USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Concord > Handbook, Concord Antiquarian society, Concord, Massachusetts > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
HANDBOOK CONCORD ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
Concord, Massachusetts
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 07362 9674
GC 974.402 C74COA
THE HOUSE OF THE CONCORD ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
HANDBOOK CONCORD ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY Concord, Massachusetts
BY HAZEL E. CUMMIN with Introduction by ALLEN FRENCH President of the Society
COPYRIGHT 1937 BY THE CONCORD ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
Printed by The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, Portland, Maine
Second Edition
INTRODUCTION
IN 1930 the old collection of the Concord Antiquarian Society was in- stalled in the new house which had been built for it. It was an unusual development which, through many years, thus brought the furniture to its permanent setting.
In the middle of the eighteen-hundreds a Concord "character," Cum- mings E. Davis, had the unusual crotchet of collecting antiques. Long before the value of such things was recognized, he gathered everything he could. In the period when black walnut was displacing mahogany, maple, and birch, and when old pieces were going to the attic or the junk man, Davis busied himself with picking them up. He was a poor man, and made his living in various ways. But he bought cheaply, or received as personal services, or even as gifts, heirlooms which many Concord families would today be glad to buy back at high prices. An oddity, and in his later days doubtless a little "queer," he brought his collection together in a crowded upper room in the courthouse, and, getting himself up in colonial costume and wig, he lived on his fees as a showman until he grew feeble.
Then a few citizens, likewise in advance of their times, formed the Society and took over the collection, Davis and all. They bought the Reuben Brown house, a large and simple Revolutionary structure. There the collection was displayed, and there the old man passed his later days.
The house gave the collection an excellent setting. Many will re- member the great kitchen with its wealth of fireplace fittings, its iron and pewter ware, and the quaintness of its furnishings. About 1905 the furniture was rearranged, to make some approximation to period group- ings. Under the care of George Tolman, and later of his son Adams, the house and its contents became well known. These two men, a center of live interest in the study of old times, were the chief in a group of writers whose monographs on the history of Concord more than justify the existence of the Society.
After the complete interruption of activities during the war, there came the tremendous rise in value of antiques, coinciding with the evi-
[ 3]
dent need of radical repairs to the old house, in which, it was always evident, the collection was in danger of fire. Therefore a fireproof house was built, made possible by the support of the community, notably as- sisted by the striking generosity of individuals or families. A large gift of money from the Barrett family, with a sustaining fund from Percy W. Brown, the land as a gift of the Emerson family, the services of the architect, Harry B. Little, of the firm of Frohman, Robb, and Little, and finally the donation of much old interior woodwork by Russell H. Kettell -these enabled the Society to complete a house which is almost ideal for its purpose.
The design was to show, inside and out, the rambling growth of an old New England homestead. To a supposedly original one-room house, retained as a wing, other parts were added, until the final building was a central oblong of two stories and an attic, and four wings. Externally of brick, and of the characteristic lines of an old Massachusetts farm- house, its only enrichment is in the design of the cornices, and in the woodwork of an entrance porch. The house, low-sitting, seems like the creation of successive generations, showing prosperity but not wealth, in a handsome and comfortable home.
There are twelve rooms, with hallways and passages, alcoves and cupboards. In these are arranged the collection. In addition there is the Emerson Room-the contents and even some of the woodwork of Ralph Waldo Emerson's study, lent by his heirs. Also there is the Thoreau Room, with furnishings once owned by Henry D. Thoreau, the poet- naturalist. For the present many objects belonging to the Society, more appropriate to a museum than a dwelling, are stored in the attics, await- ing the time when they may be properly displayed. There are on view, however, numerous relics of the Concord Fight, and a beautiful model of that event.
ALLEN FRENCH
[ 4 ]
-
THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ROOM
THE COLLECTION AND THE HOUSE
Study of the collection with reference to its new setting brought a com- plete realization of its significance. "Little Davis" had done well. Hav- ing only limited means of transportation, he had confined his canvassing almost entirely to Concord or to the neighboring towns formerly in- cluded within Concord territory. With little knowledge of periods or styles, and no preconceived ideas of what a collection as we think of it today should be, he had not presumed to pick and choose. He had gath- ered in everything that came his way: furniture, textiles, glassware, china, brass and pewter, historic relics-anything that had a Concord tradition or satisfied his strange feeling for historic values. And he had refrained from tampering with it. Thus, all unknown to himself, he had created there is his attic storeroom a sequence of Concord relics and household furnishings at once instinct with the flavor of the town's his- toric and literary past, and remarkably significant of the whole course of its social and artistic development. It is this local aspect of the col- lection which distinguishes it among others of far greater scope.
The furniture is unpretentious but of good quality and design, as would be expected from a town of educated but traditionally simple tastes. The breaks in the succession of styles are so few that the question arises as to whether these may not be taken to indicate actual lapses in the styles of the immediate neighborhood. Most of the pieces are in the original state. Having bought at a time when little or no value was at- tached to such things, Davis had had no incentive to acquire them in other than fairly good repair. Thus no major restorations and comparatively little refinishing other than a general tightening and cleaning have been necessary to put them into condition for exhibition. Thanks to Mr. George Tolman, who made careful note of Davis's random recollections, nearly every important piece can be traced directly to its original owner. These are important factors in the comparative study of local variations of types.
The housing of such a collection has afforded an opportunity to show, perhaps for the first time, the progression of styles and the development of taste in the interior architecture and furnishings of a single American community over a period of some two hundred years. Working with
[ 5 ]
this idea in mind, the architect has given close attention to details in planning a characteristic sequence of interiors. With few exceptions the panelling and other wood trim have been taken from old houses such as might have stood in Concord. While little such material was available within the town itself, nothing has been brought from beyond this im- mediate section of New England, and nothing chosen except on sufficient evidence of its similarity to what might have been used here. The result is a chronology of local woodwork and panelling of unusual interest and importance.
In furnishing, the effort has been to create a series of typical Concord rooms calculated to display to the best advantage possible the historic and artistic significance of the collection. To this end strictly period groupings have been modified wherever necessary or desirable. While no room contains furnishings later in style than the period it represents, each has been allowed a few earlier pieces placed there as heirlooms from the generations previous. This arrangement, a frank expedient dictated by the limitations of the collection, is felt to add both charm and conviction to the rooms. Occasional discrepancies in the matter of historical accuracy of placing are felt to be justified by the gain in gen- eral effect, and in the visitor's appreciation of the qualities of certain individual pieces.
In all arrangements strict cognizance has been taken of the large num- ber of documented pieces in the collection. These tend to show that Con- cord styles lagged appreciably behind those of Boston, and sometimes a full quarter of a century behind the appearance of the same styles in England. The fact has been taken into careful account in planning the wall and window hangings. In no case does a style appear in the house until well after it is known to have held full sway in Boston, and only then in a form in keeping with country-town conservatism. While repro- duction materials have been resorted to in large part, these have been chosen wherever possible with reference to materials known to have been used here. Their employment, admittedly idealized to some extent, aims at providing an appropriate background for the furniture, supple- menting it to create an atmosphere in harmony with the tastes of a dig- nified but not wealthy New England community.
[ 6 ]
THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ROOM -FIREPLACE END
Room I THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ROOM 1690-1700
On September 2, 1635, a grant of "a plantation att Musketaquid .. . hereafter to be called Concord" was made by the General Court of Massachusetts. Governor Winthrop says that it was made "to Mr. Buckley and ... merchant, and about twelve more families to begin a town." The leaders referred to were the Reverend Peter Bulkeley, late of Bedfordshire, England, and Captain Simon Willard of Kent, fore- bear of the famous clockmaker who bore his name. Bulkeley, a man of good family, honored in his own country, remained all his life the beloved leader of the Concord settlement, and was the founder of a dis- tinguished Concord line which included Ralph Waldo Emerson in the eighth generation. Willard served the colony long and well as soldier, merchant, and town officer. Who the "twelve more families" were can only be inferred from names appearing in the earliest records.
Edward Johnson, writing in 1642, gives the following account of the first Concord settlement: "After they have thus found out a place of aboad, they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter under some hillside, casting the earth aloft upon timbers, they make a smoaky fire against the earth at the highest side. ... In these poor wigwams . . . they pray and praise their God till they can provide them houses."
Little furniture would have been required for such "aboads," or in- deed for the first rude houses, delayed perforce "till the earth brought forth to feed them bread." A rough-hewn "form" or stool, perhaps a Bible stand, a chest made to do duty as bed and table as well, these would have been all that even the foremost householder could boast.
But by the middle of the century, Concord soil had begun to yield to the efforts of the settlers, and Concord houses to take on a semblance of the comfortable homes many of them had left behind in England. In 1653 the town subscribed five pounds a year for seven years to Harvard College. In 1660 an "Ordinary" or tavern was set up. In 1672 the select- men were instructed "That care be taken of the Books of Marters and other bookes, that belong to the Towne, that they be kept from abusive
[ 7 ]
usage and not lent to persons more than one month at a time." Concord life had begun to assume the character of that which we know in the town today.
It is to this later period that most of the seventeenth-century furniture in our collection belongs. Much of it dates stylistically not earlier than 1685-1690, and may have been made well into the eighteenth century, while only a few doubtful relics of earliest times have come down to us. It has therefore been found expedient to exhibit the entire group in a transition room representing approximately the decade between the years 1690 and 1700, and illustrating the ultimate degree of comfort and ele- gance to which Concord homes attained before the close of the seven- teenth century. The inclusion of pieces of earlier date in such a room inaugurates a principle adhered to throughout the house.
The Architecture
American building of the seventeenth century was essentially con- structional, following late Gothic traditions for the most part as ex- pressed in the small provincial manor houses of England. Interiors were simply sheathed or plastered, with no attempt made to hide construc- tion, and there was little effort at decoration beyond a cutting or cham- fering of the beams, or a simple moulding along the edges of the sheathing.
The first room of the Concord series is a reproduction of a typical New England kitchen living-room of the latter part of the century. The sheathing came from an old house in Essex, Massachusetts, and, except for the addition of a final bay to the right of the fireplace, has been installed here as it was in the original room. The other woodwork is of old wood resurfaced.
The cavernous fireplace, with its large uneven bricks and simple wrought-iron furnishings, dominates the room. From the lug-pole, a green sapling swung across the opening of the flue, hangs the huge iron cauldron in which most of the cooking of the period was done.
The leaded casement windows are reproductions following the prac- tice of the period.
[ 8]
AMERICAN OAK PRESS CUPBOARD
The Furnishings
The furniture falls into two groups. In the first are pieces of Gothic or Elizabethan tradition, characterized by rectangular construction and simple decorative treatment adapted to the tools and methods of the carpenter. Turning, chamfering, moulding, and cutting to a silhouette are the principle methods used. Oak, ash, and pine are the woods em- ployed. Carving is flat, in designs composed of Gothic and Renaissance motives uncertainly combined.
In this group the oak press cupboard at the left of the entrance is outstanding. Such pieces, the provision cupboards of the day, are prob- ably the most characteristic pieces of furniture of the seventeenth cen- tury, since their development stopped in that period. This one, entirely original except for the top, is one of the important American examples known to collectors. It belonged to Gregory Stone, an early settler in Lexington and Watertown, who died in 1672.
Over the cupboard hangs a rare bit of needlework illustrating the story of Queen Esther and Ahasuerus, worked in an American girl's crude version of the "stump-work" so popular in England under the Stuarts. On the back is embroidered the name of the maker:
Rebeckah Wheeler - - [illegible ] Ye month May 1664.
Miss Rebeckah was the daughter of Lieutenant Joseph Wheeler, one of the first group of Concord settlers, and married the Honorable Peter Bulkeley, youngest son of the Reverend Peter Bulkeley, in 1667. She was nineteen years old at the time this picture was made.
Two characteristic carved pieces of the group are the panelled oak chest front and the slant-top desk box, both at the far end of the room. The box is undocumented. Beneath a coat of brownish paint which covers it may be seen traces of the red, no doubt combined with black, with which the design was originally brought into relief. The carved chest is said to have been brought to Concord by Dolor Davis, brother-in-law of the first Simon Willard, who was listed here as carpenter and granted Con- cord land as early as 1659. A simpler chest near by, also from the Davis
[ 9]
family, is of undoubted American origin, made of panelled oak with pine, and decorated with line carving in crude but characteristic designs. Carved in the front are the initials S D and the date 1699. Next this piece is one of the "leather chaires" mentioned in early inventories, and usu- ally termed "Cromwellian," but known before that time.
A chair of even earlier tradition is the square-post, slat-back armchair by the fireplace, one of four known examples of a Pilgrim type recently brought to the attention of collectors. It is said to have belonged to the Reverend William Thompson, an early settler in Braintree before the settlement of Boston, and came to the Society through Dr. Isaac Hurd of Concord (1756-1844), whose wife, Sally Thompson, was a direct descendant of the Reverend Mr. Thompson.
The so-called gate-leg table had its beginning in the early part of the seventeenth century, but was more generally in use later. A fine example dating from about the third quarter of the century is at the far end of the room. This is another of the Davis family pieces, and belonged tra- ditionally to Dolor Davis, who died in 1673. Two side tables of later date illustrate the gradual attenuation of the turnings of such pieces as the eighteenth century approaches.
In the second group of furnishings are reflected the foreign influences which reached England during the last quarter of the seventeenth cen- tury, first through the Portuguese marriage of Charles II; later through commercial intercourse with Spain and the Low Countries and the ac- cession of William of Orange to the English throne. To this group the handsome carved and caned chairs in the room belong. That such furni- ture, tinged through the conquests of Portugal with the exoticism of the Orient, and influenced by the grandeur of Louis XIV and the Baroque movement as interpreted in Flanders, should form part of the inherit- ance of a Puritan pioneer settlement in America, is one of the romances of the history of furniture design. The new elements introduced are the use of nut and other fine-grained woods, the carved cresting and stretch- ers of the chairs, and the caning of the backs and seats. Later develop- ments are the Portuguese bulb and so-called Spanish foot. The Flemish scroll has become the basis for the carving, which achieves a more plastic effect than anything attempted in the earlier period. With this increased
THE BULKELEY DAY BED
sophistication in design and decoration, the old rectangular construction is retained.
The chairs show an interesting succession of types, of which the earli- est is the Charles II long-chair, loaned by Miss Sarah Goodwin of Con- cord. An old diary in her possession tells how it was ordered from Eng- land for her forebear Sarah Eliot at the time of her marriage to Timothy Gerrish of Gerrish Island in Maine, early in the last quarter of the cen- tury. The elaborately carved stretchers and frame surrounding the back, the scrolled feet, and the placing of the cresting between the stiles, are all characteristic features of that time.
The other chairs, from our own collection, show the gradual simplifi- cation of this style from the time of James II (1685-1688) to the close of the century. They are believed to have been made in America some time after the appearance of the same types in England, and exhibit a marked free-hand quality in interesting contrast to the sophistication of the English piece. It will be seen that the early construction of the back has now given way to that in which the cresting is placed over the stiles and the frame is simply moulded. The scrolled feet and carved front stretcher are at first retained, but are later replaced by the Portuguese bulb and Spanish or ball foot of the William and Mary period (1688- 1702).
A chair showing an interesting mixture of these features is near the entrance to the right. It can be traced directly to the Honorable Peter Bulkeley, in his day almost as much of a power in the community as his father had been before him. He married in 1667 and died in 1688. Two pieces from the same source, a day bed and an armchair in a graceful version of the James II style, are in Room 7.
The simpler developments of the last years of the century are shown in the group of chairs at the far end of this room. The armchair to the left beneath the windows belonged to the Reverend Joseph Estabrook, third minister of the church in Concord, who died in 1711. A similar chair to the right came from Abijah Bond of Concord (1728-1781), who had it from his father.
Early pewter, wrought-iron, and wood utensils, and other accessories eloquent of the life of early times, are well represented in the collection,
[ II]
and are placed here to show their customary use in this period. Wool- wheel, loom, and other household utensils serve as reminders of the never-ending labors of the pioneer housewife. The householder's mus- ket stands near the door ready for instant use, his powderhorn near by. An interesting arrangement recalling tales of the bitterness of early New England winters is shown in the wooden rack above the fireplace, serving the double purpose of clothes dryer and bar from which a blanket might be hung to form a fireside corner free from draughts. A delft plate on the shelf above it is said to have been used as a Communion plate in the time of the Reverend Peter Bulkeley. It came to us from the family of the Reverend Joseph Estabrook, with the tradition that when Mr. Esta- brook, soon after his installation as pastor, attempted to use it in the service, some good brother, suddenly become aware of the "Popish" character of its decoration, snatched it in righteous wrath, and hurled it clean across the meeting-house, smashing it to bits. The pastor's son mended and kept it in the family, where it was handed down through many generations until acquired by Mr. Davis.
Candles were rare luxuries at this time. But "early to bed, early to rise" was the usual régime, and the humble taper or "Betty lamp" lighted well enough the few activities of the evening. Clocks were not unknown, but were rare in communities such as ours, where the sand- glass was the almost universal instrument of measuring time indoors until the eighteenth century was well advanced. An early glass, bearing the date 1659, stands on the cupboard near the entrance door.
Decoration as such was unknown, but textiles introduced for comfort, utensils of polished brass or pewter, and gayly decorated wares from Delft, gave a spontaneous note of color pleasing to our modern eyes. While the rarity of genuine seventeenth-century fabrics has prohibited the use of these to any extent in this room, excellent reproductions have been combined with such old materials as were available, to indicate the manner in which "carpetts" from India, and damasks and velvets from France and Italy, were used in this country as in England throughout the last half of the century as coverings for tables, chests, and chair cushions.
[ 12 ]
1
THE PINE-CEILED ROOM
EARLY PEWTER IN THE PINE-CEILED ROOM
-
THE PINE-SHEATHED PASSAGE
In a short connecting passage leading to Room 2 are exhibited early weather vanes and trade and tavern signs of various kinds.
The corner cupboard at the far end of the passage was taken from the house on Virginia Road in Concord where Henry Thoreau was born, and contains pewter inherited from early Concord families. Most of the pewter used in this neighborhood during the early periods was of Eng- lish make. The straight-sided tankard in this cupboard is one of the few pieces in the collection believed to have come from the hands of an American maker.
Room 2 THE PINE-CEILED ROOM First Half of the Eighteenth Century
This room, with its interesting collection of early New England pine, was bought and presented to the Society by Mr. Russell H. Kettell. It is therefore not strictly a Concord room. But such a room might have been found in almost any New England country neighborhood during the first half of the eighteenth century. In its simplicity and the home- made quality of its furnishings, it offers an interesting contrast to Room I, where the influence of English standards of dignity and comfort is still strongly felt. By the time the Pine-Ceiled Room was built the rigors of pioneer life in rural New England had all but driven out the memory of comforts in the homeland, and the householder had settled down to make what he could of the conditions and materials at hand.
The Architecture
Only one or two rooms of this character, having four walls and ceiling all of pine, have survived in this country. A few panelled ceilings are known. But a ceiling of pine sheathing such as we have here is perhaps unique. The room was found in Hampton, New Hampshire, and, except that the windows are reproductions, has been installed almost exactly as
[ 13 ]
it was in the original house. Most of the wood has never been painted. The paint on the floor and on the beams and doors, while not of recent times, must have been put on long after the room was built. The quaint leather hinges on one of the doors are replacements, exact copies of the old ones which had worn out.
The Furnishings
These include pine pieces of the early eighteenth century, and pro- vincial pieces of later date but similar inspiration. Two characteristic early pine chests should be noted: one ornamented with line carving in designs of Gothic origin; the other panelled, and decorated with applied mouldings set in geometric patterns, its single drawer illustrating an early step in the development of the chest-of-drawers and "high-boy." A document or desk box placed on the panelled chest shows the primi- tive notch carving usually termed "Friesland," believed by some experts to be the type from which all flat carving of the early periods derived.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.