| Secretary and Bookcase Attributed to Charles Cameron Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), 1805-1815 Mahogany and cherry with maple, tulip poplar, yellow pine, and sumac Purchased with funds given by F. G. and Kathy Summitt of Bloomington, Indiana Catalog no. 143 One of the talented cabinetmakers who plied his trade in the upper Potomac River valley was Charles Cameron of Shepherdstown. Like nearby Martinsburg, Charles Town, and Frederick, Shepherdstown played an active role in the western grain trade with Baltimore. Local furniture often reflected this important commercial connection. Click on object for more information. |
| Chest of Drawers Piedmont North Carolina, 1775-1800 Walnut with yellow pine and poplar Catalog no. 116 Almost certainly made by an artisan who was trained by or worked with Scott and then moved west and south, the chest displays a number of startling similarities to Scott-attributed work. The carved legs and feet echo Scott's uncommon design, as do the molding profiles. A number of key structural features are repeated as well. For example, the legs on both pieces are attached to the case with large, square, flush-nailed blocks, and the drawers exhibit similar glue block patterns. In the decades after the Revolution, numbers of Tidewater residents moved to western Virginia and north central North Carolina. Artisans followed this migration in search of new opportunities. The two objects seen here are reminders of that movement. |
| Card Table Western Maryland, probably Frederick, 1795-1810 Mahogany with cherry, yellow pine, tulip poplar, sumac, purpleheart and maple Catalog no. 74 Click on object for more information |
| Tall Clock Movement by George Woltz Hagerstown, Maryland, 1795-1805 Black walnut with yellow pine, tulip poplar, oak, and holly Gift of Perry Van Vleck Catalog no. 174 The movement in this clock was made by George Woltz. Of Swiss-German extraction, Woltz was born in York, Pennsylvania, but later settled at Hagerstown in western Maryland. Woltz's clock movement represents northern European craft traditions. By contrast, the black walnut case echoes the British neat and plain furniture widely popular in the coastal and Piedmont South. Several of its elements were directly inspired by clock cases from the coastal cities that traded with Hagerstown. The broken-scroll pediment with horizontal base and central finial follows a British-inspired form popular in Baltimore and Philadelphia. The richly colored panel of inlaid foliage on the trunk door was probably imported from Baltimore. |
| Sofa Winchester, Virginia, 1790-1805 Black walnut with yellow pine and maple Catalog no. 40 This sofa and a virtually identical example from the same shop are the earliest Virginia-made examples of the form known. Produced in Winchester, they are part of a small but refined group of furniture characterized by exuberant shaping and the use of unusual inverted bellflower inlays. Despite the maker's unmistakable grounding in Winchester design traditions, the form of the back and arms strongly suggest his awareness of contemporary forms made in Baltimore, Annapolis, or Philadelphia. |
Influences from the Coastal South
In addition to their ties to Pennsylvania, backcountry residents maintained considerable connections to the coastal South. The region's growing importance as a grain producer strengthened those connections in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The establishment of new western towns led to trade relationships that provided backcountry artisans with access to the latest design trends from the southern coast. After the Revolution, the dispersion of coastal furniture styles was further facilitated by the westward migration of eastern cabinetmakers who sought to profit from reduced competition in smaller towns inland.