Corner cupboard from a House in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

According to a date stone located on the gable of the Pennsylvania farmhouse from which it came, this woodwork is dated 1761. It is a typical example of the woodwork produced in that state during the eighteenth century. The room, which was located in one of the earliest houses in Lancaster County, consists of a corner fireplace and corner cupboard, each surmounted by a heavy cornice that, as was characteristic of buildings in central Pennsylvania, is not carried around the room. In the original room, the glazed cupboard was situated diagonally opposite the paneled corner fireplace wall. The subject of the overmantel painting was taken from an engraving which appeared in William Salmon's "Polygraphice or the Arts of Drawing, Engraving . . .” (London, 1685), one of the first books of artistic instruction used in America.