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Paint, Pattern & People:
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Portrait of Samuel Ensminger, Jr. and Portrait of Mrs. Samuel Ensminger, Jr (Elizabeth Summy) and child, attributed to Jacob Maentel (1778-1863?), Manheim, Lancaster County; 1831; Watercolor and ink on wove paper; Collection of Stephen and Dolores Smith. |
This landmark exhibit will be on view at the Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware until January 8, 2012. It explores the colorful furniture of southeastern Pennsylvania along with the people who made, owned, inherited, and collected it. Featuring nearly 200 objects—including furniture, fraktur, needlework, and paintings—the show focuses on the culture and creativity of the area’s English- and German-speaking inhabitants.
The exhibition is curated by Winterthur’s Wendy A. Cooper, the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Senior Curator of Furniture, and Lisa M. Minardi, the Assistant Curator of Furniture for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Furniture Project. Paint, Pattern & People sheds new light on southeastern Pennsylvania’s highly distinctive local expressions of furniture and presents important objects for which the maker or family history is known.
Due to William Penn’s policy of religious tolerance that attracted people of various faiths and ethnic backgrounds, Pennsylvania was the most culturally diverse of the 13 colonies. Through the study of objects produced by this great mixed multitude, the extraordinary vibrancy and variety of the region’s furniture comes into focus. Ethnicity, religious affiliation, personal taste, socioeconomic status, and the skill of the craftsman all influenced local forms, ornamentation, and construction. Examples of the stunning and diverse furniture highlighted in the exhibition include:
• A tall-case clock with unusual carved decoration of a pretzel and loaves of bread, made in 1745 for Lancaster baker and German immigrant Andreas Beierle.
• Chester County furniture inlaid with delicate line-and-berry motifs, including the only known high chest of drawers and a recently discovered double-dome-top desk-and-bookcase, both featured for the first time in this exhibition.
• Furniture with inlaid decoration made of pure sulfur, a substance that when melted and poured into carved-out grooves creates a bright yellow inlay against the brown wood.
• The earliest known examples of dated Pennsylvania German furniture: a tall-case clock and schrank with inlaid dates of 1740 and 1741, made by the same unknown craftsman.
• Seven rare blue-and-white delftware plates; one each from sets owned by Quaker families in Chester County; all are dated 1738 and bear the owners’ initials.
• One of fewer than ten known surviving Pennsylvania immigrant chests; this one retains its original shipping labels written in German script from 1737.
• A Chester County tall-case clock still owned by descendants of the original owner along with two extremely rare letters sent to the client from the makers of both the movement and case.
Museum hours: 10 am–5 pm, Tuesday–Sunday
Details on their website: http://www.winterthur.org/sepa
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Small chest-over-drawers, probably made for Hannah Darlington, probably made by Moses Pyle, London Grove Township area, Chester County; 1747; 2001.19 Winterthur Museum partial purchase and partial gift of William R. Smith and sons in memory of Marjorie B. Smith, wife and mother. |