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”
John Head
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
“To a Square walnut Table”
Table. Made in the Delaware River Valley, probably Philadelphia, c. 1735. Brunk Auction Jay’s comment in the previous post described a unique debit entry in James Steele’s account with the joiner John Head on 12/13/1735, “To a Square walnut Table - £1-0-0.” Jay suggested that if Head made the Brunk Auction table it may be this … Continue reading “To a Square walnut Table”
To A Table
Earlier this month, a table that was part of the exhibition “Worldly Goods, the Arts of Early Pennsylvania, 1680-1758” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (October 1999 to January 2000), resurfaced at Brunk Auctions in Ashville, North Carolina. It was published in the catalogue of the “Worldly Goods” exhibition on page 144, figure 49. The … Continue reading To A Table
To an Oval Table
Last summer we had the chance to examine the first oval table that can be attributed to the workshop of John Head (1688-1754). According to entries in his account book, John Head sold approximately fifty-five oval tables between 1720 and 1737. Prices ranged from £0-18-0 for a pine table to £3-0-0, of which six were … Continue reading To an Oval Table
In Proportion to the Trouble 