SOUTHERN ANTIQUES
No man stands out for producing exceptional types; but constant association and research bring out the salient points of the furniture they made. I have secured the names of more than seven hundred cabinetmakers in the South from 1737 to 1820, some of them working over a period of twenty years.
The furniture of the majority is what this book is concerned with. I have not tried to present the most elaborate nor the plainest example that is to be found, but have sought rather to show a representative piece, chosen because it is a Southern antique and of a type being found by dealers and collectors. Genius crops up in hidden places, and many unique and excellent pieces herein illustrated were made by unknown hands. Some pieces shown are unusual specimens, unattainable, and highly guarded in museums and private collections, and not the average of what the collector might be able to discover and become possessed of. There is charm, of course, connected with elaborate pieces representing large values, but the furniture of the South of the period covered by this book is not generally expressed in such rare examples. I am offering here what is typical, rather than the rare.
No attempt has been made to gloss the types, and the examples in this book are presented as found. The aim of the study has been to unearth the representative pieces. It has not been possible to present elaborate pieces, such as those made at Philadelphia by Randolph, Gostelowe and Savery, but each piece for consideration must, of course, have had merit of its own, and more and more has the study revealed that the individual artist at work can often produce results unattainable in the shops of the more expert craftsmen.
In making presentations in this book, conclusions have been reached after closest scrutiny and consideration. Opinions, in some instances, where available, have been called in. Besides proof afforded by the general situation affecting each particular case, judgment has been based on the quality of the particular type, and the fact that this type has been seen nowhere else has operated as a major influence. In all cases where Southern pine is used in construction, it has been assumed that it could not have been made anywhere else, and in the case of furniture made of curly cherry, it has been accepted as coming from in and around Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and as made by the Moravians.
With exception of four pieces only, what has been actually seen is shown here, and was personally brought to light, or seen in dealers' and collectors' public and private collections.
I am offering some pieces with labels, yellowed by age, as silent witnesses of authenticity, but with no idea of pressing the importance of the label itself, recognized generally as it is, that leading American cabinetmakers did not always label their pieces, and that the labels of many of them that did, have long since been removed in cleaning by the diligent Southern housekeeper or maid from the quarters at work, or by those attempting to refinish the piece.
I have been given valuable aid by the well-founded knowledge of many dealers and collectors. I wish especially to thank The Antiques Magazine, The Antiquarian
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