Glenn Adamson
Mannerism in Early American Furniture: Connoisseurship, Intention, and Theatricality

Figure 1

Benno M. Forman, undated photo. (Courtesy, Winterthur Museum.) 
 

Figure 2

Cabinet attributed to the Symonds shops, Salem, Massachusetts, 1679. Red oak, black walnut, eastern red cedar, and soft maple with white pine. H. 17 3/4", W. 17 1/4", D. 9 3/4". (Courtesy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Mrs. Russell Sage; photo, Gavin Ashworth.) This cabinet has a history of ownership in the Herrick family.
 

Figure 3

Cupboard, northern Essex County, Massachusetts, 1685–1690. Oak and maple with oak and pine. H. 58 3/4", W. 48 1/2", D. 19 3/8". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Maurice Geeraerts in memory of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Robeson.)

Figure 4

Detail of the canted panel of the cupboard illustrated in fig. 3.

Figure 5

Bedstead, probably Ware, England, 1590–1600. Oak and unidentified light and dark woods. H. 105 1/8", W. 128 3/8*", D. 133". (© V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London, www.vam.ac.uk; purchased with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund.)

Figure 6

Stephen Harrison, design for a triumphal arch, London, 1603. Engraving. (© V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London, www.vam.ac.uk)

Figure 7

Stephen Harrison, design for a triumphal arch, London, 1603. Engraving. (© V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London, www.vam.ac.uk.)

Figure 8

Wendel Dietterlin, design for a chimneypiece, 1598. Etching. (© V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London, www.vam.ac.uk.)

Figure 9

Hall screen, Burton Agnes Hall, Yorkshire, England, 1610. (Courtesy, Jarrold Publishing and Burton Agnes Hall.)

Figure 10

Robert Smythson, Surveyor, Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, England, 1580–1588. (Courtesy, Wollaton Hall.)

Figure 11

Stone bow, probably eastern France or Germany, early seventeenth century. Fruitwood, unidentified marquetry woods, steel, silver wire inlay, mother-of-pearl, gilding. L. 33". (Courtesy, Joe Kindig Antiques; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 12

Side chair, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1740–1750. Walnut. H. 41 5/8", W. 20 3/4", D. 21". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 13

Side chair attributed to the shop of Benjamin Randolph, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ca. 1769. Mahogany with white cedar. H. 36 3/4", W. 21 3/4", D. 17 7/8" (seat). (Chipstone Foundation; photograph, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 14

Side chair, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1800. Maple, birch, and maple veneer. H. 35", W. 22 1/2", D. 23 1/8". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 15

Side chair, Milford, Connecticut, ca. 1820. (Courtesy, New Haven Colony Historical Society; reproduced from an illustration in Robert F. Trent, Hearts and Crowns: Folk Chairs of the Connecticut Coast, 1720–1840 [New Haven, Conn.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1977], p. 73.)
 

Figure 16

Dimensional diagram of the chair illustrated in fig. 15. (Courtesy, New Haven Colony Historical Society; reproduced from an illustration in Robert F. Trent, Hearts and Crowns: Folk Chairs of the Connecticut Coast, 1720–1840 [New Haven, Conn.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1977], p. 73.)

Figure 17

Folding table, Boston, Massachusetts, 1650–1680. Black walnut, red oak, maple, and cedrela with oak and white pine. H. 28 1/2", W. 28 3/4", D. 28 3/4" (open). (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 18

Folding table, England, 1600–1650. Oak. Dimensions not recorded. (Private collectoin; photo, Peter Frahm.)

Figure 19

Folding table, England, 1600–1650. Oak. Dimensions not recorded. (Courtesy, William H. Stokes.)

Figure 20

Detail showing the turned legs and trapezoidal upper and lower frame of the table illustrated in fig. 17. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 21

Detail showing a carved bracket, bosses, and glyphs on the table illustrated in fig. 17. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 22

Plate 120 verso in Philibert de l’Orme, Le premier tome de l’architecture, 1568. (Courtesy: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Typ 515.68.532.)

Figure 23

Detail showing the pentagonal leg stiles of the table illustrated in fig. 17. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 24

Cupboard, England, ca. 1540. Oak. Dimensions not recorded. (Private collection.) This remarkable early cupboard has a set-back upper section with “secret” sliding panels.

Figure 25

House front, London, ca. 1600. Oak and leaded glass. (© V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London, www.vam.ac.uk.)

Figure 26

Chest, England, ca. 1680. Oak, bone, and mother-of-pearl inlay with unidentified secondary wood. H. 31", W. 67", D. 26 3/4". (Courtesy, Sotheby’s Olympia, London.)

Figure 27

Pulpit, Lincolnshire, England, 1646. Oak. (Courtesy, St. Margaret’s Church, Bucknall, and Reverend Simon Witcombe.)

Figure 28

Plate 30 in Hans Vredeman de Vries, La perspective (1604–5; reprint, Amsterdam, 1629). (Courtesy, University of Madison–Wisconsin Library, Special Collections.)

Figure 29

Jean du Brueil, La perspective pratique, London, ca. 1645. Engraving. (Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.) This treatise was initially published between 1642 and 1649.
 

Figure 30

Inigo Jones, design for the House of Fame, from the Masque of Queens, performed in 1609. (Courtesy, Chatsworth House.)

Figure 31

Inigo Jones, set design for the masque Albion’s Triumph, 1632. (Courtesy, Courtauld Institute of Art.)

Figure 32

Cupboard, Boston, Massachusetts, 1670–1680. Oak, maple, cedar, and walnut with oak and white pine. H. 55 5/8", W. 49 1/2", D. 21 3/4". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 33

Detail showing the underside of the upper section of the cupboard illustrated in fig. 32. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 34

Cupboard, Yorkshire, England, first half of the seventeenth century. Oak. H. 53", W. 52 1/2", D. 22". (Courtesy, Huntington Antiques, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire, England.)

Figure 35

Drawing of a stage cupboard, Flemish, 1549. (Courtesy, Warburg Institute and Cadland House, Fawley, Southampton.)

Figure 36

Gravestone of Thomas Call Jr., Malden, Massachusetts, 1678. (Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society, Farber Collection.)

Figure 37

The Execution of Charles I, England, 1649. Oil on panel. (Collection of Lord Dalmeny, on loan to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.)

Figure 38

Great chair attributed to Thomas Dennis, Ipswich, Massachusetts, ca. 1670. Oak. H. 45", W. 25 3/4", D. 17 1/2". (Courtesy, Peabody Essex Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 39

Friedrich Unteutsch, design for a cartouche illustrated on pl. 50 in Neues Zieratenbuch den Schreinern Tischlern ofern Küstlern und Bildhauer sehr dienstlich, 1640–1650. (© V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London, www.vam.ac.uk.)

Figure 40

Entrance front gable, Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, 1580–1588.

Figure 41

Great chair, probably Middletown, Connecticut, second half of the seventeenth century. Red oak. H. 44 1/4", W. 22 1/2", D. 19 1/2". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, John R. Glembin.)

Figure 42

Detail of the back of the chair illustrated in fig. 41.

Figure 43

Armchair, Shrewsbury, England, 1662. Oak. Dimensions not recorded. (Reproduced from Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition [Suffolk, Eng.: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1979], fig. 2.11.) Richard Ellis made this chair for the Shrewsbury Drapers’ Company. 
 

Figure 44

Armchair, French, sixteenth century. Walnut. H. 55 3/8", W. 24 5/8", D. 16 1/2". (Courtesy, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts.)