Figure 1  Detail of Edward Crisp, A Compleat Description of the Province of carolina in 3 Parts. 1st The Improved part from the Survey’s of Maurice Mathews & Mr. John Love. 2ly. the West part by Capt. Thos. Narin. 3ly A Chart of the Coast from Virginia to Cape Florieda. Colored engraving. 32 3/4" x 40". (Courtesy, South Caroliniana Library; photo, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.) This map was engraved by John Harris in London and published by Crisp about 1711.

Figure 2  A Plan of the TOWN & HARBOUR of CHARLES=TOWN, shown on the map illustrated in fig. 1. The Dutch residences are designated “Vnderwood” and “Vandross.” Joiner Pierre Le Chevalier’s house in Charleston is 4, and the Huguenot church is R. By 1704, there were two churches—French and English—and three meeting houses—Presbyterian, AnaBaptist, Quaker—in the Charleston vicinity.

Figure 3  Jacques Le Moyne de Morgue, Réné de Laudonniére and the Indian Chief Athore Visit Ribaut’s Column, probably Paris or London, 1565–1586. 4" x 10". Watercolor on vellum. (Courtesy, New York Public Library.) Le Moyne was a member of the French expedition that settled at Fort Caroline on the St. John’s River in 1564. Although the colony failed in less than a year, Le Moyne survived and returned to Paris.
In 1572, he escaped the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day and fled to London. Encouraged by Sir Walter Raleigh, Le Moyne began drawing and painting plants, insects, and scenes of Indian life remembered from his voyage. His watercolor of commander Réné de Laudonniére and Chief Athore visiting the column erected by the first French expedition is an idyllic depiction of Europeans and Native Americans sharing the riches of the New World. This imagery must have held special meaning for Le Moyne and other Huguenots, who undoubtedly saw America as a place of opportunity and sanctuary (Jessie Poesch, The Arts of the Old South: Paintings, Sculpture, Architecture & the Products of Craftsmen, 1560–1860 [New York: Harrison House, 1983], pp. 3–7).

Figure 4   Map of France showing birthplaces of Hughuenot joiners who emigrated to Carolina. (Art work, Wynne Patterson.)

Figure 5  Armchair, coastal South Carolina, 1680–1700. Cherry with ash. H. 41 1/4", W. 23",
D. 16 1/4". (Private collection; courtesy, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 6  Detail of a Danish room illustrated in Søren Terkelsen, Dend hydrinade Astrea (Copenhagen, 1645). Terkelsen’s engravings show how French styles influenced interior decoration in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries.

Figure 7  Detail of one of the pinned joints on the armchair illustrated in fig. 5.

Figure 8  Detail of a partially cut mortise on the armchair illustrated in fig. 5. Another mortise about 1/8" deep also shows evidence of having been drilled with a center bit.

Figure 9  Couch, coastal South Carolina, 1700–1725. Walnut. H. 38 7/8", W. 27 1/4" (seat), L. 80 3/4". The upper portion of the crest rail is missing. (Collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 10  Detail of the back of the couch illustrated in fig. 9.

Figure 11  Gateleg table, probably New York City, 1700–1725. Mahogany with maple and tulip poplar. H. 30 1/8"; top: 58" x 72 1/4" (open). (Courtesy, Historic Husdon Valley, Tarrytown, New York; photo, Gavin Ashworth.) The original owners may have been Philip Van Cortlandt (1683–1748) and his wife, Catherine De Peyster (1688–ca. 1766), who were married in 1710.

Figure 12  Conjectural drawing of the back of the couch illustrated in fig. 9, showing how the missing carved components on the crest rail probably appeared. (Drawing by Luke Beckerdite, artwork by Wynne Patterson.)

Figure 13  Detail of the nailing evidence for a sacking bottom on the rails of the couch illustrated in fig. 9. The holes adjacent to the beaded edges are from a later cane bottom.

Figure 14  Conjectural drawing of a pavilion based on diagrams in Peter Thornton, Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1978), p. 158. (Artwork by Wynne Patterson.)

Figure 15  Armchair, possibly coastal South Carolina, 1690–1720. Walnut. H. 45 1/2" (feet restored), W. 22", D. 16 3/4". This chair originally had a plank seat. During the nineteenth or early twentieth century, the seat boards were removed and the upper edges of the beaded seat rails were rounded to accommodate a woven seat. (Courtesy, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.)

Figure 16  Detail of the back of the armchair illustrated in fig. 15.

Figure 17  Armchair, probably New York City, 1685–1700. Maple stained red. H. 44", W. 22 1/2", D. 17 1/4". (Private collection; photo Christopher Zaleski.)

Figure 18  Escabeau, Charleston, South Carolina, 1695–1725. Cypress. H. 24 3/4", W. 15 1/4", D. 113/4". (Collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 19  Detail of the top of the escabeau illustrated in fig. 18.

Figure 20  Escabeau, Quebec, 1690–1700. Birch, maple, and pine. H. 22 5/8". (Courtesy, Historic Deerfield.)

Figure 21  Gateleg table, Charleston, South Carolina, 1690–1710. H. 29 1/2"; top: 52 1/4" x 67 1/8" (open). Cypress and red cedar. (Courtesy, Charleston Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 22  Detail of a batten on the gateleg table illustrated in fig. 21. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 23  Detail of the end of a batten on the gateleg table illustrated in fig. 21. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 24  Gateleg table, northern Europe, 1680–1720. Red pine. H. 28 1/2"; top: 38" x 67 1/4" (open). (Courtesy, Charleston Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.) Damage to the rail below the replaced drawer suggests that the original was missing for some time; however, the current cypress drawer appears to be an early eighteenth-century Carolina replacement. The battens under the leaves are chamfered and dovetailed in the same manner as those illustrated in figs. 22 and 23. The turnings of this table are very similar to those on late seventeenth-century chairs from southwestern France.

Figure 25  Table, Charleston or Berkeley County, South Carolina, 1695–1715. Walnut. H. 29 3/4",
W. 51" (frame), D. 41 1/2" (frame). (Private collection; photo, Gavin Ashworth.) The legs of this table were turned from 3 1/2" stock.

Figure 26  Henrietta Johnston, Thomas Broughton, Charleston, South Carolina, 1710–1711. Crayon on paper. 10 5/8" x 7 3/4". (Private collection; photo, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 27  Detail of a leg, ogee-molded top, and a dovetailed cleat on the table illustrated in fig. 25.

Figure 28  Thomas Coram, Mulberry Plantation, painted in Charleston or Berkeley County, South Carolina, 1778–1780. Oil on paper. 4 1/16" x 61 1/16". (Courtesy, Carolina Art Association/Gibbs Museum of Art; photo, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 29  Mulberry, Berkeley County, South Carolina, ca. 1714. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 30  Detail of a second-floor room in Mulberry. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 31  Detail of the central panel of the door illustrated in fig. 30. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 32  Buffet bas, Quebec, ca. 1700. Red pine painted red. H. 39 3/4", W. 41 5/8", D. 19". (Courtesy, Historic Deerfield.)

Figure 33  Henrietta Johnston, Henriette Charlotte de Chastaigner, Charleston, 1711. Crayon on paper. 11 5/8" x 8 7/8". (Courtesy, Carolina Art Association/Gibbs Museum of Art; photo, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 34  Limrick, Berkeley County, South Carolina, ca. 1711. (Courtesy, Library of Congress.)

Figure 35  Detail of the stair in Limrick. (Courtesy, Library of Congress.)

Figure 36  Table, probably Berkeley County, South Carolina, ca. 1711. Cypress with traces of original red paint. H. 27 7/8", W. 36 3/16", D. 23 1/4". (Courtesy, Charleston Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.

Figure 37  Table, coastal South Carolina, 1780–1820. Cypress painted blue. H. 28 1/4", W. 37 1/2", D. 22 1/2". (Courtesy, Charleston Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 38  Dressing table, probably Charleston, South Carolina, 1700–1720. Mahogany with red bay. H. 28", W. 32 3/4", D. 18 1/2". (Courtesy, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.)

Figure 39  Table, probably Charleston, South Carolina, 1700–1720. Cypress painted black.
H. 27 5/8", W. 26", D. 21". (Collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 40  Table, coastal South Carolina, 1700–1720. Walnut and tulip poplar with yellow pine. H. 29 1/2", W. 27 1/2", D. 21 1/4". (Courtesy, George Washington Birthplace National Monument; photo, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 41  Gateleg table, Charleston, South Carolina, 1700–1725. Walnut with yellow pine and cypress. H. 291/2"; top: 47 3/4" x 57 1/2". (Collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 42  Henrietta Johnston, Samuel Prioleau, Charleston, South Carolina, 1715. Crayon on paper. 12" x 9". (Collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 43  Henrietta Johnston, Susanne Le Noble, Charleston, South Carolina, 1710. Crayon on paper. 10 7/8" x 6 3/4". (Private collection; photo, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 44  Sacramental plate for Biggin Church, St. John’s Parish, South Carolina, including:
(a) Standing cup by Miles Brewton, Charleston, South Carolina, ca. 1711. Silver. H. 7 5/8". (b) Paten by Miles Brewton, ca. 1711. Silver. H. 2 15/16", Diam. 5 3/4". (c) Cup, Paris, seventeenth century. Silver gilt. Dimensions unrecorded. (Courtesy, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.)

Figure 45  Dressing table, Charleston, South Carolina, 1725–1735. Walnut. H. 31 5/8", W. 3 13/4", D. 21". (Collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.) The dressing table has an illegible inscription written in French.