Wendy Cooper, Winterthur
senior curator of furniture, organized and moderated the forum,
delivered a lecture and conducted several workshops.
By Bob Jackman
WILLMINGTON, DEL. -- Highly pleased American furniture collectors
found the March furniture forum at the Winterthur Museum and
Gardens to be a rich learning environment.
"The staff has packed a lot of experiences into three days.
Participants include some of the most advanced collectors along
with novices and everybody in between. People are fully engrossed
learning the material that is most pertinent to them," commented
a New York dealer participating in the event.
The forum entitled "Clues for the Connoisseur: Tools and
Techniques for Understanding Old Furniture" integrated slide
presentations, hand-on workshops, field trips and informal
discussions.
Collector Jeff Clemmer of Pennsylvania commented, "It is my first
time at an antiques seminar. I am learning from both the
organized programs and from discussions with other participants.
Alternating between the two types of experience is really
beneficial. The lectures contain so much information, but then
conversing with other participants you get a chance to put things
into a personal perspective."
The most popular presentations were those with a workshop that
closely followed up upon an earlier lecture. Clemmer opined, "My
favorite presentation involved the Boston bombe desk and
bookcase. It was something special to hear Wendy Cooper's lecture
in the morning and then to attend a workshop where I could see
the marks and changes that she spoke about. The lesson really
registered when it came in two different settings."
Several lectures, including Cooper's presentation on the desk and
bookcase, acknowledged alterations to furniture items before they
entered the Winterthur collection.
Longtime Massachusetts dealer Frank McNamee added, "The
organizers have done a great job assembling a really ambitious
program and top-notch presenters. I have learned a lot and had a
wonderful time." Other nota-ble dealers in the attendance
included Albert Sack and Ron Bourgeault of Northeast auctions and
Susan Pope of Arthur Anderson Restorations.
Program officials responded by expanding the program to 120
seats. That still left 20 disappointed collectors on the waiting
list. Participants came from across the nation.
For decades Winterthur has conducted three-day forums, but
traditionally those have covered a spectrum of topics. The 2002
forum was the first devoted solely to furniture, and it attracted
40 collectors. Attendees were highly enthusiastic about that
program, and their excitement triggered the aggressive sign-up
for the 2003 forum.
While most presenters delivered one lecture and several
workshops, Boston furniture conservator Robert Mussey presented
two lectures. His first talk, "Early Aspects of Mechanization in
Furniture Manufacture, 1790-1830," contained a wealth of fresh,
unpublished material. During his ten-year research of Seymour
furniture, Mussey compiled an extensive body of material on
mechanization in America. He discovered that the labor-starved
American economy eagerly embraced mechanization while British
guilds and unions resisted mechanization.
Mussey's second presentation was on the hallmarks of Seymour
furniture. John Townsend, another cabinetmaker who obsessively
overbuilt furniture, was the subject of a fine presentation by
Morrison Heckscher, chairman of the American wing at the
Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Several speakers presented research based upon logbooks and other
archival material that lent insight into the working environment
of early cabinetmakers. A significant and riveting presentation
by Jay Stiefel provided a solid foundation for reinterpreting
Colonial Philadelphia furniture.
Next year's forum will focus on American upholstered furniture in
a program entitled "From Leather to Loose Covers: Perspectives on
Upholstered Furniture in Fashionable American Interiors." A
partial list of presenters includes Mark Anderson, Nancy Britton,
Linda Eaton, Leroy Graves, Brock Jobe, Betsy Lahikainen and
Robert Trent.
For further information, contact the museum at 800-448-3883, or
www.winterthur.org.
