Independence. In writing young Coolidge, of Boston, recently married to Ellen Randolph, child of the heart of his old age, to whom he was presenting the treasure, he wrote, "Now I still happen to possess the writing box on which it was written. It was made from a drawing of my own by Ben Randall, a cabinet maker in whose house I took my first lodging on my arrival in Philadelphia in May, 1776, and I have used it ever since, it claims no merit of particular beauty. It is plain, neat, convenient and taking no more room on the writing table than a moderate quarto volume, it yet displays itself sufficiently for any writing."
Jefferson maintained his own cabinetmakers at Monticello, and no detail, we are told, was too small for his own supervision. He, himself, tells the story of the grief of John Hemmings, his henchman at the bench, over the loss at sea of a piece made at his bench. "That beautiful writing desk he had taken so much pains to make for you." A clock, and other things at Monticello, record the genius of the mountain sage and philosopher. Dinsmore, a carpenter, likely assisted in this work.
Some mention, too, must be made of Bucktrout, who is known to have supplied Councillor Carter, in 1772, with eight mahogany chairs, and whose advertisement in the Virginia Gazette, August 11, 1766, announces that "Bucktrout, Cabinet Maker from London on the main Street near the Capitol in Williamsburg, makes all sorts of cabinet work, either plain or ornamental in the neateſt and neweſt fashion . . . . N. B. Where likewise may be had the Mathematical Gouty chair." In 1770, two bedsteads likewise were supplied the Councillor by another cabinetmaker from Williamsburg, Atwell by name.
Dr. Henry Berkley lists cabinetmakers in Maryland from every section of the State, as advertised in newspapers or noted in directories or otherwise: numerous men in Annapolis and the Northern Neck, in old Londontown and Dumfries, ports of shipping now extinct; in Frederick and Hagerstown, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and many in Baltimore, between 1746 and 1820, three hundred men or more plying their art.
Gerrard Hopkins, advertising as early as 1767, supposed to have had his training with Robert Moore, in Philadelphia, son of Samuel Hopkins, of Anne Arundel County, held forth at the Sign of the Tea Table and Chair in Gay Street, Baltimore Town, "and working in mahogany, walnut and cherry, sold things" in the newest fashions of that day. He continued to work for many years, dying as the century came to a close.
The cabinetmakers working at Annapolis were all English born, or sons of English artisans, we are told. Westward, in the State, they were English or largely German. The Baltimore cabinetmakers composed a varied group, with English, Dutch, German, Irish, Italian, and French found among the number. Some of the French, possibly from San Domingo, and Italians had shops for twenty years, and were building furniture during that time, the Reverdy Ghiselin chairs in the Saint John's College Museum representing some of their work.
Although many outstanding pieces are shown in this book, as a result of the workmanship of North Carolina craftsmen, the
