I started this blog in 2010 while working at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to document my carving project at Mount Pleasant, the historic house in East Fairmount Park. After the project was finished I continued with the blog as a way of recording my furniture conservation and restoration work. Mount Pleasant stair hall, August 2010 Along the … Continue reading This Than That
John Head
A Chest on Stand
Chest of drawers on stand. Delaware River Valley, possibly Philadelphia c. 1715. Black walnut, hard pine, Atlantic white cedar, brass, iron. The legs and stretchers of the stand are replaced. Wood caps at the corners and cock beading that would have been nailed to arch cutouts in the bottom rail are missing. Brass pulls and … Continue reading A Chest on Stand
Red Cedar in Philadelphia
I had a question about the spice box in the last post and why surviving red cedar furniture from the Delaware River Valley is so rare. It's true that there are very few extant objects with red cedar used as a primary wood species made in the Delaware River Valley during the eighteenth century. Juniperus … Continue reading Red Cedar in Philadelphia
A “Dear Little Chest”
Margaret Berwyn Schiffer's collection of furniture and decorative art was auctioned at Pook & Pook, Ltd. on January, 18, 2023. Of particular interest was this spice box made of red cedar with light-wood line inlay on the door, sides, top, and interior drawer fronts. Schiffer owned the spice box when she first illustrated it in … Continue reading A “Dear Little Chest”
To a Fore-Plane
"It is called the Fore Plane because it is used before you come to work either with the Smooth Plane or with the Joynter." Joseph Moxon, The Mechanics Exercises Or The Doctrine Of Handy-Works. 1683-1685 A busy summer, (W.A.R.P. Fellowship all of June and July, publishing an article), turned into a busy fall, (Center for … Continue reading To a Fore-Plane
In Proportion to the Trouble 