1. Object files, acc. 1988–433, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Luke Beckerdite, “Architect-Designed Furniture in Eighteenth-Century Virginia: The Work of William Buckland and William Bernard Sears,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1994), pp. 28–48. Inventory of the estate of John Tayloe, Richmond County, Virginia, Will bk. 5, 1725–1753, pp. 547–53. The authors thank Wallace Gusler for this reference.
2. V. C. Hall, Jr., Portraits in the Collection of the Virginia Historical Society (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1981), pp. 20–21.
3. F. Carey Howlett, “The Identification of Grasses and Other Plant Materials Used in Historic Upholstery,” in Upholstery Conservation, edited by Marc A. Williams (East Kingston, N.H.: American Conservation Consortium, Ltd., 1990), pp. 66–91.
4. Kathy Francis, “Fiber and Fabric Remains on Upholstery Tacks and Frames: Identification, Interpretation, and Preservation of Textile Evidence,” in Williams, ed., Upholstery Conservation, pp. 63–65.
5. F. Carey Howlett, “Admitted into the Mysteries: The Benjamin Bucktrout Masonic Master’s Chair,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1996), pp. 195–232. Robert Carter Papers, M-82-8, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.
6. Will of Francis Roberts, December 13, 1698, Accomack County, Virginia, Wills, etc., 1692–1715, p. 398a. Estate inventory of Anthony Butts, March 16, 1718, York County, Virginia, Orders, Wills, 8c. No. 15, Part 2, 1716–1720, p. 415. Estate inventory of John Walker, April 19, 1745, Middlesex County, Virginia, Will Book C, 1740–1748, p. 240.
7. Virginia Gazette, October 17, 1751. Alexander Craig Account Book, pp. 10, 63, Special Collections, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. Alexander Craig Ledger, 1749–1756, Special Collections, Swem Library.
8. Robert Beverley to Samuel Athawes, July 16, 1771, Robert Beverley Letterbook, 1761–1775, Library of Congress, as quoted in Linda Baumgarten, “Protective Covers for Furniture and Its Contents,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1993), p. 4. Suit referring to the mortgage and sale of the property of William Wilson, July 7, 1807, Alexandria County, Virginia, Complete Records F, 1804–1811, p. 104. Inventory of Peter Copeland, April 20, 1822, Richmond Hustings Wills No. 3, 1820–1824, p. 305.
9. Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is an epiphyte common to the coast of North America. Because it was shipped north beginning in the eighteenth century for use as a stuffing material, its presence in a piece of upholstered furniture offers little indication of the object’s place of manufacture. Typically the moss was processed by rotting away the impermanent outer skin, leaving only the tough black fibers that are similar in appearance to curled hair (except for the nodes and branches). The term “Spanish beard” appears in Duke de la Rochenfouchault Liancourt, Travels through the United States of North America in the Years, 1795, 1796, and 1797 (London, 1800), p. 441.
10. Textile curator Linda Baumgarten and furniture curator Ronald Hurst selected the prototype, and Natalie Larson fabricated the cover.
11. Ronald L. Hurst and Sumpter Priddy III, “The Neoclassical Furniture of Norfolk, Virginia, 1770–1820,” Antiques 137, no. 5 (May 1990): 1140–53. For more on Norfolk furniture, see Ronald L. Hurst, “Cabinetmakers and Related Tradesmen in Norfolk, Virginia, 1770–1820” (master’s thesis, College of William and Mary, 1989).
12. Pennsylvania Gazette, December 16, 1736. Inventory of Gabriel Galt, Henrico County, Virginia Will Book No. 2, 1787–1802, p. 65.
13. Susan Adler and Joanna Ruth Harris assisted with the treatment of the Norfolk side chair.
14. Letter from Susanna Knox to her daughters in Fredericksburg, Virginia, April 20, 1799, in Genealogy of the Fitzhugh, Knox, Gordon, Selden, Horner, Brown, Baylor, (King) Carter, Edmonds, Digges, Page, Tayloe, and Allied Families (Atlanta, Ga., 1932), p. 20. The authors thank Wendy Cooper and Liza and Wallace Gusler for this reference.
15. The sideboard, wine cooler, and card table are illustrated in Ronald L. Hurst and Jonathan Prown, Southern Furniture, 1680–1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection (New York: Harry Abrams, 1997), pp. 147–52.
16. The seat of the sofa illustrated in figure 44 was supported by sixteen strips of 17/8" webbing running front-to-back and five strips running side-to-side. The back of the sofa was supported by twelve vertical strips of 1 7/8" webbing and a single strip running side-to-side. The seat of the sofa shown in figure 45 had thirteen strips of 2 1/2" webbing running front-to-back and four strips running side-to-side. Its back is supported by eleven vertical strips of 2 1/2" webbing and a single horizontal strip. Both seats and back were covered with foundation linen secured with nails, spaced approximately 1 1/2" apart. Along with other features, the differences in webbing width and the upholsterer’s decision to strengthen the support of the narrower webbing by using a greater number of strips suggest that the sofas were not made concurrently.
17. Debbie Juchem, Ann Battram, Gene Mitchell, and Lucy Binceguerra assisted with the treatment of the Winchester sofa. |