FURNITURE. Personal chattels in the use of a family.
"The word relates, ordinarily, to movable personal chattels. It is very general, both in meaning and application ; and its meaning changes, so as to take the color of, or be in accord with, the subject to which it is ap plied. Thus, we hear of the furniture of a parlor, of a bed-chamber, of a kitchen, of shops of various kinds, of a ship, of a horse, of a plantation, etc. The articles, utensils, implements, used in these various connec tions, as also those used in a drug or other store, as the furniture thereof, differ in kind according to the purpose which they are in tended to subserve ; yet being put and em ployed in their several places as the equip ment, thereof, for ornament, or to promote comfort, or to facilitate the business therein done, and being kept,' or intended to be kept, for those or some one of those purposes, they pertain to such places respectively, and col lectively constitute the furniture thereof ;" Fore v. Hibbard, 63 Ala. 410.
The expression household furniture must be understood to mean those vessels, uten sils, or goods, which, not becoming fixtures, are designed chiefly for use in the family, as instruments of the household and for con ducting and managing household affairs. It does not include a trunk nor a cabinet in tended for keeping jewelry, Towns v.
Pratt, 33 N. H. 345, 66 Am. Dec. 726.
It is held that by the term household fur niture in a will, all personal chattels will pass which may contribute to the use or con venience of the householder or the ornament of the house: as, plate, linen, china (both useful and ornamental), and pictures; Bunn v. Winthrop, 1 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.) 329 ; 1 S. & S. 189; 2 Will. Ex. 752 ; Jarm. Wills 712, n. ; Marquam v. Sengfelder, 24 Or. 2, 32 Pac. 676; Endicott v. Endicott, 41 N. J. Eq. 93, 3 Atl. 157 ; bronzes, statuary, and pictures ; En dicott v. Endicott, 41 N. J. Eq. 93, 3 Atl. 157 ; but a watch will not ; Gooch v. Gooch, 33 Me. 535 ; nor will books ; 3 Ves. 311; or furni ture of a school-room in a boarding school kept by a teacher ; Appeal of Hoopes, 60 Pa. 220, 100 Am. Dec. 562 ; or silver plate used in a hotel ; Dayton v. Tillou, 1 Rob. (N. Y.) 21. A sewing machine and piano were held exempt from attachment as "household fur niture" ; Von Storch v. Winslow, 13 R. I. 23, 43 Am. Rep. 10 ; but a doubt was expressed as to the piano, and as to that it was held contra in Dunlap v. Edgerton, 30 Vt. 224 ; Tanner v. Billings, 18 Wis. 163, 86 Am. Dec. 755.