The mahogany chest-on-chest, circa 1785–1790, by brothers Ebenezer Allen Jr and Cornelius Allen of New Bedford owes much to Newport traditions and was thought to be a Newport piece. The Allen brothers were the nephews of John Goddard of Newport.
:In the villages and towns tucked in along the coastal inlets and waterways of colonial and early Nineteenth Century southeastern Massachusetts, craftsmen toiled making furniture and other household goods. Artisans in these communities, dependent on and surrounded by the sea and linked by the abundant rivers crisscrossing the nearly 1,800 square miles of the area, drew on their own ingenuity, the styles and techniques observed in the next village, as well as the cities of Boston and Newport, New York, Philadelphia and even London. A compelling range of idiosyncratic furniture styles resulted.
"Harbor and Home: Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710–1815," on view at the Nantucket Historical Association Whaling Museum (NHA) through November 2, is a scholarly survey of the furniture traditions that emanated from the five counties of Plymouth, Bristol, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket, Mass. Further, it is a study of the workers in those traditions, their patrons and the prevailing commerce and customs in the early maritime and seafaring communities.
Historian and exhibit curator Brock Jobe says the project was inspired by a 2002 invitation to deliver a lecture on early furniture in New Bedford and Providence at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. His initial research revealed scant scholarship on furniture of southeastern Massachusetts of the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century, something that the historian has now rectified.
During the Eighteenth Century, nearly every village in southeastern Massachusetts had at least one furniture maker. For some, furniture making or joinery was their entire oeuvre; others divided their time between furniture making and farming, tool making, marine-related pursuits or carpentry. Initially, they worked using native wood, particularly pine or maple. Later, as their patrons prospered, they adopted imported wood, such as mahogany and, although limited, some walnut.
Brock Jobe and Jack O'Brien describe the pine chest from Easton on the Outer Cape as ranking "among the very best examples of Nineteenth Century New England painted furniture.” It has a beautifully painted surface and an extravagant bracket base and its condition is "pristine.”
In the course of his study, Jobe observed a loose division of furniture styles along the dividing lines of the two major counties, Bristol and Plymouth; Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket are the counties of Cape Cod and the islands, and a similar division extends to the tip of the cape. Plymouth County extends from Cape Cod along Massachusetts Bay almost to Boston. Bristol County stretches from the Rhode Island border to Mount Hope Bay and Buzzards Bay. Joiners and carpenters in Plymouth County and the bay side of the cape looked generally to Boston for their inspiration, while those in Bristol County and the south shore of Cape Cod and the islands heeded the styles in Newport and Providence. Quakerism was an important factor, lending a quality of simplicity to the furniture not observed in that of many other colonies.
Wealthy citizens in colonial Plymouth County bought furniture from Boston, and sometimes from London via Boston. Those along the Rhode Island border and what is called today the South Coast looked to Newport and Providence, and further to New York and Philadelphia. By the Nineteenth Century, transportation was far more advanced and influences were more complex.
Going into the project, Jobe was not certain what he would discover and not certain that there was even enough material to warrant a book. Now, he views southeastern Massachusetts as "an untapped treasure trove." Having identified more than 2,000 pieces of furniture, he is sure that at least another 2,000 pieces wait to be identified.
