A chest of drawers by the joiner William Beakes III is signed and dated in white chalk on the interior surface of a side panel. The inscription was written before the chest was assembled. It may even have been written before the panel edges were chamfered to fit into grooves in the stiles and rails … Continue reading William Beakes, Joyner, Part II
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William Beakes/Inscriptions
Several of the pencil inscriptions on the chest of drawers made by William Beakes III are faint and have wear associated with drawer bottoms running over drawer dividers. A question about a latin phrase in the last post prompted me to post images of that phrase and one other made with infrared photography. Wood is … Continue reading William Beakes/Inscriptions
William Beakes, Joyner
My article about a chest of drawers made by the joiner William Beakes in 1720 has just been published in the 21st Anniversary/Spring 2021 issue of the magazine Antiques & Fine Art. The chest is owned by the Dietrich American Foundation. In 2013 during the survey of the Foundation's furniture collection, I performed a detailed examination of the … Continue reading William Beakes, Joyner
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
A John Brocas High Chest
The Autumn 2020 issue of the magazine Antiques & Fine Art contains the first of a series of articles I am writing to introduce the Dietrich American Foundation’s furniture collection to a broader public. The Dietrich American Foundation was founded in 1963 by H. Richard Dietrich Jr. to collect and research American decorative and fine art, primarily … Continue reading A John Brocas High Chest
In Proportion to the Trouble 