1. Samuel Goodrich, Peter Parley’s Own Story (New York: Sheldon & Company, 1866), pp. 31, 33.

2. Ibid., pp. 18, 320–45. Goodrich’s phrase “articles of use” is noteworthy, for it resembles the Marxist concept of use value. For a historiographical review that characterizes the intense non-market exchanges of rural New England households, see Alan Kulikoff, “The Transition to Capitalism in Rural America,” William and Mary Quarterly 46, no. 1 (January 1989): 122–26.

3. John Schlotterbeck first used the term “social economy” to analyze the diverse local economy in Virginia during the second quarter of the nineteenth century: “The ‘Social Economy’ of an Upper South Community: Orange and Greene Counties, Virginia, 1815–1860,” in Class Conflict and Consensus: Antebellum Southern Community Studies, edited by Orville Burton and Robert McMath Jr. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982), pp. 3–28. My forthcoming book Making Furniture in Preindustrial America: The Social Economy of Newtown and Woodbury, Connecticut (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), elaborates upon and refines the term, drawing important insights from sociologists and folklorists who study craftsmen. On the social value of work, see Michael Foucoult, The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences (New York: Random House, 1973). For an example of a contemporary skilled craftsman who works within a similar network, which cannot be defined by economic transactions alone, see Douglas Harper, Working Knowledge: Skill and Community in a Small Shop (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).

4. Grant McCracken, Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), pp. 58–59, 118–29; Mary Douglas, The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979), pp. 4, 5, 59–65; and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton, The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 58–64.

5. For greater detail, see Cooke, Making Furniture in Preindustrial America, chapter 1.

6. Robert Seybolt, Apprenticeship & Apprenticeship Education in Colonial New England & New York (New York: Columbia University Teachers College, 1917); Paul Douglas, American Apprenticeship and Industrial Education (New York: Columbia University Press, 1921); and Ian Quimby, Apprenticeship in Colonial Philadelphia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1985).

7. Mutual obligations affected not only craft training but the whole realm of social and economic activities: Philip Greven, Four Generations: Population, Land, and Family in Colonial Andover, Massachusetts (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1970); James Henretta, “Families and Farms: Mentalite in Pre-Industrial America,” William and Mary Quarterly 35, no. 1 (January 1978): 3–32; and John Waters, “Patrimony, Succession, and Social Stability: Guilford, Connecticut in the Eighteenth Century,” Perspectives in American History 10 (1976): 131–60. On the role of apprentice woodworkers within the life cycles of their masters, see Edward Fix, “A Long Island Carpenter at Work: A Quantitative Inquiry into the Account Book of Jedediah Williamson,” Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association 32, no. 4 (December 1979): 61–63, and Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association 33, no. 1 (March 1980): 4–8; and Ann Dibble, “Major John Dunlap: The Craftsman and His Community,” Old-Time New England 68, nos. 3–4 (Winter-Spring 1978): 50–58.

8. Apprenticeship agreement between Lazarus Prindle and Joseph Peck Jr., June 5, 1793 (privately owned).

9. The importance of observation, learning fundamental formulas, and internalizing a master’s values is stressed by upholsterer Andrew Passeri in “My Life as an Upholsterer, 1927–1986,” in Perspectives in American Furniture, edited by Gerald W. R. Ward (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), pp. 169–203. Philip Zimmerman points out the role of workmanship of habit in “Workmanship as Evidence: A Model for Object Study,” Winterthur Portfolio 16, no. 4 (Winter 1981): 283–307.

10. Works that indicate how a craftsman broadened his performance include George Sturt, The Wheelwright’s Shop (1923; reprinted, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1963); and R. Gerald Alvey, Dulcimer Maker: The Craft of Homer Ledford (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984). Pertinent works on American furniture makers include John Bivins Jr., The Furniture of Coastal North Carolina, 1700–1820 (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 1988); William Hosley Jr., “Timothy Loomis and the Economy of Joinery in Windsor, Connecticut, 1740–1786,” in Ward, ed., Perspectives in American Furniture, pp. 127–51; Brock Jobe, “Urban Craftsmen and Design,” in Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, New England Furniture: The Colonial Era (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), pp. 3–46; Robert F. Trent, Hearts & Crowns (New Haven, Conn.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1979); and Philip Zea, “Furniture,” in The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, edited by Gerald W. R. Ward and William Hosley Jr. (Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1985), pp. 185–91.

11. Edward Cooke Jr., “Craftsman-Client Relationships in the Housatonic Valley, 1720–1800,” Antiques 125, no. 1 (January 1984): 272–80; Edward S. Cooke Jr., “The Work of Brewster Dayton and Ebenezer Hubbell of Stratford, Connecticut,” Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin 51, no. 4 (Fall 1986): 196–224; and Edward S. Cooke Jr., “New Netherlands’ Influence on the Furniture of the Housatonic Valley,” in The Impact of the New Netherlands Upon the Colonial Long Island Basin, edited by Joshua Lane (Washington, D.C., and New Haven, Conn.: Yale-Smithsonian Seminar on Material Culture, 1993).

12. Ibid.

13. For published examples, see Litchfield County Furniture (Litchfield, Conn.: Litchfield County Historical Society, 1969), pp. 36–37, 64–65.

14. For the most recent published treatment of these shops, see Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1988), pp. 142–44.

15. Account Book of Joseph Shelton of Stratford, 1728–1789, pp. 22, 30 (Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn.); Account Book of Ephraim Curtis of Stratford, 1743–1775, p. 264 (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn.); and Fairfield District Probate Records, vol. 14, p. 520 (Fairfield Town Hall, Fairfield, Conn.). Information on woods drawn from a survey of Fairfield District Probate Records, vols. 4–20. On local economic activities, see Connecticut Archives: Industry and Connecticut Archives: Trade Maritime Affairs (Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Conn.). On the Stratford examples, see Account Book of John Brooks Jr. of Stratford, 1784–1824 (Discovery Museum, Bridgeport, Conn.) and Account Book of Lewis Burritt of Stratford, 1794–1838 (Stratford Historical Society, Stratford, Conn.). For comparative insights on Marblehead joiners who worked according to maritime rhythms, see Account Book of Joseph Lindsey of Marblehead, 1739–1764 (Winterthur Museum Library, Winterthur, Del.); Jobe, “Urban Craftsmen and Design,” pp. 12–13; Account Book of Nathan Bowen of Marblehead, 1775–1779 (Winterthur Museum Library, Winterthur, Del.); Philip Chadwick Smith, ed., The Journals of Ashley Brown (1728–1813) of Marblehead (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1973), 2: 646; and Richard Randall Jr., “An Eighteenth Century Partnership,” Art Quarterly 23, no. 2 (Summer 1960): 152–161.

16. These observations are based on readings of account books from western Connecticut in the collections of the Bethlehem Historical Society, Connecticut Historical Society, Connecticut State Library, Fairfield Historical Society, Litchfield Historical Society, Milford Historical Society, New Haven Colony Historical Society, Newtown Historical Society, Old Sturbridge Village Library, Winterthur Museum Library, and Yale University Library. The best sources are the Account Book of John Durand of Milford, 1760–1783 (Milford Historical Society, Milford, Conn.) and the Account Book of Elisha Hawley of Ridgefield, 1786–1800 (Connecticut Historical Society). Even as late as 1844, it was customary for cabinetmakers in Greenfield, Massachusetts, a community no longer dominated by farming, to work evenings from September to March. These extended winter hours allowed a shop to produce sufficient pieces and parts for much of the following year. See Christopher Clark, “The Diary of an Apprentice Cabinetmaker: Edward Jenner Carpenter’s ‘Journal’ 1844–45,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 98, part 2 (1989): 325, 359.

17. In addition to the account books cited in note 16 above, see Account Book of David and Abner Haven of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1786–1841 (Winterthur Museum Library); Benno Forman, “Delaware Valley ‘Crookt Foot’ and Slat-Back Chairs: The Fussell-Savery Connection,” Winterthur Portfolio 15, no. 1 (Spring 1980): 41–64; and Bernard Cotton, The English Regional Chair (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1990), pp. 13–31.

18. The best summary of the distinctive aspects of case furniture is Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture, pp. 3–17. Few scholars have specifically addressed the production rhythms involved in case furniture, but see Jeanne Vibert Sloane, “John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry,” Old-Time New England 72 (1987): 88–122; and Margaretta Lovell, “‘Such Furniture as Will Be Most Profitable’: The Business of Cabinetmaking in Eighteenth-Century Newport,” Winterthur Portfolio 26, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 27–62

19. For a contemporary perspective on the efficiency and exactness possible from empirical knowledge and repetitive action, see Sam Maloof, Sam Maloof: Woodworker (New York: Kodansha International, 1983). Maloof maintains that he can cut dovetails for a piece of case furniture in less time than it would take him to set up and use a jig for a router or table saw.

20. On the view that templates were an urban characteristic, see Forman, “Delaware Valley ‘Crookt Foot’ and Slat-Back Chairs,” p. 51; and Zimmerman, “Workmanship as Evidence,” pp. 283–308. Estimates on production time are drawn from Hosley, “Timothy Loomis and the Economy of Joinery,” pp. 137–39 and 150–51; and Account Book of Oliver Avery of Norwich, 1788–1839 (Winterthur Museum Library).

21. Douglas Harper uses the terms “nature of work” and “context of work” in Working Knowledge: Skill and Community in a Small Shop.

22. My understanding of the social basis of design and workmanship is derived from Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (New York: Basic Books, 1983); Michael Jones, The Hand Made Object and Its Maker (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975); Henry Glassie, Folk Housing in Middle Virginia (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975); Christian Norberg-Schulz, Intentions in Architecture (Cambridge, Mass.: M. I. T. Press, 1968); and Louis Chiaramonte, Craftsman-Client Contracts: Interpersonal Relations in a Newfoundland Fishing Community (St. John’s: Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1970).

23. Barbara Ward explains the terms learned techniques and chosen techniques in “The Craftsman in a Changing Society: Boston Goldsmiths, 1690–1730” (Ph.D. dis., Boston University, 1983), pp. 40–44,100–104.

24. Cooke, “Craftsman-Client Relationships”; Cooke, “The Work of Brewster Dayton and Ebenezer Hubbell”; Cooke, “New Netherlands’ Influence on Furniture of the Housatonic Valley.”

25. Edward S. Cooke Jr., “The Selective Conservative Taste: Furniture in Stratford, Connecticut, 1740–1800” (M.A. thesis, University of Delaware, 1979); and Account Book of Lewis Burritt of Stratford, 1794–1838 (Stratford Historical Society, Stratford, Conn.).

26. Cooke, “Craftsman-Client Relationships”; Dean Failey, Long Island is My Nation (Setauket, N.Y.: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1976); and Michael Podmaniczky, “Examination Report of Brewster Dayton High Chest 68.772” (Winterthur Museum, 1989; copy in possession of author).

27. Cooke, “Brewster Dayton and Ebenezer Hubbell”; and Fairfield County Court Records, 1768–1773 (Connecticut State Library), p. 307.

28. Cooke, Making Furniture in Preindustrial America.

29. Ibid. For a similar response in eastern Connecticut, see Robert F. Trent, “The Colchester School of Cabinetmaking, 1750–1800,” in The American Craftsman and the European Tradition 1620–1820, edited by Francis Puig and Michael Conforti (Minneapolis; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1989), pp. 112–35; and Robert F. Trent, “New London County Joined Chairs: Legacy of a Provincial Elite,” The Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin 50, no. 4 (Fall 1985): 15–186.

30. Cooke, Making Furniture in Preindustrial America.

31. Ibid.

32. On the legacy of woodworking skills in the seventeenth century, see Robert B. St. George, “Fathers, Sons, and Identity: Woodworking Artisans in Southeastern New England, 1620–1700,” in The Craftsman in Early America, edited by Ian Quimby (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984), pp. 89–125. The emphasis on the adaptive nature of New Englanders in the eighteenth century is best demonstrated by Christopher Jedrey, The World of John Cleaveland (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979); Douglas Jones, Village and Seaport (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1981); and Fred Anderson, “A People’s Army: Provincial Military Service in Massachusetts During the Seven Years War,” William and Mary Quarterly 40, no. 4 (October 1983): 499–527.

33. The traditional emphasis on the lineal family and its influence upon adaptive strategies is discussed in Jedrey, The World of John Cleveland; Jones, Village and Seaport; Robert Gross, The Minutemen and Their World (New York: Hill and Wang, 1976); and Henretta, “Families and Farms,” pp. 3–32.

34. Benno Forman, “The Crown and York Chairs of Coastal Connecticut and the Work of the Durands of Milford,” Antiques 105, no. 5 (May 1974): 1147–54; Edward Cooke Jr., “Selective Conservative Taste,” p. 44; Account Book of John Brooks, Jr. of Stratford, 1784–1824, pp. 20, 81; and Bridgeport Probate District, Docket 2232 (Connecticut State Library). For information on the Prindle family, see Edward S. Cooke Jr., Fiddlebacks & Crooked-backs: Elijah Booth and Other Joiners in Newtown and Woodbury, 1750–1820 (Waterbury, Conn.: Mattatuck Museum, 1982), p. 90. A similar pattern of craft families and traditionalism existed on eighteenth-century Long Island (Failey Long Island is My Nation, pp. 191–200).

35. Cooke, Fiddlebacks & Crooked-backs, appendixes A and B for information on the Booths, Fabriques, and Prindles. The Beardslees included Henry and Andrew of Stratford, John of Trumbull, John of Newtown, and John of Woodbury who apprenticed with Bartimeus Fabrique. Account Book of John Brooks, Jr. of Stratford, 1784–1824, p. 31; Account Book of Henry Curtiss of Stratford, 1749–83 (Stratford Historical Society, Stratford, Conn.), p. 82; Account Book of Philo Curtiss of Stratford, 1795–1824 (Boothe Homestead, Stratford, Conn.), p. 6; Stratford Probate District, Docket 151 (Connecticut State Library); Newtown Probate District, Docket 69 (Connecticut State Library); and Account Book of Bartimeus Fabrique of Southbury, 1785–1820 (Yale University Library), pp. 31–35, 47.

36. Robert F. Trent, “New England Joinery and Turning Before 1700,” in New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century, edited by Robert F. Trent and Jonathan Fairbanks (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1982), 3: 501–50; Robert B. St. George, “Style and Structure in the Joinery of Dedham and Medfield, Massachusetts, 1635–1685,” Winterthur Portfolio 13 (1979): 1–46; and I. T. Frary, Early Homes of Ohio (1936; reprint, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1970), pp. 90–95. Plain & Elegant Rich & Common (Concord, N.H.: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1979), a catalogue of documented New Hampshire furniture, implies that many joiners who migrated to that state retained the traditions of their training. This study, as well as William Hosley Jr., “Vermont Furniture, 1790–1830,” Old-Time New England 72 (1987): 245–86, points out that more work needs to be done on the concept of cultural transfer in New Hampshire and Vermont.

37. Newtown Probate District, Docket 970 (Connecticut State Library); H. Franklin Andrews, The Hamlin Family (Exira, Iowa: H. Franklin Andrews, 1902); Samuel Orcutt, A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport Connecticut (New Haven, Conn.: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1886), p. 494; Stratford Land Records (Stratford Town Hall, Stratford, Conn.), 28:402–3 and 411; and Woodbury Land Records (Woodbury Town Hall, Woodbury, Conn.), 32:138; 35:58.

38. Hobart Family Papers (Fairfield Historical Society, Fairfield, Conn.).

39. Account Books of Silas Cheney of Litchfield, 1799–1821 (Litchfield Historical Society, Litchfield, Conn.); and John Kenney, The Hitchcock Chair (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1971).