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Safford, Frances Gruber (2007)
This title is out of print.
The Metropolitan Museum's preeminent collection of early colonial furniture is expertly documented in this long-awaited publication. It presents a broad spectrum of furniture forms made in America during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries—from chairs and other seating to tables, boxes, various types of chests and cupboards, dressing tables, and desks—and includes prime examples of the different modes of ornamentation in fashion during that period. Freshly photographed in color for this volume, each of the 141 objects is thoroughly described, with detailed information given on its construction, condition, dimensions, materials, and inscriptions and other marks, as well as provenance and exhibition history. Each object is also explicated in terms of the styles and craftsmanship of the period and evaluated in light of comparative pieces in public and private collections throughout the country.
Furniture from New England predominates, but there are significant examples of forms and ornament characteristic of New York and Pennsylvania, as well. The Museum's masterpieces range from majestic seventeenth-century turned chairs with a spindle back to case pieces in the William and Mary style of the early eighteenth century that feature dramatic veneers or japanning. Several chairs in the collection retain their original upholstery, and some of the chests and cupboards have their original painted decoration. The pigments on the painted pieces have been identified, and the results published here represent the first large body of such information included in an American furniture catalogue. An appendix containing photographic details of construction and decorative elements and another with line drawings explaining furniture terms and showing various types of joints and moldings are also included.
This is the first volume in a series that is dedicated to American furniture in the Museum; the second volume, on the late colonial period, was published in 1985.
Directors Foreword
PrefaceMorrison H. Hecksher
Acknowledgments
Notes on the Catalogue
Introduction
Catalogue
I. Seating Furniture
Turned Chairs with a Spindle BackTurned Chairs with a Slat BackJoined Seating with a Wooden BottomUpholstered, Cane, and Related Rush-seated ChairsMiscellaneous Furniture for Sitting and Reclining
II. Tables
Tables with a Stationary TopTables with Hinged Leaves
III. Case Furniture
Boxes and Other Small Case PiecesChests and Chests with DrawersChests-on-FrameChests of DrawersCupboards and KastenHigh Chests of DrawersDressing TablesDesks
Appendix 1: AddendaAppendix 2: Photographic DetailsAppendix 3: Explanatory Drawings
ConcordanceAbbreviationsBibliographyIndexPhotograph and Drawings Credits
Frances Gruber Safford is Associate Curator in the Department of American Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Online Titles
Ackermann, Daniel Kurt. "American Georgian Interiors (Mid-Eighteenth-Century Period Rooms)." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. See more
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Barratt, Carrie Rebora. "American Portrait Miniatures of the Eighteenth Century." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. See more
Barratt, Carrie Rebora. "Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828)." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. See more
Barratt, Carrie Rebora. "John Singleton Copley (1738–1815)." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. See more
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. "The Transatlantic Slave Trade." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. See more
Casey, Emily. "Visual Culture of the Atlantic World." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. See more
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