USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Concord > Handbook, Concord Antiquarian society, Concord, Massachusetts > Part 3
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 (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
[ 25 ]
binations of motives appear in many of the borders, which vary accord- ing to the skill and fancy of the painter. The Concord collection, in- herited from over a period of many years, displays numerous versions of both designs, combined with different borders and executed with varying degrees of skill and care. One pair of early plates belonged to William Dawes, who rode with Revere on the night of April 18, 1775. They are the gift of Mrs. Arthur Holland, formerly of Concord, whose husband was a descendant of Dawes.
Room 6 THE QUEEN ANNE ROOM Second Quarter of the Eighteenth Century
The Architecture
As the eighteenth century advances, and American building becomes more and more infused with the academic spirit of the times, we find that the tendency is towards an ever more orderly arrangement of both structural and decorative elements. By the middle of the century, even in country neighborhoods, such rooms as this are frequent, in which reg- ularly grouped panels fill balanced spaces between the fireplace and the doors on either side.
The panelling in this room has never been painted except for the doors and architraves. It was bought in place from a house in Dun- barton, New Hampshire, where it was found covered with modern wall paper, the pattern of which may still be seen in the wood. The panelled shutters in the windows had been removed, but were found stored in the house. Similar shutters are in the old Hosmer house on Lowell Road in Concord.
The Furnishings
It is believed that nearly all American furniture of the earliest periods was made in New England. But by the time the Queen Anne style had come to be generally adopted in this country, there were established in several American centers groups of workmen whose interpretations of
[ 26 ]
THE QUEEN ANNE ROOM
types and style developed marked local characteristics traceable through- out this and the succeeding periods. Philadelphia, then the capital of fashion, had acquired a large number of skilled artisans and cabinet- makers whose work bade fair to outshine that of the more conservative New Englanders. Yet while their work may have influenced to some extent the furnishings of Salem or Boston houses, no trace of it is found in a country-town collection such as ours. The furnishings in this room show typical New England interpretations of the Queen Anne style. The spirit of the style is Dutch, increasingly permeated by rococo in- fluence. The cabriole leg and Dutch foot predominate, and curved structural members are the rule.
Nearly all New England chairs of the period are in one of the three forms shown in this room. The earliest type is that seen in the set of five side chairs, in which the squared, rather narrow seat of the previous period is retained, and the legs are braced by stretchers. The vase splat, similar in form to the splat of the transition chairs in the entrance hall, now joins the seat rail instead of ending in a crosspiece several inches above it as in the earlier tradition, and the cresting is merely indicated by a curve. The nearly rectangular form of the back with straight flat- tened stiles is typical of New England, where the "ballooned" form is rarely met with. These chairs belonged to General Eleazer Brooks of Lincoln, of the Army of the Revolution.
The increasing trend in this period towards curved lines developed the second type of chair, in which the seat takes on a rounded or "horse- shoe" form. This type is shown in the little "slipper chair" beside the flax-wheel, so-called because it is believed to have been made first for bedrooms in a day of billowing skirts and tight stays, when its low seat made it convenient for dressing. The needlework seats of all these chairs were worked by Concord women after old designs.
By the fireplace is a typical example of the New England wing chair of the period, in which the arms are in one piece with the wings and rise vertically from the seat, and the legs are braced with stretchers. The needlework cover is one which was found beneath several later covers on a similar chair once the property of William Scollay of Boston, and later owned in Concord. Our chair belonged to Dr. Abel Prescott of Concord,
[ 27 ]
who also owned the tea table and chair near by. The chair shows an interesting variation of the bannister-back met with only in this neigh- borhood. The copper kettle on the table was used by Louisa May Alcott when she went to the Civil War as nurse.
The prevalence of tea drinking in this and the following periods is indicated by the frequent mention in early inventories of several tea tables in one room. Examples of the delftware or India "blue and white" which might have furnished them may be seen in the cupboards either side of the fireplace.
All the charm of the Queen Anne style in New England, and of New England craftsmanship at its best, is embodied in the graceful little dressing table against the south wall. The wonder is that these slender legs have survived the years intact. The piece is undocumented, but the small brasses and double-arch mouldings about the drawers indicate a date very early in the period. The dressing table between the windows belonged to Governor Dudley of Massachusetts, who became Governor in 1702. The sunburst carving is the characteristic embellishment of such pieces in New England, where the elaborately carved ornament of Phil- adelphia was never approximated.
Thus we find the spirit of the rococo movement interpreted here con- servatively in the furniture. But in accessory pieces it breaks into freer expression. The looking-glass on the south wall shows in the cresting the exuberant curves developed in such pieces as the movement gained in momentum. It came from the Minot family, and in this size is probably unique. In the glass opposite, the elaboration of the cresting has become a carved and fretted frame entirely surrounding the glass, while the double glasses of the Queen Anne period have given way to a single glass without a bevel. This type falls well within the Chippendale pe- riod, but would have appeared in imported pieces by the time the Queen Anne style had got well under way in Concord. Both glasses derive from the simply moulded frame and scrolled cresting of the early Queen Anne type, an example of which hangs near the door in the entrance hall. This glass belonged to Josiah Blood, who died in 173 I.
Among our hardy farmer pioneers musical instruments for family use were rare luxuries indeed before 1750. The charming little spinet in this
[ 28 ]
QUEEN ANNE LOOKING-GLASS
room was inherited from the Wilkins family in Carlisle, and may date from as early as the time of the settlement of that family in Massachu- setts. It was made by Thomas Hitchcock, favorite spinet maker in Lon- don during the reign of Charles II and James II, whose working time has been established as between the years 1664 and 1703. The carved ivory naturals and ebony accidentals inlaid with ivory are characteristic of the keyboards of that time. The legs are of course late replacements. The original base would have been a typical Stuart support with three turned and braced legs and ball or Spanish feet. In his diary for April 4, 1668, Pepys wrote of buying a "triangle" for his "espinette."
Concord has long been famous as the home of men of letters. So it is not strange that a collection like ours should contain a number of inter- esting old pieces of writing equipment. In this room is the "stand-dish" of the Reverend Nicholas Bowes, first minister of the church in Bed- ford, represented as "a man respectable for his abilities and learning, and of sound evangelical sentiments." The lid of the box bears his name, with the date 1725, which marked his graduation from Harvard Col- lege. The leaden inkwell with holes for pens, the brass sand caster, and a bit of old sealing wax are still intact inside.
In the window near by is a pewter porringer which once belonged to Major John Buttrick, "distinguished for his bravery in leading a gallant band of militiamen on to meet the invading enemy at the North Bridge."
Across the room is an interesting early dial and works taken probably from a half clock or a "grandmother's clock." The face is engraved with the name "Nathaniel Mulliken, 1746," one of the first of our American clockmakers, who worked most of his life in Lexington.
The window curtains in the room are made from old hand-woven blankets dyed in the primitive way with walnut juice, and hung on hand- whittled poles held by wooden brackets.
In a passage off this room are exhibited tablewares of English salt glaze and painted "cream colour," such as were shipped regularly to Boston in the last half of the eighteenth century from the ports of Liv- erpool and Bristol. The collection, though small, is fairly representative of the types popular in New England during the colonial period, and of
[ 29 ]
the development of English "useful wares" before the Revolution. Un- touched by the 'commercialism that grew up under Wedgwood during the years when war had cut off intercourse with the American colonies, such a collection has a charm that is peculiarly of our own tradition.
In the right-hand cupboard is presented that era in the history of Staffordshire when the potter, bent on reproducing in his own materials the fine white tableware of China, turned from his red wares to the chalky clays of Cornwall, and developed, first, the famous salt glaze of the Astburys; then, by the substitution of a glaze of lead and flint for salt, the "cream coloured ware" which Wedgwood was to perfect and christen "queensware," and which became the basis of all future similar wares.
The salt-glaze group in this collection includes a number of pieces of the small size and shapes characteristic of the earliest period, domi- nated in Staffordshire by the elder Astbury. Among these, a tiny teapot and three small jugs from Nottingham may date from the first half of the century. A rare five-inch plate having an engine-turned border in a design familiar on silver of the mid-eighteenth century belonged to Deacon William Parkman (1741-1832).
"Cream coloured ware" is said to have been made first by Thomas Astbury, son of the elder Astbury, about 1725. Our cupboards include
. examples of the colored-glaze group developed by Whieldon and his contemporaries, and of the "fine white wares" painted or enamelled in imitation of Chinese or European porcelain. An early group, painted in blue in designs of Chinese origin, includes a rare plate with the mark ASTBURY impressed in the bottom.
A group of later wares is enamelled in designs which suggest the work of the itinerant porcelain painters of the time. A more interesting group painted in the old high-temperature colors, in a manner strongly reminiscent of late Bristol delft, marks what may have been the last effort at free-hand expression in an ancient industry destined soon to become, through the enterprise of Wedgwood, a far-flung manufacture.
Such wares, transported to America in the same ships and booked from the same ports as the "Delph wares" they were finally to supplant, some- times acquired the same port names. Thus our grandmothers poured their
[ 30 ]
a
THE CHIPPENDALE ROOM
tea from "Bristol," though the pots may have been sent many miles overland to port. A few pieces of this group show the coarse potting and brittle glaze characteristic of the creamwares actually made at one of the old Bristol delft works at the close of the century. Here the delft painters continued for years a style of decoration long outmoded in Staffordshire, but dear to Americans then and now. The "Bristol" in the Concord collection has been known by that name for so many years that one hesitates to suggest a different classification.
Room 7 THE CHIPPENDALE ROOM c. 1760-1780
This room breathes the atmosphere of comfort and unpretentious ele- gance which prevailed in Concord homes during the period of prosperity immediately preceding the Revolution.
The panelling came from the Captain Billy Cook house in Salem, its coloring suggested by the band of Dutch tiles in the fireplace. "Square Dutch Tiles to be set in Chiminies" are advertised in New England papers as early as 1719 and after 1761. In the New England Journal of 1730 are offered, "Good Dutch Tiles of Various Figures for Chim- neys, also Stampt Paper in Rolls for to Paper Rooms."
This wall paper is a copy of a Pillement paper of c. 1760, similar in design to an original paper in the Old Manse, built for the Reverend William Emerson in 1769. The window curtains are hand-woven silk of a color much in fashion during the pre-Revolutionary era, and called by our grandparents "puce." In hanging them, consideration has been had for the spirit of simplicity which must always have prevailed in Concord. Thus, while the period is one in which window curtains in the cities were draped and festooned almost overpoweringly, these have been hung simply on wooden poles run through casings, as in the previ- ous period, and tied with silken cords in a graceful semblance of the so- called "Chippendale drape." The customary use of the same material for the curtains, and as covering for the furniture of such a room is testi-
[ 31 ]
fied to by such passages as this from the Boston Gazette of 1746: "A fash- ionable crimson Damask Furniture, with Counterpain and two Setts of Window Curtains, and Vallans of the same Damask. Eight Walnut Tree Chairs, Stuff Back and Seats, cover'd with the same Damask. One easy Chair and Cushion same Damask."
The Furnishings
The Chippendale style expresses the revolt from Dutch to French in- fluences which took place in England during the second quarter of the eighteenth century, accompanied by a free and even extravagant expres- sion of the rococo impulse. To what extent Thomas Chippendale led in this revolt or how far he followed and catered to fashions already estab- lished by his predecessors can only be inferred. The furniture called by his name includes types of the pre-Chippendale period in which he cer- tainly worked, and which he may have influenced, and furniture in the French, Gothic, and Chinese tastes as illustrated in his Director, first published in 1754.
The furniture in this room is in the style of Chippendale as inter- preted in New England. Here again no traces of the magnificent rococo spirit of Philadelphia Chippendale are to be found. While expressing adequately the development of the Chippendale school in America, this New England furniture remains simple, restrained, and entirely satisfy- ing from the point of view of any except those of the most luxurious tastes. Its chief characteristics are the cabriole leg, usually devoid of stretchers; the claw-and-ball foot, a feature of English Queen Anne furniture, but not general in America until this period; the peculiar bow- shaped cresting and elaborately pierced and interlaced back-splats of the chairs; and the return to a rectangular construction in the fretted furni- ture in the "Chinese taste." With these the most usual decoration is plastic carving in naturalistic designs.
The paucity of chair design in New England at this period has often been remarked upon. This room shows the two types of Chippendale chair of which practically all others found in the vicinity are variations. The single chair by the table is a simple version of the chair usually re- ferred to as the "Salem type," and is actually a transition chair from the
[ 32 ]
Queen Anne period. Although the top rail has now the "Cupid's bow" curve, and the seat has resumed the squared form reintroduced by Chip- pendale, it will be seen that the contour of the splat and the underbrac- ing of the legs are of the earlier period. The splats of later Queen Anne chairs were sometimes pierced and scrolled in the design seen here, and this design carried over into the Chippendale period. A number of chairs are known in Concord in which this back is combined with the Dutch foot. The feet of our chair have been changed and may originally have been Dutch.
Chippendale introduced the straight untapered leg seen on the Pem- broke table between the windows, and the ladder-back chair, the latter supposedly as a chair for simple households. The two pairs of side chairs in this room exhibit a fine local variation of the type. They came from two separate Concord families, and are different only in the number of slats in the backs. A simplified version of the same type is shown in the rare little high-chair from the Dorrance family of Providence.
The Pembroke table belonged first to Dorcas (Barrett) Gerrish, daughter of Captain James Barrett whose silhouette portrait is first in the group to the left of the fireplace, and later to Miss Sophia Thoreau, sister of Henry D. Thoreau. Sheraton says of such tables: "The use of the piece is for a gentleman or lady to breakfast on." They were also no doubt used as tea tables, and for what we now call occasional tables. This graceful example is one of the simpler versions of the so-called fretted furniture popularized by Chippendale.
Another Thoreau family relic is the graceful looking-glass over the claw-and-ball-foot table in this room. It belonged to Mrs. John Thoreau, grandmother of Henry D. Thoreau, and is one of the few early glasses in the collection to which an American origin may properly be assigned. In the progression of styles it follows the 1749 glass in the Queen Anne Room. The table belonged to John Flint of Concord, who was born in 1722 and died in 1792. Such tables were the dining tables of the period, few if any, however, being found large enough to accommodate more than eight or ten persons. The inference is that for large dinners several were used, either separately or, in the case of rectangular ones, pushed together.
[ 33 ]
A not unusual example of the characteristic development of styles in America is seen in the wing chair in this room, in which the broad base and claw-and-ball foot of the American Chippendale style are combined with the vertical arms and high, narrow back of the Queen Anne chair. The stretchers are another early feature often found on Chippendale pieces in provincial districts where craftsmen had not yet become skilled enough to do without this bracing. The chair belonged to Abel Moore (1777-1848), father of one of Concord's best-known horticulturists. The "dish-top" light stand near it should not be overlooked. It came from Miss Polly Hancock of Boston (1744-1829), and is perhaps the finest of a large number of similar pieces in the house.
About the fireplace hang the silhouette portraits of various well- known Concord people, cut by one or another of the travelling pro- filists who flourished during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Captain Barrett's portrait has already been mentioned. Below it, second to the left, is Abigail Minot, charming with high coiffure and lacy frill, who married William Bowers in 1799. The portrait was cut and signed by William Doyle, one of America's best-known silhouettists. who, unlike his fellow itinerant artists, worked practically all his life ir Boston, until his death in 1826. Across the panelling is William Nutting, stepfather of Ebenezer Hubbard, a familiar Concord character of the sixties, and above him are Henry Yeend and Sally Davis, his wife.
The slant-top desk, from the Rogers family, is distinguished for its excellent cabinet and for the inverted sunburst carving on the apron. A fine pair of Seymore prints which hang above it were "bot at Vendue' about 1760 by Colonel John Cumming, who married Abigail Wesson in I753.
The tall clock in the opposite corner belonged to James Chandler of Concord (1714-1792). Enamelled dials such as the one seen here began to be used on cheaper clocks about 1780. Since they were invariably im- ported from Birmingham, the names of the makers are seldom on them Occasionally a maker painted his name over the enamel, as on the clock in the passage to the Queen Anne Room. This latter clock was made by Nathaniel Edwards of Acton (1720-1800).
The handsome carved chair and day bed placed in this room as heir-
[ 34 ]
TEA SET DECORATED WITH THE INSIGNIA OF THE ORDER OF THE CINCINNATI
-
. ....
-----
looms have been referred to previously in connection with the study of the chairs in Room I. They belonged to the Honorable Peter Bulkeley, whose services to the town his father founded were many and valuable. He is known to have owned them sometime between the years 1680 and 1688. The free-hand quality of the carving and the simplicity of the de- sign, similar to that on most of the bannister-backs found in this country, carry conviction of their American origin.
The cupboard at the right of the fireplace contains twenty-nine pieces of a remarkable set of "Cincinatti Lowestoft" brought from Canton late in the eighteenth century by Major Samuel Shaw of Boston to General Benjamin Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts, and now owned by Mr. Lincoln Smith, a Concord descendant.
Several sets of china in this category, made of Chinese export porce- lain with decoration featuring the insignia of the Society of the Cincin- nati, have long been treasured in American collections. Two types are known. Within recent years, much of the legend concerning their origin has been converted into fact.
Major Shaw, who had been aide-de-camp to General Knox and was one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati, made four trips to China after the Revolution, becoming first American Consul at Canton. The first trip was in 1784, in the Empress of China, first ship to sail directly to China from the United States. Shaw tells in his journal of his desire at that time to have a design portraying Fame, Minerva, and Cincinnatus reproduced upon china as a souvenir of the Society of which he was then Secretary; but adds that he was "able to have his desires gratified only in part." Thus it seems not improbable that the china made for him on this first visit was the set known to have been owned by General Washington, on which the figure of Fame appears bearing the insignia of the Society suspended from a ribbon. No other set of this Fame type is known.
The Lincoln china is of the second type, on which the insignia, some- what elaborated, appear in obverse and reverse form, without the figure of Fame, and with the initials of the original owner in gold. Six sets of this type are known, each traceable to an original member of the Cin-
[ 35 ]
cinnati. Of these, one is documented by a letter of presentation from Shaw dated 1790, together with an inventory of eighty-five pieces. The inference is that the other sets were of approximately the same size, and were presented by Shaw on his return from one or another of his later trips to China.
The Lincoln set is one of only two now known which have survived in any degree intact. A statement made to Mrs. Hannah Lincoln Smith, mother of the present owner, by the Honorable Winslow Warren, Presi- dent-General of the Cincinnati in 1911, and Mrs. Smith's first cousin, suggests the possibility of an original intent on Shaw's part to confine these presentation sets to the original officers of the Society. The state- ment affirms that "Shaw had four sets of china made for: General Wash- ington, first President-General, General Lincoln, first President of the Massachusetts Society, Henry Jackson, first Treasurer (general, I sup- pose), and for himself." A cake dish from a set made for General Knox is exhibited in the Alcove.
Room 8 THE REVOLUTIONARY BEDROOM 1775-1790
The Architecture
The interesting panelled wall at the fireplace side of this room came from Billerica, a town but eight miles from Concord. The windows have been built up out of material from other sources and are an attempt to project into the rest of the room the fine feeling of the panelling. The color approximates the gray-blue described by Peter Kahn, in recounting his visit to New York in 1748, as the color most frequently seen in American interiors.
The Furnishings
Only the setting of this room can be accounted of later date than the room across the hall. The furniture is practically contemporary. The woodwork is somewhat more elaborate, and the wall paper is a copy of a
[ 36 ]
THE REVOLUTIONARY BEDROOM
French toile-de-Jouy paper of slightly later date. The window hang- ings are also later in style, showing, as nearly as was felt to be consistent with country-town simplicity, the full development of the Chippendale period. Linen damask is a fabric often mentioned in Boston advertise- ments of this time. Curtain rings are mentioned early in the second half of the century, but are used here for the first time in this house for the reasons already explained. The high draping of a single heavy curtain to a window is often seen in engravings of the last half of the century.
The furniture is bedroom furniture in the Chippendale style, the bed itself being of earlier date. It came from the Minot family, established in Concord by James Minot, who came here in 1680, and it belonged at one time to Mrs. Rebecca Minot, who married William Heywood in 1794. The original feet were probably in pedestal form. The foot posts are fluted, and the head posts simply chamfered. A few such beds, mere- ly frameworks for the draping which would have covered them entirely, are known to date from very early in the century. The present draping, made of a few lengths of old printed cotton toile, is dictated by the lim- ited amount of material available. The toile was found in a locked closet of the old Antiquarian House just before the collection was moved, and must have been there a long time.
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.