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Harbor & Home
Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710–1850
Brock Jobe, Gary R. Sullivan, Jack O’Brien
University Press of New England
2009 • 458 pp. 321 illus. (284 color) 9 x 12"
Decorative Arts & Material Culture / Furniture / Antiques & Collectibles / Massachusetts
$75.00 Cloth, 978-0-912724-68-3
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"Using furniture and other artifacts, diaries, and account books, the study introduces us to the men who made their living in seafaring commerce and to the craftsmen of the region. . . . Harbor and Home . . . focuses the attention . . . on the heritage of southeastern Massachusetts."—Maine Antique Digest
Presented for the first time, the richly illustrated findings of the Southeastern Massachusetts Furniture project at Winterthur Museum
Through furniture, this exhibition catalogue will explore the cultural identity of a little-studied region of 18th and 19th century New England: southeastern Massachusetts, an area that stretches from just south of Boston to Providence, east to the tip of Cap Cod, and includes the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The era between 1710 and 1850 was marked by enormous changes in the landscape, population, and economy of this area, as well as in the activities of furniture craftsmen and the purchasing patterns of local residents. Three themes are paramount here:
1. Regionalism in the character of furniture made in the area and the forces that shaped that identity.
2. Fashion, changing tastes and the growing affluence of local residents over time.
3. Shop practices and the evolving craft practices of furniture makers through the recreation of two shops, the rural handcraft tradition of Samuel Wing of Sandwich in 1800 and the mechanized operation of a New Bedford or Fall River chair factory in 1850.
The exhibition will include approximately 75 pieces of furniture from private and institutional collections, tools and equipment from the Samuel Wing cabinet shop (now owned by Sturbridge Village), and selected household furnishings depicting interiors in southeastern Massachusetts during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Reviews:
"Harbor and Home contains rich documentation of the best of 18th and 19th century clocks, chests, chairs, desks, and dressing tables. Readers are treated to rarely seen pieces from outstanding private and public collections."
—Collectors Journal and Country Pleasures Magazine
Endorsements:
“Wallace Nutting lamented in 1928 that southeastern Massachusetts had been so picked over by dealers and collectors that it had become the “least likely of any region to yield old furniture.” However, this new study by Brock Jobe, Gary R. Sullivan and Jack O'brien, assisted by a cadre of other authors, proves that Nutting was mistaken. Harbor & Home provides a rich contextual examination of the cabinetmaking and clockmaking crafts in this area from 1710 to 1850, linking the area’s furniture to Boston and Newport while defining its own distinctive characteristics. It will surely become a standard text in the literature on regional styles in early American furniture.”—Gerald W.R. Ward, The Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Brock Jobe’s Harbor & Home proves that understanding the physical context of regional history is critical to understanding its material culture. The book brings antique photographs, ledger book analysis and other salty tales about seafaring commerce, craftsmanship, and connoisseurship to unfurling new knowledge about furniture-making in a region of New England that has escaped deep primary research until now. From acquisition to auction, the early furniture found in Harbor & Home identifies the work of new shop traditions and refines the template for regional study of American craftsmanship by using many artifacts in private collections. As value added, Gary R. Sullivan’s writing on timekeeping south of Boston augments our overall understanding of clockmaking in Federal era Massachusetts.”—Philip Zea, President, Historic Deerfield, Inc
Click here for TABLE OF CONTENTS
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