TRUST RESEARCH GRANT: JOSEPH MURPHY, CABINETMAKER

Winterthur Fellow Abby Burch would like to thank the Decorative Arts Trust for their support of her research. She was able to travel to New Hampshire and Maine to see the books themselves as well as the context in which Murphy lived and worked. It was beneficial for her to see the landscape of South Berwick and to travel the distance between that town and Lyman. For more information, feel free to her.

Until the Portsmouth Athenaeum acquired his account books, cabinetmaker Joseph Murphy (1796–1872) was virtually unknown. But the ledger and two daybooks in which he recorded over thirty years of business transactions show that he was an active craftsman. With the support of the Decorative Arts Trust, I was able to travel to Portsmouth, NH and South Berwick, ME to look at those account books, and the setting in which Murphy worked. This research will be the basis for my Master’s thesis entitled “By his Account Rendered:” The Business of Cabinetmaking in York County, Maine, 1815–1840.

After completing his apprenticeship in Portland, ME, Joseph Murphy worked as a cabinetmaker in South Berwick, Maine from 1815–1832. During that time, he made bureaus, tables, chairs, clock cases, desks and stands. All of these forms were available to customers in a range of woods and at various levels of decoration. For example, a solid mahogany bureau was sold for $20.00, a “mahogany front” bureau (meaning it was mahogany veneer on a less expensive wood) was sold for $12.00, and a common bureau, probably made of pine or birch, was sold for $8.00. He also made and sold painted furniture, such as bureaus, cradles, beds and chairs. Murphy could apply “fancy” painting, which was done with stencils and metallic powders or leaf, to bed cornices and chairs.

Murphy made clock cases for Quaker clock makers from nearby Alfred. John Taber, his most frequent customer, purchased 10 cases for both tall and small case clocks. Paul Rogers purchased one tall case in 1817. Finally, Reuben Brackett, who is known to have worked in South Berwick, purchased three clock cases in 1816. Individuals purchased cases, probably to update the case of their old clocks or to house works bought without a case.

Murphy’s business was successful enough that he was able to hire journey­men to help with production. At least four long-term journeymen worked with him at different times, and many more worked for periods of less than two months. Murphy bought piecework from them, and from other towns. He recorded paying a man for hauling a load of chairs from the river landing to his shop. Murphy’s business required that he participate in regional commerce. He bought wood and horse hair from Judkins & Senter of Portsmouth, and he recorded many transactions with the Brick Store in Kennebunk for nails, wood, and horse hair.

Another aspect of Murphy’s business was the sale and repair of sleighs, wagons, and chaises. Like many other cabinetmakers, a large portion of his time was spent repairing the wood parts of vehicles including springs, wheels, runners, and body pieces. Murphy refurbished used vehicles and sold them at second hand, built new vehicles, probably in association with the local blacksmith, and sold them at a range of prices. Most chaises were sold at around $30.00, but he did sell one exceptional “bellows top chaise” to his brother-in-law, Dr. Nathaniel Low, for $100.00. Sleighs usually sold for $10–20.00 each and wagons for $30–40.00. Murphy also rented to others his chaise and sleigh for trips to Portsmouth, Portland, and smaller towns.

Murphy also did many tasks that we would normally assign to house carpenters. He built stairs, made moldings and blinds, and repaired floors. He also painted house exteriors and interiors and hung wallpaper for $1.00 per day, a task that not all cabinetmakers were trained to do. In 1818, he paid a man $20.00 for instructions in painting, which probably included mixing of paints. Records show he charged customers for that, as for cutting and setting, or framing, window glass.

Murphy made a wide variety of other utilitarian and recreational objects. He made and painted fire buckets and bags, turned pump boxes for wells, made trunks, and made and lettered signs for businesses. Coffins were sold in a range of woods, lined or unlined, along with coffin stands and coffin plates. Rulers, yard sticks, and handles for tools were some of the least expensive objects he sold. On a few occasions, Murphy made games of nine pins and balls. Residents of South Berwick and the surrounding community were able to buy more than just furniture from their local cabinetmaker.

In 1832, Murphy moved his wife and children to the family farm in Lyman, ME. His father had worked the farm for many years, with minimal help from Joseph, who purchased it in 1828. After that, the accounts show an increase in farm-related entries. Murphy probably found it too difficult to manage both the farm in Lyman and the business in South Berwick, since they were separated by over twenty miles. He chose to give up full-time furniture making, and became a farmer. After the move to Lyman, Murphy still made and sold furniture, but his records show many fewer sales. He continued to own two houses and a three-story brick commercial building in South Berwick, on which he collected rents; but accounts became, for the most part, a record of farm laborers and goods traded until 1849, when they end.

So far, I have been unable to locate any pieces of furniture that can be attributed conclusively to Joseph Murphy. Since most of his business was local, he probably did not sign or label his pieces. It is likely that some of his work is still in existence, for in his peak year of furniture production he sold over 140 pieces. For now, my analysis of Murphy’s accounts stands without any examples that illuminate the work of this craftsman.

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