Support for this program was provided by:
THE SEWELL C. BIGGS
WINTERTHUR
FURNITURE FORUM
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON BOSTON
FURNITURE, 1630–1860
March 6–8, 2013
PROGRAM
Early Boston furniture has been a favorite of collectors for
years. Outstanding pieces from the city now fill museums,
historic houses, and private collections across the country. This
year’s forum offers the first in-depth look at more than two
centuries of Boston’s craft history. The story is a rich, colorful
Colonial Society of Massachusetts
Concord Museum
tale of immigrants and native-born sons, of European designs
and regional innovation, of local customers and distant markets,
and much, much more.
Fuller Craft Museum
Historic Deerfield
Historic New England
The 2013 Sewell C. Biggs Winterthur Furniture Forum is the
inaugural event of the collaborative endeavor Four Centuries of
Massachusetts Furniture. Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Massachusetts Historical Society
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
is proud to play a leading role in bringing this exciting and
unique venture to fruition. We are especially pleased to partner
North Bennet Street School
with the Colonial Society of Massachusetts in the development
Old Sturbridge Village
of this forum, and we thank them for their commitment to
Peabody Essex Museum
publish selected papers in a volume devoted to Boston furniture.
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
The Four Centuries project is made possible by the generosity of
many individuals, foundations, and institutions. We are
particularly grateful to Northeast Auctions and Freeman’s for
The collaboration’s website,
their support of this forum.
www.fourcenturies.org,
will be coming online this May.
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WORKSHOPS AND DEMONSTRATIONS
Wednesday, March 6, and Saturday, March 9
9:00–10:30 am and 11:00 am–12:30 pm
Making Furniture the 17th-Century
Way, Peter Follansbee, Joiner, Plimoth
Plantation, Plymouth, MA
Carving Boston Style, Allan Breed,
Cabinet- and Chairmaker,
Rollinsford, NH
Boston Federal Inlays, Stephen Latta,
Professor of Cabinet and Wood
Technology, Thaddeus Stevens College
of Technology, Lancaster, PA
Looking Closely at Boston Classical
Furniture, Clark Pearce, American
Arts Advisor and Independent Scholar,
Essex, MA, and Robert D. Mussey, Jr.,
Conservator and Independent Scholar,
Milton, MA
Fabric over Frame: Boston Upholstery,
1630–1860, Gretchen Guidess,
Assistant Conservator, Williamstown
Art Conservation Center, Williamstown,
MA, and Mark Anderson, Head
Furniture Conservator, Winterthur
Building the Best Boston Furniture
Steve Brown, Instructor, Cabinet- and
Furnituremaking Program, North
Bennet Street School, Boston, MA
“Seeing the Wood for the Trees”:
American Woods in British Furniture,
1600–1900, Adam Bowett, Furniture
Historian, Old Cowling, England
Boston Furniture at Winterthur
Brock Jobe, Professor of American
Decorative Arts, Winterthur,
Exhibition Tour
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6
4:15–4:45 pm
Early 18th-Century Boston
Case Furniture
Edward S. Cooke, Jr.,
Charles F. Montgomery
Professor of American
Decorative Arts, Yale University,
New Haven, CT
1:00–2:00 pm
Registration, Visitor Center
2:00–2:10 pm
Welcome
Brock Jobe, Professor of
American Decorative Arts,
Winterthur, and Donald R.
Friary, President, Colonial
Society of Massachusetts,
Boston, MA
2:10–2:30 pm
Forty Years of Boston Furniture
Scholarship: From Boston
Furniture of the Eighteenth
Century to Today: A Reminiscence
Jonathan L. Fairbanks,
Director, Fuller Craft Museum,
Brockton, MA
2:30–3:45 pm
Seventeenth-Century Boston
Furniture: Tools and Techniques
Video-Assist Demonstration
Peter Follansbee,
Joiner, Plimoth Plantation,
Plymouth, MA
3:45–4:15 pm
Afternoon Break
4:45–5:15 pm
Japanners in Early 18th-Century
Boston
Christine Thomson, Private
Conservator, Salem, MA, and
Tara Cederholm, Curator,
Brookfield Arts Foundation,
Salem, NH
5:15–5:45 pm
Mrs. Oliver’s Chair: A Boston Classic
Gregory Landrey, Division
Director for Library, Collections
Management, and Academic
Programs, Winterthur
THURSDAY, MARCH 7
8:00–8:45 am
Registration, Visitor Center
8:45–9:15 am
Introductory Remarks
J. Thomas Savage, Director of
Museum Affairs, Winterthur
9:15–10:00 am
Boston and Its Craft Community,
1650–1850
J. Ritchie Garrison, Director,
Winterthur Program in
American Material Culture,
University of Delaware,
Newark, DE
10:00–10:30 am
“Such Ruins Were Never Seen in
America”: The Looting of Thomas
Hutchinson’s House at the Time of the
Stamp Act Riots
John Tyler, Editor of
Publications, Colonial Society of
Massachusetts, Boston, MA
10:30–11:00 am
Morning Break
11:00–11:30 am
Boston or New York? Revisiting the
Apthorp-Family and Related Sets of
Queen Anne Chairs
Philip Zimmerman, Museum
Consultant and Independent
Scholar, Lancaster, PA
11:30 am–12:15 pm
A Scotsman, Thomas Chippendale,
and the Green Dragon Tavern:
Connecting the Dots
Kemble Widmer,
Independent Furniture Scholar,
Newburyport, MA
12:15–2:00 pm
Lunch
2:00–3:30 pm
The Turret-Top Tea Tables and Card
Tables of Boston
The Robert Francis Fileti
Endowed Lecture/Video-Assist
Demonstration
Brock Jobe, Professor of
American Decorative Arts,
Winterthur, and Allan Breed,
Cabinet- and Chairmaker,
Rollinsford, NH
3:30–4:00 pm
Afternoon Break
4:00–4:30 pm
Pigeonholes and Patriots: A Case
Study of the Desk in 18th-Century
Boston
Gerald W. R. Ward, Senior
Consulting Curator and the
Katharine Lane Weems Senior
Curator of American
Decorative Arts and Sculpture
Emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, MA
4:30–5:00 pm
Windsor Furnituremaking in Boston:
A Late but Innovative Center of
the Craft
Nancy Goyne Evans,
Independent Furniture
Historian, Hockessin, DE
5:00–5:30 pm
Samuel Gragg, Visionary
Chairmaker of Boston
Michael Podmaniczky,
Private Conservator,
Wilmington, DE
5:30–8:00 pm
Reception
Galleries Reception Area
6:00–7:30 pm
Boston Furniture at Winterthur
Exhibition open for viewing in
the Winterthur Galleries
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—3—
FRIDAY, MARCH 8
8:45–9:00 am
The Mystery Center Table
Wendy A. Cooper, Lois F.
and Henry S. McNeil Senior
Curator of Furniture,
Winterthur
1:30–2:15 pm
Early Boston Pianomaking: The State
of Scholarship
Darcy Kuronen, Pappalardo
Curator of Musical Instruments,
Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, MA
9:00–9:30 am
“The Best Workman in the Shop”:
Cabinetmaker William Munroe
of Concord
David F. Wood, Curator,
Concord Museum,
Concord, MA
2:15–2:45 pm
Boston Furnituremakers and the New
Social Media, 1830–60
Kelly L’Ecuyer, Ellyn
McColgan Curator of
Decorative Arts and Sculpture,
Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, MA
9:30–10:00 am
The Federal Sideboards of Benjamin
Bass, Jr.
Morrison Heckscher,
Lawrence A. Fleischman
Chairman of the American
Wing, Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, NY
2:45–3:15 pm
Afternoon Break
10:00–10:30 am
Boston Classical Furniture:
A (Nearly) 40-Year Reflection
Page Talbott, Principal, Remer
& Talbott, Bala Cynwyd, PA
10:30–11:00 am
Morning Break
11:00 am–12:00 noon
Classical Excellence in Boston:
The Work of Isaac Vose, 1789–
1825
Clark Pearce, American Arts
Advisor and Independent
Scholar, Essex, MA, and
Robert D. Mussey, Jr.,
Conservator and Independent
Scholar, Milton, MA
12:00 noon–1:30 pm
Lunch
3:15–3:45 pm
John Ellis & A. H. Davenport:
Furniture Manufacturing in East
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1850–1900
Nancy Carlisle, Senior
Curator of Collections, Historic
New England, Boston, MA
3:45–4:15 pm
“Deep Investigations of Science and
Exquisite Refinements of Taste”:
The Objects and Communities of
Early Libraries and Historical
Societies in Eastern Massachusetts
Caryne Eskridge, Lois F.
McNeil Fellow, Winterthur
Program in American Material
Culture, Class of 2013,
Winterthur
4:15–5:00 pm
Framing the Interior: The
Entrepreneurial Career of
John Doggett
Richard C. Nylander, Curator
Emeritus, Historic New
England, Boston, MA
5:00–5:15 pm
Concluding Remarks
Philip Zea, President, Historic
Deerfield, Deerfield, MA
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SPEAKERS AND WORKSHOP
PRESENTERS
Adam Bowett, Furniture Historian, Old Cowling,
England
“Seeing the Wood for the Trees”: American Woods in
British Furniture, 1600–1900
Most American commentators, if they consider
the subject at all, portray Britain in the colonial
era as a timber-starved nation, grateful for
whatever wood the 13 colonies could provide. This
caricature obscures a complex relationship that
concerned not just Britain and North America but
northern Europe and the Baltic, in which commercial
and political realities had a clear and at times decisive
effect on British furnituremaking. The 13 colonies,
and later the United States, were at times
peripheral and at other times absolutely central
to the British furniture industry, and this
presentation will explain why. It will also address
the sometimes contentious topic of attribution based on wood
analysis. The analysis might be sound, but what conclusions should
be drawn from it?
Recommended Reading:
Bowett, Adam. Woods in British Furniture Making, 1400–1900. Wetherby,
Eng.: Oblong Creative/Kew Publishing, 2012.
Steve Brown, Instructor, Cabinet- and Furnituremaking Program, North
Bennet Street School, Boston
Building the Best Boston Furniture
Fine 18th-century American chairs have elegance and sophistication
made obvious by the well-proportioned parts as well as the details
displaying the skill of the makers. A more subtle sophistication is
revealed when studying and reproducing an actual chair. I gained
unique understanding in how 18th-century builders integrated design,
construction, and technique by struggling with the process and
problem-solving of chair building using hand tools and techniques
similar to those of the original makers. The apparent complexity in a
chair actually masks layers of simpler manageable steps. These
techniques also illustrate the maker’s efficient use of both time and
material, which is critical to understanding period furniture. Using
images and live demonstration, I will show the overall process as well
as key elements of 18th-century chairmaking.
Recommended Reading:
Kane, Patricia E. 300 Years of American Seating Furniture: Chairs and Beds from
the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University. Boston: New York
Graphic Society, 1976.
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Kirk, John T. American Chairs: Queen Anne and Chippendale. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1972.
———.American Furniture: Understanding Styles, Construction, and Quality. New
York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000.
Vandal, Norman. Queen Anne Furniture: History, Design, and Construction.
Newtown, Conn.: Taunton Press, 1990.
Nancy Carlisle, Senior Curator of Collections, Historic New England, Boston
John Ellis & A. H. Davenport: Furniture Manufacturing in East Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1850–1900
From the 17th through19th centuries, Boston was among the
country’s premier furnituremaking centers. By the second quarter of
the 19th century, furniture manufacturing began to crop up in new
industrial centers in the central corridor of the state—Leominster,
Fitchburg, and especially Gardner. But furnituremaking remained
strong in Boston. Indeed, the 1880 census showed that Boston was
still the fifth largest furniture producer in the country after New York,
Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. With the growth of
transportation networks, the furniture industry became increasingly
competitive. How did Boston furnituremakers compete with those in
Gardner and Fitchburg, as well as those in Cincinnati and Grand
Rapids? An analysis of two companies, John A. Ellis (1857–70) and
A. H. Davenport (1880–1906), with storefronts in Boston and
manufacturing shops in East Cambridge, suggests that successful
furniture manufacturers in this period used new marketing
techniques, formed partnerships with decorators and architects, and
adapted new technologies to meet shifting demand.
Recommended Reading:
Carron, Christian G. Grand Rapids Furniture: The Story of America’s Furniture
City. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Public Museum of Grand Rapids, 1998.
Cooke, Edward S., Jr. “The Boston Furniture Industry in 1880.” OldTime New England 70 (1980): 82–98.
Ettema, Michael J. “Technological Innovation and Design Economics in
Furniture Manufacture.” Winterthur Portfolio 16, nos. 2/3 (Spring/Autumn
1981): 197–223.
Farnam, Anne. “A.H. Davenport and Company, Boston Furniture
Makers.” The Magazine Antiques 109, no. 5 (May 1976): 1048–55.
———. “H. H. Richardson and A. H. Davenport: Architecture and
Furniture as Big Business in America’s Gilded Age.” In Tools and Technologies:
America’s Wooden Age, edited by Paul B. Kebabian and William C. Lipke, 80–
92. Burlington: University of Vermont, 1979.
Edward S. Cooke, Jr., Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American
Decorative Arts, Department of the History of Art, Yale University,
New Haven, Connecticut
Early 18th-Century Boston Case Furniture
The study of Boston furniture at the dawn of the 18th century has
been dominated by the work of Benno Forman for the past 40
years. Curiously there has been little scholarly activity adding to
that legacy or revising his conclusions. This paper will seek to
engage with Benno’s work by turning away from a linear sense of
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style, seen in his work on the Boston cane chair and his focus on
makers and production. Focusing upon case furniture made or used
in Boston in the period 1680–1720, this lecture will instead
consider consumption and circulation, exploring the motivations
for different types of case furniture as well as their fit within the
practice of everyday life under the new charter. It thus considers
the politics of case furniture during a period of transition.
Recommended Reading:
Forman, Benno M. “Urban Aspects of Massachusetts Furniture in the Late
Seventeenth Century.” In Country Cabinetwork and Simple City Furniture, edited by
John Morse, 1–33. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970.
———. “The Chest of Drawers in America, 1635–1730: The Origin of the
Joined Chest of Drawers.” Winterthur Portfolio 20, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 1–30.
———. American Seating Furniture, 1630–1730. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988.
Trent, Robert F. “The Chest of Drawers in America, 1635–1730: A
Postscript.” Winterthur Portfolio 20, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 31–48.
Wendy A. Cooper, Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Senior Curator of Furniture
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware
The Mystery Center Table
A curator’s curiosity about an unusual scagliola-top center table in
Winterthur’s collection led to the serendipitous discovery of its
fascinating origin and owners. Initially thanks to Google, then a savvy
bookseller in Maine, this extraordinary story unfolded as the pieces of
the puzzle fell into place.
Recommended Reading:
“Biographical Notes of Nathaniel Silsbee,” The Essex Institute Historical
Collections 35 (1899): 1–79.
Brewington, M.V., and Dorothy Brewington. The Marine Paintings and
Drawings in the Peabody Museum. Salem, Mass.: The Peabody Museum, 1968, 19.
Antiques and Objects of Art, The Property of Frederick Silsbee Whitwell, Esquire.
Louis Joseph Auction Galleries, Inc., Boston, December 13–15, 1932.
Caryne Eskridge, Lois F. McNeil Fellow, Winterthur Program in American
Material Culture, Class of 2013, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library,
Winterthur, Delaware
“Deep Investigations of Science and Exquisite Refinements of Taste”:
The Objects and Communities of Early Libraries and Historical Societies
in Eastern Massachusetts
In April of 1807, Dr. John Thornton Kirkland, a director of the
newly formed Corporation of the Boston Athenaeum, drafted a
memoir of the purpose and plan of the Athenaeum to be
circulated amongst potential members. The institution would
encourage “deep investigations of science and exquisite
refinements of taste” among other pursuits; for, in his opinion,
“A nation, that increases in wealth, without any corresponding
increase in knowledge and refinement, in letters and arts, neglects
the proper and respectable uses of prosperity.”1 The founders of
the Boston Athenaeum were not alone in seeking to fill a perceived
need for society’s intellectual and aesthetic improvement and for
the accumulation and preservation of historical and
anthropological sources. The Massachusetts Historical Society
—7—
(1791), the Boston Athenaeum (1807), the American Antiquarian
Society (1812), and the Pilgrim Society (1820) make up a group of
libraries, historical societies, and repositories founded in the span of
a few decades that present intriguing similarities and differences.
This presentation examines the objects of these organizations as
well as the furniture that contained them and furnished the spaces
around them.
1
Dr. John Thornton Kirkland, “Boston Athenaeum,” in Josiah Quincy,
History of the Boston Athenaeum, with Biographical Notices of its Deceased Founders
(Cambridge, Mass.: Metcalf and Company, 1851), 31.
Recommended Reading:
Gura, Philip F. The American Antiquarian Society, 1812–2012: A Bicentennial
History. Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 2012.
Tucker, Louis Leonard. The Massachusetts Historical Society: A Bicentennial
History, 1791–1991. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society and
Northeastern University Press, 1995.
Wolff, Katherine. Culture Club: The Curious History of the Boston Athenaeum.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009.
Nancy Goyne Evans, Independent Furniture Historian, Hockessin, Delaware
Windsor Furnituremaking in Boston: A Late but Innovative Center of the Craft
Evidence that the craft community at Boston introduced the trade of
Windsor-chairmaking to local furniture production emerges from city
records only in the late 1780s, although many members of the
mercantile community were already familiar with the practicality and
economy of Windsor seating through their trade with Philadelphia,
the center of the craft. Windsor production took hold quickly in
Boston, and by the early 1790s, Rhode Island chairmaking also was a
strong influence on local work. Craftsman in the city quickly became
skilled at adapting designs and innovating with signature features of
their own. Innovation continued into the early 19th century, when a
simple contoured chair back provided a model that led ultimately to
the rocking form known everywhere, even in its day, as a “Boston
rocking chair.” Local distribution of Windsor furniture extended
beyond the home to lecture halls, mechanic societies, and institutions,
including the Boston Athenaeum and the Boston Theatre. A
substantial Boston export trade in Windsor furniture developed in
time, reaching to Canada, the American South, the Caribbean, and
South America.
Recommended Reading
Evans, Nancy Goyne. American Windsor Chairs. New York: Hudson Hills
Press, 1996.
Jonathan L. Fairbanks, Director, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts
Forty Years of Boston Furniture Scholarship: From Boston Furniture of
the Eighteenth Century to Today: A Reminiscence
This presentation pays tribute to colleagues who have shaped our
knowledge of furniture history over the past 40-plus years. It has been
a process of surprise and discovery as we develop a better
understanding of the curious art of making furniture with sharpedged tools in Massachusetts from the earliest period of English
settlement to the present.
Recommended Reading:
Whitehill, Walter Muir, Jonathan Fairbanks, and Brock Jobe, eds.
Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century. Boston: Colonial Society of
Massachusetts, 1974.
Peter Follansbee, Joiner, Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Seventeenth-Century Boston Furniture: Tools and Techniques
Video-Assist Demonstration
The 1661 inventory of Boston joiner Thomas Scottow included a
great number of tools, among them “25 plaines, a paire of
compasses, augers, hold fasts,” and more. This video-assisted
demonstration and lecture will outline the tools used in Boston
joiner’s shops and how they were employed to make some of the
iconic works associated with that town. Working with several Boston
inventories, period texts such as Randle Holme’s Academie or Store House
of Armory & Blazon (1688), surviving tools, and other sources,
Follansbee will explain and exhibit how a basic tool kit can be
effectively used to shape the stock, cut and fit the joinery, and make
the applied decoration typical of this area. Using tools ranging from
19th-century examples of earlier forms to handmade reproductions
can help us understand something of period work. Some of these
tools remained in normal use into the 20th century; others were rediscovered in the United States and United Kingdom, but were still
current in much of the world. Oak still behaves as it always did. This
is an ongoing study.
Recommended Reading:
Alexander, Jennie, and Peter Follansbee. Make a Joint Stool from a Tree: An
Introduction to 17th-Century Joinery. Fort Mitchell, Ky.: Lost Art Press, 2011.
Follansbee, Peter. “Manuscripts, Marks, and Material Culture:
Understanding the Joiner’s Trade in Seventeenth-Century America.”
In American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite, 125–46. Milwaukee:
Chipstone Foundation, 2002.
———. American Windsor Furniture: Specialized Forms. New York: Hudson Hills
Press, 1997.
Follansbee, Peter, and Robert F. Trent. “Reassessing the London-Style
Joinery and Turning of Seventeenth-Century Boston.” In American Furniture,
edited by Luke Beckerdite, 194–240. Milwaukee: Chipstone Foundation, 2010.
———. Windsor-Chair Making in America: From Craft Shop to Consumer. Hanover,
N.H.: University Press of New England, 2006.
Forman, Benno M. American Seating Furniture, 1630–1730. New York: W. W.
Norton, 1988.
———. “The Chest of Drawers in America, 1635–1730: The Origins of the
Joined Chest of Drawers.” Winterthur Portfolio 20, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 1–30.
Tarule, Robert. The Artisan of Ipswich: Craftsmanship and Community in Colonial
New England. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
Trent, Robert F. “The Chest of Drawers in America, 1635–1730:
A Postscript.” Winterthur Portfolio 20, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 31–48.
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J. Ritchie Garrison, Director, Winterthur Program in American Material
Culture, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
Boston and Its Craft Community, 1650–1850
One of the challenges for scholars who study American furniture is
to understand why Boston became a center for production and
how conditions of design and production changed. This
presentation explores the city’s craft community with a focus on
three major themes: 1) From inception, Boston’s furniture
production was part of a regional network and the Atlantic world
economy; 2) Inequalities—too much skilled labor and production
for a local market, too few resources to exist in isolation, and too
much competition to remain conservative for long—drove artisans’
decisions; 3) Over time, the city’s furnituremakers had to adapt to
high land costs, capricious markets, war and politics, greater profits
in other economic sectors, and increased capital requirements in a
business that manufactured consumer durables. If the broad
contours of these changes are understood, the details and
implications are not. Boston’s best cabinetmakers made beautiful
things, but it was a hard way to make a living.
Recommended Reading:
Adamson, Glenn. “The Politics of the Caned Chair.” In American Furniture
2002, edited by Luke Beckerdite, 174–206. Milwaukee: Chipstone
Foundation, 2002.
Gretchen Guidess, Assistant Conservator, Williamstown Art Conservation
Center, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Mark Anderson, Head Furniture
Conservator, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware
Fabric Over Frame: Boston Upholstery, 1630–1860
Throughout its early history, Boston supported a vibrant upholstery
trade. During the colonial period, the high cost of upholstered
furniture resulted from expensive imported fabrics, not the wooden
frames, making upholsterers among the wealthiest craftsmen in the
town. With increased mechanization, furnituremaking in Boston
became an industry and upholstered furniture became available to
a wider segment of a growing population. Guidess and Anderson
will examine the methods and materials used by Boston
upholsterers. Illustrations drawn from the Winterthur collection,
depicting both furniture and the most popular types of show cover
materials from leather to plush textile, will illuminate 200 years of
Boston upholstery practice.
Recommended Reading:
Britton, Nancy, and Mark Anderson. “The Evolution of American
Upholstery, Techniques: 1650–1900.” In The Forgotten History-Upholstery
Conservation, edited by Karin Lohm, 30–80. Linköping, Sweden: Linköping
University, 2011.
Jobe, Brock. “The Boston Upholstery Trade, 1700–1775.” In Upholstery in
America and Europe from the Seventeenth Century to World War I, edited by Edward S.
Cooke, Jr., 64–89. New York: W. W. Norton, 1987.
Jobe, Brock, and Myrna Kaye. New England Furniture: The Colonial Era,
Selections from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1984.
Montgomery, Florence M. Textiles in America, 1650–1870. Rev. ed. New
York: W. W. Norton, 2007.
—10—
Morrison Heckscher, Lawrence A. Fleischman Chairman of the American
Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Federal Sideboards of Benjamin Bass, Jr.
Among the hundreds of names that appear in Page Talbott’s
landmark compilation of furnituremakers plying their trades in
Boston between 1810 and 1835 (The Magazine Antiques, May 1992),
one of the most beguiling is the entry for Benjamin Bass, Jr., active on
Orange Street by 1810. In 1816 Bass was in partnership with one
James Barker, whose advertisement of the following year made
reference to Thomas Seymour’s “whole attention in the
manufactory.” Bass owed money to a number of other craftsmen,
including Thomas Wightman, the man credited with the carving on
Thomas Seymour’s most elaborate pieces. While Bass died insolvent,
the 1819 inventory of his estate included some 965 individual entries
(many for multiple objects), mostly of things related to the making of
furniture, with a value of $9,464.67. So, this was a sizeable shop with
ties to Thomas Seymour’s. Add to that the discovery of the pencil
inscription “Benjamin Bass Jr / Boston / Fecit.” on the bottom of a
drawer of a Massachusetts sideboard of a type often associated with
Seymour, and we have the opportunity to increase our understanding,
among other things, of an important group of Boston sideboards.
Recommended Reading:
Mussey, Robert D., Jr. The Furniture Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour.
Salem, Mass.: Peabody Essex Museum, 2003.
Brock Jobe, Professor of American Decorative Arts, Winterthur Museum,
Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware, and Allan Breed, Cabinet- and
Chairmaker, Rollinsford, New Hampshire
The Turret-Top Tea Tables and Card Tables of Boston
The Robert Francis Fileti Endowed Lecture/Video-Assist Demonstration
“The table itself is unique. It was a tea-table. The outline of the top
was a series of circular projections each planned to hold a tea-cup and
saucer while still leaving room in the middle of the table for the other
tea equipment. The entire table was edged with a narrow molding
raised just enough above the surface of the table so that tea-saucers
would not slide off if the table was jarred.”
This account, written in 1910, describes one of the most distinctive
forms of Boston 18th-century furniture: the turret-top tea table. Only
seven examples of the form are known; the one described in the quote
is now at Winterthur. It originally belonged to William and Sarah
Sever of Kingston, Massachusetts, and was probably made at about
the time of their marriage in 1755. Other versions include two at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and single examples at Historic
Deerfield, Bayou Bend, and two private collections. Though extremely
rare, the turreted tea table does relate to a much larger group of
Boston card tables with turreted corners. The latter examples follow a
popular London design, introduced during the 1720s. In this
presentation, Allan Breed will demonstrate—through images and work
at the bench—the construction of the tea and card tables, paying
particular attention to the varied techniques used to join the frame,
legs, and turrets. Brock Jobe will place these tables in an historical
context. He will explore the origins of the English turreted card table,
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trace its transfer to Boston, and document the introduction of its
distinctive cousin, the tea table. He also will comment on the uses of
the two forms and their placement within colonial Boston homes.
Recommended Reading:
Property from the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. George Fenimore Johnson. Sotheby’s,
January 19, 2008, no. 4.
Randall, Richard H., Jr. American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1965, 111–13, 115–16, nos. 79, 81.
Richards, Nancy E., and Nancy Goyne Evans. New England Furniture at
Winterthur, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods. Winterthur, Del.: Henry Francis
du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1997, 236–37, no. 122.
Darcy Kuronen, Pappalardo Curator of Musical Instruments, Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston
Early Boston Pianomaking: The State of Scholarship
During the early decades of the 1800s, Boston was the most
progressive center for the manufacture of pianos, certainly in the
United States and, in some ways, worldwide. Much of the innovation
centered on the musical components, but the shops that made these
instruments also produced some very handsome casework. Much of
the furniture styling for the earliest instruments naturally mimicked
that of English pianos, though as the 19th century progressed, an
American-influenced Empire Style can be seen in many examples.
Although it has been difficult to identify exactly who executed the
casework in all of the various Boston piano shops, there is evidence
that one firm employed James Cogswell in this capacity, and at least
one piano case from about 1800 has been attributed to the workshop
of Thomas Seymour. There is also ample evidence that ornamental
painter John Ritto Penniman executed floral decoration on some of
the earliest pianos made in the Boston area. A brief outline of
Boston’s early piano industry will be presented, illustrated by images
of instruments that show relevant aspects of case design. The current
state of research will be discussed, along with areas that are in need of
further study by furniture historians and decorative art specialists.
Recommended Reading:
Koster, John. Keyboard Musical Instruments in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1994.
Kuronen, Darcy. “The Musical Instruments of Benjamin Crehore.”
Journal of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 4 (1992): 52–79.
———. “An Organized Piano by Alpheus Babcock.” In Organ Restoration
Reconsidered: Proceedings of a Colloquium, edited by John R. Watson, 59–169.
Warren, Mich.: Harmonie Park Press, 2005.
Libin, Laurence. American Musical Instruments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1985.
—12—
Gregory Landrey, Division Director for Library, Collections Management,
and Academic Programs, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library,
Winterthur, Delaware
Mrs. Oliver’s Chair: A Boston Classic
In 1732, John Smibert painted Mrs. Andrew Oliver and her son
fashionably seated in a “spoon” or “crook” back chair. More than
thirty years later, John Singleton Copley’s portrait of John Hancock
depicts the patriot in a similar chair of the compass seat form. We will
explore the background, construction, and details of the Boston crook
back chair of the 1725–60 era, with a focus on the compass seat type.
After a brief discussion of the origin of the form, the presentation will
concentrate on the construction process from the procuring of
lumber to the crafting of the compass seat, drawing heavily on chairs
of the period as primary documents as well as relevant account books
and other source material. The paper will seek to explain how the
form was created and what makes it such a sophisticated, pleasing,
and noteworthy product that helps define the early to mid-18thcentury furniture of the Boston region.
Recommended Reading:
Bowett, Adam. Early Georgian Furniture, 1715–1740. Woodbridge, Suffolk,
Eng.: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2009. See “Seat Furniture,” 144–199, and
plates 4:30, 4:67 and 4:79.
Freund, Joan Barzilay, and Leigh Keno. “The Making and Marketing
of Boston Seating Furniture in the Late Baroque Style.” In American
Furniture 1998, edited by Luke Beckerdite, 1–40. Milwaukee: Chipstone
Foundation, 1998.
Keno, Leigh, Joan Barzilay Freund, and Alan Miller. “The Very Pink
of the Mode: Boston Georgian Chairs, Their Export, and Their
Influence.” In American Furniture 1996, edited by Luke Beckerdite, 266–306.
Milwaukee: Chipstone Foundation, 1996.
Jobe, Brock, Gary R. Sullivan, and Jack O’Brien. Harbor & Home:
Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710–1850. Hanover, N.H.: University
Press of New England, 2009, cat. no. 12.
Richards, Nancy E., and Nancy Goyne Evans. New England Furniture at
Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods. Winterthur, Del.: Henry Francis
du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1977, 1–212, cat. nos. 7, 23.
Zimmerman, Philip. “The ‘Boston Chairs’ of Mid-Eighteenth-Century
Philadelphia.” In American Furniture 2009, edited by Luke Beckerdite,
140–58. Milwaukee: Chipstone Foundation, 2009.
Stephen Latta, Professor of Cabinet and Wood Technology, Thaddeus
Stevens College of Technology, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Boston Federal Inlays
Federal-period furniture from urban centers such as Charleston,
Baltimore, New York, and Boston displays signature styles of
decoration. In this workshop, Latta will demonstrate the production of
inlay, ornaments, and veneer work found on Boston furniture, especially
that associated with John and Thomas Seymour. The Federal period
was the age of the specialist, with the trade of the inlay maker joining
the ranks of carvers, turners, gilders, and the like. In this worksop we
will touch upon the inlay trade and such inlay specialists as John and
George Dewhurst.
—13—
Recommended Reading:
Clunie, Margaret B. “Salem Federal Furniture.” Master’s thesis,
University of Delaware, 1976.
Hewitt, Benjamin A., Patricia E. Kane, and Gerald W. R. Ward.
The Work of Many Hands: Card Tables in Federal America, 1790–1820. New
Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982.
Montgomery, Charles F. American Furniture: The Federal Period. New York:
Viking Press, 1966.
Mussey, Robert D., Jr. The Furniture Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour.
Salem, Mass.: Peabody Essex Museum, 2003.
Stoneman, Vernon. John and Thomas Seymour: Cabinetmakers in Boston, 1794–
1816. Boston: Special Publications, 1959.
Kelly L’Ecuyer, Ellyn McColgan Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture,
Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston Furnituremakers and the New Social Media, 1830–60
In a world of increasingly fast-paced communications, new kinds of
popular media, and an abundance of information and images
available to consumers, furnituremakers grappled with the
importance of creating a brand identity and using social networking
to market their products effectively. The 21st-century era of
Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest? Actually, in the mid-19th century,
Boston’s furnituremakers experienced similar challenges in
communications and marketing, thanks to the new media of the
period: inexpensive books, newspapers, and magazines (many with
illustrations), public exhibitions and mechanical fairs, and fashionably
decorated public spaces, such as hotel lobbies and photographers’
parlors. How did Boston consumers learn about new furniture and
decide where to buy it? How did makers adapt to this new
environment? In the 18th century, Boston consumers and makers
enjoyed relatively direct face-to-face relationships, often linked
through the recommendation of a family member or neighbor. This
paper will examine how, in the mid-19th century, the connection
between maker and consumer was increasingly mediated through
broader social experiences, new forms of print media, and third-party
arbiters of taste.
Recommended Reading:
Downing, A. J. The Architecture of Country Houses. 1850. Reprint, New York:
Dover Publications, 1969.
Grier, Katherine C. “Imagining the Parlor, 1830–1880.” In Perspectives on
American Furniture, edited by Gerald W. R. Ward, 205–39. New York: W. W.
Norton, 1988.
Hanks, David. Innovative Furniture in America from 1800 to the Present. New
York: Horizon Press, 1981.
Lears, T. J. Jackson. Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in
America. New York: Basic Books, 1994.
Seidler, Jan M. “A Tradition in Transition: The Boston Furniture
Industry, 1840–1880.” In Victorian Furniture: Essays from a Victorian Society
Autumn Symposium, edited by Kenneth L. Ames, 65–83. Philadelphia:
Victorian Society in America, 1983.
—14—
Richard C. Nylander, Curator Emeritus, Historic New England, Boston
Framing the Interior: The Entrepreneurial Career of John Doggett
The name John Doggett is one of the most recognized in the looking
glass and framing trade in early 19th- century Boston. His early
career in Roxbury, Massachusetts, is documented through account
books at Winterthur and by several labeled looking glasses and picture
frames in public and private collections. In 1817 he formed John
Doggett & Co. and moved his business activities to Boston. Between
1815 and 1830, Boston was growing both commercially and
culturally, and Doggett expanded his entrepreneurial ventures to
appeal to the taste of its citizens, which he once described as “peculiar
and often difficult to please.” The framing business as well as his
friendship with numerous artists made him aware of an increased
public appreciation of the fine arts. In addition to promoting early
attempts at lithography, for a brief time he operated a gallery called
Doggett’s Repository, hoping to profit from the popularity of traveling
exhibition pictures and the interest in old master paintings by
conducting exhibitions and auction sales. Later, he imported
carpeting from both England and Scotland to sell at his warehouse.
This presentation will discuss the various aspects of Doggett’s career
as looking glass and frame maker, importer, and promoter of the arts
and explore how the commodities he sold were integrated into the
fashionable homes of Boston’s elite, where they complemented the
new style of furniture in the classical taste.
Recommended Reading:
Cooper, Wendy A. Classical Taste in America, 1800–1840. New York:
Abbeville Press, 1993.
Feld, Stuart P. Boston in the Age of Neo-Classicism, 1810–1840. New York:
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1999.
Nylander, Jane C. “Henry Sargent’s Dinner Party and Tea Party.” The
Magazine Antiques 121, no. 5 (May 1982): 1172–83.
Clark Pearce, American Arts Advisor and Independent Scholar, Essex,
Massachusetts, and Robert D. Mussey Jr., Conservator and Independent
Scholar, Milton, Massachusetts
Classical Excellence in Boston: The Work of Isaac Vose, 1789–1825
With the end of the War of 1812 and the defeat of Napoleon
Bonaparte, Boston was finally reopened to trade with England after a
seven-year long economic drought. This relief quickly brought a rush
of new British and French imports. Boston cabinetmaker Isaac Vose
immediately sent his son Isaac Jr. and partner Joshua Coates to the
English cities of Liverpool, Birmingham, and London. They returned
with the latest British fashions and “goods in his line” for the stylehungry among Boston’s elite. In the next decade, Vose and his
partners showed themselves extremely adept at securing the
patronage of Boston’s emerging aristocracy. He hired increasing
numbers of British and French immigrant craftsmen, whose skills
advanced the general level of craft in the town. He diversified into
ship owning, mahogany importation, and export/ import of luxury
British and French lighting and fabrics. He expanded into upholstery,
chairmaking, and real-estate investment. No Boston cabinetmaker
proved himself more adept, creative, and successful during this
—15—
decade of economic expansion. Through his genius, the aspirations of
Boston’s emerging and competitive elite were aligned with ancient
Greek and Roman ideals of design. Using the experience of his
immigrant journeymen, published design sources, and imported
furniture, Vose’s firm was key in defining a distinctively local version
of the European classical revival.
Recommended Reading:
Cooper, Wendy A. Classical Taste in America, 1800–1840. New York:
Abbeville Press, 1993.
Feld, Stuart P. Boston in the Age of Neo-Classicism, 1810–1840. New York:
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1999.
Nylander, Jane. “Vose & Coats, Cabinetmakers.” Old-Time New England 64,
no. 235 (Winter–Spring 1974): 87–91.
Talbott, Page. “Boston Empire Furniture, Part I.” The Magazine Antiques
107, no. 5 (May 1975): 878–87.
———. “Boston Empire Furniture, Part II.” The Magazine Antiques 109,
no. 5 (May 1976): 1004–13.
———. “Classical Conservatism: Card Tables and the English Regency Style
in Boston, 1810–35.” Maine Antique Digest (December 1989): 10C –16C.
———. “Seating Furniture in Boston, 1810–1835.” The Magazine Antiques
139, no. 5 (May 1991): 956–69.
Page Talbott, Principal, Remer & Talbott, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
Boston Classical Furniture: A (Nearly) 40-Year Reflection
Until the 1960s, when two iconic exhibitions focused on American
19th-century decorative arts, little notice was paid to furniture made in
Boston in the late neoclassical style. Since then students, curators,
dealers, auction houses, and collectors have come to recognize certain
forms as unique in America to the Boston area, such as chairs with
wooden swags as back rails, tables with trapezoidal bases, and case
pieces with hallmark ball-shape feet. Both French and English forms
and decorations are now associated with Boston classical furniture, and
a handful of cabinetmakers have become linked with the finest
furniture made in that city. This talk will present an overview of what
we have learned in the past 40-plus years, underscoring the discoveries
that have been made as well as the questions that remain. We will
consider key tastemakers, both in terms of patrons and craftsmen;
major European influences; hallmark furniture forms that stand out in
American furniture design; and changes that transformed the Boston
furniture industry in the short period between 1810 and 1835.
Recommended Reading:
Mussey, Robert D., Jr. The Furniture Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour.
Salem, Mass.: Peabody Essex Museum, 2003.
———. “The Furniture Trade in Boston, 1810–1835.” The Magazine Antiques
141, no. 5 (May 1992): 842– 55, including a detailed list of craftsmen.
Talbott, Page. “Rather Elegant than Showy, Boston Furniture in the Age of
Neo-Classicism.” In Stuart P. Feld, Boston in the Age of Neo-Classicism, 1810–
1840. New York: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1999.
Michael Podmaniczky, Private Conservator, Wilmington, Delaware
Samuel Gragg, Visionary Chairmaker of Boston
Samuel Gragg’s self-proclaimed “Elastic Chair” is perhaps the single
most unique commercial American chair ever conceived and created
prior to the self-consciously complex furniture of the latter half of the
19th century. Because these chairs are so different from anything else
up to and including this period, they have been kept at arm’s length
by scholars, who acknowledge their beauty but who have left them to
a small group of researchers to dissect. Patricia Kane gathered and
published what was known of Gragg’s personal history at that time;
Mike Podmaniczky has explored the technical aspects of the chairs;
and Robert Mussey and Chris Shelton have speculated on who the
painter of the most elaborately decorated chairs might be. A recent
discovery of a trove of Gragg’s personal and business papers has
opened a new window on the chairmaker. This presentation will
briefly review what is known about Samuel Gragg and his chairs and
then discuss the further insights offered by the newly discovered
papers into his work, business practices, lifestyle and, as always, the
Elastic Chair.
———. “The Furniture Trade in Boston, 1810–1835.” The Magazine Antiques
141, no. 5 (May 1992): 842–55.
Recommended Reading:
Kane, Patricia E. “Samuel Gragg: His Bentwood Fancy Chairs.” Yale
University Art Gallery Bulletin 33, no. 2 (Autumn 1971): 26–37.
Mussey, Robert D., Jr., and Christopher Shelton. “John Penniman
and the Ornamental Painting Tradition in Federal-Era Boston.” In
American Furniture 2010, edited by Luke Bekerdite, 2–27. Milwaukee:
Chipstone Foundation, 2010.
Podmaniczky, Michael S. “The Incredible Elastic Chairs of Samuel
Gragg.” The Magazine Antiques 163, no. 5 (May 2003): 138–45.
—16—
———. “Seating Furniture in Boston, 1810–1835.” The Magazine Antiques
139, no. 5 (May 1991): 956–69.
———. “Classical Conservatism: Card Tables and the English Regency Style
in Boston, 1810–1835.” Maine Antique Digest (December 1989): 10C–16C.
———. “Boston Empire Furniture, Part I.” The Magazine Antiques 107, no. 5
(May 1975): 878–87.
———. “Boston Empire Furniture, Part II.” The Magazine Antiques 109, no. 5
(May 1976): 1004–13.
Christine Thomson, Private Conservator, Salem, Massachusetts, and
Tara Cederholm, Curator, Brookfield Arts Foundation, Salem, New Hampshire
Japanners in Early 18th-Century Boston
The tradition of “japanning” or decorating furniture and smaller
objects with Asian-inspired ornament flourished in early 18th-century
Boston and was unparalleled in any other city in America. Among the
furniture, a number of high chests, dressing tables, clock cases, and a
small kneehole desk survive with at least some original decoration
intact. Their decorators were highly skilled craftspeople with unique
styles. Although there were at least a dozen craftsmen in Boston who
advertised or listed themselves as “japanner,” they tended not to sign
their work. A few exceptions are the pieces signed by William Randle
or Robert Davis, who presumably worked in Randle’s shop. These
signed pieces provide a cornerstone for looking at the entire group.
The goal of this project is to compare all surviving original examples
of Boston japanned ornament using an image database to analyze
specific decorative elements. This comparison will help to make more
—17—
concrete connections between the types and style of decoration on
those pieces whose japanners are known and others that are unsigned.
From this information, we hope to better understand the methods
and materials of the known Boston japanners.
Recommended Reading:
Fales, Dean A., Jr. “Boston Japanned Furniture.” In Boston Furniture of the
Eighteenth Century, edited by Walter Muir Whitehill et al., 49–75. Boston:
Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1974.
Hill, John H. “The History and Technique of Japanning and the
Restoration of the Pimm Highboy.” American Art Journal 8, no. 2 (November
1976): 59–84.
Hunter, Phyllis Whitman. “Japanned Furniture: Global Objects in
Provincial America.” The Magazine Antiques 175, no. 5 (May 2009): 118–24.
Jobe, Brock, and Elizabeth Rhoades. “Recent Discoveries in Boston
Japanned Furniture.” The Magazine Antiques 105, no. 5 (May 1974): 1082–91.
Perry, Alyce L., “The Best ‘blew’.” The Magazine Antiques 175, no. 5 (May
2009): 125–27.
Randall, Richard. “William Randle, Boston Japanner.” The Magazine
Antiques 105, no. 5 (May 1974): 1127–31.
John Tyler, Editor of Publications, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston
“Such Ruins Were Never Seen in America”: The Looting of Thomas
Hutchinson’s House at the Time of the Stamp Act Riots
Thomas Hutchinson described the financial loss caused by the
destruction of his house and its contents in the second Stamp Act riot
in Boston on August 26, 1765, as “more than he could bear.”
Consequently, he made a formal application to the crown for
reimbursement. He accompanied his letter to the secretary of state
with an eight-page inventory of cash, furniture, and apparel totaling
£2218. A remarkable document, the inventory lists the contents of
each room and the clothes of the twelve residents of the house. This
inventory differs from standard probate inventories by including little
or no information about the less valuable objects Hutchinson owned
but by including significantly more descriptive information about the
more valuable objects. From this information, it is possible to
reconstruct how each room functioned and the varying status of the
inhabitants. The inventory reveals the inner workings of a great house
in Boston on the eve of the American Revolution. The furnishings
suggest a household that was rich and comfortable, but perhaps a
little old-fashioned and not exactly opulent. It took a staff of four to
attend adequately to the needs of the other eight people in the house,
even if two of those were really still teenagers. Behind the baroque
facade and full-height pilasters of the Foster-Hutchinson House lay a
smooth-functioning machine for living, whose inner workings would
only be revealed when it was smashed to pieces on the night of
August 26, 1765.
Recommended Reading:
Bailyn, Bernard. The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson. Cambridge, Mass.:
Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1974.
Cummings, Abbott Lowell. “The Foster Hutchinson House.” Old-Time
New England 54, no. 3 (January–March, 1964): 59–76.
Montgomery, Florence M. Textiles in America: 1650–1870. New York:
W. W. Norton, 1984.
—18—
Gerald W. R. Ward, Senior Consulting Curator and the Katharine Lane Weems
Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture Emeritus, Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston
Pigeonholes and Patriots: A Case Study of the Desk in 18th-Century Boston
The desk, and its larger companion, the desk-and-bookcase, are
iconic forms of 18th-century American furniture. Boston was a center
of both commerce and learning, and Boston desks and desk-andbookcases of the 18th century are signature forms of that era. Often
of elaborate workmanship, beautifully carved, and fashioned of wellselected mahogany, Boston desks and related forms abound in public
and private collections; the Museum of Fine Arts collection alone has
more than a dozen examples from the 1725–75 period. These Boston
desks and their related forms are particularly significant from a social
history point of view. They stand at a critical point in the trajectory of
document storage from an era of minimal complexity toward today’s
computers with what seems like infinite storage. (However, as Stephen
Jay Gould reminds us, life forms evolve from simple beginnings, but
they do so randomly and do not necessarily move toward inherently
advantageous complexity. Is the same true of furniture?) Their use for
the storage of books, ledgers, business papers, correspondence, and
small objects needed for writing speaks to the growing control over
the storage of such documents as the 18th century progressed and as
the organization and retrieval of data became more complex and
compartmentalized. Their intricate, architectonic, internal
organization of small drawers, pigeonholes, and sometimes ingenious
secret compartments and locking mechanisms are evidence of the
daily work of business and accounting practices but also of concepts
such as “neatness,” as defined in the 18th century, with the
concomitant concerns of orderliness, restrained elegance, cleanliness,
respectability, and propriety, and the desire and necessity for privacy
and security within the household and between family and servants.
In contrast, the combination of desk and chest of drawers that they
embody harkens back to older patterns of storage.
Recommended Reading:
Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994.
Baxter, W. T. The House of Hancock: Business in Boston, 1724–1775.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1945.
[Defoe, Daniel]. The Complete English Tradesman in Familiar Letters, Directing Him
in All the Several Parts and Progressions of Trade. London, 1726. 2d ed., London,
1727. 2 vols. Reprint, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1969.
Gleeson-White, Jane. Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern
Finance. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.
Gould, Stephen Jay. Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin.
New York: Harmony Books, 1996.
Petroski, Henry. The Book on the Bookshelf. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1999.
Vickery, Amanda. Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England. New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Ward, Gerald W. R. “Matter in Place: Some Thoughts on Case
Furniture.” In Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady
Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University, 3–17. New Haven: Yale University
Art Gallery, 1988.
—19—
Kemble Widmer, Independent Furniture Scholar, Newburyport, Massachusetts
A Scotsman, Thomas Chippendale, and the Green Dragon Tavern:
Connecting the Dots
Thirty-nine years ago, in Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, Mary
Ellen Hayward Yehia discussed a group of sophisticated carved
Boston chairs thought to have come from the same shop. The
unifying elements between the chairs and several other objects were
asymmetrically carved C scrolls and leafage on the knees. It was
suggested that a source for the design was probably an imported
English chair of nearly identical form and carving. Recent research
has expanded the number of objects originating in this unknown
shop to well over 100 examples, which include two settees, three card
tables, a bed, and at least 39 discrete sets of chairs with no two sets
exactly alike. This presentation will survey the construction features
shared by all these objects and will make a case for attributing this
select group of furniture to a specific Boston craftsman.
Recommended Reading:
Beckerdite, Luke. “Carving Practices in Eighteenth-Century Boston.” In
Old-Time New England, New England Furniture: Essays in Memory of Benno M.
Forman, edited by Brock Jobe, 123–62. Boston: Society for the Preservation
of New England Antiquities, 1987.
Kane, Patricia E. 300 Years of American Seating Furniture: Chairs and Beds from
the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University. Boston: New York
Graphic Society, 1976.
Richards, Nancy E., and Nancy Goyne Evans. New England Furniture at
Winterthur, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods. Winterthur, Del.: Henry Francis
du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1997.
Whitehill, Walter Muir, Jonathan Fairbanks, and Brock Jobe, eds.
Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century. Boston: Colonial Society of
Massachusetts, 1974.
David F. Wood, Curator, Concord Museum, Concord, Massachusetts
“The Best Workman in the Shop”: Cabinetmaker William Munroe of Concord
In June 1800, 21-year-old cabinetmaker William Munroe arrived in
Concord with a set of tools and $3.40 in cash. Forty years later, he
proudly recorded having more than $20,000 in assets, a remarkable
achievement for a craftsman. Influenced by fashion and international
politics, motivated by self-esteem and good food, William Munroe
steered a path through the treacherous economic landscape of
Federal New England and along the way helped make some of the
most beautiful clocks the new nation ever produced. This presentation
will focus on examples of Munroe’s work, the evidence of his account
books, and the remarkable autobiography he wrote in 1839. Together,
these resources detail a single, distinctive career and provide an
extraordinary inside look at the structure of the furnituremaking
shops active in Federal-era Boston.
—20—
Recommended Reading:
Foley, Paul. Willard’s Patent Timepiece. Norwell, Mass.: Roxbury Village
Publishing, 2002.
Hummel, Charles F. With Hammer in Hand. Charlottesville: University
Press of Virginia, 1968.
Wood, David. “Concord, Massachusetts, Clockmakers, 1789–1817.” The
Magazine Antiques 157, no. 5 (May 2000): 760–69.
———. “Concord, Massachusetts, Clockmakers, 1811–1831.” The
Magazine Antiques 159, no. 5 (May 2001): 762–69.
Philip Zimmerman, Museum Consultant and Independent Scholar, Lancaster,
Pennsylvania
Boston or New York? Revisiting the Apthorp-Family and Related Sets of
Queen Anne Chairs
Opinion remains divided about the geographical origins of an
important group of Queen Anne chairs long considered New York
products. Authors of 1996 and 1998 essays (see below) reassigned
origin of these chairs to Boston based largely on carving analysis,
including attributions to Bostonian carver John Welch (1711–89).
Conclusions drawn from interpreting these chairs as Boston
products yield several unlikely results when applied to furniture
history in general: 1) Boston furnituremakers exported almost all of
their finest seating; 2) those particular Boston exports went to the
New York buyers only; and 3) reassignment of these chairs creates
an illogical gap in New York chairmaking capabilities and products.
This paper will address the chairs in question and the complex and
sometimes contradictory evidence related to them. The problematic
outcomes associated with reassignment of the chairs to Boston
invite detailed scrutiny and assessment of the evidence, methods,
and strategies used to interpret them. Opposing viewpoints need to
be considered if furniture scholars are to evaluate the relative
strengths and useful components of either argument, and thereby
move furniture history forward.
Recommended Reading:
Beckerdite, Luke. “Carving Practices in Eighteenth-Century Boston.” In
Old-Time New England, New England Furniture: Essays in Memory of Benno M.
Forman, edited by Brock Jobe, 123–62. Boston: Society for the Preservation
of New England Antiquities, 1987.
Freund, Joan Barzilay, and Leigh Keno. “The Making and Marketing
of Boston Seating Furniture in the Late Baroque Style.” In American
Furniture 1998, edited by Luke Beckerdite, 1–40. Milwaukee: Chipstone
Foundation, 1998.
Keno, Leigh, Joan Barzilay Freund, and Alan Miller. “The Very Pink
of the Mode: Boston Georgian Chairs, Their Export, and Their
Influence.” In American Furniture 1996, edited by Luke Beckerdite, 266–306.
Milwaukee: Chipstone Foundation, 1996.
Zimmerman, Philip. “The ‘Boston Chairs’ of Mid-Eighteenth-Century
Philadelphia.” In American Furniture 2009, edited by Luke Beckerdite,
140–58. Milwaukee: Chipstone Foundation, 2009.
—21—
FURNITURE FORUM PARTICIPANTS
(AS OF FEBRUARY 1, 2013)
See key on page 28
Adams, Mary, State College, PA
Alexander, James, Stonington, CT C, B
Alexander, Pam, Stonington, CT C, B
Ali, Irfan, Boston, MA B, M
Ali, M. Syed, San Francisco, CA
Allen, Mark, Gilford, NH B
Andersen, Alan, West Chester, PA
Anderson, Mark, Winterthur, DE B
Andersen, Susan, West Chester, PA
Andreadis, Tim, Doylestown, PA S
Andrews, Kelley, Greenville, DE
Baldenebro, Alizzandra, New York, NY N
Barber, Chris, Marlborough, MA
Barnard, John D., Lincoln, MA
Barnard, Nancy J., Lincoln, MA
Barquist, David L., Philadelphia, PA S
Bear, Joanne, West Chester, PA
Benn, Nathan, New York, NY P
Bertrand, Rebecca, Providence, RI S, N
Bevan, Anne G., Salem, NH
Blanchet, Sean, Portsmouth, NH
Bonny, Francesca, Wilmington, DE
Bounty, Whitney, Philadelphia, PA
Bourgeault, Ron, Portsmouth, NH M
Bowett, Adam, Old Cowling, England
Bray, Derin, Portsmouth, NH S
Breed, Allan, Rollingsford, NH
Breedlove, Amy, Alexandria, VA
Bronner, William R., Ossining, NY
Brown, Cathy, Marietta, GA A
Brown, Christopher, Marietta, GA A
Brown, Michael, Shapleigh, ME
Brown, Steve , Manchester, MA
Brownell, Dr. Charles, Richmond, VA
Burke, Peggy, Concord, MA S
Cain, Lynda, Philadelphia, PA M
Caldwell, Désirée, Merrimack, NH B, S
Caldwell, Larry, Stamford, CT
Caldwell, Jane, Stamford, CT
Carlisle, Carole, Griffin, GA
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Carlisle, John, Griffin, GA
Carlisle, Nancy, Boston, MA S
Carr, Dennis, Boston, MA S
Carr, Melissa, Arlington, MA
Caster, Maureen, Hockessin, DE
Cederholm, Tara, Salem, NH
Charles, Dr. N. David, Wynnewood, PA
Chicirda, Tara, Williamsburg, VA S
Cholnoky, Lisa, New York, NY
Cholnoky, Tom, Greenwich, CT
Ciccarelli, Joseph, Buckingham, PA
Clark, Judith, Omaha, NE
Clauss, Sarah, State College, PA
Clift, William, Alpharetta, GA
Collins, Bill, Springfield, VA
Collins, Cheryl, Springfield, VA
Cooke, Jr., Edward S., New Haven, CT S
Coolidge, Francis L., Boston, MA M
Coolidge, M. L., Boston, MA M
Cooper, Wendy A., Winterthur, DE P, B, S
Cote, Richard, Washington, DC
Davis, Karen, Washington, CT
Davis, Tara Theune, Philadelphia, PA
De Loge, Jack, Holliston, MA
De Luca, David, New York, NY C, B
De Luca, Dixie, New York, NY C, B
De Rousie-Webb, Pat, New York, NY
Densmore, Thomas, Glen Mills, PA
Dichter, Ann, Forest Hills, NY
Dickinson, Alice, Rumford, RI S, N
Dillon, Patricia, Greenwich, CT A
Divilio, Thomas, Easton, MD
Dockeray, Leslie, Manchester, CT
Doherty, Susan, San Francisco, CA
Downs, Donald, New York, NY
Dudley, Patricia, Glens Falls, NY
Dudley, Richard, Glens Falls, NY
Ebert, Catherine G., Glen Arm, MD C, B, M
Eskridge, Caryne, Wilmington, DE S
Evans, Nancy Goyne, Hockessin, DE B, S
Failey, Dean, E. Northport, NY S
Fairbanks, Jonathan L., Brockton, MA S
Fallon, Tad, Baltic, CT
Fangman, Mary, Omaha, NE
Fields, Anne T., Wilmington, DE
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Fiori, Dennis, Boston, MA
Fischer, Dr. Josef, Boston, MA M
Fischer, Karen, Boston, MA M
Fisher, Sean, Hyde Park, MA
Fitzpatrick, Peter, Chatham, MA
Fletcher, Stephen, Marlborough, MA
Floering, David, Middletown, OH
Floering, Jayne, Middletown, OH
Follansbee, Peter, Plymouth, MA
Fox, Dr. Ross, Mississauga, ON
Friary, Donald, Salem, MA
Gadsden, Eleanore, Boston, MA S
Gallagher, Patricia, Newtown Square, PA
Garfield, Diane, Winterthur, DE M
Garrison, J. Ritchie, Newark, DE
Green, James, Bellefonte, PA C
Gronning, Erik, New York, NY
Gross, Dr. Peter L., Boston, MA M
Guidess, Gretchen, Williamstown, MA S
Hague, Laura Keim, Philadelphia, PA S, B
Hall, Elton, South Dartmouth, MA S
Hamilton, Martha, Concord, MA M
Handran, George, Boston, MA
Hanlon, Gordon, Boston, MA
Hanna, Robert, Fishersville, VA
Hansbury, Matthew J., Nobleboro, ME N
Hasson, Thomas D., Woodstock, VT
Hawkes, James, Jupiter, FL C, B, M
Hays, John, New York, NY
Heckscher, Morrison, New York, NY B, S
Herdeg, John, Mendenhall, PA C, P, B
Herdeg, Judy, Mendenhall, PA C, P, B
Hingston, Daniel, Hillsborough, NH
Hodgdon, Ron, Pownal, ME
Hollingsworth, David, Wilmington, DE
Holter, Andrew K., New York, NY
Hudson, Susan B., Pottstown, PA
Hulman, Stephanie, Baltimore, MD
Hummel, Charles, Wilmington, DE B, S
Hunt, Penny M., Philadelphia, PA B
Jabbour, Joseph, Middleburg, VA
Jackson, Christie, Cambridge, MA
Jackson, Linda Wesselman, Lenox, MA
James, Lauren C., Williamsburg, VA N
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Jenemann, Donna, Kennett Square, PA
Jenemann, Michael, Kennett Square, PA
Jobe, Brock, Winterthur, DE B, S
Johnson, Edward, Boston, MA A, C, B
Johnson, Elizabeth B., Boston, MA A, C, B
Johnson, Jennifer N., Norwalk, CT N
Johnson, Laura, Haverhill, MA S
Karotkin, Jane, Austin, TX
Keane, Karen, Marlborough, MA M
Kenny, Peter, New York, NY
Keno, Leigh, New York, NY
Kernan, Kathleen, Fountain Hill, PA
Kirtley, Alexandra A., Philadelphia, PA S
Kreul, Kathleen F., Baltimore, MD
Kuronen, Darcy, Boston, MA
Lahikainen, Dean, Salem, MA
Lahikainen, Elizabeth, Salem, MA
Lamb, Carole, Kennett Square, PA D
Lamb, Richard, Kennett Square, PA D
Landrey, Gregory, Winterthur, DE B
Lane, Joshua, Deerfield, MA
Lash, Steven, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Latta, Stephen, Lancaster, PA
Leahy, Cathy, Bethany, CT
Leahy, Patrick, Bethany, CT
L'Ecuyer, Kelly, Boston, MA
Lewis, Brian, Berwick, PA
Long, Bonnie, Romney, WV
Long, Garrett, Romney, WV
Longworth, Joyce, Wilmington, DE A, B
Loring, Jonathan, Prides Crossing, MA C, B, M
Maassen, Matilda, Wilmington, DE
Maner, Forbes, Washington, DC M
Maner, Sara, Washington, DC M
Martin, Steven, Newark, DE
Mattingley, Richard, Royal Oak, MD
McBride, Anne, Hockessin, DE S, N
McCabe, Thomas, Philadelphia, PA
McDonough, Paul, Charlestown, MA
McGraw, John, Osterville, MA C, B
McGraw, Marjorie, Osterville, MA C, B
McRitchie, Barbara, Williamsburg, VA
McRitchie, Bruce, Williamsburg, VA
Melanson, Michael, Dracut, MA
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Melis, Darleen, Salem, MA
Merritt, Richard E., Alexandria, VA,
Meyer, Kenneth, Wilmington, DE A, P
Mingin, Gerald, Burlington, VT
Mingin, Marge, Burlington, VT
Moore, Gail T., Norman, OK
Morehead, Eliza, Austin, TX S
Morris, Robert, Moorestown, NJ
Moskovis, L. Michael, New Castle, DE B, M
Murphy, Paula, Wilmington, DE
Mussey, Jr., Robert D., Milton, MA
Mustain, Robert, Fairfax, VA
Neiro, Michaela, Haverhill, MA
Neuhardt, David, Yellow Springs, OH
Neuhardt, Sharen, Yellow Springs, OH
Newhall III, Charles W., Owings Mills, MD
Nickle, Anne, Wilmington, DE
Nylander, Jane, Portsmouth, NH B, S
Nylander, Richard C., Portsmouth, NH B
Obbard, Peter, Lumberton, NJ
O'Brien, Jack, Reading, MA
O'Connor, Timothy V., Stamford, CT N
Owens, Elizabeth, Boston, MA C, B, M
Owens, Robert, Boston, MA C, B, M
Parenti, Amy, Philadelphia, PA
Parks, Sarah B., Nantucket, MA S, N
Pearce, Clark, Essex, MA
Pegram, Kevin, Forest Hills, NY
Perry, Frances, Wellesley, MA
Podmaniczky, Michael, Wilmington, DE
Polk, Sandra, Nashville, TN
Pressman, Jeffrey, Rancho Santa Fe, CA B
Richardson, Margaret, Washington, DC
Richardson, John, Washington, DC
Riegel, Laurel, Wilmington, DE D, B
Ring, Madelia Hickman, New Milford, CT
Roberts, Lynn Springer, Upper Marlboro, MD B
Robertson, Linda E., Wayne, PA
Rodman, Honey, New York, NY
Roeckel, Mike, State College, PA
Roman, Freddy, Wakefield, MA N
Sallay, Ann, Weston, MA
Sallay, John, Weston, MA
Savage, J. Thomas, Winterthur, DE P, B
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Schiffelbein, Paul, Chesapeake City, MD
Schirrmeister, Virginia, New York, NY
Schloetzer, Martha, Landover, MD
Schorsch, David, Woodbury, CT,
Servison, Kristin, Brookline, MA M
Servison, Roger, Brookline, MA M
Shedrick, Debra, Wilmington, DE
Sherard, Gordon, Greenville, SC
Shreeve, Molly, Arlington, VA
Smith, Michael, Boulder, CO
Solny Susan, New York, NY
Spang, Joseph, Deerfield, MA B, M
Sprague, Julie, Boston, MA
Sprague, Laura F., Portland, ME
Squires, Dean, Caldwell, NJ
Stewart, Kelli, Marlborough, MA S
Stvan, Elizabeth, Williamsburg, VA
Sullivan, Gary, Sharon, MA M
Szelewski, Michael, Hockessin, DE
Talbott, Page, Bala Cynwyd, PA B, S
Taylor, Dorcas, Wilmington, DE
Taylor, Nancy, Villanova, PA
Tepper, E. Clothier, Boston, MA
Thayer, Seth, Northport, ME
Thompson, Caroline, Snellville, GA
Thompson, Larry, Snellville, GA
Thomson, Chris, Salem, MA
Townsend, Mary Fran, Boston, MA
Townsend, P. Coleman, Wilmington, DE C, B
Townsend, Susan, Wilmington, DE C, B
Townsend, Thomas, Boston, MA
Trapasso, Ronald M., Lynn, MA
Trent, Robert, Wilmington, DE S
Turino, Kenneth, Boston, MA
Tuttle, Joanne H., Ipswich, MA
Tuttle, L. Emerson, Ipswich, MA M
Tyler, John, Groton, MA
Tyndall, George, Philadelphia, PA
Tyndall, Ronna, Philadelphia, PA
Upton, William, Concord, NH B, M
Vanderslice, Karen, Wilmington, DE
Vaughan, Catharine A., Summit, NJ
Vincent, Nicholas, New York, NY S
Vogel, Anne H., Milwaukee, WI B
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Vogel, Frederick, Milwaukee, WI B
Walker, Kristine, West Chester, PA C, B
Walter, Don, Philadelphia, PA
Walton, Mary, Newark, DE
Ward, Barbara M., Portsmouth, NH
Ward, Gerald W. R., Portsmouth, NH
Warnock, Robert, Star Tannery, VA
Webb, Laurie, Boston, MA
Webb III, Alexander, Boston, MA
Wetter, Scott, North Augusta, SC
Wheeler, Michael, Jamaica Plain, MA
Widmer, Elisabeth D. Garrett, Newburyport, MA B, S
Widmer, Kemble, Newburyport, MA B
Wilkinson, Randy, Baltic, CT
Willis, Jane, Tenafly, NJ
Wiseman, Linda, Weston, MA C, P, B
Wood, David, Concord, MA
Young, Bruce, Washington, DC
Zea, Betsy, Deerfield, MA
Zea, Philip, Deerfield, MA S
Zimmerman, Philip, Lancaster, PA S
KEY
Friends of Winterthur Associate
Friends of Winterthur Director
The Henry Francis du Pont Collectors Circle
Port Royal Society
Winterthur Benefactor
Society of Winterthur Fellows
Donor to Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture
Northeast Auctions Scholarship Recipient
Presenter is in BOLD
Cover: (detail) Card table, Museum purchase with funds provided by the Henry Francis du Pont
Collectors Circle 2010.39.
Page 1: (detail) Armchair, Gift of Henry Francis du Pont 1958.553.
Page 5: (detail) Side chair, Gift of Henry Francis du Pont 1961.140.1.
THE SEWELL C. BIGGS
WINTERTHUR
FURNITURE FORUM
PHILADELPHIA FURNITURE:
NEW INQUIRIES AND INSIGHTS
March 5–8, 2014
In collaboration with the Center for American Art
at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
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Many aspects and examples of Philadelphia
furniture from 1681 to 1900 have been
studied and written about over the past several
decades. The most recent investigations and
discoveries, however, have yet to be heard.
Winterthur’s 2014 Furniture Forum will shed
new light on many of these old objects.
Page 23: (detail) Dressing table, Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont 1958.584.
Page 25: (detail) Desk-and-bookcase, Gift of Henry Francis du Pont 1957.1396.
Page 27: (detail) Tea table, Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont 1958.2774.
Page 29: Armchair, one of a pair, Philadelphia, 1815–1820. Gift of the Carpenter Estate in memory
of Charles H. and Mary Grace Carpenter.
For more information, call 800.448.3883 or
go to winterthur.org.
Back Cover: (detail) Tall clock, Museum purchase 1955.96.3.
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