I’ve had inquiries from a number of people who have signed up for the class I’m giving at The Marc Adams School of Woodworking in May, about what materials and equipment it will be useful to have on hand besides their carving tools. Most students I encounter, whether new to carving or having practiced for … Continue reading “There Are No Shortcuts To Any Place Worth Going.” Beverly Sills
Craft
“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” Cormac McCarthy
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
“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…
In Proportion to the Trouble 