1. Philip Cuyler to Dirk Vander Heyden, July 17, 1756, Cuyler Letterbook, as quoted in Virginia Harrington, The New York Merchant on the Eve of the Revolution (1935; reprint ed., Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1964), p. 291. New York merchants benefited from new trade routes developed during and after King George’s War. Cuyler, for example, imported tea (illegally) from Holland and sold it for a handsome profit in New York and New England (Carl Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America, 1743–1776 [1955; reprint ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1971], pp. 52–53). Philip L. White, The Beekmans of New York (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1956), p. 539. See also, Beekman Mercantile Papers, 3 vols., edited by Philip L. White (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1956). William Smith, Jr., The History of the Late Province of New York, edited by Michael Kammen (1757; reprint ed., Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 284. Letterbook of John Watts as quoted in Harrington, The New York Merchant, p. 233. 2. For more on New York’s growth and the economic effects of war, see Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt, pp. 5, 16, passim. New York’s economy suffered after the British forces departed for the Caribbean in 1761. In a letter to Moses Franks, John Watts complained, “The Reservoir of all Streams of Business and the Spring to which feeds many of them is dried up” (Letterbook of John Watts as quoted in Harrington, The New York Merchant, p. 280). 3. For more on Hardcastle, see Luke Beckerdite, “Origins of the Rococo Style in New York Furniture and Interior Architecture,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1993), pp. 15–39. 4. Ibid., p. 15. New-York Gazette or the Weekly Post-Boy, June 3, 1762, as quoted in The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1726–1776: Advertisements and News Items from New York City Newspapers, Collections of the New-York Historical Society, compiled by Rita S. Gottesman (1938; reprint ed., New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), p. 123. For advertisements by Bernard and Minshall, see ibid., pp. 126–28. 5. Beckerdite, “Origins of the Rococo Style,” pp. 22–24, 27, 30, figs. 18, 33, 35. 6. New-York Mercury, June 30 and July 21, 1755, as quoted in Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, p. 127: On July 21, 1755, the New-York Mercury reported, “stephen dwight, late an apprentice to Henry Hardcastle has set up his business . . . where he carves all sorts of ship and house work; also tables, chairs, picture and looking glass frames and all kinds of work for cabinetmakers, in the best manner and all at reasonable terms.” The fact that Dwight established his business one month after Hardcastle’s advertisement suggests that his indenture had expired or that Hardcastle had left for Charleston. Hardcastle was buried in Charleston on October 20, 1756 (D. E. Huger Smith and A. S. Salley, Jr., Register of St. Phillip’s Parish, Charles Town, or Charleston, S.C., 1754–1810 [Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1971], p. 282). His inventory listed two silver watches, a pair of silver buckles, a gold ring, a crosscut saw, a musket, clothing, a lot of books, and “1 Gross & half of Carving Tools” (Transcript of Charleston County, S.C. Wills, et cetera, 1756–1758, 84: 54, microfilm at Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem, N.C.). 7. New York Gazette, April 12, 1762, as quoted in Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, p. 126. See also the New-York Mercury, May 2, 1763 (ibid., p. 3). Davis’s name appears in a 1775 list of inhabitants of New York City and a 1775 militia roll. In that year he resided at 621 William Street (see Dorothy C. Barck, “A List of Five Hundred Inhabitants of New York City in 1775 with their Occupations and Addresses,” in New-York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin 3 [1939]: 31; and list of New York Militia taken April 25, 1775, and reprinted in New-York Historical Society Collections 2 [1915]: 503). Isaac Alling vs. Mary Dwight & Ors., August 10, 1805, Chancery Court, file B. M. 307A. 8. For more on Dwight’s frames, see Morrison H. Heckscher, “The Beekman Family Portraits and Their Eighteenth-Century New York Frames,” Furniture History 26 (1990):114–20; and Morrison H. Heckscher and Leslie Greene Bowman, American Rococo: Elegance in Ornament (New York: Harry N. Abrams for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992), pp. 156–57. 9. For more on New York carvers, see Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, pp. 3, 16, 110, 124, 126–29, 132–33; and Heckscher and Bowman, American Rococo, pp. 153–56. Morrison H. Heckscher, “English Furniture Pattern Books in Eighteenth-Century America,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1994), pp. 185, 189 (6.1), 192–93, 195–97 (16.2–16.4). 10. Warren R. Dix and Lebbeus B. Miller, “Itinerary of Historical Excursions,” in Historic Elizabeth, 1664–1914: A Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the City, compiled by Frank Kelly (Elizabeth, N.J.: Historic Elizabeth Committee, 1914), p. 19. Theodore Thayer, As We Were: The Story of Old Elizabethtown (Elizabeth, N.J.: Grassman Publishing Co., 1964), pp. 113, 252. Dr. Barnet was a highly regarded surgeon during the Revolutionary War. On February 10, 1780, the New Jersey Gazette published Dr. Barnet’s account of the British forces plundering his house: “They emptied my feather beds in the streets, broke in windows, smashed my mirrors, and left our pantry and storeroom bare. I could forgive them all but that the rascals stole from my kitchen wall the finest string of red peppers in all Elizabethtown” (as quoted in Reverend Edwin F. Hatfield, History of Elizabeth New Jersey Including the Early History of Union County [New York: Carlton & Lanahan, 1868], p. 484). 11. The trusses removed from the chimneypiece in the first-floor, southeast parlor of Philipse Manor may have resembled those from Hampton Court. The former are shown in an engraving in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (1882) (Beckerdite, “Origins of the Rococo Style,” p. 17). 12. The desk-and-bookcase with carving attributed to Hardcastle is illustrated in ibid., pp. 21–23, figs. 13–17. The author originally attributed the desk-and-bookcase illustrated in fig. 9 to Hardcastle; however, subsequent research suggests that it was carved by an apprentice, either working in Hardcastle’s shop before 1755 or working independently shortly thereafter. Advertisement by John Walton, Antiques 85, no. 4 (April 1964): 356. 13. For the purchase of the farm, see Beekman Manuscripts, box 43, folder titled “Revolutionary Generation,” as quoted in Edward A. Griggs, “Beekman Hill” (master’s thesis, New York University, 1959), p. 3. Beekman’s expenditures for utensils, labor, and food are discussed in White, The Beekmans of New York , p. 404. James Beekman Account Book Personal Affairs, 1759–1786, New-York Historical Society. 14. Advertisement by French & Co., Inc., Antiques 52, no. 2 (February 1950): 105. The author has not examined this desk-and-bookcase. 15. The building of St. Paul’s is discussed in Parish of Trinity Church, “St. Paul’s Chapel of the Parish of Trinity Church Broadway and Fulton Street,” brochure, n.p.; Morgan Dir, Historical Records of St. Paul’s Chapel, New York (New York: F. J. Huntington & Co., 1867), pp. 26–29; and Morgan Dir, A History of the Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York (New York: P. G. Putnam’s Sons, 1896), pp. 302–5. For more on McBean, see Gulian Verplank’s letter to the editor, “Notes and Queries,” The Crayon (New York), June 1857. Verplank and subsequent writers have speculated that McBean trained with British architect James Gibbs. John F. Millar of Williamsburg, Virginia, attributed St. Paul’s Chapel to Peter Harrison (John F. Millar, “Peter Harrison, 1716–1775,” brochure, n.p., copy in the archives of Trinity Parish, New York.) Trinity Parish Account Book, 1756–1769, RG2: SG1,2,3: Box 3 [2]; transcribed information provided by the Parish of Trinity Church. 16. For Gautier, see ibid.; Dir, History of the Parish of Trinity Church, pp. 302–5; and Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, pp. 97, 112–13, 118, 281, 395. As quoted in Dir, Records of St. Paul’s Chapel, p. 27. 17. According to Dir’s History of the Parish of Trinity Church, pp. 315–16, the “sacristies were at the eastern end, near the chancel. . . . The interior has been changed; the sacristies are now at the west end; the beautiful chandeliers have vanished; the canopied pews have disappeared; but the chancel and altar, the memorial tablets with their emblazoned arms, and the old pulpit with the Prince of Wales’s feathers atop, still greet the eye.” See Heckscher and Bowman, American Rococo, p. 25, for a ca. 1900 photograph of the interior showing the pulpit at the west end, but with the stair on the right side. 18. For more on the Van Rensselaer house and family, see Katherine Schuyler Baxter, A Godchild of Washington: A Picture of the Past (New York: F. Tennyson Neely, 1897), pp. 414–19; and Some Colonial Mansions and Those Who Lived in Them, 2 vols., edited by Thomas Allen Glenn (Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Co., 1898), pp. 156–68. These early publications allude to other architectural carving that may have been part of the original fabric of the house as well as to subsequent alterations made by architect Richard Upjohn. For Upjohn’s alterations, see Edgar Mayhew and Minor Myers, A Documentary History of American Interiors from the Colonial Era to 1915 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980), p. 55. For more on the entrance hall, see Heckscher and Bowman, American Rococo, pp. 23–25. Jackson also wrote, “Saloons in Imitation of Stucco may be done in this manner, and Staircases in every Taste as may be agreeable. These papers being done in oil, the Colour will never fly off—no water or damp can have the least effect on it” (John Baptist Jackson, “An Essay on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro obscuro, as practised by Albert Durer, Hugo di Carpi, etc. and the Application of it to the making of Paper Hangings of Taste Duration and Elegance,” as quoted in Nancy McClelland, Historic Wall-Papers [Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, Co., 1924], pp. 144–49). 19. Heckscher and Bowman, American Rococo, p. 24. 20. Stephen Dwight apprenticed in New York, and nothing is known of Richard Davis’s training. As quoted in Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, p. 110. On January 3, 1763, Brinner advertised “all kinds of bedsteads, with carved or plain cornishes . . . N. B. A neat mahogany desk and bookcase in the Chinese taste to be sold” (as quoted in ibid., p. 124). 21. The New-York Gazette or the Weekly Post-Boy, October 24, 1765, as quoted in Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, pp. 128–29. Strachan is one of the few American carvers who advertised stonework (ibid., pp. 128, 132). For more on the Strachan frames, see Heckscher, “The Beekman Family Portraits,” pp. 116–17, 120; and Heckscher and Bowman, American Rococo, pp. 156–58. Strachan evidently tripped on a rope while walking along the dock near Burling’s slip, fell into the river, and drowned (Extract of Genealogical Data from the New-York Weekly Post Boy, 1743–1773, compiled by Kenneth Scott [Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1970], p. 125; Genealogical Data from Colonial New York Newspapers, compiled by Kenneth Scott [Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977], p. 134). Catherine married painter James Barrow on August 7, 1769 (New York Marriage Bonds, 1753–1783, compiled by Kenneth Scott [Middletown, N.Y.: Trumbell Publishing for the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, 1972], n.p.), and died by the following February (Scott, comp., Data from Colonial New York Newspapers, p. 145). A February 9, 1770, notice in the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury requested her debtors to make payment to Jonathan Blake, Thomas Barrow, or James Barrow (Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, p. 129). On April 16, 1770, the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury reported that the partnership between “Strachan, Widow dec’d,” and John Fulkner was dissolved (Scott, comp., Data from Colonial New York Newspapers, p. 145). 22. Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, pp. 16, 128, 132–33. Scott, comp., New York Marriage Bonds, n.p. “John Michalsal” appears in William Kelby, Orderly Book of the Three Battalions of Loyalists Commanded by Brigadier-General Oliver De Lancey, 1776–1778 (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1917), p. 125. For “John Minchull,” see Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1979), 2:84. William Kelby listed a John Minshull, “Capt.,” in his handwritten notebook titled “The New York Loyalists or Adherents to the British Crown in that City During the War of the Revolution,” New-York Historical Society, ca. 1901, n.p. 23. For more on the Van Cortlandt family and house, see Catherine Van Cortlandt Matthews, Historical Sketch of the Van Cortlandt House Prepared for the Society of the Colonial Dames of the State of New York (New York: Colonial Dames, 1903), p. ix; and Baxter, A Godchild of Washington, pp. 297–98. 24. For more on the Miller table, see Dean F. Failey, Long Island is My Nation: The Decorative Arts and Craftsmen, 1640–1830 (Seatucket, N.Y.: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1976), p. 95, no. 113. Related feet are on a New York chest-on-chest with a history of ownership by New York and New Jersey merchant John Stevens (Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State, edited by Alexandra W. Rollins [New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991], pp. 96–98). A post card for the New York antique firm John S. Walton, Inc. illustrates another New York tea table with hairy paw feet (Winterthur Museum Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, 71.396). This table is branded “P” on the birdcage, reportedly for the Pruyn family of New York. Its knee carving features ascending and descending acanthus leaves separated by a small C-scroll. This common New York carving design also appears on a firescreen illustrated in Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), pp. 414–15, no. 194; and a tea table branded “PVR,” presumably for Philip Van Rennsselaer (Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art II, Late Colonial Period: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles [New York: Random House, 1985], pp. 65–66, no. 23). Two exceptional pieces of New York furniture with related carving are the slab table advertised by C. W. Lyon in Antiques 45, no. 4 (April 1944): 161 (now at Stratford Hall in Virginia), and a card table in the collection of Bernard and S. Dean Levy; both objects have large carved reserves on the front rail. For the dressing table with sheathed claw-and-ball feet, see advertisement by Ginsburg and Levy, Antiques 63, no. 1(January 1953): 13; and Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts Research File, S-4164. The author thanks John Bivins for the information on Dutch prototypes for sheathed feet. 25. Heckscher, American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum, pp. 65–66, no. 23. For more on Boston’s influence, see Leigh Keno, Joan Barzilay Freund, and Alan Miller, “In the Pink of the Mode: Boston Georgian Chairs, Their Export and Their Influence,” in this volume. The acanthus and flower carving on the Van Vechten table and Willett chairs may have inspired that found on several New York card tables (see Morrison H. Heckscher, “The New York Serpentine Card Table,” Antiques 103, no. 5 [May 1973]: 974–83) and chairs (see David B. Warren, American Furniture, Paintings, and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection [New York: New York Graphics Society for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1975], p. 49, no. 86). 26. For more on the Halstead table, see Joseph Downs, American Furniture: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (New York: MacMillan Company, 1952), no. 374. Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901), pp. 234–35, fig. 206. The turret-corner table advertised by Ginsburg and Levy, Antiques 79, no. 1 (January 1961): 39, has gadrooning and knee carving similar to that on the china tables, particularly the one from the Halstead family. For more on the Verplanck suite, see Heckscher, American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum, pp. 66–67, 139–40, 174–75, nos. 24, 82, 105. The Livingston chairs are discussed in Bernard Levy and S. Dean Levy, “Opulence and Splendor:” The New York Chair, 1690–1830 (New York: Bernard & S. Dean Levy, Inc., 1984), p. 7. The author thanks Frank Levy for the information on the dining table (Bernard and S. Dean Levy, photo no. 128). Related shell and husk designs appear on the knees of a ca. 1740 New York card table (Failey, Long Island is My Nation, p. 120, no. 139) and the prospect door of a ca. 1750 desk-and-bookcase with carving attributed to Henry Hardcastle (Beckerdite, “Origins of the Rococo Style,” p. 21, fig. 13). 27. The author thanks Michael Podmaniczky for the information on the construction and materials of the Halstead table. 28. For more on the construction of the Verplanck table, see Heckscher, American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum, pp. 174–75, no. 105. 29. The first edition titled Houshold Furniture in Genteel Taste for the Year 1760 (London: Robert Sayer, 1760) included 180 designs on 60 plates; the second and third editions had 100 plates with about 300 designs; and the fourth edition had 120 plates with about 350 designs (Heckscher, “English Pattern Books,” p. 195). For more on the Verplanck family, see Heckscher, American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum, pp. 66–67; William Verplank, The History of Abraham Isaacse Verplanck and His Male Descendants in America (Fishkill, N.Y.: John W. Spaight, 1892), pp. 102–4; and John Caldwell and Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art I: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born by 1815 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), pp. 94–96. 30. Warren, American Furniture, Paintings, and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection, p. 25, no. 42. The author thanks Michael K. Brown for information on the Livingston chair at Bayou Bend and related English examples. 31. E. B. Livingston, The Livingstons of Livingston Manor (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1910), pp. 148–51.