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New England Begins	1620-1730 Colonial Expressions in the Georgian Era	1730-1790 Neoclassicism in the New Nation	1790-1840 Industry, Innovation, and Tradition	1835-1950 Reaction and Reform	1870-1945 The Factory and the Studio	1920-2013
Eagles, Columns, and Urns, ca. 1790-1820
Expanding Markets, ca. 1790-1820
Scrolls and Pillars, ca. 1815-1840
Although Massachusetts led the way in rebelling against the British in the American Revolution, the state's patrons and craftsmen remained wedded to English taste after the revolution. more
English designs were again transmitted by immigrant craftsmen and imported objects, but also through widely disseminated English pattern books of George Hepplewhite, Thomas Sheraton, and others. Early Federal furniture in a delicate and colorful style inspired by the British architect Robert Adam was succeeded by a later phase of neoclassicism that was often called the Empire style. This style emphasized a more literal reinterpretation of ancient forms and resulted in more massive, monumental furniture.
1793Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
1815Battle of Waterloo
1851Publication of Moby Dick
In Massachusetts
1796Bulfinch's State House completed
1831William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing The Liberator
1841Brook Farm Transcendental Movement experiment
Neoclassicism in the New Nation
Scrolls and Pillars, 1815-1840
A second wave of neoclassicism featured furniture in a heavier, monumental mode echoing more literally the designs of ancient Greece, Rome, and occasionally Egypt.
Often labeled the Empire style, as a reference to its indebtedness to the era of Napoleon Bonaparte, the designs of this era reflected French as well as English taste. In Boston, Isaac Vose and Son and Emmons and Archbald were leading manufacturers of the new style. The latter firm's shop, representative of the larger urban shops of this era, included a commodious warehouse and a workshop with eleven workbenches for journeymen and apprentices.
As the nineteenth century progressed, companies of all sizes created massive tables, chests, and other forms characterized as "pillar and scroll" furniture after two of its principal attributes.
Cooper, Wendy A. Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993.
Feld, Stuart P., with an introductory essay by Page Talbott. Boston in the Age of Neo-Classicism, 1810-1840. New York: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1999.
Hall, John. John Hall and the Grecian Style in America: A Reprint of Three Pattern Books published in 1840 with an Illustrated Essay by Thomas Gordon Smith. New York: Acanthus Books, 1996.
Talbott, Page. "Boston Empire Furniture." Antiques, pt. 1, 107, no. 5 (May 1975): 878-87; pt. 2, 109, no. 5 (May 1976): 1004-13.
Talbott, Page. "Continuity and Innovation: Recliners, Sofa Beds, Rocking Chairs, and Folding Chairs." Antiques 161, no. 5 (May 2002): 124-33.
Talbott, Page. "The Furniture Trade in Boston, 1810-1835." Antiques 141, no. 5 (May 1992): 842-55.
Talbott, Page. "Seating Furniture in Boston, 1810-1835." Antiques 139, no. 5 (May 1991): 956-69.
Side Chair. Boston, MA, 1815-1825. Mahogany, birch. Collection of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library.
Boston, MA, 1815-1825
Mahogany, birch
Collection of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Museum purchase, 1982.0099.001
Late classical chairs of the early 19th century are often called klismos chairs, a Greek term for ancient chairs with broad tablet tops and deeply swept rear stiles. However, Boston invoices of the period referred to chairs like this as "Grecian." The pseudo-drapery swag back splat is typical of these Boston chairs, and the extent of carved ornament and sweep of the rear stiles suggest that these were parlor chairs. The upholstered seat, though covered in modern haircloth with red Moroccan leather trim, replicates the original that came with this chair and has been carefully preserved and stored for study purposes.
Chamber Organ
George G. Hook and William Hook
Salem, MA, 1827
Collection of Peabody Essex Museum
Bequest of Maria C. Hook, 1933 (121452); Photograph courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum; From an original photograph by the Peabody Essex Museum, 121452
This was the first organ made by George Hook, who went on to become one of the country's most successful organ builders. His father, William, made the extraordinary case. The carved ornaments - the anthemion or floral motifs, scallop shell, and acanthus leaves - reflect Greek artistic traditions and were provided by the carver Joseph True.
Fall Front Desk (Secrétaire à abbattant)
Emmons & Archbald; Thomas Emmons and George Archbald
Mahogany, mahogany veneer
Collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum purchase with funds donated by a Friend of the Department and Otis Norcross Fund; Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985.335
The firm of Thomas Emmons and George Archibald, active between 1813 and Emmons's death in 1825, was a leader in Boston furniture making in the years after the War of 1812. Worthy successors to John and Thomas Seymour, the partners produced fashionable mahogany furniture in the French Empire style, including this fall-front desk (or secrétaire à abbatant) bearing their stenciled label. Made in the restrained French taste, this secretary is characteristic of the elegant nature of Emmons and Archibald's work and of Boston furniture in this period. Carefully selected mahogany veneers and superbly carved hairy-paw feet provide points of visual interest to the largely rectilinear, vertical form. Brass caps and bases accent the columns at each side of the case, while a floral escutcheon surrounds the lock on the fall-front. According to their advertisement in a Boston newspaper on June 1, 1825, the firm's stock-in-trade included "a variety of elegant French CAPS and BASES, Rings, Knobs, and other Ornaments" that may have been imported from France. The Emmons and Archibald establishment at 39 Orange (later Washington) Street had a three-story warehouse, "commodiously arranged for exhibiting furniture," a thirteen-room dwelling house with yard and outbuildings, and "in the rear very extensive workshops with suitable fixtures and a large space protected from the sun for seasoning mahogany." The extent of the enterprise is indicated by the eleven workbenches located in the shop, where journeymen and apprentices labored at their tasks.
Attributed to John Doggett
Roxbury, MA, 1800-1810
White pine, gilding, original glass
The M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth Century American Arts; Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 23.254
This mirror-surmounted by an eagle and supported by a base of carved grapes, leaves, and doves-may have hung in the Oak Hill parlor. An 1809 bill to Elizabeth Derby West from John Doggett, a Roxbury gilder and looking-glass maker, lists an "oval looking glass with carved ornaments @ $110." In the 1814 inventory, a "large ovil looking glass @ $100" was in the parlor.
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