Wendy A. Cooper and Lisa Minardi. Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725–1850. A Winterthur Book. Winterthur, Del.: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 2011. xxv + 277 pp.; numerous color and bw illus., checklist, bibliography, index. Distributed by University of Pennsylvania Press. (Also vol. 45 in the annual volume series of the Pennsylvania German Society.) $55.00.
Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725–1850 is an important addition to the scholarship of American decorative arts. The publication differs in several respects from earlier studies in that it looks at the full range of English and Germanic populations in southeastern Pennsylvania during the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. The well-documented objects they produced are presented as evidence of the continuation of European traditions in the decorative arts and, more important, as evidence of the cross-fertilization of design between neighboring groups and the creation of a distinct, local, and “American” aesthetic.
Examples of such “Americanizations” appear throughout the book. In the introduction, for instance, the authors discuss the Philadelphia high chest form. While the high chest of drawers is, in effect, an “American” form—American craftsmen altered and popularized an English design—there were further “Americanizations” by German craftsmen who, “instead of copying the Philadelphia style, took inspiration from it, transforming the technique and design conventions to fit their perceptions of beauty” (p. xvii).
The methodology used for this study is also outstanding. To this author’s knowledge, few other publications present such thorough and complete research of such a large number of objects to provide a clear picture of the environment in which they were made. This book examines the European origins of the population of southeastern Pennsylvania, its ethnic composition, stylistic preferences in the arts, migration within America, occupations, social mobility, and any number of other factors that influenced their choices in the decorative arts. With respect to the objects themselves, the authors analyzed construction, finishes, materials used, descent in families, as well as the history and, when possible, even the training of the maker, his or her ethnic ties, religion, and the cost of the object. In other words, this study is based on an amazing amount of research and information, which permitted the authors to attribute objects to very specific and sometimes small regions of southeastern Pennsylvania. Such an impressive study in these financial times is a tremendous achievement and one that most institutions cannot afford to duplicate but can only strive toward with limited means and limited success.
The stated goal of the publication and exhibition at Winterthur Museum (April 2, 2011, to January 8, 2012) was to identify distinct local interpretations, “localisms” in the words of the authors, “based on well-documented examples in which the maker or family history is known” (p. xxiv). This approach enabled the authors to “go beyond loose attributions to one county or another and vague classifications that have long prevailed.” According to the authors, this is “not a comprehensive survey of the furniture of southeastern Pennsylvania, but rather one based on furniture with histories and the people associated with those objects” (p. xxiv–xxv). In the process the authors also debunk myths about the furniture and people of the region. Among these, for instance, are the misconceptions about the ownership of “dower” chests, which were in fact owned by both men and women and were not necessarily “dower” chests. They also dismiss the frequent association of Quakers with “plainness.” Noting that Germans were only one of many groups in the region, they reject the attribution of countless objects to the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” They prove that southeastern Pennsylvania included members of many different faiths and nationalities—Quakers of English, Welsh, and Irish origin, as well as Scots-Irish Presbyterians, German Lutheran and Reformed groups, and nonconformist German minorities such as the Mennonites and Moravians, among others.
Although an exhibition accompanies this publication, it is not organized as a typical exhibition catalogue in which one can easily find text relating to a numbered, exhibited object. Instead, the book, which includes a checklist, is organized around three foci—color, pattern, and people—in four chapters: “People: A Great Mixed Multitude”; “Places: Regional Forms and Local Expressions”; “Families: Owners and Inheritors”; and “Makers: From Cradle to Coffin.”
The first chapter, “People: A Great Mixed Multitude,” focuses primarily on the history and immigration patterns of southeastern Pennsylvania. The authors begin by looking at settlers to the region from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and England and make clear that religious affiliation, socioeconomic status, geographic location, and local craftsmanship practices were factors that influenced what a patron bought and what that object looked like. In the process, items are identified by histories of ownership in particular regions including, when possible, when the objects were purchased in relation to the date of the owner’s, and even the maker’s, immigration and settlement. Specific regional characteristics of construction and decoration, such as the line-and-berry inlay found primarily on objects made for Quakers in Chester County, Pennsylvania, are points of discussion in this chapter. In some instances, it was possible for the authors to posit the significance of objects as signs of “membership in the highest levels of Quaker society” (p. 19). Similar examinations and histories are presented when scrutinizing furniture and other decorative arts, including architectural contributions, of other ethnic groups in differing regions. The German-speaking peoples, for instance, including the Mennonites, Moravians, Swenkfelders, and the Ephrata community, all receive attention, and objects known to have been produced by them and owned by them are analyzed in detail.
Chapter two, “Places: Regional Forms and Local Expressions,” treats specifically painted, carved, and inlaid decorations. Under the subtitle “Regionalisms: Common Furniture Forms,” slat-back chairs, benches, dry sinks, dough troughs, tables, and cupboards are examined. Specific local preferences for types of furniture and decoration are discussed under “Settles” and “Rush Bottom Couches.” The line-and-berry inlay of Chester County and the forms on which it appears is described in greater detail than in the previous chapter, as is the sulfur inlay of Lancaster County. Last, the chapter includes sections on painted and carved decoration. Under “Painted Decoration,” the so-called Compass Artist, who decorated boxes and chests from 1775 to 1820 in Lancaster County, is considered, as are the chests made by the Jonestown School northwest of Lancaster and a group of objects from Wythe County, Virginia, which resemble those from Jonestown and suggest migration from the Lancaster area to Virginia. The Schwaben Creek and Mahantogo Valley of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, also come into focus with the analysis of various objects and the identification of individual construction characteristics, paint colors, and techniques, including stamps and stencils used to create decorations on chests of drawers, chests, kitchen cupboards, and hanging cupboards.
The “Carved Decoration” section of chapter two looks at objects by the region in which they were created: Chester and Berks Counties, Lancaster County, the Nottingham School of Chester County, and, last, Cumberland County. The authors note the strong influence of Philadelphia rococo furniture and the impact it had on the production of related furniture throughout the region. Yet, they also identify the manner in which regional craftsmen altered designs in ways that suited local tastes and preferences. The objects made in these four regions changed just enough in proportion, construction, and extent and quality of carving, which was sometimes exaggerated and overly abundant, to qualify as local preferences, the “localisms” on which the publication focuses.
Chapter three, “Families: Owners and Inheritors,” illustrates and analyzes numerous objects with very firm provenances and cites the great importance of history of ownership as crucial to “identifying distinctive localisms of form, ornament, and construction” (p. 118). It is also essential for an understanding of the objects in their original context. In this section a number of objects, including decorated paper fraktur with firm provenances to individual families are examined, including those owned by the Lanborn, Miller, and Hottenstein families. They are analyzed as groups of objects with specific histories, along with the houses and even the rooms of the structures that sheltered them. Clocks are also examined with reference to local characteristics in design and also in the works themselves. Further, the chapter looks at objects whose maker and original owner are known, and also again at paint-decorated chests, dispelling the myth of the “dower” chest as having been made only for women and only as “dower” objects, as well as the myth that the decorations on these chests were either religious or symbolic.
The final chapter, “Makers: From Cradle to Coffin,” describes the practices of a number of identified cabinetmakers, noting that coffins were frequently a mainstay of business for many in the field. Such subjects as the master-apprentice relationship, the design of the shops in which they worked, the ways makers marked their furniture, and specific construction details, some associated with an ethnic tradition or as the innovation of a specific shop, are discussed in detail.
The chapter also studies fancy goods and the appearance of multiple colors and patterns in house interiors and on furniture produced by craftsmen identified and studied throughout the region. Others subjects examined in this last chapter are the work of John Fisher of York, Pennsylvania, with a discussion of his clocks, sculpture, and painted decoration; the relationship of architecture and furniture through the analysis of Tulpehocken Manor (near Myerstown, Jackson Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania), its interiors and the documented objects that furnished the house originally. This is followed by an analysis of the Deyers of Manheim, who made clocks, case furniture, and designed and built architecture. In the words of the authors, “such versatility, a necessity for many woodworkers faced with increasing competition, also reinforced the development of distinctive localisms in which details of form, construction, and ornament took on the specifics of maker and place” (p. 188).
Last, the authors point to the slow rate at which industrialization and mechanization affected southeastern Pennsylvania and list reasons for this. They cite “a strong ethnic and artisanal consciousness; a conservative tendency; and thriftiness that valued tried-and-true hand-tool technologies over unproven new machinery” (p. 192). They also note that the cost of new mass-produced forms was a factor in the pervasive conservatism of the region.
Unfortunately, the methodology employed here—aggressive research into the minutiae of individual shops, regions, ethnic groups, and craftsmen—is difficult to duplicate if only because of the time commitment and associated costs that most museums, independent scholars, and research institutions simply cannot afford. There is no doubt, however, that the methodology pursued for Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725–1850 will remain the ideal for scholars for years to come.
Overall, the book reads well and easily. Some might have preferred a different organization to the publication, a more typical catalogue format, for instance, that would make it easier to find and retrieve information on a specific craftsman, ethnic group, object, or subject. As it is, the reader is forced to read the entirety of the book to fully understand the region and its “localisms.” In some cases, the information presented in one chapter might seem to fit more comfortably within the parameters and subject matter of another chapter, leading to some confusion. One might wonder, for example, why we read about regional forms and local expressions in the chapter titled “Makers: From Cradle to Coffin.” Nevertheless, the writing style is comfortable to read, and the book is well researched, well documented (frequently providing specific information for the first time), and also well illustrated and supremely interesting. This is a wonderful publication and is well worth the purchase price to anyone interested in the decorative arts.
Francis J. Puig
Sarasota, Florida