| Dean Thomas Lahikainen A Salem Cabinetmakers’ Price Book In December 1999, the Peabody Essex Museum purchased an unrecorded cabinetmakers’ price book published in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1801. Titled "Articles of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society, Associated June 26, 1801," the booklet is the first document to give a formal voice to one of the most important centers for furniture production during the Federal period. Since 1915, numerous scholars have attempted to chronicle various aspects of Salem’s furniture making industry, relying largely on receipts, shipping manifests, and craftsmen’s account books. Additional documentation has come from objects bearing labels or brands of owners or makers. With many aspects of work from this complex urban center yet to be explored, the "Articles of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society" provides an accurate snapshot of the industry at a pivotal moment in its development and establishes a useful framework and period terminology to aid further study.1 The booklet contains twenty numbered pages; the first six state the twelve articles or rules governing the new society, along with the names of the sixteen founding members. The second part contains twelve pages listing various forms of furniture along with the price for making and retailing each. Seventeen other American or English cabinet and chairmakers’ price books, in either manuscript or printed form, predate the Salem example. These include price books from Providence, Rhode Island (1756), London (1788, 1793, and 1797), Philadelphia (1772, 1786, two in 1794, 1795, and two in 1796), Hartford, Connecticut (1792), New York (1796 and 1800), Hatfield, Massachusetts (1796 and 1797), and Norwich, England (1801). Each one represents an attempt either by the masters or journeymen to regulate prices and the standards of work within their craft community. Most list the rate journeymen will be paid on a piecework basis for making various furniture forms, while two list only the retail prices. A number of these agreements also established a forum to handle disputes between members. Indeed, several urban American price books were the direct outgrowth of labor disputes between journeymen and masters. As decorative arts historian Charles Montgomery noted, price books "chart a key development in the emergence of labor from its vassal-like beginnings to its present day position of power. They mark the organization of labor and document its demands, the acceptance of arbitration and reach agreement based on a piecework system for remuneration."2 The most influential price book was The Cabinet-Makers’ London Book of Prices, and Designs of Cabinet Work, published in 1788 and revised in 1793 and 1803. Comprehensive in scope, it was the first to contain engraved illustrations that helped spread knowledge of London furniture forms and a common neoclassical design vocabulary. This publication had a direct influence on several other price books, including those published in Philadelphia and New York. Surviving price books from the smaller centers such as Providence, Hartford, and Hatfield are more original in their content and arrangement, reflecting more closely local preferences and practices. The "Articles of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society" falls into this latter group, for it owes little to the London version or any other previously published price book. It appears to be an entirely original document accurately reflecting the needs and activities of the most prominent group of master cabinetmakers in Salem in 1801. Like the first edition of the Cabinet-Makers’ London Book of Prices, the "Articles of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society" does not list prices for chairmaking. London craftsmen maintained separate price books for cabinetmaking and chairmaking until 1802, reflecting the clear division that existed between the cabinetmaking, carving, and chairmaking trades. The absence of chairs in the Salem book suggests that a similar situation existed there, more so perhaps than in other American cities. Chairs outnumbered all other forms shipped from Salem between 1790 and 1810. The few surviving documents relating to the town’s chairmaking industry, however, provide no evidence of any formal organization or price list. Nevertheless, historical references document business relationships between chair makers and cabinetmakers. Some cabinetmakers bought chairs for inventory or took them as consignments for venture cargo shipments. Elijah and Jacob Sanderson, for example, formed a partnership with cabinetmaker Josiah Austin and purchased painted seating from the Burpee Chair Manufactory, Micaiah and Edward Johnson, Isaac Stone, and James C. Tuttle.3 By 1801, Salem merchants had successfully revived the town’s maritime economy by establishing new trade routes to the Far East. With unprecedented profits resulting from daring voyages to uncharted territories, Salem’s merchant class ushered in an era of unsurpassed prosperity that transformed the community. There was a dramatic increase in opportunities for employment as local industries expanded, especially in the areas of shipbuilding, house construction, and furniture making. Artisans came from surrounding communities, more distant coastal towns, southern New Hampshire, and a few were natives of England and Ireland. Furniture historian Margaret Clunie documented only three cabinetmakers active in Salem between 1770 and 1780, but by 1801 there were at least twenty-one. A majority were born and trained elsewhere, including most, if not all, of the members of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society. They were part of a town population that had grown by 1800 to just under ten thousand inhabitants, making Salem the sixth largest city in the United States.4 This expansion coincided with the introduction of the "antique" or neoclassical taste in architecture and furniture. The style received its first significant expression in 1793 with the construction of the Nathan Read house designed by Salem architect and carver Samuel McIntire. At least six other three-story townhouses were built during the next eight years. Newly arrived cabinetmakers and chair makers found work furnishing these residences as well as public buildings constructed during the same period. A view of the center of town painted about 1810 (fig. 1) provides an image of this prosperity, showing a number of the new buildings along Court Street (now Washington Street) where cabinetmakers Samuel Frothingham, Samuel Cheever, and many of their contemporaries lived and worked. There were also opportunities to supplement local custom orders by producing furniture for the burgeoning venture cargo trade. Rev. William Bentley observed that many of these artisans had attained "wealth by other means than the slow gains of its [native born] inhabitants." Shipping manifests listing furniture transported from Salem rose from ?ve in 1789 to forty in 1800, the most in a given year. By the turn of the century, the industry had reached a point where some attempt at regulation was desirable.5 The establishment of the Sanderson-Austin partnership in 1779 was a watershed in the development of Salem’s furniture export trade. The firm employed many cabinetmakers, journeymen, and apprentices, as well as carvers, gilders, turners, and upholsterers on a piecework basis. They sent large shipments of furniture on speculation to the southern states, the East and West Indies, the Madeiras, South America, Africa, and more distant ports, including those in India. Not surprisingly, the names of all three men appear at the top of the list of the founding members of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society, a clear indication of the central role they must have played in forming that organization.6 Although all of the other cabinetmakers on the list appear to have operated their own shops, many were relatives, former employees, or associates of Austin and the Sandersons. Richard Austin was Josiah’s brother and Daniel Clarke was a nephew and former employee of the Sandersons. William Hook (fig. 2), the youngest member of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society, came from Salisbury, Massachusetts, and worked for both Jacob Sanderson and Edmund Johnson before setting up his own shop in 1800. The names of many other members appear in the Sandersons’ business records from the 1790s, underscoring the cooperative rather than competitive nature of the town’s cabinetmaking trade.7 Salem artisans often joined forces to purchase materials, assemble large venture cargos, and share the cost and risk of shipping. In 1795, George W. Martin, William Appleton, Josiah Austin, and the Sandersons bought a large quantity of mahogany and hired Col. Israel Hutchinson to cut the logs into planks. The following year, the Sandersons, Austin, and William Appleton purchased the schooner Olive Branch, undoubtedly for use in the furniture export trade. Most cooperative efforts involved venture cargo, such as Daniel Clarke, Edmund Johnson, Nehemiah Adams, and Josiah Austin’s shipment of furniture to Surinam in 1799.8 This cooperative and entrepreneurial spirit led to the founding of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society in June of 1801. The governing rules were simple, straightforward, and democratic. Membership was open to anyone "generally accepted" to be a "master-cabinet-maker"—a designation determined by a vote of the entire membership. The society met in March, June, September, and December. Missing a meeting, tardiness, neglecting to bring one’s copy of the price book, and failure to adhere to set prices were offenses punishable by fines. It was the clerk’s duty to record any changes agreed upon by vote directly into each member’s book. Anticipating this practice, Joshua Cushing left a generous space between each entry when he printed the book. In the copy illustrated here, clerk Daniel Clarke recorded the first change on September 22, 1801, when the society voted to make the fine for deviating from the prices the cost of making the piece of furniture.9 The other articles in the price book established arbitration procedures to settle potential grievances between members and between masters and their apprentices. Members were required to report any apprentice attempting "to leave his master or in any manner to injure him" and were forbidden from harboring runaways. Court cases and newspaper notices indicate that disputes over apprentices were a persistent, albeit infrequent, problem. In 1798, Elijah Sanderson sued B. Radson for causing one of his apprentices to leave. Three years later, Edmund Johnson offered a thirty-dollar reward for information leading to the return of two nineteen-year-old apprentices. He warned all persons against "harboring or trusting said runaways" and cautioned "masters of vessels…against carrying them to sea as they would avoid the penalty of the law." The time invested in training apprentices and the cost of housing, feeding, clothing, and educating them was considerable. Rewards typically varied depending on an apprentice’s skill and time served.10 The last twelve pages of the "Articles of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society" list the retail and journeyman’s prices for thirty different furniture forms, half of which were available with less expensive woods, design features, and ornamental details. With only sixty-four separate entries, the price book documents a narrow range of neoclassical forms popular within the community. It is much smaller than the Philadelphia and London publications, both of which have 346 entries. Evidence suggests that Salem tradesmen and consumers began embracing the neoclassical style during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Bookseller John Jenks, for example, advertised the first edition of George Hepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788) in 1791. Designs from this book, the Cabinet-Makers’ London Book of Prices, and Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1793) clearly influenced Salem production. Some of the newer forms illustrated in these publications—sideboards, window stools, commodes, and washstands—are mentioned in the Salem price book, whereas many others are not. Conspicuously absent are references to work tables, chamber or dressing tables, drawing tables, pier tables, mixing tables, urn stands, bidets, knife boxes, dressing boxes, tea caddys, trays, bottle boxes, and other forms known to have been made in the city.11 Documentary evidence suggests that Salem furniture makers made few of the aforementioned objects prior to 1801. Margaret Clunie’s survey of 109 shipping manifests submitted between 1790 and 1810 lists twenty-two forms that generally match entries in the price book but makes no mention of a "work table." The earliest use of that term in Salem is August 1807, when the Sandersons paid Samuel McIntire three dollars for "Reeding & Carving 4 legs for [a] Worktable." During the eighteenth century, few American cabinetmakers attempted to compete with their British counterparts in the manufacture and sale of looking glasses, dressing boxes, and other objects with mirrored components. The first reference to a dressing box being made in Salem is 1809.12 The retail price of objects listed in the "Articles of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society" is between three and three-and-one-half times the cost of making the piece. Research by Charles Montgomery suggests that large cabinet shops in other urban centers evidently worked on similar profit margins during the early nineteenth century. Labor determined most of the cost. As the price book reveals, a card table that retailed for fourteen dollars required approximately four days of labor at one dollar per day.13 The society clearly monitored the prices of all objects commonly produced by its members and on several occasions altered them. Ink notations in the Peabody Essex copy record the lowering of prices for the mahogany chair frame and press bed in December 1801 and for an easy chair frame, fire screen, and wash stand in June 1802. The largest number of changes was voted at the September 1802 meeting, when the society agreed to offer a fully painted cradle for six dollars and lowered prices for the larger "secretary & bookcase" and all variations of the bureau and lady’s secretary. These forms were among the most popular export items, but there is no indication of what prompted the changes. The last changes recorded in the book occurred on December 6, 1803, when the members voted to raise the price of several bedsteads and to add a pembroke table and coffins to the list. The brevity of the entries for each form is unusual, especially when compared with those in contemporary price books, which usually describe material, structural, and decorative options and the cost for each. It is possible that the society’s members were so familiar with each other’s work and the demands of their consumers that it was unnecessary to include too much detail. During the late eighteenth century, Salem cabinetmakers almost invariably used square tapered legs for tables, whereas their counterparts in other American cities and London had a more varied repertoire. The earliest reference to turned and reeded legs in Salem is 1803.14 Entries for certain forms allude to the specialization that existed in Salem’s furniture making community. Carving was "excluded" from the price of the sofa, mahogany chair, window stool, and bedstead with "swelled pillars," which implies that the patron determined the type and amount of ornament, and that most cabinetmakers subcontracted carving to specialists. The same was true of "painting." This generic reference probably encompassed a variety of treatments including faux surfaces, trompe l’oeil, and gilding. The terms "superior quality," "best quality," and "another quality" are more difficult to access, but in some instances they also refer to decoration. The "superior quality" cabinet, for example, was "inlaid and decorated in every part" and had an elaborate "checkered cock bead round the doors." All of the entries in the "Articles of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society" are transcribed below. Each has been numbered to simplify future reference and annotated to establish the cultural, historical, and artistic context of the form described.
The first three entries describe a "cabinet" or gentleman’s secretary, the most expensive form in the price book and one long associated with Salem. More than a dozen examples have survived including one of "superior quality" with husks, stringing, and "check’d" inlay (fig. 3). An amendment at the end of the price book notes that the term "check’d" should precede "cock bead" in the first entry.15 Although no European prototype for the archetypal Salem cabinet is known, several features typical of this form have parallels in British design books. The lower section (see fig. 3) is similar to that of a gentleman’s secretary illustrated on plate 52 of Sheraton’s Drawing Book (fig. 4), whereas the pediment resembles that of a "wing" clothes press shown on plate 3 of the Cabinet-Makers’ London Book of Prices (fig. 5). Gothic cornice moldings related to the one shown in the latter engraving also occur on Salem "cabinets" and other case forms.16 The term "circular doors" in the first and second entries probably refers to curved glazing bars like those on the upper doors of the gentleman’s secretary illustrated in figure 3, rather than oval panels of veneer like those on the lower doors. This glazing pattern appears on a group of doors illustrated on plate 27 in the Cabinet-Makers’ London Book of Prices. The term "diamond doors" in the third entry refers to the crossed glazing bars found on many Salem examples, including one with a pediment very similar to that shown in the Cabinet-Makers’ London Book of Prices (fig. 6). The earliest documented Salem gentleman’s secretary was made by Nehemiah Adams before 1798. Because of their high cost, these forms are rarely found in venture cargo manifests. Elijah Sanderson shipped "two cases Containing One cabinet...$250" to Batavia in 1804, and William Appleton exported "two cases...[containing] one cabinet...$120" in 1805. A few of the cabinets mentioned in period documents may have been library bookcases, although only one Salem example is currently known.17
No Salem wardrobe from the Federal period is known, which suggests that high chests and chest-on-chests were the preferred forms for storing clothes. Most American examples are from cities and towns in the Middle Atlantic region and the South. Their popularity in the South, which was a major venture cargo destination for Salem cabinetmakers and merchants, may explain why the wardrobe form is listed in the price book. The terms "square head" and "scrole head" refer to plain and broken-scroll pediments respectively.18
No Salem bookcase matching the description in the price book is known,
nor do any references to "bookcases" appear in shipping manifests
other than as the upper unit of a cabinet, secretary, or desk. Cabinetmaker
Mark Pitman made two sets of grain-painted bookcases with "square"
or "pediment" heads and glass doors on the upper and lower cases
(Ropes Mansion, Peabody Essex Museum). Harvard divinity student Joseph
Orne paid Pitman twenty-four dollars for making the earlier set on February
17, 1816.20
The 1788 edition of Hepplewhite’s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s
Guide was the first British design book to illustrate sideboards (see
fig. 9), but the form
was fashionable in London earlier. Like virtually all of their American
counterparts, Salem cabinetmakers did not begin producing sideboards until
after the Revolution. The earliest reference to the form is November 1797,
when Daniel Clarke charged Nathaniel Ropes eighteen pounds for a mahogany
example with a serpentine or "scalloped front" (fig. 10).
Later Salem sideboards (see fig. 11)
typically have stringing, husks, and other inlaid motifs, and some are
fitted with a secretary drawer, an unusual feature mentioned in all three
sideboard entries in the price book. Sideboards with "sash corners"
had additional drawers and were slightly more expensive than those with
serpentine fronts. Salem cabinetmaker Nathaniel Safford made one of the
former (fig. 12) for John
and Elizabeth Gardner in 1805.21
After chairs, desks were the most numerous form exported from Salem.
The term "swelled" in the first two entries probably refers
to the shape described today as "oxbow." Desks with shaped façades
typically had fall fronts. Salem cabinetmakers made them well into the
nineteenth century, even though fall-front forms were less fashionable
than case pieces with secretary drawers. A desk attributed to Elijah Sanderson
(fig. 13) conforms to
the description in the initial entry, although the price book provides
no information on the design of the foot. This is perplexing given the
price difference between straight bracket, ogee, and claw-and-ball feet.
Veneering (presumably in mahogany) added to the cost, whereas the use
of native woods reduced it. The straight-front desk with veneered façade,
fall, top, and seatboard (floor of the writing compartment) cost twice
as much as a comparable form in birch. Although the only native wood mentioned
in the desk entries is birch, Salem cabinetmakers occasionally used cherry.
A simple cherry desk bearing the label of Edmund Johnson (fig. 14)
is representative of the "gentleman’s writing desks" mentioned
in many shipping manifests. The last and least expensive entry is for
traveling desks. The only surviving example (Peabody Essex Museum) is
a simple box with brass carrying handles, a slanted lid, and storage compartment
partitioned for bottles and writing implements. Mark Pitman charged Elizabeth
Ropes eight dollars for it on June 6, 1812.22
This entry probably refers to a "Roxbury case," a modern designation
for the type commonly found with movements marked by the Willard family
of Grafton. Most of these cases have brass fluted quarter-columns on the
waist and a hood with pierced fretwork and three plinths.23
Hepplewhite’s design for a demi-lune commode (fig. 16)
served as the inspiration for several Salem examples. Some have drawers
and cabinets arranged like those in the engraving (fig. 17),
whereas others have a different configuration. The most elaborate Salem
commode (fig. 18) has
four graduated drawers, the top of which has carving attributed to Samuel
McIntire. In 1802, Jacob Sanderson charged Captain John Derby sixty dollars
for making a "mahogany Commode with secretary draw" and an additional
twelve dollars to pay "Mr. Fuller’s bill for varnishing."
Salem inventories indicate that commodes were used in bedchambers for
the storage of linens. Many have sliding trays rather than shelves to
facilitate this function. In 1799, the appraisers of Elias Hasket Derby’s
estate listed a "mahogany Commode" valued at fifty dollars in
his best second-floor northwest bedchamber and noted that it contained
a "Damask Table Cloth & 18 Napkins" of equal value.26
Given the variety of small writing desks made in Salem during the Federal
period, it is surprising to find only these two brief entries for this
form. The distinguishing features are the hinged fall and two sliding
supports that form the writing surface when open. The retail cost of each
lady’s secretary is exactly one-half that of the larger secretary-and-bookcases
discussed earlier. A lady’s secretary that descended in the West
family of Salem (fig. 19)
has "head-moldings" and "bracket feet" (undoubtedly
a reference to what are today called "French feet"), two details
mentioned in the first entry. The door mullions and skirt and foot shape
may have been inspired by a design for a "secretary and bookcase"
in Hepplewhite’s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide
(fig. 20). Several Salem
secretaries conforming to the description in the second entry are known.
The most common variant has three drawers in the lower section and short
tapered legs.27
Chests of drawers with canted corners were popular in Salem by the 1780s.
Six examples made between 1785 and 1800 have ogee feet related to those
on a magnificient chest-on-chest made for Elizabeth Derby West in 1796.
One is completely in the rococo style, but the others have a modicum of
neoclassical details. A chest in a private collection has a case and top
with a modest cant, straight bracket feet, and a simplified inlaid decoration
characteristic of later work. More numerous are examples of "scalloped"
or serpentine-front bureaus, including one with straight bracket feet
and the label of Thomas Needham. Many circular or bow front chests have
also survived. A mahogany and birch veneered chest (fig. 22)
that descended from merchant Aaron Wait of Salem is a sophisticated interpretation
of the drop-panel form usually associated with Portsmouth. Waite was a
frequent client of the Sandersons. In 1796, he paid them twenty-five dollars
for a "mahogany Buro."29
No documented Salem dining tables matching the first description have
been identified, but they are mentioned in both three- and four-part forms
in shipping invoices. On January 18, 1802, Jacob Sanderson sent "one
sett mahogany dining tables varnished, four tables in the sett" valued
at $116 to the West Indies on the brig John. Approximately seven
years later, Elijah Sanderson exported a set of three tables valued at
fifty-five dollars on the brig Venus. A drop-leaf table that descended
in the Cotting family (fig. 23)
conforms to the description in the last entry.30
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Salem cabinetmakers
made vast numbers of card tables for the local market and for export.
Although the entries in the price book list only two shapes—"sash-cornered"
and "circular"—furniture historian Benjamin Hewitt’s
study of card tables suggests that Salem cabinetmakers produced a variety
of "square" tables as well as examples with elliptic fronts
and serpentine ends. The first entry refers to a square table with ovolo
corners, a shape Sheraton called "sash plan corners." A card
table bearing the label of Thomas Needham (Yale University Art Gallery)
is a conservative interpretation of this form.31
Both Hepplewhite and Sheraton illustrated designs for night tables—small cabinets designed to conceal a chamberpot, basin, or pan. The more elaborate examples also contain compartments for a wash basin and other toiletries. A night table bearing the initials of Elijah Sanderson is one of the few documented Salem examples (fig. 25). Its dimensions are similar to those in the entry, and its form conforms to the description "common kind." The folding lid, which consists of two hinged panels, resembles the one on the right in plate 82 of Hepplewhite’s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (fig. 26). In 1808, Thomas Hodgkin charged four dollars for making "a corner night table" for the Sandersons.34
It is unclear why pembroke tables were not included in the initial printing
of the price book. Small tables with folding leaves were popular much
earlier, although some may have been referred to as "square,"
"breakfast," "folding," "leaf," or "tea"
tables. An early example (Winterthur Museum) has several labels of Elijah
and Jacob Sanderson. Its serpentine top and fluted Marlboro legs suggest
a date in the 1780s; however, Charles Montgomery speculated these features
may have remained an option through the end of the century. The neoclassical
table illustrated in figure 27
has a similar top, tapered legs, and string-inlaid drawer. This model
is probably more representative of the price book entry than the Sanderson
example. In 1802, Capt. John Derby purchased a veneered pembroke table
from Jacob Sanderson for fourteen dollars.35
This entry probably describes a small corner table similar to the one
illustrated in figure 28.
Such tables were designed to fit snugly into the corner of a room and
used for a variety of household functions including serving food and beverages.
The cost cited in the price book is half that of a round card table. No
Salem quarter-tables are known, but other triangular forms—corner
sideboards, washstands, and night tables—are relatively common.36
Although the period term "slab table" generally refers to a
rectangular table with a marble top, the amounts cited in the price book
indicate a different form, possibly a simple folding table or an ironing
board. An object conforming to this entry is described in the Cabinet-Makers’
London Book of Prices under dining tables: a "four foot flap
or slab, the top 3 inches wide, hung with a rule joint to the flap. With
2 fram’d brackets to support ditto, to fix against a wall."
The kitchen in Elias Hasket Derby’s mansion had a "folding board"
valued at three dollars in 1799, and John Chandler charged Aaron Waite
three dollars for "Making a folding board" in 1813. Waite’s
folding board was probably an ironing board, since Chandler billed him
for "two closehorses" and a number of small kitchen items at
the same time.37
Many common kitchen tables from the early nineteenth century survive,
but no documented Salem example is known. Most kitchen tables found in
or near the town are pine and maple and have an overhanging rectangular
top with "bread board" ends, square tapered legs with beaded
edges, and a single drawer with a wooden pull. The frame and legs are
usually painted, but the top is often left unfinished. Inexpensive tables
were among the most popular export items.39
An oval-top candlestand that descended in the Peirce-Nichols family of Salem (fig. 30) is one of the most successful interpretations of this popular form. It is attributed to Salem based on its history and the similarity of its pillar to that on an earlier stand by William King. Several more elaborate candlestands with satinwood veneer and "check’d" inlay may also have been made there. Evidence suggests that Salem cabinetmakers routinely purchased pillars for stands and other three-legged forms from turners. The Sandersons purchased turned "stand pillars" from Jonathan Gavet and Daniel Clarke in 1801. The following year, Clarke charged them twenty-five cents for a single pillar.40
Several Salem fire screens with a folding shelf or "flap leaf"
to support a candlestick survive. The shield and shelf usually have a
brass ring with a tension clip that engages the pole and allows the user
to adjust the height. The example illustrated in figure 31
probably pre-dates the price book. It has pillar turnings similar to those
on a candlestand made by John Gavet in 1784.41
The first entry refers to a corner basin stand, an object Hepplewhite
considered "very useful...as it stands in a corner out of the way."
Sheraton also published designs for this form (see fig. 32),
one of which resembles an example (fig. 33)
Lydia Kimball received from her uncle, Captain Joseph White. Although
the maker of her stand is not known, similar ones are documented to Salem
cabinetmakers Nehemiah Adams and William Hook.43
The board cradles illustrated in figure 34
were probably made in Salem about the same date, given the similarity
of various design and construction features. The more elegant mahogany
example descended from George and Elizabeth Leach Watson who were married
on June 14, 1801. On both cradles, dovetails join the footboard to the
sides, whereas nails secure the bottom, rockers, and elements of the hood.
The double-arch treatment on the side of each hood is identical, and both
sets of rockers end in a modified volute. The Watson cradle retains its
brass carrying handle on the footboard and back of the hood, a convenient
feature no longer on the pine example. Entries in the price book suggest
that the pine cradle cost half as much as the mahogany one.
Most documented Salem sofas contemporary with the price book have scrolled
arms and serpentine or "commode" backs. Similar features are
shown on sofas in eighteenth-century design books including the third
edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s
Director (1762). Elizabeth Derby West owned one of the most elaborate
Salem sofas (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), whereas her relatives, John
and Elizabeth West Gardner, purchased a slightly less ornate example for
their new home in 1805 (fig. 35).
Both sofas have a molded crest rail and a carved center ornament and arms.
In 1801, Samuel McIntire charged Jacob Sanderson "1.7.0" for
"carving [a] Sofa and working the top rail."46
Although no easy chair has been documented to a specific Salem cabinetmaker or chair maker, an example that descended in the George Rea Curwen family (fig. 36) was probably made there about 1800. The contours of the cheeks and crest are similar to those in Hepplewhite’s design for a "Saddle Check, or easy chair" (fig. 37). References to easy chairs are rare in shipping manifests, suggesting that most were commissioned by local consumers. Merchant Aaron Waite’s large order for furniture from the Sandersons in 1796 included "1 Easy chair stuft" valued at twelve dollars. Five years later, upholsterer Jonathan Bright charged $8.50 for "Stuffing" an easy chair.48
This entry probably refers to a high-back upholstered armchair with a carved crest. Several examples from Salem are known, including a matching pair in the Winterthur Museum and the one illustrated in figure 38. The term "drapery back" refers to the carved swag on the crest rail. The shape of the crest was adapted from a sofa design on plate 35 in Sheraton’s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book, and the sloping arms and turned supports were derived from the chair shown on plate 6, number 3, of The London Chair-Makers’ and Carvers’ Book of Prices (1802).49
Inventories attest to the popularity of lolling chairs in Salem and indicate
that most were used in parlors in pairs. Many of those shipped as venture
cargo had muslin upholstery and slipcovers. Upholsterer William Lemon
sent four mahogany lolling chairs "with copperplate furniture covers,
Fring’d and bound with cotton lace" valued at twenty dollars
each on the ship John bound for Surinam in 1799. No lolling chair can
be documented to a specific Salem maker, but many have local histories.
A chair that descended from John and Elizabeth Gardner (fig. 39),
the original owners of the Gardner-Pingree House, represents one of the
most popular designs. The couple purchased several pieces of furniture
for their new house from cabinetmaker Nathaniel Safford in 1805.50
Many mahogany window stools are attributed to Salem, including a set of four that remain in their original location in the parlor of the Peirce-Nichols House (fig. 40). The carved details have parallels in Hepplewhite’s designs (see fig. 41) and echoed features in the room, which was remodeled under the direction of Samuel McIntire in 1801. Hepplewhite commented that "the size of the window stools must be regulated by the size of the place where they are to stand." This may explain why the form does not appear on any venture cargo lists.51
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Daniel Clarke,
Jonathan Gavet, and Nathaniel Safford invoiced the Sandersons for turning
pillars for high- and low-post beds and urns for field beds. On October
7, 1800, Nathaniel Safford received three dollars for "two set[s]
of highbedstead pillars." The Sandersons subcontracted most of the
carving on bedsteads and other forms to Samuel McIntire. Two of the most
ornate posts attributed to McIntire’s shop are on a bedstead made
for Jerathamiel Peirce (fig. 42).
A bedstead originally owned by George and Elizabeth Watson is less elaborate,
but more typical of Salem production (fig. 43).
Family tradition maintains that it survived a fire at their house in 1801.
The bed retains its original painted cornice with floral and leaf swags,
tassels, and central landscape panels in shades of brown, orange, yellow,
and pink. On June 5, 1804, Samuel Page paid Jacob Sanderson six dollars
for a "bedcornish & Painting same." Bed cornices are often
mentioned in the accounts of fancy chair makers. Richard Austin received
$4.50 for "Painting & Gilding [a] set [of] Cornishes" for
Mrs. Rodgers’ bed in October 1805.52
Several seaman’s chests from Salem are known, most of which are
comprised of six boards and have massive corner dovetails and a hinged
lid. The chest owned by Captain Charles Hoffman of Salem (fig. 46)
has the traditional rope beckets on either side for carrying. The plain
unpainted interior has a narrow covered till to one side. Other examples
have additional features such as a small drawer below or partitions to
secure bottles.
The Sanderson firm was probably producing coffins by 1789, when they
imported fifty-three cedar logs from Charleston, South Carolina. Salem
cabinetmakers preferred that wood for coffins, the interiors of small
drawers, and cradles. Thomas Hodgkins’ account with the firm mentions
only three coffins between July and December 1808. In August and November,
he made pine coffins for two dollars each. References to coffins in business
papers often give the name of the deceased or an agent of their estate.
Decorative painter Robert Cowan charged the Sandersons $3.33 1/3 for a
"Coffin Plate Lettered & Clasp for Mrs. Dana" in 1803, and
Hodgkins’ account mentions a "coffin for Mr. Clark" in
July 1808. Although coffins for children are not specifically mentioned
in the price book, they were undoubtedly less expensive than comparable
examples for adults. Michele Felice Cornè’s The Death of
William depicts a child’s example commissioned by the Webb or
Luscomb family of Salem (fig. 47).54
Given the competitive and entrepreneurial nature of Salem’s cabinetmaking
trade, it was inevitable that competition with non-members would arise.55
For many members of the Salem Cabinet-Maker Society, economic misfortune
extracted a much larger toll. In 1810, Eziekiel Goodnow and George Martin
died at the early ages of thirty-six and thirty-nine respectively. The
following year, Edmund Johnson was lost at sea while overseeing his own
declining business. Samuel Cheever committed suicide in 1818. Other members
who had drifted into town during its prosperous days moved on and found
opportunities elsewhere. Jonathan Marston, for example, settled in Maine
in 1812 and became a lumber dealer. Salem’s furniture industry eventually
recovered and expanded in the ensuing decades under the leadership of
a new generation of artisans, who presumably had not been members of the
earlier society. They found a new voice for their collective interests
in the founding of the Salem Charitable Mechanic Association in 1817,
electing cabinetmaker Thomas Needham as their first president.57
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