Last week I attended the Oswaldo Rodriquez Roque Lecture and Symposium held in conjunction with the Art and Industry in Early America exhibition of Rhode Island furniture at the Yale University Art Gallery and was able to tour the exhibit over several days. You can listen to the opening keynote and view other videos concerning other aspects of the exhibition here.
A powerful group of 17th century Newport furniture.
A rare survival.
A highly detailed version of thumbnail carving on the chest that I’ve not seen before.
Early 18th century veneered Rhode Island case work.
Providence and Newport mid-18th century chests, desks, and clocks.
Dis-assembled Townsend high chest.
Winterthur’s John Goddard tea table.
Hall of chairs. Made in Newport? Made in Boston? Made in Newport by a chair-maker who relocated from Boston? Round 4 no doubt coming soon.
The Stuart painting featuring a Goddard tea table. Or dogs, depending on your inclinations.
Pat Kane in front of the wall of signed bureaus leading a tour of the exhibition for Friends of the Yale University Art Gallery on the Saturday after the symposium.
Pat had a big turn out for the tour and it was being Facebooked in real time.
That’s an enormous amount of Rhode Island furniture in one place so I was delighted to come across a wonderful Philadelphia piece of furniture in the last gallery, a bench by Michael Hurwitz.
More information about future tours and events surrounding the exhibit can be found here. The catalogue is now available here.
In Proportion to the Trouble 
Yes there will be a round 4 on the chairs attributions. And I don’t like being flipped the bird about upholstery, either.