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
John Head
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
“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
In Proportion to the Trouble 