The round white ash basket was made at the Canterbury, N.H., community with a single splint.
Shaker objects were utilitarian, meant to be used in carrying out the tasks of daily life. More than that, they are expressive of a communal rural way of life that at its height attracted some 6,000 members to the 19 communities that began in New York and New England and extended to Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
For the Shakers, manual labor was an elemental part of their belief system, which encompassed community ownership, pacifism, simplicity and celibacy. Handwork was beneficial to the body and the soul and could lead a believer to the highest level of spiritual awareness. To work was to worship.
Their work was meticulous; their methods careful and while the forms appear simple, the objects are anything but. The Shakers displayed great ingenuity in their constructions and made highly efficient use of their materials.
They fed, clothed and housed themselves - all by dint of their own labor. They were renowned for the quality and dependability of their products and for their personal honesty.
So successful were they that they began to sell the excess to the outside world. The entrepreneurial talents of and the cooperation between the sisters and the brethren resulted in products that commanded great respect outside the community.
Shaker simplicity did not preclude inventiveness or the employment of the latest technology. The Shakers were eager to adopt labor-saving devices and are credited with having invented a number of household articles that remain in wide use today. It was the Shakers, for example, who introduced the flat broom.
"Handled with Care" is part of this year's focus on artisans and fine craftsmanship at Hancock Shaker Village. With a collection of some 22,000 objects, chief curator Christian Goodwillie had much from which to choose. Restricting himself to pieces with handles, or knobs, did not make the selection process any easier.
A New Lebanon cherry hat form would fit beautifully into the user's hand. Elegantly turned and molded, it is stamped, "Calvin Reed / 1837."
As the village's curator of collections, Goodwillie has made it his business to discover exactly what has been lurking in the dusty attics and cellars around the village. His curiosity was richly rewarded when he unearthed a couple of long unused cabinets and cupboards and hauled them out into the light of day. After careful cleaning, they positively gleam. They, too, are on view - as display cases for the objects in "Handled with Care."
A glass display cabinet that holds a selection of Shaker brushes was a Shaker purchase from Louis Carapasso. A chest on two rollers that Goodwillie also found on the premises is filled with planes that were used at the Canterbury, N.H., community.
That the objects are not confined to conventional display cases only underscores their essential utility.
The objects on view are grouped according to function. A set of doors that once opened into the 1786 Meeting House of the village are front and center of the exhibit. The Shakers tore down the Meeting House in the 1960s and the doors entered the Vincent collection through an unusual series of events. The Vincents borrowed the funds to purchase them from Sister Neal of the New Lebanon community and removed them to their barn nearby. They eventually returned to Hancock along with the rest of the Vincent collection. They, too, were made with care, handled with care and preserved with care.
Miller says his real passion is for carriers. A display of them is arranged according to their utility: conventional, special use and made for sale. Conventional carriers were constructed of hardwood and were formed usually in an oval shape although round and rectangular examples are on view. An oval lidded example made in New Lebanon, N.Y., is of maple, pine and ash with copper hardware. Made shortly after 1800, it is one of the earliest pieces on view. It is unusual for the ash handle and the shims to accommodate its swing that were added sometime before 1850. A round lidded carrier that Goodwillie and Miller identify as "probably" New Lebanon is noted in the catalog as "the only round and lidded carrier that we know of." From Miller's collection, it is curator Goodwillie's favorite object in the show. Pointing to the slight flare in the middle of the handle, he said simply, "Beautiful." Miller nodded in agreement.
Carriers made for special use within the community range from a pine and hardwood drying rack that is "probably" New Lebanon to a large (24 inches long) oval carrier in chrome yellow that would have been used to carry light objects like herbs. Also included is a round carrier with a pivoted swing handle and lap-jointed sides held by tacks in a distinct pattern.
A round carrier in maple and pine with an unknown hardwood handle was made with copper and brass hardware at New Lebanon.
A group of outfitted carriers, round and oval, lidded and not, are displayed like the wares of a confectioner's shop. They are lined in various colored silks and the exterior is adorned with matching bows. Such carriers were made for sale and they contain matching pincushions and other sewing notions. An 1896 example with blue fittings was the prototype for some 30 others.
Another fitted carrier is rectangular and is stamped "JA" for Sister Janette Agnes of the Watervliet, N.Y., community. Fitted with a silk lining and pincushions and two tiny exquisitely woven poplar baskets to hold sewing notions, it was not made for sale.
The Shakers strove to clothe themselves from the earliest gatherings of the communities. The Hancock sisters and brethren were among the first to weave the fine quality Merino wool from sheep newly introduced to the United States by neighbor Elkanah Watson. The Shaker community subsequently acquired its own Merino sheep. The superior quality of the material and the techniques made Shaker textiles long-lasting and highly desirable.
The Hancock community was an early center of textile-related activity; the Shakers advertised their wool products and tools as early as 1807.
From sheep to shirt, the process necessitated the use of such utensils as table swifts - for which the Hancock community was widely recognized - wool cards, pattern makers, pin cushions on clamps, taping needles and hat forms, examples of which are on view.
Other textile innovations of interest on view include a piece of cloth impregnated with zinc chloride to render it wrinkle and water resistant, a technique that originated at the Canterbury community. A handsome cherry adjustable hat form is stamped "Calvin Reed / 1837" and has a nicely turned center shaft and carefully molded edges. An expandable cobbler's last made of beech with an oak screw is probably from the Mount Lebanon (New Lebanon) community whose entire cobbler's shop the Andrews acquired. Canterbury Sister Martha Wetherell began weaving poplar strips in the late Nineteenth Century. A poplarware fan on view from the Miller collection was woven with dyed horizontal stripes on one side and vertical ones on the other.
Brushes, several of which are on view, were made in most of the Shaker communities throughout the Nineteenth Century. All were made to hang, whether by a turned knob or a drilled hole. The Shakers are also credited with devising the flat brush.
Three communities were involved in cooperage: New Lebanon, Canterbury, N.H., and Enfield, N.H. At New Lebanon, pails and other staved articles were made before 1800, each for a specific use in the community. The communities at Canterbury and Enfield had a fully developed cooperage industry by the second part of the Nineteenth Century. Enfield products were made with a staving machine that created a square U-shaped joint and they were the only Shaker ones made with copper hardware. Canterbury makers used a staving machine that produced a V-shaped joint and they used distinctive diamond-shaped bail plates.
Miller points to a sturdy and carefully used covered water pail from his own collection. An inscription on the bottom, only visible by ultraviolet light, indicates that it was used in the "Brethrens Wash House" at Canterbury. The form is simple and bespeaks its use. Its maker created a serviceable and sturdy bucket, but it is the knob on the lid that is a standout: it was made elegantly with very fine turnings.
The striated pattern of the cherry, maple, ash, walnut, cedar and other wood staves of four fancy pails, also from New Lebanon, offer a jazzy contrast to other examples on view. As they show no signs of use, they were probably made as gifts.
Metalsmithing was important to the Shakers for the household articles it produced and for the income generated from sales to the outside world. They began early with nails and moved onto the production of hardware, shovels, tongs, dustpans and other domestic articles. They produced an iron slide-bolt by 1786 for the Hancock Meeting House. A branding iron marked "CHH" was sand cast at New Lebanon and was used to mark the church family's livestock or crates.
No Shaker exhibit would be complete without some of their baskets, most of which were made from black or brown ash. The early Nineteenth Century Shakers were prolific producers of baskets for their own use and for sale to the outside world. Production of baskets came to a standstill in the early Twentieth Century when baskets were replaced by articles made from woven poplar cloth.
This neatly made laundry scoop was made "probably" at Hancock or New Lebanon in pine and maple with a tin strip and iron tacks. As it is marked "Wash House," it was most likely used to scoop dry soap. It was made using the same techniques used to make oval boxes and carriers.
Domestic woodenware is represented by three colorful and sculptural hardwood dippers from New Lebanon along with other scooping and dipping utensils and a collar box with a knob and brass hardware that may have been made in a cottage industry at New Lebanon, suggest Goodwillie and Miller.
Storage boxes were made to serve specific purposes and most were made for community use. They vary in shape and design. One fine example, an Enfield walnut sewing box, was dressed up with brass hardware and a mother-of-pearl escutcheon. A New Lebanon example on view in elm and butternut was also given a mother-of-pearl escutcheon and commercial brass hardware. It was made in New Lebanon and given to Eldress Mary Whitcher of the Canterbury community.
A cherry and poplar tool box was made to withstand rough use, but its graceful lines and careful workmanship make it a standout.
Goodwillie and Miller have produced an illustrated and carefully researched catalog for "Handled with Care: The Function of Form in Shaker Craft" that is available at Hancock Shaker Village. Miller is also at work on From Shaker Lands and Shaker Hands: A Survey of the Industries that will be published next year by University Press of New England.
"Handled with Care: The Function of Form in Shaker Craft" remains on view through November 5, after which time it travels to the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Mass. For information, 413-443-0188 or www.hancockshakervillage.org.
