Last November Daniel Ackermann very kindly presented his webinar ‘Working wood in the inland American South’. The YouTube version is now available. The index to the talk appears below. There is a maximum character limit within the YouTube index of 5000 characters. A longer version of the index, which additionally includes hyperlinks to items, articles and publications referred to in the talk appears in this post after the YouTube short version.

0:00 Introduction: 0:07 H Vanhorn Carpenter & Joiner; baby needs cradle, dead a coffin & life needs chests/chairs/desks; 1:09 Alexander Spotswood’s VA small part of early America 1:51 Mexican desk/bookcase cf Boston high chest 2:04 Blue Ridge/Appalachians barrier to expansion & provided defence via Shenandoah 4:18 1681 Charles II grants PA to Wm Penn; 4:43 PA crucible thru geography & religious tolerance 5:10 1761 map of diversity of religion: PA settled via grants: later led to migration 6:40 into Shenandoah 6:55 Gt Wagon Rd to Augusta GA, 9:00 multiple cultures together 10:06 Quakers in N Shenandoah Germans/Lutherans in mid & Scots-Irish Presbyterians in S 10:28 1649 Fairfax Grant by Charles II set up Quakers in N 10:58 by early 1730s e.g. Hopewell Friends’ Meeting House 11:35 Quakers English Scots-Irish Welsh w regional furniture traditions 11:48 Luptons moved to Shenandoah to 1700 acres, grist & sawmills; David Lupton (1757-1822) Frederick Cty, VA built $5k house; high chest, corner cupboard, desk/bookcase 13:08 see American Furniture 1997 13:30 also Nick Powers on Quaker furniture makers MESDA jnl 13:42 1795 Lupton High Chest cf 1765-75 Philadelphia Rococo High Chest; Lupton’s Neo-classical adaptation of earlier Rococo form 15:05 Lupton desk/bookcase, see Gusler 1997 16:38 Lupton close-ups 17:02 confluence of Potomac/Shenandoah 17:32 sophisticated mahogany sideboard, Winchester, Frederick Cty VA; 17:58 moving up the Valley, German-speaking families from PA Lutherans who would fight (Quakers wouldn’t) from 1740s 19:08 Fort Egypt in Page Cty VA 19:17 cf Quaker 1740s Ross’s Spring w Fort Egypt 1758 19:42 Mahatango Valley Farm 20:19 Chest, Shenandoah Cty 20:58 Fraktur, J Strickler 1794 cf 21:14 to Hanging Cupboard/Clock by J Spitler, Page Cty VA 21:30 more Spitler work 21:34 Chests & Schrank 1779 w sulphur inlay 22:12 Shenandoah sulphur inlay blanket chest cf 1777 Fraktur decorated w hearts/tulips/urns 22:34 Käge 1788 Chest cf Siron 1793 chest 23:14 Scots-Irish (Ulster Protestants) 23:47 map of Beverley Manor/Irish Track 24:08 J Lewis of Ulster cleaved landlord’s skull in twain 24:56 Irish unkindly described by Chas Wood Mason 25:48 furniture simple solid & conservative; 26:14 Augusta Stone Church 1747 26:25 Jos Ray – PA, Wagon Rd by 1759 in Augusta Cty 27:02 Dressing table Augusta Cty, Ray for Lewis; 27:24 Jos Ray & J Price, Augusta Cty, High Chests 1765 & 1775-95 & Longcase Clocks 27:55 Longcase clocks by Wm Huston (PA then Augusta via Wagon Road) 1775-95 Augusta case by Ray; 28:12 son Jas clockmaker 28:42 Wagon Rd connects to Cumberland Rd/Cumberland Gap 29:18 Chest on chest Ray-Price shop & corner cupboard Moses Crawford 1790-1810 in Knox Cty East TN 29:50 Tracey Parks article re Moses Crawford; 30:12 High chest on frame Thos Pierce, Guilford Cty NC 1785-95 cf one by Virgil Eachus Chester Cty PA 1789 30:47 D Osborne Guilford Cty NC ; 31:18 Frakturs from PA/NC/SC by Ehre Vater Artist 31:35 Painted blanket chests Lebanon Cty PA, Alamance Cty NC, Wythe Cty VA, and Walton Cty GA, 31:47 Blanket chest, Christian Seltzer, Lebanon Cty PA 1796 cf J Huddle, Wythe Cty VA 1825-30 ; 32:19 Convergences of traditions Chest of drawers, Moses Pyle, Chester Cty PA 1746 line & berry cf Jos Wells Alamance Cty NC, sulphur inlay for German client 32:53 Germanic Chair w Cherokee woven seat Walton Cty GA 1790-1820; 33:23 cf Cherokee basket 33:30 Diamond Hill, Jos Vann House, Murray Cty GA Cherokee & Moravian 33:53 Punched tin decoration food safes 34:24 food safe at Colonial Williamsburg w linen 34:36 punched tin safe Green Cty TN 34:51 another with lights inside cf 35:23 example from Wythe Cty VA 35:31 cf Rockbridge Cty VA see Kurt C Russ and Jeffrey S Evans ISBN 9780984462421 35:53 Corner Cupboard Hugh McAdams Washington Cty TN 1808 cf another Sullivan Cty TN 1800-08 & desk/bookcase Wm Campbell Madison Cty KY 1800-10 exuberant inlay 36:14 Amber Clawson article; 36:26 Desk Hugh McAdams Washington Cty TN 1808 cf Wm McClure Green Cty TN 1803-12 36:39 Trans-Appalachian West into Ohio River Valley 37:02 1810 Mason Cty KY Census in Lewisburg. Gerrard Calvert J Foxworthy & P Tuttle. 37:30 Calvert Chest of drawers Mason Cty 1795-1800 cf sugar desk 1800-15 37:47 more than 100 chests 38:31 Calvert/Foxworthy/Tuttle start in Prince Wm Cty, Chesapeake Bay VA, move to Maizeville/Lewisburg. Ohio River joins Mississippi 39:15 Calvert Chest of drawers Mason Cty speaks to New Orleans Armoire 1800-20 Pied de biche foot goes upstream while Anglo-American inlay goes downstream creating new styles 40:31 Backcountry furniture not backwards 40:48 Wm Challen chairs Lexington KY 1825-35 & 1809 advertisement. Think about 41:38 VA SC PA WV on own terms of people/places they came from 42:22 Q&A topics include sulphur inlay, punch-tin, Jeff Evans on vernacular chairs, fluted qtr columns in NW England (Quaker link?), repetition of motifs & possibly artists within Frakturs and painted chests; any link between Dutch painted furniture and US painted?

Longer version of index with hyperlinks to items and publications:

0:00 Introduction: Settlement Culture Migration 0:07 Henry Vanhorn Carpenter & Joiner; the baby needs a cradle, the dead require a coffin and in between there are the chests the chairs and the desks; 0:30 objects are the result of people, place and time: new styles for a new nation 1:09 the Virginia of Alexander Spotswood 1:37 Virginia was small part of early America 1:51 Mexican desk and bookcase contemporaneous to Boston high chest 2:04 Blue Ridge and Appalachians presented a barrier to westwards expansion and provided defence via settlement of Shenandoah Valley 2:56 Expansion westwards to the Fault Lines, then the Blue Ridge Mountains as more land was wanted; also Piedmont and Tidewater regions 4:18 1681 Charles II grants province of Pennsylvania to William Penn; 4:43 Philadelphia becomes crucible and grows through both geography and religious tolerance 5:10 1761 map of Philadelphia shows diversity of religion 5:45 settlement of Pennsylvania initially via grants: later shortage led to waves of migration 6:40 also into the Shenandoah Valley 6:55 The Great Wagon Road went all the way to Augusta Georgia, 9:00 almost a Fertile Crescent and Silk Road in one bringing multiple cultures together 10:06 Quakers in the Northern part of the Shenandoah Valley German speakers and Lutherans further south in the middle and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians further south 10:28 1649 Fairfax Grant by Charles II in exile set up Quakers in Northern part 10:58 by early 1730s early Meeting Houses e.g. Hopewell Friends’ Meeting House 11:35 Quakers were English Scots-Irish Welsh and brought their own regional furniture traditions 11:48 David Lupton’s father and grandfather moved into the Shenandoah Valley and accumulated 1700 acres with grist and sawmills; in 1791 David Lupton (1757-1822) of Apple Pie Ridge, Frederick County, Va built $5k house; high chest, corner cupboard, desk and bookcase two now at Colonial Williamsburg 13:08 American Furniture 1997 https://chipstone.org/article.php/286/American-Furniture-1997/Crossroads-of-Culture:-Eighteenth-Century-Furniture-from-Western-Maryland ; https://chipstone.org/article.php/290/American-Furniture-1997/The-Furniture-of-Winchester,-Virginia ; https://chipstone.org/article.php/317/American-Furniture-1997/Adaptation-and-Reinterpretation:-The-Transfer-of-Furniture-Styles-from-Philadelphia-to-Winchester-to-Tennessee ; 13:30 also on MESDA website Nick Powers article on Quaker furniture makers https://www.mesdajournal.org/2018/friends-in-high-places-quaker-furniture-makers-in-virginias-northern-shenandoah-valley/  ; 13:42 The 1795 Lupton family High Chest compared to a 1765-75 Philadelphia Rococo High Chest; Lupton’s is really a Neo-classical adaptation of the earlier Rococo form 15:05 Lupton desk and bookcase, well-constructed objects – see Gusler 1997 (link above) 16:38 Lupton close-ups 17:02 confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah 17:32 sophisticated sideboard, Winchester, Frederick County VA. in mahogany and rosewood; 17:58 moving up the Valley, German-speaking families from Pennsylvania Lutherans who would fight (Quakers wouldn’t) moving in from 1740s 19:08 Fort Egypt in Page County VA 19:17 compare Quaker 1740s Ross’s Spring with Fort Egypt 1758 19:42 Mahatango Valley Farm 20:19 Chest, Shenandoah County 20:58 Fraktur, Jacob Strickler 1794 compared 21:14 to Hanging Cupboard and Clock by Johannas Spitler of Page County VA 21:30 more examples of Spitler’s work 21:34 Chests and Schrank 1779 with sulphur inlay 22:12 Shenandoah Valley sulphur inlay blanket chest compared alongside a 1777 Fraktur both decorated with hearts and tulips and urns 22:34 Abraham Käge 1788 Chest https://mesda.org/item/collections/blanket-chest/2402/ compared to John Siron 1793 chest https://emuseum.history.org/objects/2723/blanket-chest;jsessionid=93605B048050C3AE4188D12303697B42 ; 23:14 Scotch-Irish (Ulster Protestants) 23:47 settled in Beverley Manor Irish Track 24:08 John Lewis of Ulster who cleaved his landlord’s skull in twain 24:56 Irish described by Charles Wood Mason as ‘rude, ignorant, void of manners education or good breeding, no genteel or polite person among them, a set of the most lowest vilest crude breathing Scotch Irish Presbyterians from the north of Ireland’ 25:48 furniture simple solid and conservative https://mesda.org/item/collections/arm-chair/851/ ; https://emuseum.history.org/objects/35288/armchair-panel-back?ctx=ea89dfba2b39a0a2f4b1befcf13dfa90a97924ca&idx=127 ; 26:14 Augusta Stone Church 1747 26:25 Joseph Ray – Philadelphia, Wagon Road by 1759 in Augusta County 27:02 Dressing table Augusta County by Ray for John Lewis; 27:24 Joseph Ray and John Price, Augusta County, High Chests 1765 and 1775-95 and Longcase Clocks same dates 27:55 Longcase clocks by William Huston (Philadelphia then Augusta via the Wagon Road) 1775-95 Augusta case by Ray; 28:12 son James Huston also a clockmaker 28:42 Wagon Road connects to the Cumberland Road and the Wilderness Trail and Cumberland Gap 29:18 Chest on chest from Ray-Price shop and corner cupboard by Moses Crawford 1790-1810 in Knox County East Tennesee 29:50 C Tracey Parks article about Moses Crawford https://www.mesdajournal.org/2013/moses-crawford-tennessees-earliest-cabinetmaker-revealed/ ; 30:12 High chest on frame Thomas Pierce, Guilford County North Carolina 1785-95 and High chest on frame Virgil Eachus Chester County Pennsylvania 1789 30:47 David Osborne Guilford County North Carolina https://www.mesdajournal.org/2018/friendly-furniture-the-quaker-cabinetmakers-of-guilford-county-north-carolina-1775-1825/ ; 31:18 Frakturs from Pennsylvania and North and South Carolina by the Ehre Vater Artist 31:35 Paint-decorated blanket chests from Lebanon County Pennsylvania, Alamance County North Carolina, Wythe County Virginia, and Walton County Georgia, 31:47 Blanket chest, Christian Seltzer, Lebanon County PA 1796 and one by John Huddle, Wythe County VA 1825-30 ; 32:19 Convergences of traditions Chest of drawers, Moses Pyle, Chester County PA 1746 line and berry and one by Joseph Wells Alamance County North Carolina, sulphur inlay for a German client 32:53 Germanic Chair with Cherokee woven seat Walton County Georgia 1790-1820; 33:23 compare with Cherokee basket 33:30 Diamond Hill, Joseph Vann House, Cherokee Nation now Murray County Georgia Cherokee and Moravian 33:53 Punched tin decorated furniture for food safes 34:24 food safe at Colonial Williamsburg with linen 34:36 punched tin safe again Green County Tennessee 34:51 punched tin safe again Green County Tennessee with lights inside cf 35:23 example from Wythe County Virginia 35:31 one from Rockbridge County Virginia see Opening the Door. Safes of the Shenandoah Valley by Kurt C Russ and Jeffrey S Evans ISBN 9780984462421 Published by Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, 2017 35:53 Corner Cupboard Hugh McAdams Washington County Tennessee 1808 cf another Sullivan County Tennessee 1800-08 and desk/bookcase Wm Campbell Madison County Kentucky 1800-10 exuberant inlay 36:14 Amber Clawson article https://www.mesdajournal.org/2016/the-mcadams-family-of-cabinetmakers-and-the-cultural-palette-of-east-tennessees-rope-and-tassel-school-of-furniture/ ; 36:26 Desk Hugh McAdams Washington County Tennessee 1808 cf Wm McClure Green County Tennessee  1803-12 36:39 Trans-Appalachian West into Ohio River Valley 37:02 1810 Mason County Kentucky Census has 3 cabinet makers in Lewisburg. Gerrard Calvert John Foxworthy and Peter Tuttle. 37:30 Calvert Chest of drawers Mason County Kentucky 1795-1800 cf sugar desk 1800-15 37:47 Matt Cox fieldwork has identified more than 100 chests 38:31 Calvert/Foxworthy/Tuttle families start in Prince William County, Chesapeake Bay VA and move to Maizeville Washington and Lewisburg. Ohio River joins Mississippi and influence goes down to Louisiana 39:15 Calvert Chest of drawers Mason County speaks to New Orleans Armoire 1800-20 Pied de biche foot goes upstream while Anglo-American inlay tradition goes downstream creating new styles 40:31 What is Backcountry furniture? Not backwards – more dynamic 40:48 William Challen chairs Lexington Kentucky 1825-35 and his 1809 advertisement 41:10 Good Better Best 41:23  

Good Better Best Backcountry not the best way to think about 41:38 VA SC PA WV on their own terms of people places they came from 42:22 Q&A topics include sulphur inlay, , punch-tin, Jeff Evans on vernacular chairs, fluted quarter columns in the north-west of England (any connection with Quakers?), repetition of motifs and possibly artists within Frakturs and painted chests; any link between sugar desks and Dutch grain desks? any link between Dutch painted furniture and US painted? 

Members who missed Hans Piena’s talk about the diary of Eimert Papenborg may catch up on the RFS YouTube channel here.

I have indexed the talk as follows:

Hans Piena, Conservator/Curator, Nederlands Openluchtmuseum (Holland Open Air Museum) 0:00 Introduction to the diary of Eimert Papenborg re-discovered 1969 and then 2013 1:13 Historical context – Beethoven; The Beagle; aftermath of Napoleon; England a world power 1:58 213 pages sometimes 3 times overwritten and parts in secret code and faded 2:29 8 years of research and deciphering leading to publication in 10 chapters ISBN:978-90-823607-5-2 3:19 Achterhoek region 3:44 local map of farm site near Zieuwent 4:29 Louis Apol c. 1880 Country Road 5:07 yearly floods; Drinking Cows Willem Roelofs 1884 5:39 Jan Holtrup c. 1940 Winter afternoon in the Achterhoek – low walled huts with rye straw roof 6:02 Oldest picture of the farm 6:22 Louis Apol Looking for wood 1873-75 in Winter 6:42 Papenborg’s oldest son and family – Catholic village in Protestant country – distinctive gold crosses worn by the women 7:33 pig meat and fat eaten never beef: cows were for butter 7:56 Herman Johannes van Der Weele 1852-1930 Ploughing with ox – oxen were the tractors 8:10 main crops potatoes and rye 8:31 8 old apple varieties 8:54 Papenborg fell in love with youngest daughter of richest local farmer 1851-52 – took nearly 9 years to get permission to marry 9:55 Albert Neuhuys 1844-1914 Changing diapers – interior of family house kettle over fire 10:28 Bernhardt Winter 1905-06 women flax processing, ladder back chairs 10:51 linen cabinet – linen was most valuable item in Papenborg’s inventory 11:46 H J ten Noever Bakker 1899 Pedlar with wicker back basket selling chickens and tobacco to woman who had the money 12:22 Otto van Tussenbroek 1905 Churning butter – thrice monthly market 5-8kg butter 18 km away – profitable for cash 13:16 House interior Hendrikus Johannes Melis 1860-1923 – 3 legged table, jointed stool, cradle, books, paintings, Bible 14:06 kettle wrongly restored, hand-blown glass bottle, clock c 1860, fire tongs, stoneware jug for lamp oil 15:06 isolated, no doctors nearby, recipes in diary for medicinal herbs, no fertilisers more diversity 15:57 Anton Mauve 1838-88 Chopping wood – wood for fire, utensils, furniture, carts, barns, houses – pit saw for boards 16:30 van Der Weele 1852-1930 Oxcart with wood 17:00 crops not enough to make ends meet – charcoal production 17:34 September 1848-67 charcoal burning – alder, birch, ash, poplar, oak – tree planting to re-grow 18:58 sold to foundry, 40 km away north 8 hours each way trip Foundry 1900 Herman Heijenbrock, chalk pastels on black paper 20:38 cradle from basketmaker 21:09 Dutch willow cradle 21:28 Tilt top 3 legged round table 1851 22:08 stone cobbled floor on parents’ farm 22:23 3 legged chair ex John Boram collection 3 legs for stability Papenborg adopted tiled floor in own house and 4 legged ladder back chairs 23:15 1853 oak bureau ordered, stained and coloured like mahogany retrieved from under tons of straw and thoroughly cleaned which unfortunately removed the finish and it was then waxed 25:29 1786 oak trunk descended from Eimert Papenborg’s parents 26:06 Hendrikus Papenborg, master carpenter & cabinet maker of Zieuwent 1863-1925 27:16 Floor plan with cabinet workshop amongst ox and pig stalls 28:17 Family descended cabinet on chest made by Hendrikus Papenborg with dove and serpent tableau. Panels replaced by glass and scraped but no longer authentic finish. 29:45 but Louis XVI brasses in the workshop 30:04 cabinet details showing paint remains in rebates and 3 dowels 31:01 Another cabinet by Hendrikus Papenborg, completely original, inscribed in pencil ‘Dit kambinet gemaakt in het jaar 1892 Zieuwent den 19 maart feestdag van de H. Joseph H Papenborg Timmerman te Zieuwent’ This cabinet was made in the year 1892 on 19 March, the feast day of St Joseph H. Papenborg, carpenter in Zieuwent. Rosewood imitation, with gold and silver carving suggesting brasses, mimicking Dutch 18th century cabinet e.g. 1750 Amsterdam and 140 years later Papenborg was imitating it. Anything to escape the rustic look! 33:50 onwards: questions and answers

Julian Parker

Website Editor