Acknowledgments   For assistance with this article the author thanks David Barquist, Elaine Bradson, Luke Beckerdite, Andrew Brunk, Jane Sikes Hageman, Charles T. Lyle, Thomas Michie, John Scherer, Leslie Symington, and Karen Zimmerman. 1. The author respectfully borrows the phrase "Artisan of the New Republic" from Howard B. Rock’s Artisans of the New Republic, The Tradesmen of New York City in the Age of Jefferson (New York: New York University Press, 1979). This excellent book brought Blossom’s daybook to the author’s attention. Only three other New York City cabinetmakers’ account books from the early nineteenth century are known: John Hewitt, 1800–1803 and 1810–1813 (New Jersey Historical Society); Fenwick Lyell, 1800–1811 (Monmouth County Historical Society), and David Loring (whereabouts unknown). 2. William Duncan, New-York City Directory (1793). The 1795 edition was the first to give Innocent Loring’s occupation. See Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909, edited by I. N. Stokes, 6 vols. (New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915–1928), 3: 589–90 for a discussion of the successive occupants of No. 1 Broadway. Stokes states that from 1792 to 1797 Loring kept a fashionable boardinghouse on the premises. Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic, New York City & the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788–1850 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 52. 3. David Longworth, Longworth’s American Almanack, New-York Register, and City Directory, 1797–1812 (1819). Wilentz, Chants Democratic, p. 52. Elizabeth Blackmar, New York for Rent, 1785–1850 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Unversity Press, 1989), pp. 213–14. Genealogical information on the Blossom family is available at <http.//members@aol.com/dashmom/ blossom/html>. Innocent Loring is listed as a widow in the 1802 New York City Directory for the first time. Evidently her husband died the year before. 4. Wilentz, Chants Democratic, p. 135. 5. Elisha Blossom, Jr.’s Daybook, 1811–1822 (hereafter cited Blossom Daybook), August 1815, New-York Historical Society. Blossom’s daybook will only be cited when no specific dates are given in the text. For Eckford, see Robert Greenhalgh Albion, The Rise of the New York Port, 1815–60 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939), pp. 288–89. 6. Longworth, Longworth’s American Almanack. Albion, Rise of the New York Port, pp. 292, 299. 7. Elton W. Hall, “New Bedford Furniture,” Antiques 113, no. 5 (May 1978): 1118. Samuel Blossom’s death date is given in Vital Records of New Bedford, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, edited by Florence Conant Howes, 3 vols. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1941), 3: 26. Samuel Blossom was the son of Benjamin Blossom (1753– 1837), brother of Elisha Blossom, Sr., and Rebekah (Blossom) Tobey (1757–1832) of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Samuel appears to be the first Blossom trained as a cabinetmaker, and he may have apprenticed with Lemuel Tobey (1749–1829) of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Margaret K. Hofer, “Furniture Makers and Allied Craftsmen in Plymoth and Bristol Counties, Massachusetts, 1760–1810,” Antiques 159, no. 5 (May 2001): 812. Lemuel Tobey’s account is in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, Massachusetts and is discussed in Philip Zea, “Rural Craftsmen and Design” in Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, New England Furniture: The Colonial Era: Selections from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (Boston: Houghton MiZin, 1984), pp. 64–65. The author thanks Leslie Symington for compiling genealogical information on the Blossoms and Lorings for this article. 8. People’s Friend & Daily Advertiser, March 7, 1807; New-York Evening Post, May 19, 1810. For more on Abraham Egerton, son of Matthew Egerton, see Marilyn A. Johnson, “John Hewitt, Cabinetmaker,” Winterthur Portfolio 4 (1968): 200, n. 34. For more on the destruction of Loring’ s business and move to Cincinnati, see Jane E. Sikes, The Furniture Makers of Cincinnati, 1790 to 1849 (Cincinnati, Ohio: Cincinnati Historical Society, 1976) pp. 147–49. One of Loring’s account books which survived the 1814 fire was among the possessions brought with him to Cincinnati. Historian Jane Sikes Hageman examined this document for the aforementioned study and illustrated a page from it dated March 16, 1813. Although the account book’s current whereabouts is unknown, Hageman photocopied a few pages dated between March 16, and May 20, 1813, and was kind enough to share these with the author. 9. William S. Auchincloss, Ninety Days in the Tropics, or Letters from Brazil (1874), pp. 27–28, in Katherine Emma Manthorne, Tropical Renaissance, North American Artists Exploring Latin America, 1839–1879 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), p. 144. The value of the U. S. dollar in relation to the Portuguese rea is based on the 1809 rate given on page 93 in “Notebook of an Unidentified American Trader,” Rhode Island Historical Society, microfilm, Downs Manuscript Collection, Winterthur Library, Winterthur Delaware, M6.: $1.00 U.S. equals 750 Portuguese reas. For carpenters’ and cabinetmakers’ wages, see Rock, Artisans of the New Republic, pp. 251–53. 10. Honoré Lannuier charged a Mr. Brinckerhoff of New York $42.00 for “A Mahogany Crebe.” The bill for the cradle is illustrated in Peter M. Kenny, Frances F. Bretter, and Ulrich Leben, Honoré Lannuier Cabinetmaker from Paris: The Life and Work of a French Ébéniste in Federal New York (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998), p. 231. 11. “Notebook of an American Trader,” p. 131. Salem cabinetmaker Nehemiah Adams sent a cargo of furniture valued at $869.90 (Mabel Munson Swan, “Coastwise Cargoes of Venture Furniture,” Antiques 55, no. 4 [April 1949]: 280.) 12. A printed list of the ninety-two members of the New York Society of Cabinet Makers is bound into a copy of The New-York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair Work (1810) in the library at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. This copy is inscribed by New York journeyman cabinetmaker Daniel Turnier, one of Blossom’s contemporaries. Hereafter the various editions of the price books will be referred to as New York Price Book followed by the date of publication. 13. Wilentz, Chants Democratic, p. 49. Blossom Daybook, July 24 and August 5, 1812. Barrows & Whitehead paid 1 mill rea/820 reas rent up to July 21 (July 24). Mr. Bridge paid 12 mill reas/800 reas for one month’s rent “due 5th September,” and Mr. Fidae 21 mill reas/300 reas rent “due this day” (both August 5). A journeyman carpenter’s estimated annual budget made in 1809, including an average house rental of $55.00 (Rock, Artisans of the New Republic, p. 253). 14. Blossom’s “start” charge for the sideboard was £9, or about $22.50, the same start charge given for a French sideboard in the 1810 New York price book. It had the form’s usual four cupboard doors below three frieze drawers, a backboard, and reeded legs and castors, but lacked many of the extras that made some examples very expensive. For more on the French sideboard and its sources in France, see Kenny et al., Honoré Lannuier, pp. 83–84. 15. The author thanks Jane Sikes Hageman for providing photocopies of pages from David Loring’s daybook. Despite repeated attempts to locate Loring’s daybook through family descendants in Cincinnati, it still remains to be found. New-York Gazette & General Advertiser, May 8, 1812; and New-York Gazette & General Advertiser, May 25, 1812. Christies, Important American Furniture, Silver, Prints and Folk Art, New York, May 29, 2002, lot 185. 16. New-York Gazette & General Advertiser, May 12, 1813. Dolan is listed as a cabinetmaker in New York City directories from 1802 to 1814. From 1815 to 1825 he ran a hardware store. A card table with reeded legs and a treble-elliptic top labeled by Dolan when he was at the 30 Beekman Street address (1809–1813) is shown in Antiques 80, no. 4 (October 1961): 298. A nearly identical card table is in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York, and was included in the catalogue Furniture by New York Cabinetmakers (New York: Museum of the City of New York, 1957), p. 60, no. 96. Forsyth M. Alexander, “Warehousing in the Southern Atlantic, 1783-1820,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 15, no. 2 (November 1989): 16. 17. See New-York Evening Post, May 13, 1817, for an advertisement by Charles Christian mentioning “large and small Side Boards.” The list of Additional Revised Prices (n.d.) is bound into the previously cited New York Price Book (1810). “A French Sideboard,” is listed on p. 42 of the aforementioned price book. In the 1817 edition of the New York Price Book, “A French Sideboard” is listed on p. 71. 18. The aforementioned New York Price Book (1810) has the following inscription above table 4, p. 62: “This Book is all most [sic] out of use for the next comes first April 6th 1817 T. C. for D T n [probably Daniel Turnier].” Blossom Daybook, January 22, 1814: “Mr. John Linacre [debit] To I Book of prices Bound $1.50.” 19. For Christian’s commission at City Hall, see Kenny et al., Honoré Lannuier, pp. 142–43. Daily Advertiser, May 8, 1800. For more on the Philadelphia furniture wareroom and the Society of Cabinet Makers, Philadelphia, of which Christian was president in 1796, see Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture, The Federal Period in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (New York: Viking Press, 1966), pp. 22–23. For Christian’s mistreatment of apprentices, see Kenny et al., Honoré Lannuier, pp. 63; 100, n. 75. 20. New York Directory, 1808. American Citizen, April 16, 1803; March 11, 1805; and May 3, 1804; and February 6, 1805; and New-York Commercial Advertiser, May 20, 1805. New-York Evening Post, November 2, 1803. 21. Statesman, June 15, 1813; Columbian for the Country, June 16, 1813; New-York Evening Post, June, 18, 1813; and National Advocate, June 22, 1813. 22. Montgomery, American Furniture, p. 23. 23. Never very popular with collectors because their upper cabinet sections were paneled rather than glazed and, therefore, unusable for the display of ceramics, glass or other collectibles, examples of this form are in three public collections: Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut; House of History in Kinderhook, New York; and the New York State Museum in Albany. Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1988), pp. 357–59 shows Yale’s writing table and bookcase with the fall front closed and open. Nancy McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency, 1795–1830 (New York: William R. Scott, 1939), pl. 167 illustrates the writing table and bookcase in the House of History. New York Price Book (1810), pp. 32, 33, 35, 37. See McClelland, Duncan Phyfe, pl. 251 for the labeled 1820 writing table and bookcase by Phyfe. 24. John Hewitt Account Book, New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, New Jersey, unpaginated as cited in Johnson, “John Hewitt, Cabinetmaker,” p. 187, n. 6. A photocopy of the account book is in the scholarship files of the American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Linacre is included at the back of the account book among a group of journeymen who worked for Hewitt, along with their aggregate charges for furniture making in 1812–1813. For competition among cabinetmakers in New York, see Kenny et al., Honoré Lannuier, p. 45. 25. New York Price Book (1810), pp. 42-43. 26. John Hewitt Account Book, “Work Done by Thos. Constantine,” as cited in Johnson, “John Hewitt, Cabinetmaker,” p. 196. New-York Evening Post, April 28, 1814. 27. Sikes, Furniture Makers of Cincinnati, p. 148. 28. Some master cabinetmakers failed to follow the established wage scale for journeymen. This problem was addressed on p. 1 in the preface to the 1817 revised New York Price Book: “[the committee of journeymen who worked on the price book] have endeavoured to equalize the prices in such manner, that two men working at different pieces of work, will not be paid, one more than the other, which has been hitherto, in many instances, the cause of much jealousy of men, working for the same employer.” With regard to the issue of quality of workmanship, the committee stated that the prices listed “are considered for work of good quality, and when not such, to be valued and paid for accordingly” (p. 6). 29. For a carpenter’s annual wage in New York City, see Rock, Artisans of the New Republic, p. 252. 30. New York City Directory, 1815. New York City directories covered the period of July 1 in any given year until June 30 of the next, and information for them began to be compiled after May 1, which was traditionally moving day. Blossom lived at 25 Roosevelt Street and gave his occupation as cabinetmaker in May, but by July 1 he had abandoned that trade. Blossom Daybook, November 4, 1815. On June 18, 1816, Blossom charged the “Estate of I Loring” $11.75 for “cash paid for her burial.” 31. New York City Directories, 1816–1823. As previously stated, Blossom appears to have been a partner in the firm listed in New York City directories as “Blossom, Smith & Demon.” The firm’s shipyards were located at “Stanton, M. I.,” the same address given for Blossom when he worked for Eckford. 32. John Hewitt Account Book, “Work Done by Thos. Constantine,” as cited in Johnson, “John Hewitt, Cabinetmaker,” p. 196. For all his furniture-making activities between February 14, 1812, and April 29, 1814, Constantine’s wages totaled $1,060.26. That averages out to about $489.00 per year, or just under one-and-one-half times more than Blossom’s annual earnings from cabinetmaking. Constantine was an unusually motivated artisan. Although he ran away from his master John Hewitt in 1811, Constantine displayed considerable energy in establishing a Cabinet Furniture Store at 157 Fulton Street in 1817. There he sold English pianos, patent bedsteads, and the latest “Elastic Spring Sofas,” which were reportedly “not the description of spring seat sofas made some time since in Europe, . . . but . . . an improvement in the mode of making and applying them, by which the elasticity is never lost.” In 1819 he won a contract to make desks and chairs for the House of Representatives in Washington. See the Commercial Advertiser, June 18, 1811, and Mercantile Advertiser, October 2, 1822, and New-York Daily Advertiser, November 2, 1819.