In 2011, a wide audience was introduced to a genre painting by Thomas Hicks (1823-1890) of a kitchen interior while it was on loan to Winterthur Museum as part of the exhibition “Paint, Pattern and People, Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850”. It was also included in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition as figure 3.1, heading … Continue reading “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” Cormac McCarthy
Month: February 2016
“A Table to Suit”
In January we had the opportunity to examine a c. 1715 Delaware River Valley dressing table at Christie's. Furniture historians have been aware of this table since the publication of Wallace Nutting's Furniture of the Pilgrim Century 1620-1720 in 1921. It was subsequently illustrated as plate 394 in Nutting's Furniture Treasury, at the time in the … Continue reading “A Table to Suit”
“Cr: David Ainsworth
for a Frontish Piece Door in the Back front of Cap. McPhersons House towards Schoulkill @ 25 pounds." On March 30, 1764 another of Thomas Nevell's skilled journeyman, David Ainsworth, was credited 25 pounds for creating the "Back front" frontispiece at Mount Pleasant. His work had been measured by two leading Carpenters Company members, Robert … Continue reading “Cr: David Ainsworth
East Side, West Side, all around the town…
The history of the west side frontispiece of Mount Pleasant in the Tuscan Order is similar to that of the east side Doric frontispiece. The original bases and plinths were lost before the beginning of the twentieth century though in this case no photographs before c. 1900 of the west side exist. The Tuscan Order is … Continue reading East Side, West Side, all around the town…
“Forests were the first temples of God and in forests men grasped their first idea of architecture.” James C. Snyder
"Where columns are turned out of the solid, charge according to the trouble of procuring the stuff, sawing them off, hewing, and attendance on the boring, turning and fixing them up." Articles of the Carpenters Company of Philadelphia: And Their Rules for Measuring and Valuing House-Carpenters Work, Philadelphia, 1786 Interior columns were glued up. The … Continue reading “Forests were the first temples of God and in forests men grasped their first idea of architecture.” James C. Snyder
In Proportion to the Trouble 