurate “details” must be prepared and if these can be used again and again, a large factor in the cost of production is eliminated. In making a sideboard, no less than 19 operations are necessary. For these, intricate machines must be set and adjusted, and material prepared. This can be done in practically the same time for 100 to be run through as for 1, thus distributing the cost.

Construction

Wood is the only building material that grows. For that reason it is seldom perfect and is more subject to the action of heat or moisture than any other building material. It must be protected against damage from these elements from the time the tree is felled—during the time it is being made into woodwork in the factory, while in storage, in transit, in the hands of your painter and finisher, and even during the years that it is in your home. The construction of Curtis Woodwork takes account of these factors and minimizes the chances of your woodwork “going wrong” after it leaves our hands.

There is not space here to tell about the special construction features which distinguish Curtis Woodwork from ordinary “millwork.” Some of them are shown, however, on the following pages, in diagrams showing details of Curtis stairs, cabinet work and doors.

Workmen making more than one piece of a kind at a time soon find better ways of doing the work, and therefore make a product of better quality. Many of the special Curtis construction features have been worked out by the men in the Curtis factories because they were interested in making Curtis Woodwork the best you can buy. If they made each piece but once, the purchaser could not profit from their experience.

Deliveries

Curtis Woodwork is made in quantities and kept in stock, not only by the various Curtis factories, but by Curtis dealers throughout the East and Middle West. With this wide distribution, your order can be delivered promptly, so that your workmen need not be held up waiting for your woodwork to be made at the mill.

Guarantee

Every piece of Curtis Woodwork that you buy carries, as a final pledge of its better value, the guarantee: “The makers of Curtis Woodwork guarantee complete satisfaction to its users. ‘We’re not satisfied unless you are.’” If you believe with us that economy does not refer to money hoarded, but to money wisely spent, ask your lumber dealer to furnish Curtis Woodwork for your house, and look for the Curtis trademark upon it.