The exceptionally well-crafted fingers and regularly spaced tacks make this circa 1840 Mount Lebanon box an outstanding example of the form. Finished in a chrome yellow wash, it is close to the largest that was commonly made by the Shakers and may have been used to store a bonnet.
:Intrigue, passion and broken promises are excitements not normally associated with the serenity of the Shaker community. All that and more, however, were part and parcel of the formation and preservation of the most significant American Shaker collection and its attendant ethics and scholarship.
The exhibit "Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection" on view at Hancock Shaker Village through October 31 defines the Andrews collection. The title is drawn from scriptural verse on the table monitor in dining rooms of Shaker communities, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." It describes the gathering of the fragments of Shaker life, the fine and the dross, even what one sister described as "trumpery." It also refers to the Shaker (and Ben Franklin's) precept "waste not, want not."
Further, it visits the controversy that ultimately surrounded the gathering of the collection, its dispersal and the collectors themselves. The fragments of that collection have been gathered together in the new exhibit, the most comprehensive gathering of Shaker objects ever assembled.
Hancock's curator of collections, Christian Goodwillie, says he organized "Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection" to illustrate the collection from its highest forms to the lowest. Assembled are some 250 pieces of Shaker furniture, printed material, visual art, tools, textiles and small objects collected by Faith and Edward Andrews over 40 years, highlighting specific objects of each type. Many are on view for the first time.
![The heavily turned stool donated to Hancock in the 1960s turned out to have a sad poem written in 1871 by Brother Charles Brown lamenting the bare hills of which he had "A dred” [sic] and describing his lot as "living a Hell on earth.”](Archives/2008/07-July/images//2008-07-22__15-04-36Image2.GIF)
The heavily turned stool donated to Hancock in the 1960s turned out to have a sad poem written in 1871 by Brother Charles Brown lamenting the bare hills of which he had "A dred” [sic] and describing his lot as "living a Hell on earth.”
One such example is a box made of layers of pasted up broadsides advertising Sarsaparilla, Phthisis Eradicating Syrup and Vegetable Pulmonary Pills. When the Andrewses found the box, it contained a sister's net cap and shoe, a section of peg-rail, palm leaf bonnet braiding, a duster handles and a spool. Another paper object, probably not previously on public view, is the yellow sticky-pad note in Faith Andrews' hand that reads: "Tin teapot. Early Shaker made tin and pewter teapot given to us by Sister Sadie Neale, New Lebanon, N.Y. F.A." The teapot is displayed close by.
A red painted pine throne, or platform, made at Mount Lebanon in about 1830 was used by Hancock Sister Sadie Neale to elevate her chair and sewing desk to take advantage of the light.
One of the earliest objects in the exhibition is a 1782 letter from Father James Whittaker of Ashfield, Mass., who accompanied Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee to America in 1774. In it, he excoriates one Josiah Tallcott. To describe the letter as full of fire and brimstone would be an understatement.
