Incollect Magazine - Issue 4

Antiques & Fine Art 93 2022 I coll ct Magazine 3 Chest of drawers signed by William Beakes The earliest dated object in the exhibit and one of the earliest known dated examples of Pennsylvania furniture to survive, this chest of drawers was inscribed by the maker on a drawer bottom: “Sarah Thorn her Draws/ made by Wm Beakes this 14th of 12th mo 1720.” Under the “new style” or Gregorian calendar adopted by England in 1752 and still in use today, this date would translate to February 14, 1721. Beakes revealed his Quaker roots by using numbered months rather than Greco-Roman inspired names. His grandfather, William Beakes I, was one of the earliest settlers of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, immigrating in 1682 just two months after William Penn arrived in the new colony. Born in 1691, Beakes apprenticed in Philadelphia with the English émigré joiner William Till (d. 1711). Beakes continued working as a joiner, returning to Burlington County, New Jersey, where he is thought to have made this chest of drawers in 1721. 1 The Beakes chest expresses many details connected to furniture making in the early 1700s in the Philadelphia region. Made of walnut, the chest has paneled sides framed by stiles that continue to the floor in the back and terminate in turned ball feet in the front. These feet were cut down at some point in the chest’s history but were recently restored for this exhibition based on another, near identical chest of drawers also signed by Beakes. 2 I n the eighteenth century, Pennsylvania—Penn’s Woods—was home to an abundance of natural resources and talented craftspeople, making it an epicenter of furniture production in America. Drawing on the collection of the Dietrich American Foundation, a new exhibition at Historic Trappe, in Trappe, Pennsylvania, delves into the evolution of Pennsylvania furniture over the course of the eighteenth century. The objects on view run the gamut from an early wainscot chair and a line-and-berry inlaid desk to ornately carved Queen Anne and Chippendale chairs. Presented in the second-floor gallery of the Henry Muhlenberg House, the exhibit allows visitors to experience this furniture in a period domestic setting illuminated by natural light. It also provides a greater context for understanding furniture owned by the Muhlenberg family that is displayed throughout the house’s seven other rooms. The following article will present highlights from the exhibition, which opens in March and runs through 2023. Fig. 2: Side chair, southeastern Pennsylvania, 1700– 1730. Walnut. H. 43⅛, W. 19, D. 18 inches. Collection of the Dietrich American Foundation (8.1.2.HRD.1229-2). Photo by Gavin Ashworth. The top two drawers have remnants of their original spring locks (also referred to as Quaker locks), in which a wooden shim was nailed to the drawer bottom; to open the drawer, one has to first use a key to unlock the drawer beneath, slide it open, then reach up through a hole in the dust board to press up on the spring lock and allow the drawer to be opened. Wainscot side chair Commonly referred to as a wainscot chair, this joined side chair derives from a medieval style of seating furniture popular in England. Some of the earliest Pennsylvania wainscot chairs continued the English practice of using oak but soon this transitioned to walnut, one of the most popular furniture woods in colonial Pennsylvania. The “wainscot” paneling of the chair reflected its architectural inspiration and was ubiquitous in seating furniture of the English-speaking world by the late 1600s. Manifestations of this form in the Philadelphia area also resulted in a regional style by the 1720s. The Pennsylvania wainscot chair, often associated with Chester County but likely also made in Philadelphia and other neighboring counties, is rectilinear in overall shape; has a recessed or raised panel set within a frame on the back; and has boldly turned legs, front stretchers, and