Acknowledgments For assistance with this article, the author thanks Gavin Ashworth, Roderic Blackburn, Elaine Clark, Meredith Cohen, Jet Pijzel-Dommisse, Judith Elsdon, Susan Finkel, Lori Fisher, Maxine Friedman, Mr. and Mrs. Dudley Godfrey, Jr., Sue Glyson, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Goldberg, Joyce Goodfriend, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Gronning, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Hare, Kate Johnson, Neil Kamil, Peter Kenny, Sandra Markham, Joni Rowe, Frances Safford, John Shear, Kevin Stayton, Ruth Piwonka, Kevin Wright, and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Vogel. I am especially grateful to Shelley Farmer for her continued support and encouragement. 1. Wallace Nutting was the first furniture historian to illustrate New Netherland turned chairs (Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, 3 vols. [1928; reprint, New York: Macmillan, 1966], 2: nos. 2085-86). More recent attempts to interpret these chairs are John T. Kirk, "Sources of Some American Regional Furniture, Part I," Antiques 88, no. 6 (December 1965): 798; John T. Kirk, American Furniture and the British Tradition to 1830 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), p. 235; and Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture: 1630-1730 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), pp. 114-19. Peter Kenny, Frances Safford, and Gilbert T. Vincent, American Kasten: The Dutch-Style Cupboard of New York and New Jersey, 1650-1800 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991), pp. 1-10. Neil D. Kamil, "Of American Kasten and the Mythology of Pure Dutchness," in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1994), pp. 275-82. Neil D. Kamil, "Hidden in Plain Sight: Disappearance and Material Life in Colonial New York," in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1995), pp. 191-249. 2. Stoel means chair and draaier means turner. The 1749 edition of Sewall's Dutch Dictionary lists draaijer and wieldraaijer for "turner." On July 17, 1664, David Wessels requested that the Orphanmaster Council allow Class Gerritsen to be his apprentice for five years to learn the trade of "stoeldraijen" (chair turning) and "laden maachen" (drawer making) (The Minutes of the Orphanmasters of New Amsterdam, 1663-1668, edited by Ken Stryker Rodda and Kenneth Scott [Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976], p. 12). Year Book of the Holland Society of New York, 1900 (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1900), p. 126. Thomas Paulus is described as a "drayer" in a record dated September 16, 1669 (A. J. F. Van Laer, Minutes of the Court of Albany, Rensselaerswyck and Schenectady, Vol I: 1668-1673 [Albany, N. Y.: University of the State of New York, 1926], pp. 99-100); however, he may have been a baker (A. J. F. Van Laer, Early Records of the City and County of Albany and the Colony of Rensslaerswyck, 4 vols. [Albany, N. Y.: University of the State of New York, 1919], 3: 143). Berthold Fernow, The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653-1674, 7 vols. (1897; reprint, Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976), 1: 371; 7: 151; and "The Burgers of New Amsterdamn and the Freemen of New York 1675-1866" in Collections for the New-York Historical Society for year 1885 (New York: By the Society, 1886), pp. 20, 63, 70, 71, 72, 73 list the following artisans and their trades: Lourens Andrieszen van Boskerk, "drayer," October 11, 1655; David Wessels, "chairmaker," April 13, 1657; Frederick Arentszen Blom, "drayer," February 11, 1658; Jacob Blom, "turner," August 9, 1698; Arent Blom, "blockmaker," September 6, 1698; William Bogaert, "turner," September 6, 1698; Johannes Byvanck, "turner," February 2, 1699; Johannes Tiebout, "turner," February 2, 1699; and Rutgert Waldron, "turner," February 3, 1699. Jacob Smit is described as a "turner," in Fernow, The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653-1674, 7: 48; and "New York Wills 1665-1707," in Collections for the New-York Historical Society for year 1892 (New York: By the Society, 1892), p. 95. Turners Jan Poppen and Albert Van Ekelen are listed in Dean Failey, Long Island is My Nation: The Decorative Arts and Craftsmen 1640-1830 (Setauket, N.Y.: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1976), p. 283. English immigrant Henry Brasier (Brasar) (w. 1648-1689) referred to himself as a turner in his will (Collections for the New-York Historical Society for year 1892, p. 245), but other documents describe him as a carpenter. 3. Council Minutes, 1652-1654: New York Historical Manuscript Series, translated and edited by Charles Gehring (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983), p. 172. Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, edited by I. N. P. Stokes, 6 vols. (New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928), 2: 221. James Riker, Revised History of Harlem: Its Origin and Early Annals (New York: New Harlem Publishing Co., 1904), p. 128. Albert Van Ekelen served an apprenticeship with Flatlands/Flatbush turner Jan Poppen (Failey, Long Island is My Nation, p. 283).Fernow, The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653-1674, 2: 144, 149. 4. Minutes of the Orphanmasters of New Amsterdam, 1655-1663, translated and edited by Berthold Fernow, 2 vols. (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1902-1907), 2: 132-33. Berthold Fernow, Calendar of Council Minutes, 1668-1783 (1902; reprint, Harrison, N.Y.: Harbor Hill Books, 1987), p. 167. 5. Joyce D. Goodfriend, Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in Colonial New York City, 1664-1730 (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp. 101-3. "Abstract of Wills, Vol. II, 1709-1723," in Collections for the New-York Historical Society for year 1893 (New York: By the Society, 1893), p. 88. Failey, Long Island is My Nation, p. 283. For more on patronage in New York, see Simon Middleton, "The World Beyond the Workshop: Trading in New York's Artisan Economy, 1690-1740," New York History 81, no. 4 (October 2000): 381-416. 6. Arnold J. H. van Laer, The Lutheran Church in New York: 1649-1772 (New York: New York Public Library, 1946), pp. 20, 21, 30, 31, 36-40. The Andros Papers: 1674-1676, edited by Peter R. Christoph and Florence A. Christoph (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989), p. 17. The Lutheran faith was poorly received in New York. Van Boskerk and Wessels frequently wrote home requesting aid. 7. Chairs with rail-and-spindle backs are common in southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina, areas strongly influenced by Dutch and French culture. For more on such chairs, see Robert Leath, "Dutch Trade and Its Influence on Seventeenth Century Chesapeake Furniture," in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1997), pp. 33-35. John Bivins and Forsyth Alexander, The Regional Arts of the Early South: A Sampling from the Collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 1991), p. 21, n. 2. Tolletjie chairs from South Africa share numerous details with the New York spindle-back examples illustrated here. Two African chairs made of orangewood and dating ca. 1750 are in the Stellenbosh Museum in South Africa. For more on South African seating, see M. G. Atmore, Cape Furniture (Cape Town, South Africa: Citadel Press, 1965), pp. 61, 62, 91; Michael Baraitster and Anton Obholzer, Cape Country Furniture (Cape Town, South Africa: Struink Publishers, 1982), pp. 21-27, 92, 93; Michael Baraitster and Anton Obholzer, Town Furniture of the Cape (Cape Town, South Africa: Struink Publishers, 1987), p. 62; Richard Beatty, "Cape Dutch Design," Colonial Homes 10 (September-October, 1984): 86; William Fehr, Treasures at the Castle of Good Hope (Cape Town, South Africa: Howard Timmins, 1963), p. 113; and G. E. Pearse, Eighteenth-Century Furniture in South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa: J. L. Van Schaik, 1960), pp. 18, 22. 8. Leath, "Dutch Trade and Its Influence," pp. 33-35. Bivins and Alexander, The Regional Arts of the Early South, p. 21, no. 2. 9. For early New York inventories, see Ruth Piwonka, "New York Colonial Inventories: Dutch Interiors as a Measure of Cultural Change," in New World Dutch Studies: Dutch Arts and Culture in Colonial America 1609-1776, edited by Roderic H. Blackburn and Nancy A. Kelly (Albany, N.Y.: Albany Institute of History and Art, 1988), pp. 63-81; and Esther Singleton, Dutch New York (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1909), pp. 81-103. For the Steenwyck inventory, see Peter M. Kenny, "Flat Gates, Draw Bars, Twists, and Urns: New York's Distinctive, Early Baroque Tables with Falling Leaves," in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1994), p. 108. The 1711 inventory of Margareta Schuyler lists six stoelen (chairs) in the kitchen (Roderic H. Blackburn and Ruth Piwonka, Remembrance of Patria: Dutch Arts and Culture in America, 1609-1776 [New York: Albany Institute of History and Art, 1988], p. 148). 10. Shirley Glubok, "The Dolls' House of Petronella de la Court," Antiques 137, no. 2 (February 1990): 489-501. S. Muller Jr. and W. Vogelsang, Holländische Patrizierhäuser (Utrecht, Holland: Verlag Von A. Oosthoek, 1909), pls. 5b, 11.7. Jet van Pizel, a specialist in seventeenth-century doll house furniture, provided this information. 11. Many slat-back chairs with tall, urn-shaped finials have been found in the Bergen County region of New Jersey. Consequentially, dealers and collectors began referring to these turnings as "Bergen County" finials. 12. For a New England joined chair made of cherry, see Peter Follansbee, "A Seventeenth-Century Carpenter's Conceit; The Waldo Family Joined Great Chair," in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1998), pp. 197-214. Seventeenth-century, southern turned chairs made of cherry are illustrated in Luke Beckerdite, "Religion, Artisanry, and Cultural Identity: The Huguenot Experience in South Carolina, 1680-1725," in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1997), pp. 203-4; and Bivins and Alexander, The Regional Arts of the Early South, p. 21, no. 2. Kenny, Safford, and Vincent, American Kasten. Kenny, "Flat Gates, Draw-Bars, Twists, and Urns," pp. 106-35. 13. Patricia E. Kane, 300 Years of American Seating Furniture (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976), pp. 32-33, fig. 5. This is the same chair illustrated in Nutting's Furniture Treasury (see n. 1 above). Varlet claimed that he had "delivered to the defendant in the year 1663 a tub of soap and as much black walnut, as would make a spinning wheel, for which he was then too deliver a spinning wheel as soon as possible, which he has not done." Fernow, The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653-1674, 5: 353-54, 6: 380. 14. Singleton, Dutch New York, pp. 81-82. 15. Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, 2: 247-48. Fernow, The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653-1674, 1: 367-75; 3: 363; 2: 327, 428; 3: 12, 147. Liber Deeds A: 217. 16. For a discussion of Dutch settlement in America, New Netherland's role as a commercial colony, and New Netherland landholding systems, see Blackburn and Piwonka, Remembrance of Patria, pp. 35-41, 43, 63-69. 17. These estates, originally referred to as patroonships, received manorial status under British rule. Kenny, Safford, and Vincent, American Kasten. Lauren L. Bresnan, "The Beekmans of New York: Material Posession and Social Progression" (master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1996). 18. Blom sued Laurence for non-payment on October 23, 1671 (Fernow, The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653-1674, 6: 339). Van Boskerk signed an Oath of Allegance at Bergen, New Jersey, on November 22, 1665 (Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, 2: 221). 19. Catalogue of Albany's Bicentennial Loan Exhibition at Albany Academy, July 5 to July 24, 1886 (Albany, N. Y.: Weed, Parsons, and Co., 1886), p. 136a. Fernow, The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653-1674, 2: 428. 20. Christie's, Fine American Furniture, Silver, Folk Art and Decorative Arts, New York, January 20, 21, 1989, lot 723. Sotheby's, Important Americana, New York, June 23, 24, 1994, lot 432. Howard James Banker, A Partial History and Genealogical Record of the Bancker or Banker Families of America (Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle Co., 1909), pp. 244-45, 280-82, 297-98. Waldron Phoenix Belknap, Jr., The De Peyster Genealogy (Boston, Mass.: privately printed, 1956), pp. 15, 16, 41, 42. Tammis K. Groft and Mary Alice Mackay, Albany Institute of History & Art: 200 Years of Collecting (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1998), pp. 206-8. The armchair may have been turned by Jan Poppen of Flatlands/Flatbush. The author thanks Peter Kenny for information on the weathervane. 21. Michael Kammen, Colonial New York: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 73. Goodfriend, Before The Melting Pot, pp. 42-43, 101-3. Betty Schmelz, Irene Fitzgerald, Catherine Marchbank, and Charles B. Szeglin, T. R. Cooper's Chair Factory: Early Industry in Rural Schraalerburg (Bergenfield, N. J.: Bergenfield Museum, 1985). 22. The author thanks Dean Failey for information on the armchair found in Setauket. For more on Dutch and New York turned armchairs with flat arms and pommels, see Forman, American Seating Furniture, pp. 122-23, 128-31. 23. Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 17th, 18th and Early 19th Century Furniture from Boston, Newport, Connecticut, New York, Philadelphia and Other Cabinet Making Centers, New York, November 15-17, 1973, lot 915. For more on chairs from the Guilford-Saybrook area, see Patricia E. Kane, Furniture of the New Haven Colony: The Seventeenth-Century Style (New Haven, Conn.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1973), pp. 68-77. Blackburn and Piwonka, Remembrance of Patria, p. 191. Esther Singleton, Furniture of Our Forefathers (1900; reprint, Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1919), p. 252. A cradle with grisaille decoration (Blackburn and Piwonka, Rememberance of Patria, pp. 270-71, fig. 291) has finials similar to those on the related high chairs and side chairs (figs. 27-29). The festoons and figures on the cradle appear to be by the same hand that decorated two kasten (Joseph T. Butler, Sleepy Hollow Restorations: A Cross-Section of the Collection [Tarrytown, N. Y.: Sleepy Hollow Press, 1983], p. 73, no. 81; and Kenny et. al., American Kasten, p. 31). Although the board construction and somewhat naïve decoration of these pieces has led some scholars to suggest that they may have been made in the Albany region, the finials on the cradle and grisaille scheme on all three objects have parallels in New York City work. If the cradle was made in Albany rather than New York City, its finials may have been derived from those on early seating forms like the high chairs brought by Sanders and the Ten Eycks. The author thanks Frances Safford and Peter Kenny for their thoughts on the grisaille decorated pieces. 24. Leigh French Jr., Colonial Interiors: The Colonial and Early Federal Periods, First Series (New York: Bonanza Books, 1923), pl. 13. 25. Neil D. Kamil's "Hidden in Plain Sight," pp. 223-25 illustrates chairs like those shown in figs. 33 and 34 and discusses their relationship to French turning and terminology. The chair shown in fig. 33 descended in the Pruyn family of Albany and is illustrated in Singleton, Furniture of Our Forefathers, p. 241. The Monmouth County Historical Society owns an armchair with a similar splat but lacking the spindles and pad feet. 26. For more on marks on New York furniture, see Roderic Blackburn, "Branded and Stamped New York Furniture" Antiques 119, no. 5 (May 1981): 1130-45. Nutting, Furniture Treasury, no. 2085. The chair illustrated in fig. 40 sold at auction in 1948 (Parke-Bernet Galleries, Early Pennsylvania and Other Colonial Furniture, New York, March 20, 1948, lot 185). Anderson Art Galleries, Francis P. Garvan Collection, New York, January 8-10, 1931, lot 107. |