The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History

Eyre Hall The Material World of

FOUR CENTURIES OF CHESAPEAKE HISTORY

© 2021 Maryland Center for History and Culture First published in 2021 by GILES An imprint of D Giles Limited 66 High Street, Lewes BN7 1XG, UK gilesltd.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Lounsbury, Carl, editor. | Barry, Laura Pass, author. | Carson, Cary writer of introduction.

Title: The material world of Eyre Hall : four centuries of Chesapeake history / Carl R. Lounsbury, editor ; with an Introduction by Cary Carson, and contributions by Laura Pass Barry [and nineteen others] Description: [Baltimore, Maryland] : Maryland Center for History and Culture in association with D Giles Limited, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021011553 | ISBN 9781911282914 (cloth) Subjects: LCSH: Eyre Hall (Va.)--History. | Northampton County (Va.)--Biography. | Ayers family. | Plantations--Virginia--Northampton County--History. | Material culture--Chesapeake Bay Region (Md. and Va.)--History. | Slaves--Virginia--Social conditions. | Eyre, Thomas, -1657--Family.

Classification: LCC F232.N85 M38 2021 | DDC 975.5/15--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021011553 ISBN: 978-1-911282-91-4 All rights reserved No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of Maryland Center for History and Culture and D Giles Limited.

For Maryland Center for History and Culture: Project Manager: Martina Kado For D Giles Limited: Copy-edited and proof-read by Sarah Kane Designed by Helen Swansbourne Produced by GILES, an imprint of D Giles Limited Printed and bound in China All measurements are in inches Front cover: Aerial view of Eyre Hall looking north Back cover: Eyre Hall gardens, detail of fig. 43, detail of fig. 95, cat. 64, detail of cat. 137, detail of fig. 56, detail of cat. 82 Frontispiece: Library/chamber looking southeast. Detail of fig. 98.

Opposite: Entrance hallway looking north. Detail of fig. 95.

Pages 32–33: Parlor looking east. Detail of fig. 96.

Pages 186–187: Eyre Hall, exterior view Pages 238–239: Eyre Hall, aerial view Pages 282–283: “Morningstar” punch bowl. Cat. 64.

Unless cited from a published source, all references to Northampton County orders, wills, inventories, tax lists, and court of chancery records were taken from the original books in the Northampton County Clerk’s Office, Eastville, Virginia. References to the records of other Virginia counties were taken from the microfilm reels at the Library of Virginia, Richmond. The U.S. Census records, which are held by the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., were sourced online, at http://FamilySearch.org.

Fig. 12. English and Dutch white clay tobacco pipes and local red clay tobacco pipes found at Eyreville.

Fig. 13. Local red clay tobacco pipe with “running deer” design.

Furthermore, in 1742, a recipe for chocolate almonds was included

of who was using them. Did they express status? Were European

in an elite Williamsburg cookbook. The fact that Captain Kendall

white clay pipes reserved for the use of white planters and local

obtained chocolate and/or cacao beans, items of wealth and status,

pipes for the use of natives, slaves, and indentured white servants?

is no doubt associated with his widespread mercantile connections

Did smoking the more fragile white clay pipe imply a sort of status, a

with merchants in Britain, the Netherlands, and other American

signal that its user could afford to replace a more costly implement as

colonies on the mainland and the Caribbean.

opposed to red clay pipes?8 Or, did the smoker choose it based purely

5

on availability and accessibility? If, in fact, there is some overarching

Tobacco Pipes

trend of pipe usage based on ethnicity, the pipe type distribution

While tobacco production and consumption are some of the

at Eyreville may be quite telling. From early analyses of artifact

signature features of the Chesapeake colonies, they also represent

distribution at the site, archaeologists have discerned a correlation

the globalization of a social practice whose origins were in the

between the locations of European pipes and local pipes, possibly

New World. Originally a Native American crop, the production of

suggesting a commingling of their users.9 Additionally, considering

tobacco to satiate local, English, and European demand led to a

the use of tobacco for leisurely activities, this may also suggest the

thriving transcontinental market. Its labor-intensive cultivation

casual interaction of people of different classes and ethnicities.

was also responsible for the devastating importation of African slaves to work in its fields in the Chesapeake and the concomitant

Books

institutionalization of slavery in America.

Books were not a common household object in seventeenth-century

Tobacco pipes have been found in great number and variety

Virginia. Most estate inventories from the first century of settlement

at Eyreville. The pipes recovered are mainly of Dutch and English

on the Eastern Shore rarely contain them, in part because such

origin, but there are also a number of locally made pipes (Fig. 12).

imported items were expensive, but also because literacy was still a

A stark contrast to the European white ball-clay pipes, local pipes,

rarity among most inhabitants.10 If a household possessed a book, it

also known as Chesapeake pipes or terracotta pipes, are produced

was most likely a Bible, an essential buttress of protestant religiosity.

with local clay and therefore range in color from red to brown. These

According to the probate inventory of 1698, Captain Kendall had 31

pipes usually have incised decorations such as geometric patterns

books “great and small” and a law book belonging to Major Custis.11

and motifs depicting plants, animals, and stars.6 The local pipes

The latter may have been a primer on legal procedure that provided

found at Eyreville include multiple examples of the “running deer”

guidance for justices who presided over the county court sessions.

pattern, as well as botanical designs that most likely represent corn

Unfortunately, due to the friable nature of their materials, books

or tobacco (Fig. 13). Although it is unclear who was producing these

do not preserve well in the archaeological record. Fortunately, not all

pipes and why, archaeologists have speculated that the pipes were

traces of Kendall’s books were lost. Excavations revealed two small

made by a variety of manufacturers including Native Americans,

oxidized fragments of metal that, when mended together, formed a

African slaves, and white colonists. This further raises the question

beautiful book clasp (Fig. 14). The clasp, made of a cupric material,

7

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eyr e hall

Fig. 14. Book clasp with stamped designs including a fleur de lis pattern.

Fig. 15. Detail of furniture hardware with an Amsterdam maker’s mark, early 1600s.

bears a floral design in the center and a fleur de

its corresponding host were produced in

lis at the top. This small fragment is yet another

Amsterdam and shipped to Virginia confirms

indication that the Kendalls were leaders of

the strong Dutch trade connections that were

their community and versed in the intellectual

present on the Eastern Shore throughout the

and economic currents of the time.

seventeenth century.13

Hardware

The Wealth of Things

As Cary Carson observes in the introduction, the possessions listed

The Kendalls’ level of wealth is evident in the four types of artifacts

in Kendall’s inventory offer clues into the life and success of Colonel

found in the archeological record and can also be corroborated

Kendall and his son, who inherited the estate from his father in 1686.

by documentary evidence. Historians Lois Green Carr and

One final clue is a seemingly mundane object, devoid of the beauty

Lorena Walsh examined the material wealth of seventeenth-

of porcelain and the sophistication of literature. It is a small iron

and eighteenth-century Chesapeake colonists by tracking the

artifact, rectangular in shape with a screw-like fastener on the front

prevalence of 12 specific items in probate inventories.14 The study

side. From the shape, material, and fastener, it can be surmised that

looked at approximately 7,500 probate inventories in Maryland

this object was once a type of hardware for a piece of furniture or

and Virginia from 1643 to 1777. The selection of items ranged from

storage chest (Fig. 15). Changes in furniture were another cultural

basic household and sanitation objects such as beds and chamber

and economic marker for colonists. Moving on from the basic stool

pots, to luxury and leisure commodities such as spices, pictures,

and bench of the early years, furniture increased in both quality and

and books. The results of the study varied slightly according to

quantity, further exemplifying the character of its owner. As Carson

location, but ultimately showed that most households possessed

mentions, the Kendalls had accrued an impressive collection of

about two of the 12 signature goods during the seventeenth century

furniture by the time of the 1698 inventory, demonstrating to their

and approximately five by the time of the American Revolution. In

contemporaries the extent of their accomplishments.

Captain Kendall’s 1698 probate inventory, the family possessed all

What truly catches the eye with this artifact, however, is the

but one of the 12 items, placing them in the elite rank and head and

small stamped mark above the fastener. Encased in three Xs

shoulders above the average household at the end of the century.

and topped with a crown, this specific mark was the hallmark

The Kendalls were thus part of the emerging gentry class that would

of Amsterdam in the early 1600s. The fact that the artifact and

dominate the Chesapeake world in the eighteenth century.

12

NOTES 1. Lois Green Carr and Lorena S. Walsh, “Changing Lifestyles and Consumer Behavior in the Colonial Chesapeake,” in Consuming Interests: The Style of Life in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Cary Carson, Ronald Hoffman, and Peter J. Albert (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994), 66–67.

2. Charlotte Wilcoxen, Dutch Trade and Ceramics in America in the Seventeenth Century (Albany, N.Y.: Albany Institute of History and Art, 1987), 67.

3. Wilcoxen, Dutch Trade and Ceramics, 67–71.

4. Inventory of the estate of Captain William Kendall (d. 1696), July 28, 1698, Northampton County Orders & Wills, No. 13, 1689–1698, 499, 502, 504.

5. James F. Gay, “Chocolate Production and Uses in 17th and 18th Century North America,” in Chocolate: History, Culture and Heritage, ed. Louis Evan Grivetti and Howard-Yana Shapiro (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2009), 281–300.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Kathryn Sikes, “Stars as Social Space?

Contextualizing 17th-Century Chesapeake StarMotif GG Pipes,” Post-Medieval Archaeology 42, no. 1 (June 1, 2008): 75–103.

Anna S. Agbe-Davies, Tobacco, Pipes, and Race in Colonial Virginia: Little Tubes of Mighty Power (Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press, 2015).

On the status and social significance of white and red clay pipes on Chesapeake sites, see Willie Graham, Carter Hudgins, Carl Lounsbury, Fraser D. Neiman, and James Whittenburg, “Adaptation and Innovation: Archaeological and Architectural Perspectives on the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 54 (July 2007): 486–93.

Jim Gloor and Carol Reynolds, “Preliminary Analysis of Tobacco Pipes Recovered from Newport House Site 44NH0507,” unpublished site report, 2017.

10. F. W. Grubb, “Growth of Literacy in Colonial America: Longitudinal Patterns, Economic Models, and the Direction of Future Research,” Social Science History 14, no. 4 (1990): 451–82.

11. Inventory of the estate of Captain William Kendall, 499.

12. Hallmarks Encyclopedia, http://hallmarkwiki. com/?country=Netherlands&province =Amsterdam, accessed July 2020.

13. For more on Dutch relations on the Eastern Shore, see April Lee Hatfield, Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007); James R. Perry, The Formation of a Society on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, 1615–1655 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990).

14. Carr and Walsh, “Changing Lifestyles and Consumer Behavior,” 59–166.

a rc ha e ology

63

Georgia Foeman Curtis: “Power of Example” Born in 1929, the daughter of Pinky and William Foeman, Georgia Foeman Curtis lived her entire life at Eyre Hall, working as a cook and housekeeper and dying in 2016. Urged in her old age to join her daughter in Florida, she refused, saying that Eyre Hall, despite everything, was home. She married Robert Curtis, Sr., who worked at the U.S. Navy base in Norfolk. From the mountains of North Carolina, he was of mixed African American, Scottish, and Native American heritage. They raised their children at Eyre Hall. Like her mother, she was a person of strong values, spoke her mind about prejudice and phoniness, loved her children, and was close to them, especially as

Fig. 76. Pinky Foeman at Eyre Hall.

they matured. Her home was a welcoming place for her family and friends, though there was no doubt as to who was in charge.

Georgia is remembered for performing many tasks and doing them well. She believed in education and in helping others, including teaching people to read. She felt called to help others, in response no

family. I’d forgotten we hadn’t invited Georgia, so I sent word for her to

doubt to her deeply felt religious beliefs, instilled by her parents. As

please come. A short while later she arrived, elegant and wearing a hat

her children attest, that calling encompassed not just her home and

at just the perfect angle. As one admiring Eyre family member remarked,

church, but her community. It also extended to Margaret Baldwin,

‘That’s what happens when you give Georgia as much as 10 minutes to

and in immeasurable ways Georgia helped her as age took its toll,

get dressed.’

including going to Baltimore to care for her. According to both Furlong Baldwin and Georgia’s children, the two clearly grew to love

“She was extremely loyal to Eyre Hall. The tragedy perhaps is that despite her gifts, because of race, she was not positioned to go further.”2

one another. To many today, a cross-racial relationship of that type may seem hard to believe, but, over the course of their lifetime at

Robert Curtis, Jr.:

Eyre Hall, the two ladies had come to know one another well and had

The son of Georgia Curtis, Robert Curtis, Jr., adds to the portrait by

worked it out. Their relationship is an illuminating detail, but only one

sketching both his parents and Georgia’s talents and values. “My parents,

in the larger portrait of Georgia Curtis, a portrait more completely

Robert and Georgia Curtis, lived in a house maybe not even a quarter of

painted by the following stories from different people who knew

a mile from Furlong’s house. I could walk from my house to his in about

and respected her and perhaps a portrait evocative of other African

five minutes. My father came from North Carolina. My mother met him

American women who sought to make a way out of no way.1

maybe at a party or picnic, and then he started coming down to Eyre Hall, and they started dating together like that. That’s how it was. He

Dick McIntosh:

worked at Eyre Hall for a very short time, maybe no more than about six

An Eyre descendant who visited Eyre Hall frequently, Dick McIntosh

months or a year, and then he went across to Norfolk and got a job there

paints a clear detail in the larger portrait of Georgia Curtis. As he

at the naval base. He would come home on the weekends.

recalls, “Georgia was extraordinary. She was beautiful, tall, bright, and

“My mother was very much a lady. She was talented. She could cook,

no matter the occasion, elegant (Fig. 78). In 1998, when my daughter

she could paint, she could draw, whatever. She also helped everybody

got married at Eyre Hall, there were just a few people invited, mostly

out. When she got a car, she would stop at everybody’s houses, ask if

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eyr e hall

Fig. 77. Georgia Foeman Curtis and Robert Curtis and their daughter Joyce, ca. 1948.

Fig. 78. Georgia Curtis, left, her sister Daisy, center, and their aunt Lizzie Bagwell Press, right.

Fig. 79. The Curtis family.

Left to right: daughter Joyce Curtis Ramassar, Robert Curtis Sr., Georgia Foeman Curtis, and Robert Curtis, Jr.

they wanted to go to the stores. She was also quick to catch on to

your dad’s grandmother is from the Cherokee Reservation in North

anything, and after my grandmother Pinky died she took over the

Carolina. If you have prejudice, you’re going to be arguing with

cooking. Mother always did her jobs right, and though she could do

yourself. No matter whether you like it or not, you can’t remove the

stuff like the brass and silver real good, she didn’t want to because

blood that runs through your veins.’ She taught us: ‘Respect people

there was so much of it. If she did it, she knew she was going to have

for who they are.’ If you run into somebody that you think you cannot

to do it right, but she was doing so many other things in the big

get along with, avoid them. You cannot curse. Or use foul language.

house and in her own.”3

In her house you could not say even the little words we didn’t even consider to be curse words.

Joyce Curtis Ramassar:

“My mother was a brilliant woman and did a lot of work for

The daughter of Georgia and Robert Curtis, Joyce contributes to

people who could not read and even worked with one of the

the portrait by recalling how Georgia, as a mother and as a person,

societies that taught people to read. She did taxes for people that

believed in and acted on the values of her elders, especially her

couldn’t understand them and wouldn’t charge them. If anybody

mother Pinky. Of special importance was their mixed racial heritage,

had legal papers they didn’t understand, they would come to her.

which Georgia saw as a firm reason for why prejudice against skin

Sometimes I would say, ‘Mom, why do you do all of this stuff, and

color should have “no room in your life.” By telling us of the many

you don’t charge them?’ She said, ‘It’s not about charging people for

facets of Georgia’s life, Joyce’s sketches enable us to see Georgia as a

everything in life. You don’t depend on people to give you rewards.

more complete person.

You get them from God Himself. I don’t worry about that type of

“My mother shaped my life because she was much like her

thing.’ She also taught us: ‘Get your education.’ As much as my

mother, Pinky Foeman (Fig. 79). She raised her children to respect

mother hated to see us children go, she never would hold us back,

everybody. When we were children, there’s one thing that she taught

telling us: ‘I would rather see you fulfill your dreams in life than stay

us: ‘Prejudice, you have no room for it in your life,’ explaining that

here and not.’ There was no talking back at her house. Once she said

‘you have a father who was raised by his Scottish grandfather, and

something, that was it. You didn’t question it.

s c r a p b o o k of r e colle ct ion s

173

Fig. 93. Entrance hall, Eyre Hall, looking south.

Fig. 94.

Staircase.

keystone accentuates the center of the north arch and is

classicism. This woodwork is an impressive introduction to

matched by an identical one that is centered over the eight-

the house, equal in workmanship to that found in the best

panel south doorway. The edge-grain heart-pine floorboards

mid-century gentry houses in Virginia.

in this room, as well as all the others on the ground floor,

Measuring 20 feet in width, the north space of the passage

measure between 4 and 5 inches in width and are secured

beyond the arch is wider than the entry and contains the

by a series of wooden dowels drilled in their sides and secret

open-string staircase that rises southward in the northeast

nailed. Everything in the room—from the complex double

corner of the east partition wall just south of the door into

moldings of the stiles and rails of the paneling to the entasis

the library or office (Fig. 94). Because the east partition

of the fluted pilasters—exemplifies the fidelity to academic

wall is 5 feet deeper than it is in the entry hall, the staircase

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eyr e hall

Fig. 95. Arch that encloses the upper flight of the stair, view looking north.

does not jut out into the north passage space. The staircase

the stair stringer and is 14 feet from the matching, eight-

ascends along the east wall before it turns at a landing at

panel door on the north wall to the north face of the stub

right angles, where the upper flight rises westward within

walls supporting the arch opening. There are two windows

the spandrels of the arched opening. The plaster soffit of the

in this space, one on the west wall and another on the north

arch hides the stringer and the underside of the treads and

wall just east of the north doorway, which provides light

risers of the stair as it ascends to the second-floor landing.

for the staircase. The east, north, and west walls have raised

The decorative features of the lower flight are typical of the

panel wainscoting that sits on a marbleized base and stands

period. The molded and twisted handrail rises from a curtail

3½ feet in height and is capped by a molded surbase. The

step at the bottom and is supported by a series of turned,

walls above are plastered and may have been papered early if

column-and-urn balusters rather than a newel post. There

not originally. Littleton’s 1769 inventory included “a parcel

are three balusters on each tread to support the railing,

of stampt Paper for hangings,” which may have been used

which is ramped where it meets the wall of the landing,

in this space.14 If so it was replaced by a bluish paper around

which is part of the spandrel of the enclosed space above the

1810 and finally by the present colorful French scenic paper.

arched opening.

These walls are capped by a dentilated Doric cornice. The

Like the hall, this extension of the cross passage reads less

cornice returns where the stair ascends on the east wall.

like a circulation space and more like a room and seems to

The south wall of the north passage consists of two

have functioned as such when first built. The space measures

paneled stub walls that support the spring of the arch

16 feet from the west outer wall to the paneled area beneath

(Fig. 95). The east one next to the staircase contains a low t h e a r c h it e c t u r e of t h e hou s e

199

Fig. 123. Panoramic view of “Les Rives du Bosphore” as it wraps around the west, north, and east walls and the apertures and stairs of the north passage.

was designed so that “the two ends must join and form a kind of

the owner or according to the arrangement of the interior which is

panorama designed to be cut into strips twenty inches wide so that

to be decorated.”10 Naturalistic elements were incorporated within

they may be used singly or in groups of two, three, four, five, six,

most of the sheets to aid in the transition between scenes when

seven, eight, ten, or twelve strips or more, according to the desire of

accommodating for doors and windows.

Fig. 124. Details from “Les Rives du Bosphore” over the library door on the east wall of the passage.

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eyr e hall

If hung according to Dufour’s directions, the 25-sheet “Les Rives

stairway wall by positioning another building over the doorway

du Bosphore” would have been a perfect fit for the rear passage

into the library (Fig. 124). Elevating the horizon line to the top third

at Eyre Hall. However, the unknown craftsman who installed the

of the stairway wall created a blank space along the lower portion

paper recognized that he could achieve a more dramatic impact by

of the wall above the wainscot. In order to fill this space he spliced

varying the horizon line rather than hanging the paper in continuous,

horizontal portions of other sheets depicting water scenes in such

consecutive strips. He began the installation on the west wall of the

a way that it increased the appearance of the width of the river.

rear passage by joining the sheets as recommended, carrying on

Dufour advised that, “[b]ecause of irregular spaces, and

in the traditional manner until he reached the exterior door leading

because it is impossible to plan in advance to meet the variations

into the garden on the adjacent north wall. Ordinarily, the cloudy

of rooms, it is the duty of the owners of the paper and of

sky, characteristic of Dufour’s scenic papers, would have occupied

the paper-hangers to direct the placing of the decoration.”11

the space over the door but, in this case, the paperhanger inserted

Fortunately, the paperhanger employed by John Eyre was given

a portion of another sheet illustrating buildings, creating the effect

the liberty to exercise his creativity because, although initially

of a mountaintop village. The most ingenious placement, however,

imperceptible to the viewer, splicing the scenes in this manner

was his treatment of the stairway. Perhaps to balance the buildings

created what may be the most successful known installation of

he placed over the exterior door, he elevated the horizon line on the

“Les Rives du Bosphore.”

NOTES 1. Inventory of the estate of Littleton Eyre, October 14, 1769, Northampton County Wills & Inventories, No. 24, 1766–1772, 224–26.

2. Susan L. Buck, “Cross-Section Paint Microscopy Report: Eyre Hall: Passage, Parlor, and Library, Northampton County, Virginia,” May 18, 2015, 9.

3. Virginian Robert Carter ordered wallpapers for his Williamsburg House in 1762 that included one pattern “proper to hang a Passage & Staircase,” Robert Carter to Thomas Blandon, February 16, 1762, Robert Carter Letterbook, 1761–1764, Colonial Williamsburg archives. In 1769, Nathaniel Lyttleton Savage, a resident of Virginia’s Eastern Shore, received “8 pieces of paper hanging suitable for a passage,” invoice of goods shipped to Nathaniel Lyttleton Savage, 1769. See Beatrix Rumford,

4.

5.

6.

7.

“Wallpaper in Williamsburg,” unpublished report, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

American Commercial Daily Advertiser (Baltimore), October 27, 1815.

Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.), October 20, 1825, quoted in Catherine Lynn, Wallpaper in America: From the Seventeenth Century to World War I (New York: W. W. Norton, 1980), 229.

Robert Gilmor, Sr. moved to Maryland in 1767 and formed a successful merchant partnership with two gentlemen in Philadelphia. They specialized in foreign commerce. His wife, Mary Ann Smith Gilmor, was related to Ann Upshur Eyre. Mary Ann’s mother was Ann Upshur Eyre’s great aunt.

John Eyre to William Gilmor, October 31, 1817, Robert Gilmor Collection, ms 3198, Box 1, Folder 57,

H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore.

8. Norfolk (Va.) Herald, May 14, 1819.

9. The initial date of issue of “Les Rives du Bosphore,” the number of woodblocks and colors, and the most up-to-date and comprehensive work on Dufour wallpapers are found in Denys Prache and Véronique de Bruignac-La Hougue, Joseph Dufour: Génie des papiers peints (Paris: Mare & Martin, 2016).

10. The pamphlet accompanying “Les Sauvages de la mer du Pacifique” was translated and published in Nancy McClelland, Historic Wall-Papers from their Inception to the Introduction of Machinery (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1924), 403.

11. McClelland, Historic Wall-Papers, 405.

wa llpa pe r

223

3 Side Chair From a set that originally numbered 14 Attributed to Edmund Allmand (1745–1795) Hampton, Virginia, 1765–80 Mahogany primary, with yellow pine blocking and slip seats H. (overall) 33 in., W. (crest rail) 195⁄8 in., W. (overall at feet) 17¾ in., D. (overall at feet) 19¾ in.

In the colonial period, the Eyre family sometimes relied upon artisans to whom they were linked through shared business pursuits. Among them was the Hampton “Cabinet and Chairmaker” Edmund Allmand (1745–1795). Allmand hailed from a family of shipbuilders and joiners whose forebears arrived during the seventeenth century. He apprenticed in 1760 to the Norfolk cabinetmaker John Selden, and, upon achieving his freedom in 1768, married Lucretia Braithwaite (b. 1752).13 The couple followed dual traditions that were commonplace in Virginia artisan families: he opened a cabinet shop at the base of a pier at Ferry Point in Hampton, and she became proprietress of the Red House Tavern adjoining it.14 The pier at Ferry Point in Hampton was a principal hub for the ferries that traversed the waters between Norfolk and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Allmands’ visibility brought them a constant flow of customers that included ship’s captains, planters, and businessmen. In 1780, the couple’s proximity to the pier, and their combined business acumen, helped Edmund to acquire a license from the Commonwealth of Virginia to personally oversee the ferries from Hampton to Norfolk and the Eastern Shore. The boat to “the Shore” landed at Hungars Creek and, through the years, the cabinetmaker earned the family’s trust.

The Eyre family acquired a fine set of carved chairs from Edmund Allmand’s shop, four of which have survived (Cat. 3).

Each has a central “plateau” in the crest rail that is nearly 4½ inches wide, slightly arched across the top, and standing half an inch proud of the crest rail. Allmand carved an acanthus leaf in the upper center of the plateau, and an acanthus scroll at either end of the crest (Fig. 194).15

Fig. 194. Detail of the crest rail, Cat. 3. The creative design of the splat, combined with the acanthus leaf carved in the center of the crest, and the acanthus scrolls at either end, define one of the finest sets of straight-leg chairs from colonial Virginia.

Fig. 195. The cabinetmaker relied on a distinctive regional practice, by anchoring the base of the splat in an open mortise, cut into the inner face of the rear seat rail. He then filled the open mortise with a block, which is visible in the upper center of the rail. The corner braces of Cat. 3 are modern additions.

288

eyr e hall

4 Armchair In the manner of Edmund Allmand; possibly by Northampton County resident John Brickhouse Eastern Shore of Virginia, 1770–80 Mahogany primary, with yellow pine slip seats H. 383⁄8 in., W. (arms) 251⁄4, W. (seat) 231⁄4 in., D. (at seat rails) 18½ in., D. (at floor) 22¼ in.

Two mahogany armchairs in an upstairs passage are the only ones to survive from a second set of chairs that are original to the home. The set clearly originate within Allmand’s sphere, or among those who knew his designs. Nonetheless, the two armchairs differ enough in quality to indicate the hand of an artisan who greatly simplified the construction. The possibility exists that these hail from the workbench of the Eastern Shore cabinet- and chair-maker John Brickhouse, who is mentioned above, in the entry for the corner cupboard in Cat. 1, as having made “12 chair frames” for the family in 1779. If so, he appears to have relied upon the carved examples attributed to Edmund Allmand, yet simplified the design of the crest.16 Regardless of who made them, Edmund Allmand and his cabinetmaking son John Allmand (1765–1795) would both die in the yellow fever epidemic that swept Norfolk and much of the eastern seaboard in 1795, leaving the family to rely upon other artisans. They eventually turned to Allmand’s finest apprentice, James Woodward (1769–1839), who would fill the void left in the lower Chesapeake community by their deaths.

Fig. 196. Detail of the rear seat rail, Cat. 4.

c ata lo g u e • fu r n it u r e

289

1 silver-mounted gun

10.0.0

1 dozen new tablespoons

9.0.0

1 new soup spoon

2.0.0

1 silver salver

4.10.0

2 tankards

15.0.0

1 silver teapot

9.0.0

1 pair sugar tongs

0.18.0

bowl and a small one to his niece Margaret A. Taylor, great-

1 set silver casters

9.0.0

1 butter boat

2.0.0

grandmother of the current owner, H. Furlong Baldwin.14

£61.8.0 Fig. 212. 1787 estate inventory of Severn Eyre (d. 1786), who bequeathed all his plate to his brother Littleton Eyre.

Through the Taylor side of the family, the piece returned to Eyre Hall in the twentieth century.

The silver at Eyre Hall exemplifies common patterns of consumption. Because of Eyre Hall’s relative isolation and the continuous ownership of the property by one family, the

Fig. 213. Silver objects dating from the late seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century on the sideboard in the dining room, Eyre Hall.

Although the silver on this sideboard would not have been displayed this way in the period, it is indicative of how it is used today.

318

eyr e hall

surviving pieces document their changing tastes as well as the evolution of new forms and styles over more than three centuries (Fig. 213). What had been English silver tastes in the

31 Tankard

Fig. 214. Detail of the “GH” engraving, Cat. 31. Gertrude Harmanson, grandmother of Littleton Eyre, willed this tankard to her son Henry Harmanson in 1732.

John Bache London, 1715–16 Silver H. 81⁄4 in., W. 5½ in.

to 5 percent copper or other alloys, unlike most of the collection of a sterling standard of 92.5 percent silver. This piece is no longer at Eyre Hall but still in the family.

Writing in the 1820s, Littleton Waller Tazewell, Gertrude Harmanson’s great-grandson, remarked on her extraordinary reputation. He said that, following her husband’s death, she had “managed all her estates herself, with as much industry and skill and attention as any man could have done—Mounted on horseback she rode from one end of the Eastern Shore to the other without any attendant visiting her different estates; and was reputed the best manager they had. During her widowhood she acquired by her own enterprize and exertion several landed estates and much property.” He also noted that “part of the plate colonial period began to change in the late eighteenth and

bequeathed by her will to [her] grandson Littleton Tazewell,

early nineteenth century with the emergence of American

and marked G. H., was still preserved in my family not many

centers of craftsmanship in nearby cities such as Norfolk,

years ago, having been handed down to me from generation

Baltimore, and Philadelphia that catered to an expanding

to generation since her death, now nearly a hundred years

consumer market. A number of items in the collection also

since. Other similar plate is I believe still preserved in the

highlight the growth of highly specialized implements and

family of John Eyre esquire devised to him in like manner.”16

forms such as tea equipage that evolved to cater to more

Three other pieces in the collection also belonged

sophisticated forms of dining and entertaining.

originally to the Harmansons, as evidenced by their armorial

A large tankard with the initials “GH” was owned by

device. A large pie-crust bordered salver used to serve

Gertrude Harmanson, Littleton Eyre’s grandmother (Cat.

alcoholic beverages marked by Robert Abercrombie and

31 and Fig. 214). Marked by John Bache and dating to

dating to 1746/47 is also engraved with the Harmanson arms

1715/16, this piece is clearly mentioned in her will dating

and the initials “LBE” for Littleton and Bridget Harmanson

to 1732, according to which she had already given “unto my

Eyre (see Cat. 67). This salver is most likely the one in Severn

said son one large Silver tankard and six silver spoons . . . the

Eyre’s will dating to 1769. A privately owned salver close in

This piece is clearly

size to this one and marked by Abercrombie dates to 1735/36

engraved “GH” on the bottom, along with the weight of 36

and is engraved with the crest of the Randolph family of

ounces. This tankard, like the punch bowl, is of Britannia

Virginia. Originally belonging to Peyton Randolph, these

standard, meaning that its silver content is 95 percent

salvers, along with another pair and a cup, are among the

Tankard & Spoons are thus GH.”

15

c ata log u e • s i lv e r

319

Some readers will see this book as a companion to The Chesapeake House, the magisterial account of early Tidewater architecture. It is that and more. With its focus on a single house and its remarkably preserved collection, it sets a new standard for scholarship on house museums, though its subject is a private home. Thanks to this beautiful book, Eyre Hall finally has the wider audience that it deserves.

JE F F RE Y E. KLEE, VIC E PRESI DENT AND SENI OR DI RECTOR OF ARCHITECTUR E, CLA SSIC AL A ME RIC A N H O MES P RESERVATI ON TRUST

The Material World of Eyre Hall goes far beyond chronicling four centuries at a wellpreserved private residence on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Baldwin and Lounsbury bring together a who’s who of American material-culture historians to offer a compelling portrait of life in the Chesapeake. The eloquent introduction and history of the Eyre family coupled with first-hand accounts of those who lived and worked at Eyre Hall provide a valuable context for understanding the extraordinary buildings, landscape, and household objects that survive to tell its story.

C A RO L B . C ADO U , C H A RLES F. M ONTG OM ERY DI REC TOR A ND CEO, WIN T ERT H U R MUSEUM , G ARDEN & L I B RARY

This work is a rare confluence of a historic place, objects, and people captivating readers with a compelling historical narrative that spans over 350 years. In addition to the remarkable objects passed down from one generation to the next, it is also a legacy that entwines landowners, enslaved people, freedmen, and servants.

Their stories are here, too—and rightfully so. The richness found in these pages surpasses much of what we see and hear at public historic house museums and sites.

CHR IST Y S . C O LEMAN, E XECUTI V E DI RECTOR, JAM EST OWN -YO RK T OWN FOUNDATI ON

UK£74.95 / US$89.95 ISBN 978-1-911282-91-4

9 781911 282914

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