MARY ELLEN HAYWARD YEHIA

Ornamental Carving on Boston Furniture of the Chippendale Style

AT least three major furniture carvers, each with his own particular style of carving, worked in Boston between the years 1755 and 1785. One style of carving, seen on a chest-on-chest signed by John Cogswell, is notable for its three-dimensionality and the wide shallow grooves articulating the surface of the leaves (fig. 139). Another style, distinguished by two-dimensionality and the thin, narrow grooves used to indicate leaf forms, is evident on a desk and bookcase by George Bright (fig. 140). A third style, seen on a distinctive group of chairs and settees, is notable for its amorphous quality and lack of sharp articulating lines (fig. 141).

Personal and business papers relating to the activities of furniture craftsmen in eighteenth-century Boston are scarce. No record of a transaction between a cabinetmaker and carver in the Chippendale period in Boston has yet come to light. Whether cabinetmakers carved some or all of the products of their shops, hired specialized carvers for individual, specific jobs, or arranged for carving on a contract basis has yet to be discovered. Certainly in the Boston of the 1770s and 1780s cabinetmakers were the prestige segment of the furniture-making population. It was the cabinetmaker’s name that appeared on a bill for furniture and if any name appeared on a piece of furniture it was more likely the cabinetmaker’s than the carver’s. If the cabinetmaker himself did not do the skillfully carved decorations, he certainly took credit for the finished product.

The pre-eminence of the cabinetmaker is well illustrated by the correspondence between David Spear and his fiancée, Marcy Higgins.180 David Spear wrote to Marcy excitedly telling her that his father was going to get “Mr. Bright” to make the mahogany furniture for their new home. David was pleased because he knew that George Bright was “esteemed the neatest workman in town.” The “very good Furniture” from Bright’s shop that the Spears were anticipating was probably being, at that very moment, decorated by someone far less exalted than Mr. Bright—someone who would have received a very small sum for his very skillful services. In the 1780 tax lists for Suffolk County, George Bright and the equally successful cabinetmaker Alexander Edwards were assessed £120 apiece whereas the carver Joshua Bowles paid £10 and carvers Simeon and John Skillin paid only £20 and £15 respectively.

139. Detail of Carved Foot of Chest-on-Chest. Made by John Cogswell. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Francis Warden Fund, 1973.289.) See also figs. 125 and 143.

It is comparatively easy to sort, sift, and separate visual data, but no carved work can yet be associated with the name of a known carver. Therefore, this discussion of ornamental carving on Boston furniture emphasizes the carving styles. The names of some craftsmen likely to have executed the carved work will be suggested.

John Cogswell apparently employed more than one carver since carved work of very different styles is found on casepieces made by this cabinetmaker. The carver of the bracket feet on the signed Cogswell chest-on-chest (fig. 139) favored a general three-dimensional style of carving, with C-scrolls carved in high relief, dense leaves lapping one over the other, and shallow grooves used to articulate the surface of the leaves. Similarly carved feet are found on a chest of drawers at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (figs. 128 and 142), which, on the basis of the carving style and construction details, is attributed to Cogswell. A different carver undoubtedly executed the sophisticated decoration applied to the pediment (fig. 143) of the signed Cogswell chest-on-chest as the rich, highly three-dimensional style of the carving is quite different from that of the carving on the bracket feet.

Another type of three-dimensional carving is seen on a side chair in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (fig. 144), from the James Prince Mansion in Newburyport and probably made for Nathaniel Tracy (1751–1796), a prosperous merchant and previous owner of the house. The chair is part of a set including four other chairs and a sofa which was exhibited as American at the Girl Scout Loan Exhibition of 1929. (The sofa is in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg.) There is now doubt as to the origin of the group of furniture. The seat frames are beech and thin, open seat braces are used. If the beech can be identified by micro-analysis as American beech, this elaborately carved group of furniture from the Boston area will present a new area of study in Boston carving of the three-dimensional type.

140. Detail of Carved Foot of Desk and Bookcase. Made by George Bright. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bequest of Miss Charlotte Hazen, 56.1194.) See also fig. 124.

The craftsman who carved the George Bright desk and bookcase had a distinctive style of his own characterized by an overall two-dimensionality (fig. 140). On the carved feet and brackets he used long narrow grooves to articulate the surface of sparse, hatchet-shaped leaves. A star-punched background partially fills the uncarved surface. The carving on the bracket is contained by a smooth band along the lower edge.

Two-dimensionality characterizes much of the carving on Massachusetts Chippendale furniture, but some ornamentation relates directly to the work on the Bright desk and bookcase. A bombé chest of drawers with serpentine front in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has claw and ball feet and brackets with similarly fashioned leaves, a star-punched background, and a smooth band forming a border along the bracket’s lower edge.181 It is unlikely, however, that the two pieces of furniture were carved by the same hand for different punches were used on the two backgrounds and the smooth bordered edge extends much further along the bracket on the chest than on the desk and bookcase. The similarities suggest that the craftsman who executed the carving on the chest was familiar with, if not trained by, the craftsman responsible for the carving on the Bright desk and bookcase.

The third major style of furniture carving seen in Boston in the Chippendale period appears on a very interesting and sophisticated group of furniture notable for its unusual, asymmetrically designed carved decorations. The group consists of: matching settees in the Winterthur Museum (fig. 145) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a card table in a private collection; two armchairs and ten side chairs at the Yale University Art Gallery (fig. 141); a side chair at the Winterthur Museum (fig. 146); and an armchair in the collection of Israel Sack, Inc. (fig. 147). For the sake of convenience, Chart I lists various pieces of seating furniture belonging to this group, giving secondary woods, construction methods, and pertinent measurements.

The most distinctive feature of the pieces of furniture in this group, a feature that they all have in common, is the unusual carved ornamentation on the knees. The decorative motif is markedly asymmetrical. (Most carved designs on American Chippendale furniture are totally symmetrical in spite of the rococo penchant for asymmetry.) It consists of a large C-scroll with leafy appendages placed diagonally across the surface of the knee. Beneath the C-scroll hangs a wilted and drooping leaf.

CHART I

Location	Type	Construction; woods	Measurements
1. Winterthur 51.80	Armchair knee with asymmetrical carving; hairy paw feet	beech seat frame; thin beech open seat braces	h. 37¼″, w. 25½″, d. 20½″
2. Israel Sack, Inc.	Armchair knee with asymmetrical carving; claw and ball feet	maple rear seat rail veneered with mahogany; triangular corner blocks (3½″ × 1½″) with thin chamfered edge, held in place by 2 round-headed nails ⅜″d.	h. 37½″, w. 29″, d. 19″ W. top rail: 20⅜″ Splat: h. 19¾″ w. at rosettes 8½″, w. at base 4⁹/₁₀″ Seat: w. rear 17⅞″, w. front 22¾″, d. 17″ H. of leg: 14⅝″
3. Yale University 1967.28.1	Side chair knee with asymmetrical carving; claw and ball feet	maple seat frame; white pine triangular corner blocks (3¼″ × 1½″) with thin chamfered edge, held in place by 4 round-headed nails ¼″d.; American black ash and maple open seat braces held in place with round-headed nails ⅜″d.	h. 37⅝″, w. 22⅞″, d. 18¾″ W. top rail: 20½″ Splat: h. 19¾″, w. at rosettes 8½″, w. at base 4⁹/₁₀″ Seat: w. rear 17⅞″, w. front 22⅞″, d. 17¼″ H. of leg: 14⅝″
4. Yale University 1967.26	Armchair knee with asymmetrical carving; claw and ball feet	maple seat frame; birch rear triangular corner blocks (3 ¼″ × 1½″) with thin chamfered edge, held in place by 2 round-headed nails ⅜″d.; maple open seat braces	h. 37⅜″, w. 26½″, d. 19⁹/₁₆″ W. top rail: 21½″ Splat: h. 19¾″, w. at rosettes 9¼″, w. at base 5⁸/₁₀″ Seat: w. rear 18⅞″, w. front 25½″, d. 18¼″ H. of leg: 14⅝″
5. Winterthur 52.242	Side chair knee with asymmetrical carving; hairy paw feet	oak rear seat rail veneered with mahogany; triangular corner blocks cherry (3½″ × 1½″) with thin chamfered edge, held in place by screws that have replaced original nails	h. 37″, w. 21½″, d. 17¾″ W. top rail: 20⅜″ Splat: h. 19¼″, H. of leg: 14⅝″
6. Winterthur 59.1877	Settee knee with asymmetrical carving; claw and ball feet	maple seat rail and rear legs, also top of scroll arms; cedar top rail, side rail, front and sides of arms; birch brace of top rail; triangular corner blocks (4⁵/₁₆″ × 2⅛″) with thin chamfered edge, held in place by 4 round-headed nails ⅜″d.	h. 36″, l. 57″, d. 24″ H. of leg: 14⅝″

141. Armchair. Boston area, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany, maple, and birch; h. 37⅜ inches, w. 26½ inches, d. 19⁹/₁₆ inches. (Yale University Art Gallery, Mabel Brady Garvan Collection.)

An armchair at Winterthur (fig. 148 and no. 1, chart i) seemingly identical to the group of chairs at Yale University (fig. 141 and nos. 3 and 4, chart i)—with the same asymmetrical knee decoration and the same splat design—proves on closer inspection, however, to have been carved by a different hand than all of the other pieces of furniture in the group. A close look reveals many subtle differences.

The Winterthur armchair has stiles fluted in an a, b, a pattern with the center flute rising higher than those to the sides. Its carved leafage across the top rail descends to various levels on the rail. The flutes on the splat’s central figure-eight motif are closely spaced and subtly varied in direction to follow the curve of the figure-eight.

In contrast, the carving on the set of chairs at Yale (fig. 141 and nos. 3, 4, chart i) and that on an armchair owned by Israel Sack (fig. 147 and no. 2, chart i) show a less artistic hand at work. The flutes in the stiles all reach the same height. The carved leafage across the top rail is equidistant from the lower edge of the rail. There are far fewer flutes on the figure-eight motif on the splat and these are rather carelessly arranged.

One may conclude that the chairs at Yale and the chair owned by Israel Sack, Inc., were copied from the chair owned by Winterthur, but copied by a craftsman who was not so particular in carrying out the details of execution. There has long been speculation about whether the Winterthur chair is American. Acting on the authority of an antiques dealer in Massachusetts who told him that the chair was found in a Massachusetts house, Joseph Downs considered the chair as American despite its beech seat frame and traditionally English seat braces.182

It seems quite likely that the armchair at Winterthur is English183 and that it or a member of its set (the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, owns a seemingly identical side chair) was used as the model for the rest of the furniture in this group. Particularly intriguing in this context are the thick, wide, open seat braces found on the twelve chairs at Yale. It seems as though the Boston chairmaker attempted to copy not only the design and carving of the English chair, but also its method of construction. The open seat braces on the Boston-made versions are much heavier and cruder than on the imported model, and the Boston chairmaker refused to abandon his own traditional method of supporting the chair seats with triangular corner blocks, so that the seats are supported by both open braces and corner blocks.

142. Detail of Carved Foot of Chest of Drawers. Attributed to John Cogswell. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bequest of Maria Theresa Burnham Hopkins, 37.34.) See also fig. 128.

Consistent construction methods indicate that chairmaker and carver (and they may have been the same person) worked on all of the members of this particular group of furniture. In each chair and in the settees the maker used triangular corner blocks with thinly chamfered edges, approximately 3½ inches wide, held in place with either four or two large, round-headed nails. The Yale chairs (fig. 141 and nos. 3, 4, chart i) are upholstered over the frame; the Sack chair (fig. 147 and no. 2, chart i) and a side chair at Winterthur (fig. 146 and no. 5, chart i) have slip seats with rear seat rails veneered with mahogany. Although the splat of the Winterthur side chair is not the same design as that of the other chairs in this group, its cresting rail was made with the same template used for the top rails of the other chairs (they all measure 20½ inches in width). All of the legs belonging to the group of chairs and settees measure 14⅝ inches in height, indicating that the craftsman worked on a piece basis, turning out carved leg after carved leg (thirty-two legs in all). Only the center legs of the settees differ in style.

143. Detail of Pediment of Chest-on-Chest. Made by John Cogswell. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Francis Warden Fund, 1973.289.) See also figs. 125 and 139.

More modest types of chairs produced in Boston in the 1770s and 1780s also show interesting carved work by three or more different hands. A variety of chairs arranged by splat type are listed in Chart II giving details of construction, secondary woods, and measurements.

144. Side Chair. England or Boston area, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany and beech; h. 37¼ inches, w. 22½ inches, d. 19 inches. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Mrs. Guy Currier, 35.1977.) According to family tradition, this chair was owned by Nathaniel Tracy (1751–1796) of Newburyport, Massachusetts.

CHART II

Location	Type	Construction; woods	Measurements
1. Winterthur 59.2639.40	Side chair, splat A (intertwined scrolls) carved knees, stretchers, claw and ball feet	pine triangular corner blocks held in place with 2 round-headed nails	h. 36¾″, w. 21 ½″, d. 17¼″ W. top rail: 20″ H. splat: 20⅝″ Central leaf: h. 4 ³/₁₆″, w. 2⅞″
2. Museum of Fine Arts 60.1176	Side chair, splat A (intertwined scrolls) carved knees, stretchers, claw and ball feet	maple seat frame; pine triangular corner blocks held in place with 2 round-headed nails ¼″d.	h. 37″, w. 21⅜″, d. 17⅝″ W. top rail: 19¾″ H. splat: 20¾″ Central leaf: h. 4 ³/₁₆″, w. 2⅞″
3. Winterthur 64.662	Side chair, splat A (intertwined scrolls) Marlborough legs	no corner blocks; no secondary woods	h. 36¾″, w. 21¼″, d. 18″ W. top rail: 19¼″ H. splat: 21″ Central leaf: h. 4⅜″, w. 3¹/₁₆″
4. Metropolitan Museum of Art 10.125.289	Side chair, splat A (intertwined scrolls) Marlborough legs (set of six)	cherry seat rail; pine triangular corner blocks	h. 37″, w. 21″, d. 18″
5. Winterthur 61.140.1 and	Side chair, splat B (Gothic arch and trefoil) carved knees, stretchers,	no corner blocks; no secondary woods	h. 38″, w. 23½″, d. 19″ W. top rail: 22¼″ H. splat: 21½″
6. Metropolitan Museum of Art 44.55	claw and ball feet		Central leaf: h. 2¹³/₁₆″, w. 4¾″
7. Winterthur 53.166.3	Side chair, splat B (Gothic arch and trefoil) Marlborough legs	pine rear triangular corner blocks	h. 38¾″, w. 22″, d. 19⅛″ W. top rail: 22⅜″ H. splat: 22″ Central leaf: h. 2⁹/₁₆″, w. 4″
8. Metropolitan Museum of Art 39.88.2	Side chair, splat C (from Manwaring) carved knees with punched ground, claw and ball feet	maple seat rails, pine triangular corner blocks	h. 38⅝″, w. 23 ½″, d. 17½″
9. Massachusetts Historical Society on loan to Museum of Fine Arts 132.60	Side chair, splat C (from Manwaring) carved knees with punched ground, claw and ball feet	maple seat rails, pine triangular corner blocks, rear (5″ × 2⅛″), front (4½″ × 1⅞″) held by 4 nails	h. 38¼″, w. 23⅝″, d. 17¾″
10. Museum of Fine Arts Res. 28.78	Side chair, splat D (two-tiered Gothic) plain knees, claw and ball feet (set of six)	maple seat frame, pine triangular corner blocks, rear (4½″ × 1⅞″), front (5″ × 2½″) held by 4 nails	h. 38″, w. 22 ¹⁵/₁₆″, d. 19″
11. Winterthur 54.532	Side chair, splat D, (two-tiered Gothic) plain knees, claw and ball feet	pine triangular corner blocks in front	h. 38″, w. 22¼″, d. 18½″

145. Settee. Boston area, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany, maple, cedar, and birch; h. 36 inches, w. 57 inches, d. 24 inches. (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.)

A Boston-made chair popular among those who could afford mahogany furniture was one with a splat of intertwined scrolls, splat a. Examples are located in the Winterthur Museum (no. 1, chart ii), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (fig. 149 and no. 2, chart ii), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (no. 4, chart ii). Chairs of this type, found frequently in New England, appear not only with ornamental carving, but also in a plain, undecorated form.

Chairs numbers 1 and 2 (fig. 149) on Chart II with this splat design appear identical to chairs numbers 3 (fig. 150) and 4 with the same splat, but subtle differences in the size of the carved motifs indicate that the chairs were carved by different hands. Differences in construction further indicate that chairs numbers 3 and 4 were not produced in the same shop as numbers 1 and 2, emphasizing the popularity of the chair design.

Numbers 5 (fig. 151) and 6 are two chairs from a large set with unusual splat designs of attenuated C-scrolls, a central Gothic arch, and a small solid trefoil near the base, splat b. They were probably made by the same chairmaker who fashioned chairs numbers 3 (fig. 150) and 4, or, at least, carved by the same hand.

Chairs numbers 8 and 9 with splat c (fig. 152) are copied from plate 9 in Robert Manwaring’s The Cabinet and Chair-Maker’s Real Friend and Companion (London, 1765). A very differently designed chair with a two-tiered Gothic splat (fig. 153 and no. 10, chart ii), splat d, shows a similar two-dimensional style of carving and similar construction, making tenable an attribution to the same shop and carver. The carving on the chair with the two-tiered splat relates in its two-dimensional character to that on the Bright desk and bookcase (fig. 140).

Although as yet no carver can be identified with a specific piece of furniture, there is an accumulating body of documentary material relating to a number of craftsmen known to have been working in Boston between 1755 and 1785.

146. Side Chair. Boston area, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany, oak, and cherry; h. 37 inches, w. 21½ inches, d. 17¾ inches. (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.)

147. Armchair. Boston area, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany and maple; h. 37½ inches, w. 29 inches, d. 19 inches. (Israel Sack, Inc., New York City.) According to family tradition, this chair was owned by Elias Hasket Derby (1739–1799) of Salem.

One of the most important identifiable carvers of pre-Revolutionary Boston was John Welch. Born in 1711, Welch is famed for carving the “Sacred Codfish” for the Hall of Representatives in the Boston State House in 1736.184 In 1733 he purchased a lot of land forty by eighty feet in Green Lane, or in Green Street,185 presumably in anticipation of his marriage to the granddaughter of the prosperous carver George Robinson. The association with the Robinson family was an important one for Welch. He may have served an apprenticeship under Robinson. The unfortunate death of Welch’s young wife in 1736 left Welch with a substantial portion of the Robinson estate.186 In 1738 and 1743 Welch increased his holdings in the Green Street area.187 He made his home on Green Lane, but from 1733 until 1758 he kept a shop on the town dock, a good location for a man who was probably primarily a ship carver.

In 1758 Isaac Dupee, a ship carver, petitioned to have the use of the “Town’s shop that John Welch occupied.”188 In the same year Welch advertised the sale of many household possessions because he proposed “to go to England in a short time.” He did travel to England, presumably on business, but returned to Boston about 1760.189

The 1789 inventory of Welch’s estate indicates that he was involved in the sale of imported looking glasses. A list of shop goods includes a gilt framed glass, a mahogany framed glass, and four looking glass frames as well as carving tools and “5 ps Carved Work.”190 The inventory of his personal property lists “A Marble slab and frame” and “2 Busts,”191 an intriguing reference when one recalls the popularity of carved busts as ornaments for casepieces in Boston in the 1770s and 1780s.

148. Armchair. England, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany and beech; h. 37¼ inches, w. 25½ inches, d. 20½ inches. (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.)

Welch was a very prosperous carver in pre-Revolutionary Boston. The list of his household furniture before the 1758 trip to England included: “Large and Small Sconces, Looking Glasses, Chimney and Dressing Glasses, a very handsome japanned Chest of Drawers and Bureau, a Marble topped table supported by Carved Eagles.”192 Numerous real estate transactions established Welch as a shrewd businessman. In May, 1774, for example, John Welch bought a lot adjoining his own in Green Lane from John Singleton Copley for £153 and resold it a few weeks later for £253.193 He also had property in the Bowdoin Square-Sudbury Street area and in 1780 he paid the large tax of £50, more than double the sum paid by any other Boston carver.194

Most of the other men designated as carvers in public records seem, like Welch, to have been primarily ship carvers. Joshua Bowles and Thomas Luckis had been keeping shop together along the wharf when their inventory was destroyed by the great fire of 1760. They were also engaged in other aspects of the shipping trade for in addition to the “3 Carved heads and carving tools,” they lost two boat masts, fifteen cod and mackerel lines, and three barrels of flour.195 A bill from Bowles and Luckis to John Hancock further identifies these carvers as ship carvers. Mr. Hancock was charged £28 for a woman’s head “7 foot long” and £13 more for brackets, a trail board, and two scrolls.196 By 1780, Joshua Bowles and Thomas Luckis were working separately. At that time Bowles appears to have been slightly more successful, but by Luckis’ death in 1808 he had improved his financial situation and had a house and land on Scotts Court worth $3000.197

149. Side Chair. Boston, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany, maple, and white pine; h. 37 inches, w. 21⅜ inches, d. 17⅝ inches. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Mrs. F. Carrington Weems, 60.1176.) This chair descended in the Lane family of Boston. The splat of this chair is an example of splat A.

150. Side Chair. Boston area, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany; h. 36¾ inches, w. 21¼ inches, d. 18 inches. (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.) Splat A.

151. Side Chair. Boston, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany; h. 38 inches, w. 23½ inches, d. 19 inches. (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.) This chair descended in the De Wolf family of Boston. The splat of this chair is an example of splat B.

152. Side Chair. Boston or Salem, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany, maple, and white pine; h. 38¼ inches, w. 23⅝ inches, d. 17¾ inches. (Massachusetts Historical Society: photo, Richard Cheek.) Splat C.

153. Side Chair. Boston, c. 1760–1780. Mahogany, maple, and white pine; h. 38 inches, w. 22¹⁵/₁₆ inches, d. 19 inches. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Mary W. Bartol, John W. Bartol, and Abigail W. Clark, Res. 28.78.) According to family tradition, this chair was owned by James Swan (1754–1830) of Boston and Dorchester. The splat of this chair is an example of splat D.

Another known carver is Simeon Skillin, Sr., who was in business by 1741 in Salutation Alley.198 Simeon Skillin’s activities as a ship carver are well documented but no evidence has been found to show that he carved for cabinetmakers.

Joshua Bowles, Thomas Luckis, and Simeon Skillin may have sometimes carved furniture for the great Boston cabinetmakers, but probably they did not permanently associate themselves with one particular cabinetmaker.

One prominent Boston cabinetmaker who may have employed carvers is Alexander Edwards. Although little is known about his life, his economic success in the cabinetmaking trade associates him with a high-style, highly decorated type of furniture.

Alexander Edwards’ father, Benjamin Edwards, a mariner, arrived in Boston in 1716 and three years later bought a large piece of property in Back Street.199 During his thirty-five years in Boston Benjamin Edwards became a successful merchant, owning at the time of his death in 1751 a “Mansion House” with warehouse and wharf worth £800, four other houses in Back Street, Ship Street, and White Bread Alley, and two Negro slaves.200

When his father died, Alexander was eighteen years old and still considered a minor. The cabinetmaker Thomas Sherburne, a neighbor, was made his guardian and probably Edwards was apprenticed to Sherburne in the cabinetmaking trade.201 Upon his maturity Alexander Edwards inherited his father’s Back Street property and set up shop there as a “Gentleman-Cabinetmaker.” He was a patriot and in March, 1777, was appointed to a committee of public safety representing Ward 4.202 In 1780 he was taxed the considerable sum of £120, the same amount as George Bright.203

As with the other Boston cabinetmakers, no carver’s name can be linked to Alexander Edwards. The difficulty of associating known carvers with existing carved furniture is compounded by the inability to readily discriminate in documentary sources among furniture, ship, or sign carvers.

This analytical study has attempted to isolate the different styles of the craftsmen who carved Boston furniture during the Chippendale period. Eventually, further study may link these styles with identifiable craftsmen and clarify the relationship between carvers and cabinetmakers.

1. Major regional studies are in chronological order by state: The Decorative Arts of New Hampshire 1725–1825 (Manchester, New Hampshire, 1964); The Decorative Arts of New Hampshire: A Sesquicentennial Exhibition (Concord, New Hampshire, 1973); Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island, 1640–1820 (Newport, Rhode Island, 1954); The John Brown House Loan Exhibition of Rhode Island Furniture (Providence, Rhode Island, 1965); Three Centuries of Connecticut Furniture 1635–1935 (Hartford, Connecticut, 1935); Connecticut Furniture, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Hartford, Connecticut, 1967); Joseph Downs and Ruth Ralston, A Loan Exhibition of New York State Furniture (New York, 1934); V. Isabelle Miller, Furniture by New York Cabinetmakers, 1650–1860 (New York, 1956); New York Furniture before 1840 in the Collection of the Albany Institute of History and Art (Albany, 1962); Margaret E. White, Early Furniture Made in New Jersey, 1690–1870 (Newark, New Jersey, 1958); William M. Hornor, Jr., Blue Book, Philadelphia Furniture: William Penn to George Washington (Philadelphia, 1935); Baltimore Furniture: The Work of Baltimore and Annapolis Cabinetmakers from 1760 to 1810 (Baltimore, 1947); William Voss Elder iii, Maryland Queen Anne and Chippendale Furniture of the Eighteenth Century (Baltimore, 1968); E. Milby Burton, Charleston Furniture, 1700–1825 (Charleston, South Carolina, 1955).

2. Mabel Munson Swan wrote numerous articles on New England furniture of the eighteenth century. Her most important study of Boston is a two-part article entitled “Boston’s Carvers and Joiners,” Antiques, lii (March and April, 1948), 198–201, 281–285. Other material by Mabel Swan is cited in a bibliography at the end of this volume.

3. While Richard Randall has several outstanding articles to his credit (see the bibliography), his best-known work is American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965). This catalogue includes well-documented pieces of Boston furniture made throughout the century. Benno Forman and Vernon Stoneman have contributed specific studies on furniture produced at the beginning and end of the century, respectively. See Benno M. Forman, “Urban Aspects of Massachusetts Furniture in the Late Seventeenth Century,” Winterthur Conference Report 1969: Country Cabinetwork and Simple City Furniture (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1970); Vernon C. Stoneman, John and Thomas Seymour, Cabinetmakers in Boston, 1794–1816 (Boston, 1959) and A Supplement to John and Thomas Seymour, Cabinetmakers in Boston, 1794–1816 (Boston, 1966).

4. Gordon Saltar who spoke on wood analysis as an aid to the study of New England furniture submitted the most useful portions of his highly specialized paper for publication: a list of New England cabinet woods and an annotated bibliography on the identification of woods.

5. A side chair and lolling chair in the Winterthur Museum bear the stamps of Stephen Badlam, a cabinetmaker of Dorchester, and the unidentified S. F. Charles Montgomery speculated that S. F. may have been the initials of a Boston journeyman working for Badlam during the 1790s. A likely candidate is Samuel Fisk, a Boston cabinetmaker who died in 1797. Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture, the Federal Period in the Henry Francis du Font Winterthur Museum (New York, 1966), nos. 30, 110.

6. Some Cursory Remarks Made by James Birket in his Voyage to North America 1750–1751, ed. Charles M. Andrews (New Haven, 1916), p. 24.

7. In this paper no distinction is made between joiners known to have made furniture and cabinetmakers. For more information on the use of the two terms in colonial Boston, see Benno M. Forman, “Urban Aspects of Massachusetts Furniture in the Late Seventeenth Century,” Winterthur Conference Report 1969: Country Cabinetwork and Simple City Furniture (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1970), pp. 17–20.

8. An appendix at the back of this volume includes these workmen in a list of furniture craftsmen active in Boston during the eighteenth century. For comparable statistics for Philadelphia, see Arthur W. Leibundguth, “The Furniture-Making Crafts in Philadelphia, c. 1730–1760” (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Delaware, 1964), pp. 132–136.

9. Bernard and Lotte Bailyn, Massachusetts Shipping, 1697–1714: A Statistical Study (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 42–47, 49–50, 74–76; Wesley Frank Craven, The Colonies in Transition 1660–1713 (New York, 1968), pp. 307–310.

10. Thomas Hancock, Daybook, May 27 and December 29, 1738 (Baker Library, Harvard University).

11. Suffolk County Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Boston, Massachusetts, December 21, 1741 (hereafter Suffolk Common Pleas).

12. Ibid., January 18, 1750.

13. For example, see Peter Faneuil, Daybook, May 11, 1732, p. 389 (Baker Library, Harvard University).

14. Quoted in Richard H. Randall, Jr., “Boston Chairs,” Old-Time New England, liv (Summer, 1963), 12–13.

15. Ebenezer Call to William Call, Philadelphia, January 15, 1762, Gratz Papers (The Historical Society of Pennsylvania [photostat copy, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum Libraries, Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection]).

16. Samuel Abbot, Account Book, 1754–1808, pp. 21–22, 41–42 (Baker Library, Harvard University).

17. It is possible that these chairs may also have been of Boston origin, since the term “Philadelphia chair” was a generic one for any type of Windsor chair.

18. In this context, “Laced” could either mean “diversified with streaks of color” (A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 10 vols. [Oxford, 1905], vi, part i, 11) or be an abbreviation for “lacquered.”

19. See accounts between Henchman and William Downe, a Boston upholsterer, xv, Domestic Bills, January 24, 1743, Hancock Papers (Baker Library, Harvard University). See also accounts between Bond and Thomas Gibbons and Lanier Kenn, two cabinetmakers in partnership, Suffolk Common Pleas, December 15, 1733.

20. For complete documentation on the shop locations of Boston’s furniture craftsmen, see Brock Jobe, “The Boston Furniture Industry 1725–1760” (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Delaware, 1975).

21. James A. Henretta, “Economic Development and Social Structure in Colonial Boston,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., xxii (January, 1965), 81–88.

22. Suffolk County Superior Court of General Sessions, Boston, Massachusetts, docket 21711.

23. Thomas B. Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, 2 vols. (Boston, 1879), i, 381–395.

24. The only records documenting immigration into Boston between 1700 and 1760 are ship impost records for the years 1715 and 1716. These incomplete records list the names of eight newly arrived joiners and cabinetmakers from London, Bristol, Ireland, Barbados, Long Island, and North Carolina. Obviously, many others ventured to Boston, but unfortunately their names rarely appear in town records. A Volume of Records Relating to the Early History of Boston Containing Miscellaneous Papers, xxix (Boston, 1900), 229–242 (hereafter Miscellaneous Papers).

25. Andrew Burnaby, Travels Through the Middle Settlements in North-America in the Years 1759 and 1760, 2nd ed. (1775; rpt. Ithaca, New York, 1960), pp. 103–104. For information on the decline in trade, see Carl Bridenbaugh, Cities in the Wilderness (1938; rpt. Oxford, 1971), pp. 303, 330–336.

26. E. Milby Burton, Charleston Furniture 1700–1825 (Charleston, 1955), p. 127.

27. Warham purchased goods from Samuel Gardner, a Boston shopkeeper, on October 9, 1724. See Suffolk Common Pleas, December 14, 1730.

28. Ibid., March 22, 1731, August 28, 1732.

29. Ibid., March 3, 1733.

30. Quoted in Burton, Charleston, p. 126.

31. Ibid., pp. 126–127.

32. For information pertaining to Holmes’s life, see George Arthur Gray, The Descendants of George Holmes of Roxbury 1594–1908 (Boston, 1908), pp. 16, 28–30.

33. Miscellaneous Papers, p. 223.

34. Thomas Atkins to Nathaniel Holmes, Boston, viii, Bills, March 16, 1748, Bourn Papers (Baker Library, Harvard University).

35. The inventory totalled £3885:0:3. Suffolk County Registry of Probate, Boston, Massachusetts, docket 15727 (hereafter Suffolk Probate Records).

36. The following information is based on accounts between Holmes and John Mudge, Jacob Burdit, and Mary Jackson, 55.523–525, 55.764.2 (Winterthur Libraries, Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection) and two folders of bills and receipts in the Bourn Papers, vi, Accounts Current 1727–1738, and viii, Bills 1728–1759 (Baker Library, Harvard University).

37. Birth records have only been found for Johnson, Mudge, Burdit, and Sherburne, all of whom were born after 1708. Woodward was called Holmes’s apprentice in 1736 and must have been in his early twenties when hired by his former master. Jeremiah Townsend to Nathaniel Holmes, Boston, vi, Accounts Current, February 1, 1739, Bourn Papers (Baker Library, Harvard University).

38. Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet Dictionary (London, 1803), plate xv.

39. John Mudge to Nathaniel Holmes, Maiden, Massachusetts, January 6, 1738, 55.524 (Winterthur Libraries, Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection).

40. A desk at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has small arched drawers above the pigeonholes and a concealed well in the desk interior. See Richard H. Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965), fig. 55.

41. Richard Woodward to Nathaniel Holmes, Boston, vi, Accounts Current, December 12, 1737, Bourn Papers (Baker Library, Harvard University).

42. John Mudge to Nathaniel Holmes, Maiden, Massachusetts, January 6, 1738, 55.524 (Winterthur Libraries, Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection).

43. This is one of the earliest references to an American bureau table. According to Nancy Goyne Evans, the form did not become popular in New England until after 1750. Evidently Woodward constructed an elegant table, for he charged Holmes six pounds, a sum equivalent to that for a large desk. Richard Woodward to Nathaniel Holmes, Boston, vi, Accounts Current, December 12, 1737, Bourn Papers (Baker Library, Harvard University). See also Nancy Goyne Evans, “The Bureau Table in America,” Winterthur Portfolio III (Winterthur, Delaware, 1967), pp. 25–27.

44. Toes probably refer to the unusual adaptation of the Spanish foot seen on the japanned high chest made by John Pimm (fig. 37). Similar feet appear on dressing tables at Historic Deerfield and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

45. For genealogical material on Fitch, see Ezra S. Stearns, “The Descendants of Dea. Zachary Fitch of Reading,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register, lv (July, 1901), 289, 291.

46. Fitch’s immense estate was never completely settled. He owned land in forty towns in addition to all of Gallops Island. Suffolk Probate Records, docket 6868.

47. In a letter of October 20, 1725, Fitch described Grant as “my Young man,” a phrase often used for an apprentice. Thomas Fitch to Silas Hooper, Boston, Fitch Letterbook (Massachusetts Historical Society).

48. For genealogical information on Grant, see W. Henry Grant, Ancestors and Descendants of Moses Grant and Sarah Pierce (Lebanon, Pennsylvania, n.d.), pp. 3, 9–10, 12.

49. No inventory was taken of Grant’s personal property and real estate. In his will he left £466:13:4 to his grandson, John Simpkins, £400 to his granddaughter, Mary Thatcher Simpkins, and cancelled the debts owed to him by his son-in-law, John Simpkins. The remainder of the bequest went to Moses Grant. Suffolk Probate Records, docket 18314.

50. The author is aware of ten volumes which span the first seventy years of the eighteenth century. For the purposes of this paper, only portions documenting business activities between 1720 and 1740 will be considered. See Thomas Fitch, Letterbook, 1702–1711 (American Antiquarian Society); Letterbook, 1714–1717 (New England Historic Genealogical Society); Letterbook, 1723–1733 (Massachusetts Historical Society); Account Book, 1719–1732 (Massachusetts Historical Society); Account Book, 1732–1736 (Massachusetts Historical Society); Samuel Grant, Account Book, 1728–1737 (Massachusetts Historical Society); Receipt Book, 1731–1740 (The Bostonian Society); Account Book, 1737–1760 (American Antiquarian Society); Petty Ledger, 1755–1762 (Boston Public Library); Petty Ledger, 1762–1771 (Boston Public Library).

51. Thomas Fitch to Isaac DeRiemer, Boston, August 7, 1704, Fitch Letterbook (American Antiquarian Society).

52. Thomas Fitch, Account Book, May 22, 1724, p. 281 (Massachusetts Historical Society).

53. Ibid., September 11, 1725, p. 351.

54. Thomas Fitch to John East, Boston, April 6, 1725, Fitch Letterbook (Massachusetts Historical Society).

55. Ibid., December 8, 1731.

56. Ibid., Thomas Fitch to Silas Hooper, Boston, December 15, 1725.

57. Ibid.

58. Florence M. Montgomery, Printed Textiles: English and American Cottons and Linens 1700–1850 (New York, 1970), pp. 49, 55–56.

59. The upholsterer was John East. See Samuel Grant, Account Book, April 11, 1735, p. 383 (Massachusetts Historical Society). The chairmaker was Edmund Perkins. See Thomas Fitch, Account Book, January 15, 1725, p. 312 (Massachusetts Historical Society); Samuel Grant, Account Book, February 12, 1730, p. 35 (Massachusetts Historical Society).

60. Samuel Grant, Account Book, February 4, 1732, p. 132 (Massachusetts Historical Society).

61. Ibid., July 12, 1731, p. 106.

62. Ibid., July 19, 1737, p. 590.

63. Harrateen had been in limited use in Boston from at least 1726. Thomas Fitch commented on the new fabric in that year, when he wrote to a patron in New York: “I concluded it would be difficult to get Such a Calliminco as you proposed to Cover the Ease Chair, and haveing a very Strong thick Harratine which is vastly more fashionable and handsome than a Calliminco I have sent you an Ease Chair Cover’d w[i]th sd Harrateen w[hi]ch I hope will Sute You.” Thomas Fitch to Madam Hooglant, Boston, March 9, 1726, Fitch Letterbook (Massachusetts Historical Society).

64. Abbott Lowell Cummings, Bed Hangings: A Treatise on Fabrics and Styles in the Curtaining of Beds 1650–1850 (Portland, Maine, 1961), p. 18.

65. Thomas Fitch to Colonel Coddington, Boston, June 26, 1727, Fitch Letterbook (Massachusetts Historical Society).

66. Thomas Fitch, Account Book, May 4, 1720, p. 84 (Massachusetts Historical Society).

67. Samuel Grant, Account Book, October 14, 1729, p. 29 (Massachusetts Historical Society).

68. Ibid., November 21, 1730, p. 65.

69. This notch is often seen on Boston furniture of the Queen Anne style. See, for example, a japanned high chest in the collection of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. Elizabeth Rhoades and Brock Jobe, “Recent Discoveries in Boston Japanned Furniture,” Antiques, cv (May, 1974), 1082–1091.

70. Samuel Grant, Account Book, January 22, 1732, p. 131 (Massachusetts Historical Society).

71. Ibid., April 29, 1732, p. 146.

72. Gertrude Z. Thomas, “Lacquer: Chinese, Indian, ‘Right’ Japan, and American,” Antiques, lxxix (June, 1961), 572–575. For information on Boston japanning, see Joseph Downs, “American Japanned Furniture,” Old-Time New England, xxviii (October, 1937), 61–67; Esther Stevens Brazer, “The Early Boston Japanners,” Antiques, xliii (May, 1943), 208–211; Richard H. Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965), pp. 66–68; Dean A. Fales, Jr., American Painted Furniture 1660–1880 (New York, 1972), pp. 58–69; and Sinclair Hitchings, “Thomas Johnston,” Boston Prints and Printmakers 1670–1775, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xlvi (1973), 83–131.

73. Ralph Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture (London, 1964), pp. 327–331.

74. Illustrated in “Benjamin Bagnall of Boston, Clockmaker,” Old-Time New England, xxvi (July, 1935), 31; and Harvard Tercentenary Exhibition (Cambridge, 1936), no. 257, pl. 46.

75. This high chest was brought to my attention after completion of the article. Richard H. Randall, Jr., discusses and illustrates the chest in “William Randall, Boston Japanner,” Antiques, cv (May, 1974), 1127–1131.

76. Two signatures appear on one of the drawer dividers in the upper section. The featured one is “Robert Davis” and the other, in smaller script, appears to be “Re. Damini.” The initials “W R,” possibly those of William Randle, another Boston japanner, also appear on a drawer of the chest. This information was kindly provided by Brock Jobe. See Elizabeth Rhoades and Brock Jobe, “Recent Discoveries in Boston Japanned Furniture,” Antiques, cv (May, 1974), 1082–1091.

77. For more information on Brown and a copy of the advertisement, see David Hansen, “Gawen Brown, Soldier and Clockmaker,” Old-Time New England, xxx (July, 1939), 1–9.

78. See Helen Comstock, American Furniture (New York, 1962), fig. 187. The date 1766 on the Ford example appears to have been added to the nameplate, and the clock is probably earlier than this date—perhaps before 1752 when Brown had moved to King Street.

79. See Esther Stevens Fraser, “A Pedigreed Lacquered Highboy,” Antiques, xv (May, 1929), 398–401; and Joseph Downs, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the Henry Francis du Font Winterthur Museum (New York, 1952), no. 188.

80. Other works include The Ladies Amusement, or Whole Art of Japanning Made Easy (London, n.d., c. 1760); and George Edwards and Mathias Darly, New Book of Chinese Designs (London, 1754).

81. For japanned English clocks with Boston-area histories, see Antiques, xliii (May, 1943), 209; Martha Gandy Fales, “Thomas Wagstaffe, London Quaker Clockmaker,” The Connoisseur, cli (November, 1962), 198–201; and Wallace Nutting, The Clock Book (Framingham, Massachusetts, 1924), fig. 80.

82. Thomas Johnston’s trade card is reproduced in Hitchings, “Thomas Johnston,” p. 87.

83. A good description of the earlier and later methods of japanning is found in [Thomas Dobson, comp.], Encyclopaedia; Or A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature (Philadelphia, 1798), ix, 72–76. For a later example with a Boston history, see Antiques, lxxxi (April, 1962), 346.

84. Comstock, American Furniture, fig. 174.

85. See Lawrence Shaw Mayo, The Winthrop Family in America (Boston, 1948); Frank Augustine Gardner, Gardner Memorial (Salem, 1933).

86. See Fales, American Painted Furniture, pp. 36–38; 62.

87. For more information on Johnston, see Sinclair Hitchings, “Thomas Johnston,” Boston Prints and Printmakers 1670–1775, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xlvi (1973), 83–131.

88. For information on Pendleton, see Suffolk County Registry of Probate, Boston, Massachusetts, docket 3380; The Diary of Samuel Sewall, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 5th ser., vi (1879), 333. For Hughes, see the 1726 volume of the records of the Suffolk County Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Boston, Massachusetts, pp. 45, 171. For references to Gore as a japanner, see Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, Boston, Massachusetts, lxxiv, 173–174, 200. See also George Francis Dow, The Arts and Crafts in New England 1704–1775 (1927; rpt. New York, 1967), pp. 239–243; William Whitmore, A Brief Genealogy of the Gore Family Especially in the Line of Gov. Christopher Gore (Boston, 1875), pp. 5–6.

89. Various details are quoted, for instance, in Mabel M. Swan’s article, “The Johnstons and the Reas—Japanners,” Antiques, xliii (May, 1943), 211–213.

90. Andrew Burnaby, Travels Through the Middle Settlements in North-America in the Years 1759 and 1760, 2nd ed. (1775: rpt. Ithaca, New York, 1960), p. 101.

91. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1961), i, 294.

92. William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, ed. Joseph Burke (Oxford, 1955), p. 65. First published in 1753.

93. “Ogee” (or “OG”), according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a term of obscure derivation which was defined in eighteenth-century England as “a Moulding, somewhat resembling an S” (T.N. City and C. Purchaser), or more generally “Any curve or line having this form.”

94. In Newport cabinetmaker John Cahoone’s account book (Newport Historical Society), it appears from the prices paid for such items as “a mahogany OG Case of Draws” (mentioned on p. 38, 1754, and on p. 83, 1759)—being as much as half again as much as items listed as “a mahogany case of drawers”—they must have been singular in more than the moldings used. An oxbow or breasted front might be equally described by the general term “OG” but the blockfront, being by far the most common at that time, is more likely. No labelled furniture is known from the workshop of Cahoone or from those of the cabinetmakers employed by him. Another term which may have been used to describe the blockfront is “swell’d.” In a letter of 1763 (quoted by R. Peter Mooz, in “The Origins of Newport Block-Front Furniture Design,” Antiques, xcix [June, 1971], 882), John Goddard of Newport writes to a patron: “there is a sort which is called a Chest on Chest of Drawers & Sweld. front which are Costly as well as ornimental. . . .” Similarly, Thomas Wood of Charlestown, Massachusetts, used this term in his 1776 claim for restitution of property damaged by the British: “Three swell front Desks” (Mabel M. Swan, “Furnituremakers of Charlestown,” Antiques, xlvi [October, 1944], 204). Although “blocked” is the usual modern term applied to these facades, other terms have been applied. For instance, Percy Macquoid in his History of English Furniture, 4 vols. (London, 1906), iii, 49–52, figs. 39, 40, speaks of a (probably Boston) desk with “tubbed and recessed surfaces.”

95. The labelled John Townsend desk (Israel Sack, Inc., New York), the labelled Edmund Townsend kneehole bureau (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and flat-façaded chests of drawers signed by Constant Bailey (in a private collection, North Carolina) and Benjamin Baker (Newport Restoration Foundation) all display this characteristic.

96. A blockfront desk with a history of ownership in Delaware, and probable manufacture in that state, is at Colonial Williamsburg. Although unorthodox in many of its details, the case construction is similar to that used in Newport.

97. Secondary woods are typically white pine for Boston, and chestnut or tulip wood for Newport. Newporters also generally favored a lighter tone to the mahogany in their facades. James Birket in Some Cursory Remarks Made . . . in his Voyage to North America 1750–1751, ed. Charles M. Andrews (New Haven, 1916), p. 24, noted of Boston in 1750, “but now their woods are very much Cut down and destroy’d and what they have is brought along way by land Carriage.” It seems reasonable to assume that the omnipresent white pine in Boston is a matter of choice as much as of convenience.

98. See Nancy Goyne Evans, “The Genealogy of a Bookcase Desk,” Winterthur Portfolio 9 (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1974), pp. 213–222.

99. Job Coit, Sr., was born in 1692, and is known to have been working in Boston by 1718. His business was located on Ann Street in 1731, and he died in 1742.

100. It has been thought that the West Indies in general, and Havana in particular, were a source for baroque-inspired blockfronted pieces in North America. Wendell Garrett, “Speculations on the Rhode Island Block-Front in 1928,” Antiques, xcix (June, 1971), 887–891. There are other closer and earlier precedents than the Havana cathedral furniture, but the idea might well have migrated from Europe via the West Indies as easily as via Great Britain.

101. Charles Townsend, 1375 to 1897: The Direct Ancestry and Posterity of Judge Charles Townsend, A Pioneer of Buffalo, New York (Orange, New Jersey, 1897), p. 29; Charles Townsend Rich, Genealogy of the Townsend Family (Buffalo, 1877), p. 17.

102. Jeremiah must have known Rebecca before she was widowed, as he removed from Boston to New Haven in 1739 and she was not widowed until 1745.

103. The Newport Townsends spring from a triumvirate of brothers, John, Henry, and Richard, of Norfolk, England; the Boston Townsends trace their lineage to Thomas of Gedding, Suffolk.

104. Ingraham still owned property in Boston until 1752. See the settlement of the estate of Lydia Coit, Suffolk County Registry of Probate, Boston, Massachusetts, docket 9797 (hereafter Suffolk Probate Records).

105. The former is on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the latter is at Historic Deerfield.

106. See the frontispiece of Antiques, lxxxvi (October, 1964), 430–431; also Mooz, “Origins of Newport Block-Front Furniture Design,” pp. 882–886. The men who are known to have made blockfronts, John Townsend, Edmund Townsend, and probably John Goddard, were not born until 1733, 1736, and 1724, respectively. There is no evidence that the older generation, Christopher and Job Townsend, made blockfronts.

107. The drawer construction and protruding drawer dividers are unusual but not unknown in Boston. The distinctive solution to the problem of joining the walnut frame to the secondary wood on the case bottom is not used in other examples known to the author.

108. Thomas Cushing, Jr., Waste Book, September 8, 1739 (Baker Library, Harvard University).

109. Pegs anchoring a mortise and tenon joint are uncommon at this date (c. 1740) in an urban area and a Queen Anne design.

110. 63 × 69 (Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum Libraries, Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection).

111. There is a small group of related examples. See Frances Clary Morse, Furniture of the Olden Times, 2nd ed. (New York, 1917), p. 34. A high chest illustrated in Antiques, c (July, 1971), 13, has similar decorative motifs.

112. There is, however, one reference to a Joseph Davis in 1742 who is paid five shillings by Katherine Davis, widow and executrix of James Davis, a blockmaker of Boston. This list of disbursements also includes three pounds paid to Job Coit for a coffin. Suffolk Probate Records, docket 6911.

113. There is an unblocked Boston desk and bookcase at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (figs. 70 and 71), roughly contemporary with the Coit-Davis products, which possibly shows the very finest of contemporary cabinetwork—that which served as their model. Several design motifs which are executed here are abbreviated by Coit and Davis: the inlaid stars (in the M.F.A. desk, in tricolor and two parts; in the Davis, simplified), the fans above the bookcase section (in the M.F.A. desk, carved in undulating three dimensions; in the Coit, flattened in inlay), the scribe line around the bonnet (in the M.F.A. desk, in two-color inlay; in the Coit, a simple incised line), the amphitheater desk interior (greatly simplified in the Coit), and the round-capped recessed interior blocking (in the M.F.A. desk, a minor feature; in the Coit, the central feature).

114. They are owned by Yale, Ginsburg and Levy, Inc., New York, and John S. Walton, Inc., New York. They are made of mahogany or walnut with unusual secondary woods: the Ginsburg and Levy interior is red cedar, Yale’s is white oak and chestnut. Walton’s has the usual white pine, but lacks the doors over the upper set of drawers. The Ginsburg and Levy chest has mirrored doors, a drop below the bottom front, and a molding between the top and bottom halves; the other two lack these additions. A similar example with inlaid stars, side columns, and a bonnet top is owned by the Henry Ford Museum.

115. “It is thought by the family that this piece was made for Dr. John Sprague of Dedham, and it is known to have descended in the Swett and Green families. Samuel Swett, of Boston, married Elizabeth Sprague in 1800.” Letter to the author from Hazel Kimball of John Walton, Inc., March 2, 1973.

116. As the chest-on-chests in this form are approximately of the same vintage, the link between the makers is more likely to be a matter of style distribution than of apprenticeship.

117. There were three cabinetmakers of this name, living respectively 1708–1765, 1734–1809, and 1774–1832. The label on this chest is that of the second of the name. See Thomas B. Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, 2 vols. (Boston, 1879), i, 381–395.

118. According to a checklist of cabinetmakers in the American Decorative Arts Department, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Treadwell was working in Beverly in 1799.

119. Stamping, although known in France, is uncommon in America until the late eighteenth century when it was used by French emigré cabinetmakers and Windsor chairmakers to identify their widely distributed wares.

120. Watson was working between 1737 and 1762 and possibly to 1790. See Dean A. Fales, Jr., Essex County Furniture: Documented Treasures from Local Collections 1660–1860 (Salem, Massachusetts, 1965), fig. 44; Benno M. Forman, “Salem Tradesmen and Craftsmen Circa 1762: A Contemporary Document,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, cvii (January, 1971), 65, 73.

121. Samuel Chamberlain, Salem Interiors: Two Centuries of New England Taste and Decoration (New York, 1950), p. 85; Fales, Essex County Furniture, fig. 44.

122. Richard H. Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965), fig. 41.

123. A blockfront chest-on-chest signed by Nathan Bowen of Marblehead and dated 1774 fits into this period as well. See Richard H. Randall, Jr., “An Eighteenth Century Partnership,” The Art Quarterly, xxiii (Summer, 1960), 153–161.

124. Another of the many examples of this form is to be found in the Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vermont.

125. It bears the names “E. Wasgatt,” “Sarah Hayes Wasgatt,” and “Mary Wasgatt.” They were the daughters of Thomas Wasgatt of Maine; “E. Wasgatt,” Eunice, married David Bradstreet of Mount Desert in 1792, so this desk must predate that marriage. It is now in the Garvan Collection at Yale.

126. The fall front and central interior fan-carved door are new, the bottom of the case has been replaced in part (the front four inches are new). The brasses have been changed twice.

127. This desk differs in construction with a high chest signed by Frothingham in the Winterthur Museum. See, in particular, the dovetails and drawer runners—the latter in the Deerfield desk have vertical insets, a very unusual feature.

128. In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is a desk almost identical in form and construction.

129. William Claggett, clockmaker, moved from Boston to Newport in 1726. James Franklin, the brother of Benjamin Franklin, moved his printing business to Newport in 1727. Samuel Casey, a silversmith of Rhode Island, served his apprenticeship in Boston and set up shop outside Newport about 1750, to mention a few examples.

130. Godfrey Malbone and the Deblois family maintained large commercial establishments in both cities.

131. Abraham Redwood, Letterbook, iii, 7 (Newport Historical Society). See also William Ellery, Daybook, 1737, folio 72 (Newport Historical Society): “Father Almy [kin to Townsend cabinetmakers] to 1 barrell of Loaf sugar bought for you in Boston by Greenleaf £28:3:8; to a Try ton painting & carting £13: 15:6.”

132. Ezra Stiles, Miscellany, 1758–1762, p. 339, undated entry probably 1762 (Beinecke Library, Yale University). Several accounts, such as those found in the Jonathan (?) Marsh Account Book (Newport Historical Society)—where notations for 1754, 1755, and 1764 suggest that the scope of the Newport meeting was enlarged to include delegates from the Jerseys, Philadelphia, and England—attest to the accuracy of Stiles’s report.

133. The signature on this piece is a gouged “H x Rust” on the bottom of the case—an unusual but not implausible means of identification (fig. 85).

134. In the registrar’s files at the Winterthur Museum there is a photograph of this desk (c. 1870) with the captions: “Great Grandfather Joseph Waters’s Desk: sold by Sarah W.” and “From Cousin Fitz. Photo of Great Grandfather Waters’s Desk and Bookcase. Molly Mott leaning against it, Waters’ House, Washington Square [Salem].” See Joseph Downs, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the Henry Francis du Font Winterthur Museum (New York, 1952), no. 225.

135. It bears the inscription “William H. Allen,” probably a nineteenth-century owner of the desk.

136. According to The Centennial of the Social Circle in Concord (Cambridge, 1882), p. 114, Joseph Hosmer’s father, James, “purchased . . . the farm belonging to Joseph Shevally, a Frenchman, who married his cousin Sarah Hosmer. . . . Robert Rosier, a Frenchman, married Mary Chevally, and lived near the bridge. . . . He was a very excellent cabinetmaker, and Major Hosmer learned his trade from him.”

137. Cited (no source given) in a letter to the author from Amelia F. Emerson, March, 1972.

138. See Kenneth Scott and Russell H. Kettell, “Joseph Hosmer, Cabinetmaker,” Antiques, lxxiii (April, 1958), 356–359.

139. The Memorial History of Boston, ed. Justin Winsor, 4 vols. (Boston, 1881), ii, 121–122 fn.

140. Eliza Susan Quincy, “Memoir,” i, 54 (Massachusetts Historical Society).

141. Josiah Quincy’s inventory of 1784 includes “1 Chest of old fineered Draws 24 [shillings],” and “1 Japan Chest Draws 36 [shillings].” The japanned chest is still in the house. Suffolk Probate Records, docket 18158.

142. “List of Pictures and Furniture etc. in the House built 1770 in 1879, by Eliza Susan Quincy,” pp. 32–33 (current location unknown [photostat copy, Winterthur Libraries, Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection]).

143. Similar carving is found on the feet and drop of several other Boston-area blocked casepieces, including a small chest owned by Ginsburg and Levy, Inc., and the desk and bookcase illustrated in figure 83.

144. At this date, there is only one known example of American bombé furniture that probably originated from outside the Boston area, a bombé dressing table probably from New Hampshire. See Samuel Chamberlain, Salem Interiors: Two Centuries of New England Taste and Decoration (New York, 1950), p. 37.

145. Quoted in Survey of London: Spitalfields and Mile End New Town, xxvii (London, 1957) 293. Courtesy of Mr. Benno M. Forman.

146. Mabel M. Swan, “Furnituremakers of Charlestown,” Antiques, xlvi (October, 1944), 203–204.

147. Desmond Fitz-Gerald, Georgian Furniture (London, 1969), fig. 11.

148. Chippendale also imported French furniture; Edward Joy in an article in Country Life, cx (August, 1951), 569, draws attention to Chippendale’s attempt to avoid the English customs.

149. The London cabinetmaker Samuel Bennett labelled a bombé desk and bookcase (c. 1720) that is illustrated in Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 2nd ed., rev., 3 vols. (London, 1954), i, 136.

150. Suffolk County Registry of Probate, Boston, Massachusetts, docket 11871 (hereafter Suffolk Probate Records).

151. Quoted in James H. Stark, The Loyalists of Massachusetts (Boston, 1910), p. 352.

152. Joseph W. P. Frost, “Living with Antiques, Pepperrell Mansion, Kittery Point, Maine,” Antiques, lxxxix (March, 1966), 370.

153. Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The Foster-Hutchinson House,” Old-Time New England, liv (Winter, 1964), 59–76.

154. World Furniture, ed. Helena Hayward (London, 1965), p. 167.

155. Hans Huth, “Roentgens—Cabinet-Makers,” The Connoisseur, xcii (August, 1933), 85–91.

156. For an illustration of the Cade brand, see American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, 3 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1969), ii, 340. “G. CADE” may refer to George Cade (1739–1789), a Boston ropemaker, or to his son, George Cade, Jr. (before 1769–1805), also a local ropemaker. The younger Cade’s inventory included “1 Old Desk” valued at $2.00. If, in fact, Cade did own the bombé desk, then it probably passed to the Plympton family soon after his death in 1805. An inscription on the desk reads, “Augusta P. Plympton, Decr[?] 27 1830 / Formerly property of Dr. Plympton, Waban.” For further information on the Cade and Plympton families, see Suffolk Probate Records, dockets 19402, 22390; A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Statistics of the United States’ Direct Tax of 1798, As Assessed in Boston, xxii (Boston, 1892), 72, 306, 482; John Adams Vinton, The Richardson Memorial (Portland, Maine, 1876), p. 272.

157. Quoted in Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture (New York, 1968), p. 23.

158. The IId. Edition of Genteel Household Furniture in the Present Taste with an Addition of Several Articles Never Before Executed (London, n.d.), plates xliv, xlv, lxxxviii.

159. Mario Praz, An Illustrated History of Furnishing (New York, 1964), p. 105, fig. 64.

160. For photographs of the bas-relief in the Salon de la Guerre, see André Pératé, Versailles: Le Château, Les Jardins, Les Trianons, Le Musée, La Ville (Paris, 1905), pp. 39, 41; Key Monuments of the History of Architecture, ed. Henry A. Millon (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and New York, 1964), p. 402.

161. Pierre Verlet, French Royal Furniture (London, 1963), p. 8.

162. Other examples are owned by John Walton, Inc., New York, and the Sargent-Murray-Gilman-Hough House, Gloucester, Massachusetts. See also Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury (1928; rpt. New York, 1954) figs. 3206, 3210.

163. Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (Garden City, New York, 1957), p. 49.

164. Mabel M. Swan, “Boston’s Carvers and Joiners, Part ii, Post-Revolutionary,” Antiques, liii (April, 1948), 281–285; Richard H. Randall, Jr., “George Bright, Cabinetmaker,” The Art Quarterly, xxvii (1964), 134–149.

165. M. Ada Young, “Five Secretaries and the Cogswells,” Antiques, lxxxviii (October, 1965), 484–485.

166. Joseph Downs, “John Cogswell, Cabinetmaker,” Antiques, lxi (April, 1952), 324.

167. Two heavily restored secretaries with structural features similar to the Cogswell casepieces are now in the Winterthur Museum. Both secretaries have unusual upper sections, much different in appearance from the documented Cogswell chest. However, the structural similarities in the desk sections suggest attributions to Cogswell. See figure 135 and Joseph Downs, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the Henry Francis du Font Winterthur Museum (New York, 1952), no. 227.

168. The Gay family desk and bookcase (fig. 131), attributed to Gibbs Atkins, has slanted drawer sides; the overlapping drawer front is cut to follow the contour of the sides of the case.

169. Both secretaries also have a strong relationship with the desk and bookcase made by George Bright. Until the history of both Atkins’ and B right’s apprenticeships and their respective cabinetshops is determined, I am attributing the Gay and Atkins family desks to Gibbs Atkins.

170. Mabel M. Swan, “Furniture of the Boston Tories,” Antiques, xli (March, 1942), 187.

171. Stark, Loyalists, p. 323.

172. Another bombé desk and bookcase at the Metropolitan Museum also has a tradition of being owned by William Greenleaf. However, Greenleaf’s inventory (Bristol County Registry of Probate, Taunton, Massachusetts, xl, 173) lists only one desk and bookcase (valued at $53). The Metropolitan’s desk has no proven family history, though an extraneous letter in their files mentions that a desk was owned by William Greenleaf and lent to George Washington when he resided at the Vassall-Longfellow House in Cambridge (Daniel Greenleaf to William Pope, Quincy, Massachusetts, July 1, 1838 [American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art]). Since the desk and bookcase at the Whaling Museum has a documented history through the Greenleaf family and since the Metropolitan’s letter of documentation is not tied directly to its desk, I feel that the Whaling Museum’s desk was probably the one owned by William Greenleaf.

173. A partial view of the desk and bookcase appears in an 1880s photograph of the left parlor of the Josiah Quincy House, Quincy, Massachusetts, on file in the library of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, Massachusetts.

174. Sack, Fine Points, p. 161, bottom.

175. Antiques, lxiii (May, 1953), 385. Another Massachusetts bombé tea caddy made of mahogany and white pine is illustrated in Israel Sack, Inc., Opportunities in American Antiques, xxii (November, 1972), 43.

176. Benno M. Forman, “Salem Tradesmen and Craftsmen Circa 1762: A Contemporary Document,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, cvii (January, 1971), 81.

177. Rust was working in Salem from 1762, removed to Boston by 1773, and was located in Beverly in 1782. He later returned to Salem where he died about 1800. Henry Wyckoff Belknap, Artists and Craftsmen of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, 1927), p. 68; Forman, “Salem Tradesmen and Craftsmen,” p. 65.

178. Rust’s only dated piece of furniture is a desk which bears the inscription: “This desk Made By Henry Rust of Salem / Salem, New England / One Thousand seven Hundred and Seventy.” Sack, Opportunities, xxii (November, 1972), 28–29.

179. See also a desk illustrated by Ginsburg and Levy, Inc., Antiques, xlvi (November, 1944), 255.

180. Quoted in Richard H. Randall, Jr., “George Bright, Cabinetmaker,” The Art Quarterly, xxvii (1964), 136, 138.

181. For an illustration of the serpentine-front bombé chest, see Edwin J. Hipkiss, Eighteenth-Century American Arts, The M. and M. Karolik Collection (Cambridge, 1941), fig. 35.

182. Joseph Downs, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (New York, 1952), no. 55.

183. See also F. Lewis Hinckley, Directory of the Historic Cabinet Woods (New York, 1960), pp. 120, 133.

184. Mabel M. Swan, “Boston’s Carvers and Joiners, Part i, Pre-Revolutionary,” Antiques, liii (March, 1948), 198.

185. Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, Boston, Massachusetts, xlvii, 196 (hereafter Suffolk Deeds).

186. Swan, “Boston’s Carvers and Joiners, Part i,” p. 198.

187. Suffolk Deeds, lviii, 4–6; lxvi, 194–195.

188. Quoted in Swan, “Boston’s Carvers and Joiners, Part i,” p. 199.

189. Ibid.; The Boston News-Letter, April 20, 1758; The Boston Gazette, April 24, 1758.

190. Suffolk County Registry of Probate, Boston, Massachusetts, docket 19253 (hereafter Suffolk Probate Records).

191. Ibid.

192. The Boston News-Letter, April 20, 1758; The Boston Gazette, April 24, 1758.

193. Suffolk Deeds, cxxvi, 121.

194. “Assessors’ ‘Taking Books’ of the Town of Boston, 1780,” The Bostonian Society, Publications, ix (1912), 33.

195. A Volume of Records Relating to the Early History of Boston Containing Miscellaneous Papers, xxix (Boston, 1900), 16–17.

196. Swan, “Boston’s Carvers and Joiners, Part i,” p. 199.

197. Suffolk Probate Records, docket 23075.

198. Leroy L. Thwing, “The Four Carving Skillins,” Antiques, xxxiii (June, 1938), 327.

199. Suffolk Deeds, xxxiv, 112–113.

200. Suffolk Probate Records, docket 9826.

201. Suffolk Probate Records, docket 9902.

202. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Boston Town Records, 1770 through 1777, xviii (Boston, 1887), 276–277.

203. “Assessors’ ‘Taking Books’,” p. 25.

204. Mabel M. Swan, “Major Benjamin Frothingham, Cabinetmaker,” Antiques, lxii (November, 1952), 392–395.

205. A summary of Frothingham’s military exploits and the earliest notes on his life are found in Dexter Edwin Spalding, “Benjamin Frothingham of Charlestown, Cabinetmaker and Soldier,” Antiques, xiv (December, 1928), 536–537. Frothingham’s certificate of membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, signed by George Washington and Henry Knox and dated May 5, 1784, has survived and is presently owned by Ginsburg and Levy, Inc., New York.

206. Clement E. Conger and Jane W. Pool, “Americana in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the Department of State, Washington, D.C.,” The Connoisseur, clxxiv (July, 1970), 220, figs. 7, 8.

207. I would like to acknowledge the great help of Albert Sack in acquiring photographs and information for this paper. His many years of observing details in furniture related to Frothingham have been of signal help, as has the firm’s photograph collection.

208. Helen Comstock, “Frothingham and the Question of Attributions,” Antiques, lxiii (June, 1953), 502, fig. 3 showing signature; see also Charles F. Hummel, “Queen Anne and Chippendale Furniture in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Part iii,” Antiques, xcix (January, 1971), 98–101.

209. Joseph Downs, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (New York, 1952), no. 349.

210. Swan, “Major Benjamin Frothingham,” p. 393.

211. Ibid.

212. Ibid., p. 392.

213. The information and photographs were kindly supplied by Clement Conger, Chairman of the Fine Arts Committee, the Department of State, Washington, D.C.

214. Two Spragues are known to have worked in the cabinet business in Boston at later dates, one of whom, Holmes Sprague, is recorded as working after the Revolution. See Mabel M. Swan, “Boston’s Carvers and Joiners, Part ii, Post-Revolutionary,” Antiques, liii (April, 1948), 285.

215. This desk was sold in the Philip Flayderman sale of January 2–4, 1930. See The Collection of the Late Philip Flayderman (New York, 1930), lot 418.

216. Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (Garden City, New York, 1957), plate xviii, no. 2.

217. Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury (1928; rpt. New York, 1954), figs. 718, 719.

218. Helen Comstock, American Furniture (New York, 1962), fig. 304.

219. The interior is shown by Spalding, “Frothingham,” p. 537, fig. 3.

220. Richard H. Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965), fig. 64d.

221. Swan, “Major Benjamin Frothingham,” p. 395.

222. For illustrations of the chest and label, see Margaret Rose Ingate, “History in Towns: Mobile, Alabama,” Antiques, lxxxv (March, 1964), 309. For illustrations of the Walter Frothingham chest, see Comstock, “Frothingham and the Question of Attributions” p. 505, figs. 13, 14.

223. Antiques, Lxii (November, 1952), frontispiece. This type of richly carved fan exists in a number of Boston examples including the Hancock dressing table, now in the John Hancock Insurance Company Collection (Albert Sack, Fine Points of Furniture: Early American [New York, 1950], p. 198, bottom); a pad-foot high chest now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, 3rd ed., 2 vols. [New York, 1926], i, 97, fig. 94); and a blockfront chest-on-chest (Lockwood, Colonial Furniture, i, 360, fig. xxvii); all perhaps by the same carver.

224. Swan, “Major Benjamin Frothingham,” p. 394 showing inscription.

225. Randall, American Furniture, p. 239.

226. Flayderman, lot 417.

227. Bjerkoe, Cabinetmakers, plate xvii, no. 2.

228. The information was kindly supplied by Barry Greenlaw, Curator of Furniture at Colonial Williamsburg. For further information and illustrations, see Barry Greenlaw, New England Furniture at Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, 1974), no. 98.

229. Swan, “Major Benjamin Frothingham,” p. 395.

230. General Henry Knox to Benjamin Frothingham, Charlestown, January 16, 1797, Henry Knox Papers (Maine Historical Society). Courtesy of Earle Shettleworth.

231. Quoted in Swan, “Major Benjamin Frothingham,” p. 394.

232. Quoted in Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, 3rd ed. (Boston, 1891), pp. 40–41.

233. Suffolk County Registry of Probate, Boston, Massachusetts, docket 20668.

234. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1961), ii, 114.

235. A vendue announcement appears in The Boston Gazette, November 21–28, 1737; an advertisement by the merchant Nathaniel Cunningham appears in The Boston Evening-Post, September 6, 1742.

236. William Douglass, A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements, and Present State of the British Settlements in North-America, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London, 1755), ii, 61.

237. Documents and Correspondence in the Boston Public Library Concerning the Boston Fire of 1760, part ii, document 29 (microfilm copy, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum Libraries, Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection).

238. Adams Diary, ed. Butterfield, i, 228. See also Douglass, A Summary, ii, 66.

239. George B. Emerson, A Report on the Trees and Shrubs Growing Naturally in the Forests of Massachusetts (Boston, 1846), p. 60.

240. Benno M. Forman, “Mill Sawing in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts,” Old-Time New England, lx (Spring, 1970), 118–120.

241. Douglass, A Summary, ii, 54.

* Spruce wood, though little used in the construction of furniture, has long been a favorite in the making of musical instruments, especially sounding boards, for it has exceptional resonance. All of these trees ranged through all of the New England states.