I'm happy to announce that on Saturday June 4, 2022, I will be at the Elfreth's Alley Museum Fete Day, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, giving a woodworking demonstration. "This is an event which dates back to 1934, in which residents of Elfreth’s Alley open their doors to allow visitors a glimpse of 21st century … Continue reading Elfreth’s Alley Museum Fete
Tools
Inlaying Dots Part II
A detail of the box from the William K du Pont collection. The box, the chest-on-stand from the same sale, and the desk in the collection of the Dietrich American collection can all be attributed to the same shop based on similarities of the inlay design. There are 46 inlaid dots on the top, front, … Continue reading Inlaying Dots Part II
Inlaying Dots Part I
One of the things I’m hoping to accomplish with this series of posts is to give a broader understanding of the amount of labor (as well as imagination and technical ability) – hence cost to the consumer – that is required to create the objects illustrated in the previous post with the complex light-wood sting … Continue reading Inlaying Dots Part I
To a “Dott bitt”
The extensive probate inventory of the joiner Charles Plumley (d. 1708, Philadelphia) is well known to furniture historians. A transcription can be found in Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture, 1630–1730 [New York: W. W. Norton, 1988], app. 1. He was in the middle of his career when he died and the inventory is a snapshot of a working … Continue reading To a “Dott bitt”
The Dominy Craftsmen of East Hampton
Winterthur Museum in Delaware has an online digital collection database. Click here to access it. In the tab “Tools” you’ll find many of the Dominy family woodworking tools illustrated in Charles Hummel’s “With Hammer in Hand: The Dominy Craftsmen of East Hampton, New York”, Charlottesville, 1968. Even if you own Hummel’s book, the new color … Continue reading The Dominy Craftsmen of East Hampton