1. Maxim Karolik in Edwin J. Hipkiss, Eighteenth-Century American Arts: The M. and M. Karolik Collection (Cambridge: Harvard University Press for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1941), pp. 350–53. The Rhode Island pieces in the Karolik collection include cat. nos. 19, 20, 32, 36, 37, 38, 59, 66, 67 (a federal period table by Holmes Weaver), 80, 101 (a federal period chair), and 125. 2. For the desk-and-bookcase, see Sotheby’s, Important Americana: Furniture and Folk Art, New York, January 16–17, 1999, lot 704, and such attendant publicity as Thatcher Freund, “Oh, The Tales a Secretary Could Tell!” New York Times, February 11, 1999. 3. Thomas Hornsby, “Newport, Past and Present,” Newport Daily Advertiser, December 8, 1849, as quoted in Jeanne Vibert Sloane, “John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry,” in New England Furniture: Essays in Memory of Benno M. Forman (Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1987), p. 92. This book was also published as volume 72, serial number 259 of Old-Time New England. George Champlin Mason, Reminiscences of Newport (1884), as quoted in Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island, 1640–1820 (Newport: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1954), p. 9. The copy of Chippendale’s Director thought to have been owned by John Goddard is in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (31.995). It is a copy of the third edition (1762) and is missing the title page as well as plates 183 and 200. “Thomas Goddard” is written in a very small, crabbed hand on the inside back cover. There are a few stray pencil marks in the volume, none of them of any great consequence. Maxim Karolik purchased the book from Duncan A. Hazard of Newport in 1929. Hazard wrote in a letter to Edwin Hipkiss of October 29, 1929, preserved with the book, that “This Chippendale book belonged to John Goddard the celebrated cabinet-maker of Newport in the eighteenth century. John Goddard used this book.” Hazard stated that he had acquired the book from “an old lady in Newport, Miss Goffe,” whose father was a cabinetmaker in Newport ca. 1850. This Mr. Goffe “purchased the book . . . at an auction of the effects of one of the descendants of John Goddard.” Hazard also stated that “Later I had Albert W. Goddard the great-grandson of John Goddard identify this book. He was about 82 years of age and in good health and sound mind and immediately recognised the book and said it was the one his great-grandfather owned and used, and he [was] pleased to see it once more.” 4. Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902), pp. 272, 275. This book was published in 1901 but had the date 1902 on its title page. Modern scholars usually give Lockwood credit for being the first. Frances Clary Morse, Furniture of the Olden Time (New York: Macmillan Co., 1902), pp. 32, 43 (a Connecticut piece), 122–24. Luke Vincent Lockwood, The Pendleton Collection (Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1904), pp. 10, 228, plates 55, 56. Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, 2 vols., 2d ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), 1:116–17, 120–21, 123–24, 246–53; 2:282–86, and a number of illustrations, including in volume 1, figs. 115, 119, 121, 122, 134, 270–75. Lockwood’s career is profiled in Elizabeth Stillinger, The Antiquers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), pp. 215–21. 5. Walter A. Dyer, Early American Craftsmen (New York: Century Co., 1915), pp. 326, 334–35. Much of Dyer’s book first appeared as articles in House Beautiful, Country Life in America, and Good Furniture, and he may not have been able to revise his work prior to publication in book form. Gardner Teall, The Pleasures of Collecting (New York: Century Co., 1920), frontis. and p. 113. Edwin A. Foley, The Book of Decorative Furniture: Its Form, Colour, and History, 2 vols. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912), 2:75–76, plate 61. 6. Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, 2 vols., 3d ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926), 1:351, 354–55, 357; 2:336. “Little-Known Masterpieces,” Antiques 1, no. 1 (January 1922): 17–18; “Little-Known Masterpieces,” Antiques 2, no. 3 (September 1922): 111–12. Walter A. Dyer, “John Goddard and His Block-Fronts,” Antiques 1, no. 5 (May 1922): 203–8. Malcolm A. Norton, “More Light on the Block-Front,” Antiques 3, no. 2 (February 1923): 63–66. “Bondome,” “The Home Market: A Block Front Secretary,” Antiques 3, no. 2 (February 1923): 83–84. Herbert Cescinsky, “The ‘Block-Front’ in England,” Antiques 4, no. 4 (October 1923): 176–80. Malcolm A. Norton, “Two Unusual Block-Front Pieces,” Antiques 7, no. 3 (March 1925): 127–28. Malcom A. Norton, “The Cabinet Pedestal Table,” Antiques 4, no. 5 (November 1923): 224–25. Norton contributed another note on the blockfront in Antiques, March 1925, as well as a short essay on the Newport cabinet pedestal table in November 1923. 7. N. M. I. [Norman M. Isham], “John Goddard and His Work,” Bulletin of the Rhode Island School of Design 15, no. 2 (April 1927): 14–24. Charles Over Cornelius, “John Townsend: An Eighteenth-Century Cabinet-Maker,”Metropolitan Museum Studies 1 (1928–1929): 72–80. In 1926, Cornelius published Early American Furniture (New York: Century Co., 1926), in which he makes mention of Goddard but not of Townsend. 8. Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, 3 vols. (New York: Macmillan Co., 1928–1933), figs. 260, 269, 272, 317, 627, 628, 638, 639, 701, 708, and in volume 3, pp. 427–54, 453. 9. E. T. Casey, “The Goddards and the Townsends,” in A Catalog of an Exhibition of Paintings by Gilbert Stuart, Furniture by the Goddards and Townsends, Silver by Rhode Island Silversmiths, Rhode Island Tercentenary Celebration (Providence: Art Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, 1936), p. 15. Joseph Downs, “The Furniture of Goddard and Townsend,” Antiques 52, no. 6 (December 1947): 427–31. 10. Mabel Munson Swan, “The Goddard and Townsend Joiners: Part 1,” Antiques 49, no. 4 (April 1946): 228–31; Mabel Munson Swan, “The Goddard and Townsend Joiners: Part 2,” Antiques 49, no. 5 (May 1946): 292–95; Mabel Munson Swan, “John Goddard’s Sons,” Antiques 57, no. 6 (June 1950): 448–49. Carpenter, Arts and Crafts of Newport, see especially pp. 7–25. Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1957). Wendell D. Garrett, “The Newport Cabinetmakers: A Corrected Check List,” Antiques 73, no. 6 (June 1958): 558–61. Wendell D. Garrett, “The Goddard and Townsend Joiners: Random Biographical Notes,” Antiques 94, no. 3 (September 1968): 391–93. Wendell D. Garrett, “The Goddard and Townsend Joiners of Newport: Random Biographical and Bibliographical Notes,” Antiques 121, no. 5 (May 1982): 1153–55. N. David Scotti and Joseph K. Ott, “Notes on Rhode Island Cabinetmakers,” Antiques 87, no. 5 (May 1965): 572; a three-part article on Rhode Island cabinetmakers and allied artisans by Joseph K. Ott in Rhode Island History 28 (1969): 3–25; 49–52; 111–21; and Joseph K. Ott, “Lesser-Known Rhode Island Cabinetmakers: The Carliles, Holmes Weaver, Judson Blake, the Rawsons, and Thomas Davenport,” Antiques 121, no. 5 (May 1982): 1156–63. 11. Sloane, “John Cahoone,” pp. 116–17. Margaretta M. Lovell, “‘Such Furniture As Will Be Most Profitable’: The Business of Cabinetmaking in Eighteenth-Century Newport,” Winterthur Portfolio 26, no. 1 (spring 1991): 54–55. 12. Charles J. Burns, “The Newport Legacy of Miss Doris Duke: A History of the Newport Restoration Foundation and a Catalogue of Its Collection at the Samuel Whitehorne Museum,” Master’s thesis, Trinity College, 1995, cat. no. 33. Burns attributed the high chest to John Townsend and suggested that Baker may have assisted in its manufacture. Wallace Nutting, “A Sidelight on John Goddard,” Antiques 30, no. 3 (September 1936): 120–21; Joseph K. Ott, “John Townsend, A Chair, and Two Tables,” Antiques 94, no. 3 (September 1968): 388–90; Joseph K. Ott, “Some Rhode Island Furniture,” Antiques 107, no. 5 (May 1975): 940–51; Stanley Stone, “Documented Newport Furniture: A John Goddard Desk and John Townsend Document Cabinet in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Stone,” Antiques 103, no. 2 (February 1973): 319–21; Henry H. Hawley, “A Townsend-Goddard Chest-on-Chest,” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 8 (October 1977): 276–83. Other publications of this type are cited in American Furniture Craftsmen Working Prior to 1920: An Annotated Bibliography, compiled by Charles J. Semowich (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984), pp. 36–39, 154–57. Christopher P. Monkhouse and Thomas S. Michie, American Furniture at Pendleton House (Providence: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1986), which also includes an essay by Monkhouse titled “Cabinetmakers and Collectors: Colonial Furniture and Its Revival in Rhode Island,” pp. 9–49; Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, New England Furniture, the Colonial Era: Selections from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1984); 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 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985). Heckscher has written eloquently about Newport furniture on many occasions, see his earlier article, “The Eighteenth-Century Furniture of Newport, Rhode Island,” Apollo 111, no. 219 (May 1980): 354–61, and other citations of his work in this essay. Wendy A. Cooper, In Praise of America: American Decorative Arts, 1650–1830 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), pp. 26–28. 13.Carpenter, Arts and Crafts of Newport, pp. 21–23, 26. Carpenter’s book was to be the first volume in a projected series that was never realized. See also Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., “The Newport Exhibition,” Antiques 64, no. 1 (July 1953): 38–45; Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., “Rhode Island Block-Front Furniture,” Connoisseur 131 (1953): 91; and Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., “Discoveries in Newport Furniture and Silver,” Antiques 68, no. 1 (July 1955): 44–49. 14. Joseph K. Ott, The John Brown Loan House Exhibition of Rhode Island Furniture Including Some Notable Portraits, Chinese Export Porcelain, and Other Items (Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1954). 15. Liza Moses and Mike Moses, “Authenticating John Townsend’s Later Tables,” Antiques 119, no. 5 (May 1981): 1152–63; Liza Moses and Michael Moses, “Authenticating John Townsend’s and John Goddard’s Queen Anne and Chippendale Tables,” Antiques 121, no. 5 (May 1982): 1130–43; Morrison H. Heckscher, “John Townsend’s Block-and-Shell Furniture,” Antiques 121, no. 5 (May 1982): 1144–52. For the Yale University dressing table, 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), cat. no. 109. 16. Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984). Benjamin A. Hewitt, Patricia E. Kane, and Gerald W. R. Ward, The Work of Many Hands: Card Tables in Federal America, 1790–1820 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982). 17. After being displayed at the Girl Scouts Exhibition, the high chest remained in a private collection. When it was bequeathed to Yale University by its last owner, Doris M. Brixey, it was appraised by a leading auction house and sent on to the Yale University Art Gallery where Moses examined it. Ward, American Case Furniture, cat. no. 140. 18. Leigh Keno, Joan Barzilay Freund, and Alan Miller, “The Very Pink of the Mode: Boston Georgian Chairs, Their Export, and Their Influence,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1996), pp. 267–306. The authors posit that a similar situation existed in New York. 19. Lockwood, Colonial Furniture, 2d ed., 1:116–17. Carl W. Dreppard, The Primer of American Antiques (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1944), pp. 17–19. 20. “Bondome,” “The Home Market,” p. 83. Cescinsky, “The ‘Block-Front’ in England,” pp. 176–80. Nutting, Furniture Treasury, fig. 260. See also Wendell D. Garrett, “Speculations on the Rhode Island Block-Front in 1928,” Antiques 99, no. 6 (June 1971): 887–91. 21. R. Peter Mooz, “The Origins of Newport Block-Front Furniture Design,” Antiques 99, no. 6 (June 1971): 882–86. 22. Margaretta Markle Lovell, “Boston Blockfront Furniture,” in Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, edited by Walter Muir Whitehill, Jonathan L. Fairbanks, and Brock W. Jobe (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1974), pp. 77–136. 23. John T. Kirk, American Furniture and the British Tradition to 1830 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), pp. 4–6, 125–28, 148. 24. Jonathan L. Fairbanks and Elizabeth Bidwell Bates, American Furniture, 1620 to the Present (New York: Richard Marek Publishers, 1981), p. 177. This large chest of drawers and others in the group are illustrated and discussed in the essay by Philip Zea in this volume. 25. Carl Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America, 1743–1776 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955), p. 75. 26. Mabel Munson Swan, “Coastwise Cargoes of Venture Furniture,” Antiques 55, no. 4 (April 1949): 278–80. Sloane, “John Cahoone.” This article was based on her 1981 master’s thesis for the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture at the University of Delaware. See also Joseph K. Ott, “Rhode Island Furniture Exports, 1783–1800, Including Information on Chaises, Buildings, Other Woodenware, and Trade Practices,” Rhode Island History 36, no. 1 (February 1977): 7ff. 27. Lovell, “Such Furniture As Will Be Most Profitable.” 28. Personal communication to the author from Jonathan L. Fairbanks, March 1999, suggesting that the furniture made in Bristol, England, bears a close relationship with Newport work. Although the original owners of much Newport furniture are known, little analysis has been done on patronage patterns, aside from sections in the Sloane and Lovell articles, and in the two-part article by Wendy A. Cooper, “The Purchase of Furniture and Furnishings by John Brown, Providence Merchant: Part 1, 1760–1788,” Antiques 103, no. 2 (February 1973): 328–29; “Part 2, 1788–1803,” Antiques 103, no. 4 (April 1973): 734–43. 29. Charles F. Montgomery, “Regional Preferences and Characteristics in American Decorative Arts: 1750–1800,” in American Art: 1750–1800, Towards Independence, edited by Charles F. Montgomery and Patricia E. Kane (Boston: New York Graphic Society for the Yale University Art Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1976), pp. 50–65. Philip D. Zimmerman, “Regionalism in American Furniture Studies,” in Perspectives on American Furniture, edited by Gerald W. R. Ward (New York: W.W. Norton for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1988), pp. 11–38. “Giving an Elephant to Blind Men? The Cross-Disciplinary Role of a Desk and Bookcase,” Arts Magazine 59, no. 2 (October 1984): 87–99. 30. Lovell, “Such Furniture As Will Be Most Profitable,” pp. 49–50. For the significance of labels in the next generation of cabinetmakers’ work, see Barbara McLean Ward, “Marketing and Competitive Innovation: Brands, Marks, and Labels in Federal-Period Furniture,” in Everyday Life in the Early Republic, edited by Catherine E. Hutchins (Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Museum, 1994), pp. 201–18. 31. Sydney V. James, Colonial Rhode Island: A History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975), p. 13. Other useful profiles of Rhode Island society are found in Carl F. Bridenbaugh, Peter Harrison: First American Architect (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1949); Edmund Morgan, The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles, 1727–1795 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, 1962), chap. 8; Carl F. Bridenbaugh, Fat Mutton and Liberty of Conscience: Society in Rhode Island, 1636–1690 (New York: Atheneum, 1976); William G. McLoughlin, Rhode Island: A Bicentennial History (New York: W.W. Norton & Co.; Nashville, Tenn.: American Association for State and Local History, 1978), esp. pp. 50–83; and Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt. James, Colonial Rhode Island, p. xiv. D. W. Meinig, The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, vol. 1, Atlantic America, 1492–1500 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986), p. 106. 32. For more on this idea see Luke Beckerdite, “The Early Furniture of Job and Christopher Townsend,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, forthcoming). Keno, Freund, and Miller, “The Very Pink of the Mode,” p. 298. 33. Montgomery, “Regional Preferences and Characteristics,” p. 59. Morrison H. Heckscher and Leslie Greene Bowman, American Rococo, 1750–1775: Elegance in Ornament (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992), pp. 6–8; 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. 185–89. 34. Greg Dening, “Introduction: In Search of a Metaphor,” in Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on Personal Identity in Early America, edited by Ronald Hoffman, Mechal Sobel, and Fredrika J. Teute (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1997), p. 2. Edward S. Cooke, Jr., Making Furniture in Preindustrial America: The Social Economy of Newtown and Woodbury, Connecticut (Baltimore, M.D.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). Even those studies that downplay the importance of group norms in furniture production and emphasize “the pervasive forces of individuality, deviation, and the prospects of culture change” nevertheless are cognizant of the importance of studying the objects as evidence; see, for example, Gerald L. Pocius, “Gossip, Rhetoric, and Objects: A Sociolinguistic Approach to Newfoundland Furniture,” in Ward, ed., Perspectives on American Furniture, pp. 303–45; quotation p. 308.