‘Samuel McIntire, Carving An American Style’

Salem, Mass.

:An unassuming son of Salem known to have ventured only as far afield as Boston and Newburyport, and then only on occasion, set a standard for order and elegance in the American Federal period that endures to this day. Trained as a housewright and a self-taught practitioner of architecture, woodcarving and interior design, Samuel McIntire's talents were so profound that his work became emblematic of the new republic.

The exhibition "Samuel McIntire, Carving an American Style," on view at the Peabody Essex Museum, celebrates the 250th anniversary of his birth and explores the genius of the man as carver.

McIntire came of age in the town with the highest per capita income in the new nation. Salem was the only US port not blockaded by the British during the Revolution; its ships remained free to trade abroad and they brought home a stunning prosperity. Its merchants were eager to express their new affluence and McIntire was decidedly the right man at the right time.

It is most likely that McIntire learned his trade from his father, Joseph, a Salem joiner. It was carving, however, that appealed to him and for which he exhibited a prodigious talent. He studied with local artisans and made diligent study of classical architectural drawings, and of the books of the masters Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite, and of other English and French pattern books. He absorbed and made use of mathematical formulae to determine the correct proportions of the furniture and buildings he decorated. His studies served him well: he is said to have reinterpreted the neoclassical, or Adamesque, as a purely American genre.

The convergence of his artistry with the arrival of the pattern books and drawings from Europe and the stunning wealth of Salem ship owners and their consequent cultural awakening set the stage for the more than 50 peerless private homes and public buildings he designed that are recognized McIntire masterpieces today.

As the arbiter of taste in Federal Salem, McIntire's architectural designs and carvings were much in demand. Working with the cabinetmakers of the day, he transformed the town. Salem and Boston were filled with fine cabinetmakers. The newly affluent townspeople wanted houses and furnishings to reflect their station. McIntire was the man. He would meet with the client to present designs, work up a pattern and present it to the cabinetmaker, who would produce a rough cut object that McIntire would then carve. Pieces then moved in parts or in their entirety to the finisher and ultimately to the upholsterer. It was not a rapid process.