The Andrews Shaker Collection Sale 2731M
June 15, 2014
Marlborough
The Andrews Shaker Collection
Specialists
Stephen Fletcher
Chris Barber
Karen Langberg
Department Director 508.970.3228
Deputy Director 508.970.3227
508.970.3281
Consultant: Christian Goodwillie
Department Inquiries: 508.970.3200
Auction Information Auction 2731M
Preview
Absentee Bidding
Sunday, June 15 12PM
Thursday, June 12 12 to 7PM
T: 508.970.3211 F: 508.970.3110
274 Cedar Hill Street Marlborough, MA
Friday, June 13 12 to 5PM
General Inquiries:
Saturday, June 14 12 to 5PM Sunday, June 15 9 to 10AM
508.970.3000
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Table of Contents 1
Auction & Specialist Information
2
Web Site & Online Bidding
4-5 7
Event Information Lots 1-138
133 Essays 149 Bibliography 152
Conditions of Sale
153
Absentee Bid Form
154
Company Directors & Specialty Departments
155
Administrative Staff & Client Services
156
Map & Driving Directions
157
Parking & Accommodations
158 Dining 159
Subscription Form
Please Note: All lots sold subject to our Conditions of Sale. Please refer to page 152 of this catalog for the full terms and conditions governing your purchase.
Copyright Š Skinner, Inc. 2014 All rights reserved MA/Lic. #2304
The Andrews Shaker Collection Lecture Series – May and June 2014 Skinner is pleased to present a series of lectures by Shaker scholars Jean Burks and Christian Goodwillie. These events will be held in conjunction with the June 15th auction of the Andrews Shaker Collection. Please join us!
About The Andrews Shaker Collection In 1923, Edward and Faith Andrews stopped at a Shaker community to buy a loaf of bread, a simple encounter which led to a lifelong involvement with the Shakers. On June 15th, Skinner will offer the last portion of the original Andrews Collection not residing in a major institution. The auction will present more than 100 lots including furniture, metalware, boxes, and ephemera— all featuring the Shakers’ characteristically simple, yet ingenious design. The event offers enthusiasts of Shaker the rare opportunity to purchase furniture and objects from this legendary collection.
Sunday, May 4, 2014, 1PM
Saturday, May 17, 2014, 1PM
Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA
Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA
The Shakers: Models for Modernism
240 Years of Shaker Life in America
Illustrated lecture by Jean M. Burks, Senior Curator, Shelburne Museum
Illustrated lecture by Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections, Hamilton College
102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, MA 01451 978.456.3924 www.fruitlands.org Both events are free to the public with museum admission
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Saturday, May 31, 2014, 4PM Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA
The Shakers: Models for Modernism Illustrated lecture by Jean M. Burks, Senior Curator, Shelburne Museum 1843 West Housatonic Street, Pittsfield, MA 01202 413.443.0188 www.hancockshakervillage.org
Thursday, June 12, 2014 – Reception 5:30PM/Gallery Walk 6PM Skinner, Marlborough, MA
The Andrews Shaker Collection – A Gallery Walk Guided tour and discussion of selected highlights from the June 15th auction hosted by Stephen L. Fletcher, Director, and Christopher Barber, Deputy Director, of American Furniture & Decorative Arts, Skinner, Inc. The event will feature Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections, Hamilton College, and coauthor of Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection. 274 Cedar Hill Street, Marlborough, MA 01752 508.970.3000 www.skinnerinc.com 5
Please note! You will see this pointing hand thoughout the catalog directing you to items of interest to the reader.
This typographical ornament is from New Lebanon, New York, Shaker Isaac Newton Youngs’s A Short Abridgment of the Rules of Music, which he printed in 1846. The Andrewses discovered a large cache of both the 1843 and 1846 editions of this book in the schoolhouse at New Lebanon.
The Andrews Shaker Collection
Ted and Faith Andrews
I first encountered the names Faith and Edward Deming Andrews around the year 1965 when working for Robert Skinner. Both of us were new to the antique and auction business, and the book Shaker Furniture by the Andrewses was one of the first he acquired for his growing library. I remember reading about them and looking at the photos by William F. Winter. The eloquently simple arrangements of Shaker furniture and utilitarian objects seemed modern to my untrained eye. Each object had plenty of breathing room, and this negative space enhanced the simple beauty. Over the many years I’ve worked at Skinner, we’ve been fortunate to offer some very good Shaker furniture and objects. In its breadth and significance, this collection rises above what we’ve seen thus far. Many of the items in this auction are iconic and have been pictured and discussed in a variety of books and publications. The Andrewses were pioneers in preserving Shaker culture. Establishing a relationship of trust with Shaker people and earnestly dedicated to scholarship, they collected as many artifacts as they could, directly from the Shakers themselves. I can only imagine how exciting that must have been! These objects included items for which the Shakers are renowned, such as boxes, baskets, and furniture, but also, workaday objects like tin ware, ceramics, textiles, tools, and hardware. Objects from the original Andrews collection now reside at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Winterthur, the American Museum in Bath, England, and of course, Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts. This auction represents the last opportunity for enthusiasts to purchase furniture and objects from this legendary collection. We are pleased to offer the opportunity for everyone to see these objects in person, and have enjoyed our brief stewardship while cataloging the sale. We would like to extend special thanks to Ted Andrews, Jean M. Burks, Christian Goodwillie, M. Stephen Miller, Jeanne Solensky, Lesley Herzberg, and Tom Queen.
—Stephen Fletcher
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1 Shaker Yellow-painted Lidded Wooden Pail, Canterbury, New Hampshire, c. 1855, pine staves and bottom, the staves with V-shaped tongue-andgroove joinery fastened with iron hoops cut to a “V” at the ends, wire bail with diamond-shaped iron bail plates clipped at the top to accommodate the lid, the bail with turned maple handle with scribe lines at the center and ends, the pail is stamped with the number “1” in the center of the exterior bottom, and the number “5” is stamped in the center of the interior lid, the interior with clear varnish, ht. to top of lid 7 3/4, ht. to top of upright handle 12 1/4, dia. of lid 10 1/2 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection, by Mario S. De Pillis and Christian Goodwillie (Hancock Shaker Village, Inc., 2008), p. 114.
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The Canterbury, New Hampshire, Shakers manufactured large amounts of cooperage during the 19th century. This lidded pail exhibits many of the hallmarks of cooperage from that community. The staves are joined with a “V”-shaped notch, and chamfered at the bottom to guard against splitting (like the Mount Lebanon example in this sale, Lot 2). The wire bail is set into a diamond-shaped bail plate (really strap iron cut on the diagonal) that has been relieved at the top to accommodate the iron rim. The turned hardwood handle has a double central scribe line and chamfered ends to prevent splitting. The bottom is turned, and beveled at the outer edge to fit into the staves. $2,500-3,500
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2 Shaker Painted Wooden Pail, possibly New Lebanon, New York, early 19th century, pine staves and bottom, ash hoops with chamfered interlocking fingers, bent ash swing handle which is flat on the outside and curved on the inside to fit comfortably in the hand is secured to the pail with button pins; old putty-colored paint over earlier red paint, (minor imperfections), ht. to rim 11, ht. to top of upright handle 18 3/4, rim dia. 13 1/8 in. Brother Isaac Newton Youngs of New Lebanon, New York, wrote that the Shakers had worked at coopering from the beginning of their communal period in the late 1780s. He wrote, “the principal part of the business was making tubs and pails, both for the use of Believers & for sale.� This New Lebanon, New York, pail exhibits the butt-jointed staves typical of that community. The swing-handle bail is made of a steam-bent hardwood, likely ash, and attached to the upper rim with two cotter pins. The underside of the bail is rounded to conform to the hand; and the bail ends are beveled, a simple preventative measure to avoid splitting. The width of the handle also flares out at the ends where it is attached. The steam-bent ash hoops are joined by tucking the opposing ends into a notched hook. All of these fine details bespeak the Shakers’ attention to craftsmanship and quality. $600-800
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3 Shaker Yellow-stained Pine Covered Storage Box, dovetail-constructed rectangular box with iron hinges on the molded lid, original yellow stain, (surface wear from use), ht. 6 3/4, wd. 14 3/4, dp. 11 1/2 in. $1,500-2,500
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4 Shaker Red-painted Pine Writing Box, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, rectangular box with hinged lid with breadboard ends on dovetailconstructed case, the sides with red wash surface, the interior with yellow wash is inscribed “Angeline Cook” in pencil on the underside of the lid, and along the top edge of the back of the case, (imperfections), ht. 4 7/8, wd. 16 5/8, dp. 11 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 194.
This writing box is pine and finished with a chrome yellow wash (inside), red wash (case sides), and clear varnish (top). “Angeline Cook” is written in script on the underside of the lid and along the top edge of the back of the case. She was admitted at Mount Lebanon on July 5, 1865 and Shaker records indicate that she came from Watervliet to evade her father. Brother Isaac Newton Youngs recorded the construction of a number of writing boxes in the Church Family’s Domestic Journal: “March 1836 One dozen writing boxes were brot into the house, made & lately finished by Nicholas Bennet. They are well made, and Nicholas says they are worth $6.00 apiece, & that he has been near 6 days apiece making them. He began them some where about the 20th of January. The boxes were mostly for young Sisters, writers, &c.” This box may be one of Brother Nicholas’s, but could also have been made by Brother Orren Haskins or Brother Elisha D’Alembert Blakeman, both of whom are known to have constructed writing boxes. $1,500-2,500
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Shaker Furniture, plate 12, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
The Andrewses made notes recording the provenance of many items in their collection. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
5 Shaker Cherry and Birch Adjustable Lightstand, Church family, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1820, rectangular top with rounded edge adjusts on a turned, slightly swelled post with shaped, turned set screw, on a disk with three turned splayed legs, old dark surface, (imperfections), ht. 24 3/4, wd. 12 1/2, lg. 18 1/8 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, by Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews (Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1937), plate 12, p. 74; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; and Gather Up the Fragments, p. 171. Exhibitions: Whitney Museum, 1935, #14. Juliana R. Force was a major early advocate of the Andrewses and their mission to bring Shaker culture to the attention of the American public. Force gave the Andrewses free reign to design and mount an exhibition at the Whitney Museum, where she served as Director. The exhibit, “Shaker Handicrafts,” ran from November 12 to December 12, 1935.
The Andrewses published a short essay, together with a fifteen-page checklist of the Whitney show, that is one of the earliest Shaker exhibit catalogs. “Shaker Handicrafts” was favorably noticed in both the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor, and furthered the Andrewses’ mission of promoting Shaker culture. This is one of a number of stands acquired by the Andrewses at the Church Family. The top on this example can be raised and held in place by a setscrew. Very similar wooden screws are found on Shaker window stops and yarn swifts. The finish is a dark paint. The unusual round wooden block that forms the base is 2 1/4 in. thick and has a diameter of 10 in. The splayed feet are mortised into the broad, chamfered edge of the base. $6,000-8,000
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6 Shaker Sister’s Two-step Footrest, Canterbury, New Hampshire, c. 1860, pine stepstool with hinged lid on compartment of top step, with pencil inscriptions: “This bench was made for Sister Annie J. Baker in 1860,” and large initials “A.J.B.” on underside of bench, worn, brown-stained surface, ht. 11, wd. 15 1/4, dp. 10 1/4 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 291.
Annie J. Baker’s footrest (at left) in the Andrewses’ Pittsfield, Massachusetts, home.
The top opens to reveal an interior compartment for storing personal and sewing effects. $2,000-3,000
Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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7 Shaker Pine Work Counter, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, the rectangular overhanging top with rounded front corners and slightly rounded edge above three lipped drawers with wooden pulls, on cutout ends and applied front brackets, old refinish, (imperfections), ht. 30 3/4, top wd. 38 1/2, case wd. 33 1/4, case dp. 17 3/4 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979. This counter is attributed to Mount Lebanon, New York, in the May 1979 issue of The Magazine Antiques. Shaker furniture scholars Tim Rieman and Jean Burks cataloged a very similar piece in The Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture, p. 128. The case sides on both examples terminate in a flattened arch cutout. Both have an applied half-round rail at the bottom, as well as applied curved feet on the front. $4,000-6,000
Online bidding www.skinnerinc.com This piece was used at the Andrewses’ Shaker Farm, inat Richmond, Massachusetts. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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8 Shaker Red-painted Rack, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, with eighteen openings, original surface, (imperfections), ht. 27 3/4, wd. 58, dp. 11 1/2 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 185. This rack was acquired by the Andrewses from the South Family at Mount Lebanon. It was photographed by Noel Vincentini for The Index of American Design just inside a door of the South Family Dwelling in 1935 (see image at left). Barely visible in the image is a cupboard door on the upper left of the piece. This door has since disappeared. The rack is utilitarian in the extreme, and displays the clean lines and essential functionality so prized in Shaker craftsmanship. Vincentini may have placed the rack for his photograph; in the May 1979 issue of The Magazine Antiques it is stated that it was acquired from the North Family at Mount Lebanon. However, given the nearly forty years between the image and the article, a South Family origin seems more probable. $6,000-8,000 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS
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9 Shaker Brown/Red-painted Rocking Chair, New Lebanon, New York, early 19th century, the four arched slats joining turned post above flat shaped arms, the second slat with paper label affixed to back, with numerals “01.,” tapered arm supports continuing to legs joined by double stretchers, ending in turned feet joined by shaped rockers, ht. 45 1/2, seat ht. 15 1/2 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plate 16; Community Industries of the Shakers, figure 60; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; and Gather Up the Fragments, p. 210.
Shaker Furniture, plate 16, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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The unrefined side-scroll arms and turned bottom on the posts point to the relatively early construction date of this rocker. “01.” is written on a heavily finished label affixed to the center of the reverse of the top slat. The meaning of this is unknown, although the Andrewses speculated that it could have indicated a date of 1801. A more likely explanation is that it specified the room in which the chair was used. The finish is a red paint and the tape seat has been replaced. $12,000-15,000
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10 Shaker Red-stained Tilter Chair, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, with three arched slats and double stretchers, old red stain, ht. 38 1/2, seat ht. 15 in. $400-600
11 Shaker Armchair, probably Lillian Perkins and William Barlow, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1930, the four arched slats joining turned stiles, and shaped arms with rounded handholds, ht. 46 3/4, seat ht. 18 in. Lillian Perkins and William Barlow were the last two chair-makers at Mount Lebanon. $600-800
12 Shaker Red-stained Tilter Chair, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, with three arched slats, old refinish over original red stain, ht. 38 1/2, seat ht. 14 1/2 in. $200-300
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13 Shaker Tilter Chair, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, with three arched slats and double stretchers, the back of the middle slat inscribed in script in pencil “Girls” and in black paint numbered “13.,” refinished, (imperfections), ht. 40 3/4, seat ht. 15 3/4 in.
14 Shaker Tilter Chair, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, with three arched slats and double stretchers, refinished, with traces of yellow color, (imperfections), ht. 40 3/4, seat ht. 16 1/4 in. $400-600
Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 207. This side chair is typical of those made for use within the community at Mount Lebanon in the 1830s and 1840s. The top slat of this example is curiously reinforced where it is mortised and pegged into the posts. $800-1,200
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15 Shaker Cherry Tilter Chair, probably Mount Lebanon, New York, early 19th century, with three arched slats joining the turned posts topped by finials, with taped seat and legs joined by double stretchers, (refinished), ht. 38, seat ht. 14 1/4 in. $300-500
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16 Shaker Red-painted Pine Blanket Chest over Drawer, attributed to Brother Gilbert Avery, Mount Lebanon, New York, 1837, the hinged lift lid with rounded front and applied tongue and groove end moldings, opens to a well with lidded till and interior drawer, the dovetail-constructed box with inlaid escutcheons, the single drawer with beveled edge and turned wooden pulls, on a dovetailed bracket base, the backboard inscribed “Made April. 1837/Canaan,” and with blue label “THE BERKSHIRE MUSEUM/ ANDREWS/#49,” the pulls appear to be original, old surface, (minor imperfections), ht. 27 3/4, case wd. 40, case dp. 18 in. Provenance: Acquired by the Andrewses from the Second Family at Mount Lebanon in 1928.
Shaker Furniture, plate 19, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
The Andrewses made notes recording the provenance of many items in their collection. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
Literature: The Magazine Antiques, July 1928, p. 134; Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plate 19; Erwin Christensen, The Index of American Design (The MacMillan Company, New York, 1950), p. 23, plate 41; Shaker: Furniture and Objects from the Faith and Edward Deming Andrews Collections Commemorating the Bicentenary of the American Shakers, by A.D. Emmerich and A.H. Benning (Washington, DC: Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973), p. 55, plate 8; The Book of Shaker Furniture, by John Kassay (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980), pp. 112-13; Shaker: A Uniquely American Aesthetic, n.p.; Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture, p. 186; The Complete Book of Shaker Furniture, Timothy Rieman and Jean M. Burks (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1993), pp. 138-39, plate 60; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 163. Exhibitions: Berkshire Museum, 1932; Berkshire Museum, 1940; Renwick, 1973 (see Lot 124 for more information).
Plate from The Index of American Design
This chest was published in the Andrewses’ first article on Shaker furniture in the August 1928 issue of The Magazine Antiques. They acquired it that year from the Second Family, Mount Lebanon. It is built of pine and finished with red paint and inlaid escutcheons. The lid has breadboard ends typical of Shaker chests. The case is dovetailed and outfitted with iron hinges and screws and steel and brass locks. The original keys remain with the piece, and the lock is operable. It has been attributed to Brother Gilbert Avery who moved between various families at Mount Lebanon, but was buried at Canaan. In Shaker Furniture the Andrewses state: “Tradition ascribes the chest to Gilbert Avery.” The following is inscribed on the back of the case: “Made April. 1837. Canaan.” If Avery did construct this chest, he was sixty-four years old at the time. He was also a chair-maker and the father of prominent Shaker leader Elder Giles Avery. An illustration of the piece, made by an artist working at the Andrewses’ home, was published in The Index of American Design (at left). Faith Andrews used the chest for many years in her bedroom. $8,000-12,000
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17 Shaker Red-painted Poplar Grain Bin, Sabbathday Lake, Maine, c. 1830, with three hinged lids above conformingly sized compartments, on the nail-constructed box with cutout ends, old surface, (imperfections), ht. 23, wd. 66 1/2, dp. 19 1/4 in. $1,500-2,500
18 Shaker Pine Bench, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, the seat with molded edge joined to the cutout feet by diagonal mortised braced supports, old worn brown-stained surface, (imperfections), ht. 16, dp. 9 1/2, lg. 47 3/4 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plate 1. This pine bench exhibits the pointed arch cutouts found on early meetinghouse and dining benches from New Lebanon, where the Andrewses acquired this bench. The top has a molded edge on the seat and is finished in a dark stain. Another bench, as well as a bookshelf, included in this auction (Lots 53 and 44, respectively) have similarly shaped cutouts at the bottom, suggesting perhaps they were constructed by the same cabinetmaker. $3,000-5,000
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The study at the Andrewses’ Shaker Farm, in Richmond, Massachusetts. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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19 Shaker Pine Bench, New Lebanon, New York, 1820, the rectangular top mortised into the arched ends, with diagonally placed wrought iron braces, old natural finish, ht. 17 1/4, wd. 20 7/8, dp. 10 1/2 in.
20 Shaker Maple and Ash Bench, early 19th century, the split-log seat with chamfered front and back edge on four turned, swelled, splayed legs, original red paint, ht. 21 1/2, wd. 29 1/4, dp. 12 1/2 in.
Literature: The Book of Shaker Furniture, pp. 8-9. $2,500-3,500
Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plate 25; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 372. This simple bench has turned legs dowelled into the base and is chamfered along the lower edges. It is painted a deep red. The legs gradually thicken as they rise, are mortised into the top, and are splayed for stability. A number of sturdy benches similar to this one were collected by the Andrewses as they scoured Shaker workshops, primarily at Mount Lebanon, New York. See Lot 85 in this sale for another example. $800-1,200
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Shaker Furniture, plate 25, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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Shaker Boxes Shaker Brother Isaac Newton Youngs, of New Lebanon, New York, wrote the following about oval boxes in his 1856 “Concise View Of the Church of God and of Christ, On Earth”: Oval Boxes. These have manufactured almost or quite yearly, since perhaps the year 1800. This has been a very good little branch of business, tho’ not so extensive as some. A great improvement has been made in this line. Formerly the rims were sawed out in a common sawmill, which did the work slowly and imperfectly. The heading & rims were planed by hand. But about the year 1830 the sawing was done by a buz saw, and the heading planed by water. And shortly after a planing machine was erected, (say in 1832) to plane the rims, which performed the work admirably. Since there has been considerable done for sale yearly. The Shakers used oval boxes for a wide variety of purposes. Some of these examples still have their original contents: copper tacks (used in box manufacturing) (Lots 30 and 34), wooden pegs (used in cobbling) (Lot 26), and “Irish Glue” (an animal glue dried in flakes) (Lot 21). The box containing the wooden pegs bears an interesting inscription on the underside of the lid: “$1.10 The latter part of 1854 I came to the wash house being then 23 [illegible] was in the year 1855” and the name “Louisa.” The “Irish Glue” box has the initials “I.Y” incised on the underside of the lid, presumably for Brother Isaac Newton Youngs. Brother Isaac was the subject of the biography One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793-1865 by Glendyne R. Wergland. One of the true Shaker polymaths, he excelled at cabinetmaking, building, printing, music, journaling, tailoring, clockmaking, and a variety of other practical pursuits.
21 Shaker Oval Covered Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with three fingers fastened with copper tacks, light brown stained surface, the side of the box inscribed “Irish Glue” in red paint, and also with applied paper label inscribed “Irish Glue” in ink, the interior containing flakes of dried animal glue, the inside of the lid is impressed “I.Y.” for Brother Isaac Youngs (1793-1865), a Shaker tailor, woodworker, clockmaker, and scribe at the New Lebanon, New York, community, and probable first owner of the box, ht. 2 1/8, wd. 3 3/8, lg. 5 3/8 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 306. $4,000-6,000
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22 Shaker Red-painted Covered Oval Box with “Queen of the Meadow” Label, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with five fingers fastened with copper tacks, painted oxblood red, one end with applied printed paper label: “Queen of the Meadow,” (minor surface scratches, light mineral residue on cover), ht. 5 1/2, wd. 9 1/2, lg. 13 1/2 in.
The printed label affixed to the end uses the same font as a large body of mid-19th century ephemera printed at Canterbury, New Hampshire, potentially indicating that after its construction at New Lebanon, it made its way to the community at Canterbury, where the label was likely applied. This box was painted with the lid on, as evidenced by the lack of paint along the upper edge of the side. The finely cut fingers are beveled, gradually flattening from the crotch to the tips. The deep red ochre coating is beautifully intact. The herb Queen of the Meadow (Eupatorium Purpureum) is also known as joe–pye, trumpet weed, gravel root, and purple boneset. The Mount Lebanon Shakers’ 1873 Druggist’s Hand-Book of Pure Botanic Preparations describes it as a “valuable remedy in dropsy, strangury, gravel and all urinary disorders.” $3,000-5,000
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23 Shaker Covered Oval Box with Sewing Accessories, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with four fingers, fastened with copper tacks, natural surface with remnants of bittersweet paint; the interior with remains of light green silk lining over wool batting, a pincushion, a strawberry emery, a nub of needle wax, an embroidered white wool felt needle case, and several wooden spools of commercial thread, ht. 4, wd. 4 7/8, lg. 7 3/8 in. $1,500-2,500
24 Shaker Covered Oval Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with three fingers fastened with copper tacks, nut brown finish, with pencil inscription on left side of box: “Smallest,” and an Andrews inventory number inscribed red marker “A-54a” on the bottom, ht. 1 3/8, wd. 2 1/2, lg. 3 5/8 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 306. $800-1,200
25 Shaker Oval Covered Box, possibly Daniel Crosman, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with three fingers fastened with roundheaded copper tacks, brown stained surface, (minor losses), ht. 1 7/8, wd. 2 3/4, lg. 4 1/2 in. The use of round-headed copper tacks to secure the fingers may indicate the box’s maker as Daniel Crosman (1810-1885), a skilled box maker at the New Lebanon, New York, community. $600-800
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26 Shaker Covered Oval Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with three fingers fastened with copper tacks, light brown stained surface, the box containing small wooden pegs, the underside of the lid with penciled inscriptions: “The latter part of 1854 I came to the wash house being then 23 [illegible] was in the year 1855,” the name “Louisa,” and “$1.10,” possibly indicating its selling price from the Shakers, (losses), ht. 1 3/4, wd. 2 7/8, lg. 4 5/8 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 306. $600-800 27 Shaker Oval Covered “CREAM TARTAR” Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with three fingers fastened with copper tacks, natural finish, with remnants of applied printed label “CREAM TARTAR” on one side of the box, ht. 2 3/8, wd. 4, lg. 6 1/8 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 308. $600-800
28 Shaker Oval Covered Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with three fingers fastened with copper tacks, light brown varnished surface, the interior lid with penciled presentation inscription from a Shaker sister, (mineral deposits on surface of cover), ht. 2 1/4, wd. 4, lg. 6 1/8 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 308. A lengthy gift inscription appears on the inside of the lid of this box: “Presented/By Betsy Crosman/to Sarah Crother/June 30 1874/ Truely I love the Giver/her life is one of/sweet Contentment.” Betsy Crosman was born on February 27, 1804, in Wilmington, Vermont. She was one of a group of converts made at Wilmington by New Lebanon Shaker Calvin Green. She moved with her family to New Lebanon in 1819. She lived at the North Family and then the Church Family, where she served as a Deaconess. Crosman was a weaver and a tailoress; she died on November 24, 1892, aged 88. $700-900
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29 Shaker Covered Oval Box Labeled “Gum Mastich,” Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, pine top and bottom with bent ash sides joined with six short fingers fastened with copper tacks, brown stained surface, the cover with applied printed paper label: “Gum Mastich,” (crack), ht. 2 3/8, wd. 3 3/4, lg. 5 1/4 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 308. $600-800
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30 Shaker Covered Oval Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with three fingers fastened with copper tacks, light brown stained surface, containing numerous small copper tacks used in the making of oval boxes, and a small paper packet secured with string, ht. 1 3/8, wd. 2 1/2, lg. 3 5/8 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 306. $400-600
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31 Shaker Oval Covered Box, New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with four fingers fastened with copper tacks, brown stained surface, (imperfections), ht. 4 7/8, wd. 8 3/8, lg. 12 in. $300-500
32 Shaker Oval Covered Box, 19th century, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with four fingers facing left fastened with copper tacks, brown stained surface, (imperfections), ht. 4 3/8, wd. 8, lg. 11 1/8 in. $200-300
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33 Small Red-stained Oval Covered Box, 19th century, with pine top and bottom and bent maple sides joined by three fingers secured with copper tacks, red stained surface, (shrinkage cracks on lid), ht. 2 1/2, wd. 4, lg. 5 in. This box was apparently used by the Shakers, but likely not made by them. $200-250
34 Shaker Oval Covered Box, pine top and bottom with bent maple sides joined with three fingers fastened with copper tacks, dark brown stained surface, the box containing numerous small copper tacks, and a small paper packet, (loss, imperfections), ht. 1 1/8, wd. 2 1/2, lg. 3 5/8 in. $200-250
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35 Shaker Yellow Pine and Maple Laundry Cart, late 19th century, the rectangular sides joined by horizontal turned rails, on four cast iron and turned maple wheels, old refinish, (alterations), ht. 16, wd. 20, dp. 14 in. $800-1,200
36 Shaker Maple Hanging Shelf, 19th century, the backboard pierced for hanging on a peg rail, with shelf over four nearly square compartments, natural brown stained surface, (imperfections), ht. 18 7/8, wd. 14, dp. 6 in. $800-1,200 37 Shaker Pine Hanging Shelf, c. 1880, two-shelf case with backboards, pierced for hanging on a peg rail, natural finish, ht. 31 1/4, wd. 12 3/8, dp. 5 1/8 in. $400-600
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This rack was used in the dining room of the Andrewses’ home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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38 Shaker Red-painted Hanging Shelf, 19th century, the rectangular shelf above seven open compartments joining shaped bracket ends, old surface, overall ht. 18, lg. 83 3/4, dp. 10 1/4 in. Literature: Religion in Wood: A Book of Shaker Furniture, by Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews (Bloomington, Indiana, and London: Indiana University Press, 1966), plate 90; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979. In the May 1979 issue of The Magazine Antiques it is reported that this set of shelves was used in a Shaker carpenter’s shop. $3,000-5,000
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The 1839 Shaker Schoolhouse at New Lebanon, New York. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
A photograph of the schoolroom c. 1875 shows this cupboard at left. Courtesy of Hamilton College, Communal Societies Collection, Richard Brooker Collection
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39 Shaker Pine Schoolhouse Cupboard and Case of Drawers, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, the flat cove-molded cornice above a panel with two pegs over a double-hinged door with four recessed molded panels that can be partially or fully opened to an interior of six shelves and four compartments, with four graduated, thumbmolded drawers below, original orange-brown pigmented washed surface, ht. 95, wd. 30, dp. 15 3/4 in. Provenance: Sister Sadie Neale. Literature: Religion in Wood, p. 89; Shaker: Furniture and Objects, p. 52, plate 5; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; The Book of Shaker Furniture, p. 50; Gather Up the Fragments, pp. 152-3. Exhibitions: Renwick, 1973. Considered by Faith Andrews to be “one of the choicest pieces in the collection” (The Magazine Antiques, May 1979). Sister Sadie Neale sold this tall cupboard over drawers to the Andrewses. It was probably built for the New Lebanon schoolhouse that was constructed in 1839 on the site of the old hatter’s shop. The building was framed by Isaac Newton Youngs, who oversaw every aspect of its design, even down to the form of the desks for the teacher and students. The building still stands today, and a stereoview of c. 1875 shows this piece was being used inside. The bi-fold door is hinged in the middle and can be opened partially or fully. A series of shelves, dividers, and graduated doors facilitated the storage of schoolbooks and supplies. Maps and educational charts were hung from the pegs on the upper case-front. The exterior is pine, with an unknown hardwood secondary. It is finished in an orange-brown pigmented wash. Many of the design details of this piece are similar to those of the well-known double Trustees’ desk featured in Shaker Furniture, plate 36. Of the present lot, Shaker scholar John Kassay writes, “The arrangement of the graduated drawers and paneled doors on this exceptionally tall cupboard-chest is harmoniously elegant.” $60,000-80,000
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The schoolhouse cupboard in use at the Andrewses’ house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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40 Shaker Pine Red-painted Two-door Cupboard, Hancock, Massachusetts, or Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1800, the doors with raised panels and molded surround open to an interior of six shelves, old surface, the right side with two pegs, formerly built-in on the left side, (minor imperfections), ht. 80 1/2, wd. 37 1/2, dp. 18 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, pp. 156-57. Ted Andrews’s unpublished notes on the Andrews Collection contain the following reference: “Large, high cupboard with two paneled doors, painted red. Hancock Church weave shop. (Now at Shaker Farm.)” This description may apply to this cupboard. The raised panels and evidence of hand-planing indicate an early construction date. $8,000-12,000
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41 Shaker Pine Cupboard over Four Drawers, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, hinged door over molded recessed panel opening to three shelves above four graduated drawers with wooden pulls, with an applied dovetailed bracketed base, old refinish, (minor imperfections), ht. 74 1/4, wd. 33, dp. 16 1/4 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 159.
56
This unusual piece consists of a fully finished case of drawers with single plank sides extending upwards to a cupboard framed on top. Like Lot 58 in this sale, this piece has an applied dovetailed base. Traces of yellow ochre paint remain, although the piece appears to have been refinished long ago. This cupboard over drawers seems to have barely escaped annihilation. A large burn mark is visible on the right side. A lamp or candle may have tipped over and briefly been in contact with the case side. $8,000-12,000
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41
The piece photographed outside, perhaps shortly after its acquisition, and then again in the Andrewses’ home. Both images courtesy The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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The Andrewses made notes recording the provenance of many items in their collection. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
42 Shaker Red-painted Pine Loom Bench, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, the rectangular slightly concave seat above a single dovetailed drawer, with panel below joining the sides with cutout arches, ht. 22, wd. 18, dp. 12 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, p. 74; New Horizons in American Art, #329; Shaker: Furniture and Objects, plate 28; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 219. Exhibitions: Renwick, 1973.
Plate from New Horizons of American Art
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The seat of this example is curved to accommodate the weaver. The entire piece is finished in a red wash. It was “found in loom rooms at the Mt. Lebanon Church,” according to Ted Andrews’s unpublished notes. Federal Art Project Director Holger Cahill published an illustration of this piece in his New Horizons of American Art (1937) (at left). This landmark publication featured a number of the Andrewses’ Shaker objects in a section of “Allied Arts.” This loom stool is number 329. $6,000-8,000
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43 Shaker Pine Washstand, mid-19th century, the arched backboard with small quarterround shelf joining shaped sides and straight front, on a rectangular overhanging top on skirt with drawer and medial shelf joining four square tapering legs, refinished with traces of old red wash, (imperfections), ht. 35 1/2, wd. 23 3/4, dp. 14 1/4 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, 1979. $2,500-3,500
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44 Shaker Pine Flight of Shelves, 19th century, the sides with cutout feet joining six shelves, old dry natural surface, ht. 62 3/4, wd. 19 1/2, dp. 10 3/4 in. Similarly shaped cutouts at the bottom as Lots 18 and 53, suggesting perhaps they were constructed by the same cabinetmaker. $800-1,200
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Shaker Furniture, plate 1, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
45 Shaker Tin Hanging Candle Sconce, Hancock, Massachusetts, early 19th century, with crimped edge on the arched crest and reeded borders, with lower shelf to hold matches, ht. 19, wd. 6, dp. 4 1/2 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plates 1 and 27; Shaker: Furniture and Objects, p. 75; and Gather Up the Fragments, p. 338. Exhibitions: Probably Whitney Museum, 1935, #2; Renwick, 1973. “The tin candle sconce (from Hancock) is provided with a rack for matches or matchbox,� Andrews and Andrews, Shaker Furniture, p. 67. It has a scalloped top edge and would have been hung from a nail. $1,500-2,500
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46 Shaker Tin and Pewter Teapot, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1820, oval form with hinged lid with oval pewter finial and earshaped hollow pewter handle salvaged from a pewter teapot, ht. 8, wd. 8 3/4, lg. 13 1/2 in. Provenance: Gifted to the Andrewses from Sister Sadie Neale, New Lebanon, New York, according to a note written by Faith Andrews kept inside the teapot. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 339. This teapot was one of Faith Andrews’s favorite gifts from Sister Sadie Neale of the Mount Lebanon’s Church Family. Faith carefully recorded its provenance on the small note included with the piece. Silhouette artist Nell Laughton made an image of Faith 1981, with the teapot on a stand next to her (at left). Shaker Brother Isaac Newton Youngs, of New Lebanon, New York, wrote the following about the Shakers’ use of tea in his 1856 “Concise View Of the Church of God and of Christ, On Earth.”: “Concerning tea.- In the beginning, the Chh. used but little foreign tea, but had instead, broth, milk porrage, sage, sullendine or even root tea, &c. But in a few years foreign tea, and milk and sweetening with it, was uniformly adopted, particularly for breakfast. After about the year 1808 or 10 tea was used without sugar. But for many years tea was not common for suppers except perhaps for some of the older part had it. This remained as the general custom till the year 1840 when all foreign tea was excluded from the table, none was used, but for the sick, and domestic tea, such as cross-wort meadow sweet, &c. was gathered and dried for tea.” $1,000-1,500 Top: Collection of Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Bottom: Sister Sadie Neale of Mount Lebanon, New York. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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47 Tinware Chamberstick and Snuffer, possibly Shaker made, early 19th century, the chamberstick with dished base and loop handle, (imperfections), ht. 4 3/4, dia. 7 1/4 in. 47
Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 338. $300-500
48 Twelve Pieces of Tinware and a Small Lead Pail, the items used by the Shakers and some likely Shaker made: a small bell-shaped hand lamp, a dustpan, a pail with wire bail, a small pitcher, a pitcher with hinged cover, an oil can with blue paint, a lamp filler, two coffee or teapots with hinged lids, a small covered pail with wire bail, a small, shallow, round pan, and a small rectangular covered box; and a small lead pail with wire bail, ht. 7/8 to 6 1/4, dia. 2 1/4 to 10 in. Literature: Religion and Wood, p. 33, shows a similar lamp filler on top of a wash bench. $400-600
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49 Paint-decorated Tinware Dome-top Trunk, America, early 19th century, used but not made by the Shakers, rectangular form with hinged lid, the front decorated with a white band with red fruit and green leaves, over red and green blossoms and fruit, on a black ground with yellow foliate brushed borders, (paint loss), ht. 7 1/2, wd. 10 1/4, dp. 6 1/2 in. $300-500 50 Paint-decorated Tinware Storage Box, America, early 19th century, used but not made by the Shakers, cylindrical form with hinged lid, decorated with a white band with red flowers and green leaves, on a black ground, (paint loss), ht. 6, dia. 7 in. $200-300
51 Shaker Mangle Iron, 19th century, rectangular with pointed front edge, with spiral twist handle, used in the tailor shop or laundry, ht. 6 1/2, wd. 2 1/4, lg. 12 1/2 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, 1979; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 328. The Shakers purchased many household items from worldly manufacturers. In the May 1979 issue of The Magazine Antiques it is reported that this mangle, or flatiron, was used in a Shaker tailoring shop. $200-250
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Shaker Furniture, plate 1, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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The Andrewses made notes recording the provenance of many items in their collection. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
52 Shaker Pine and Chestnut Laundry Table, Enfield, Connecticut, c. 1840, the top with breadboard ends on the mortise and throughtenoned cross base joined by double medial stretchers, old surface, (top with surface wear), ht. 27, wd. 57, dp. 33 3/4 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plate 6; Shaker: Furniture and Objects, p. 60; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; The Book of Shaker Furniture, p. 252; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 329.
Ted Andrews’s unpublished notes on the Andrews Collection contain the following references: “Found at the Enfield, Conn. settlement in 1929. Top in pine: base, ash. A strongly built piece, possibly for shop use. Stretchers are mortised into leg posts.” The top of this table consists of two pine boards with breadboard ends. The Andrewses stated in Shaker Furniture that this table was used as an ironing table at Enfield. The sawbuck, or X-trestle, base of this table would have made for a sturdy work surface. $10,000-15,000
Exhibitions: Whitney Museum, 1935, #12; Renwick, 1973.
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Shaker Furniture, plate 1, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
53 Shaker Salmon Orange-painted Pine Bench, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, the rectangular seat joined to the vertical cutout supports by four diagonal braces, original paint, (minor paint wear), ht. 17, lg. 73 1/2, dp. 11 1/2 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plate 5; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 142. This pine bench exhibits the pointed arch cutouts found on early meetinghouse and dining benches from Mount Lebanon. This example is finished in orange paint. Another bench, as well as a bookshelf, included in this auction (Lots 18 and 44) have similarly shaped cutouts at the bottom, suggesting perhaps they were constructed by the same cabinetmaker. $4,000-6,000
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54 Shaker Brown/Red-painted Pine Meetinghouse Bench, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1820, the rectangular seat joined to the three vertical cutout brackets by six diagonal braces, (imperfections), ht. 18, lg. 90 1/4, dp. 10 in. $800-1,200
55 Shaker Low-back Tilter Dining Chair, Watervliet or New Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, with two slats, splint seat, and double stretchers, old refinish, (imperfections), ht. 26, seat ht. 16 1/2 in. Dining chairs like this, and like Lot 56, were also used by the Hancock, Massachusetts, Shaker community, as shown in this c. 1875 stereoview of the dining room in the East Family dwelling at Hancock (at right). $100-150
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56 Shaker Low-back Tilter Dining Chair, Watervliet or New Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, with two slats, splint seat, and double stretchers, old refinish, (minor imperfections), ht. 26, seat ht. 16 1/2 in. $300-500
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The Andrewses made notes recording the provenance of many items in their collection. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
Collection of Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
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57 Shaker Tilter Chair, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, with three arched slats, old finish, ht. 38, seat ht. 14 in. A classic New Lebanon, New York, community side chair. This example has the ring turning between the top of the rear post and finial (called “pommels� by the Shakers) particular to New Lebanon chairs of this period. The steam-bent slats are carefully mortised into the posts, and the top slat is through pinned. This chair retains its original wooden ball-and-socket tilters, a Shaker innovation that was eventually patented in a metal form by Brother George O. Donnell in 1852. These tilters allowed the user to lean backwards without splitting the rear posts or denting the floor. $300-500
58 Shaker Red/Orange-stained Pine Case of Drawers, Mount Lebanon or Watervliet, New York, c. 1830, the flat top with applied shaped cornice molding, above a case of four short drawers and four graduated long drawers with turned wooden pulls on dovetailed bracket base, old surface, (minor imperfections), ht. 71, wd. 36, dp. 18 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 158. This large case of drawers was built for communal use. It is entirely of pine, and finished with a red wash. The case is fully dovetailed, with straight-cut feet extending from the sides. The cornice molding and dovetailed bracket base are applied. The base is similar to other case pieces attributed to both Mount Lebanon and Watervliet, New York. However, the simple cornice makes a Mount Lebanon attribution more likely. One of the earliest dated Shaker pieces, a tall case of drawers dated 1806, has a very similar applied bracket base; so this piece may have been built earlier than 1830 (see Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture, p. 125). In the May 1979 issue of The Magazine Antiques it is reported that this piece was acquired from the Hancock, Massachusetts, Shaker community. $30,000-50,000
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59 Shaker Cherry Work Counter, early 19th century, the rectangular overhanging top supported on three parallel front-to-back supports tenoned through the case front, above the case with hinged door and beaded recessed panel fitted with a brass latch, opening to three shelves which are mortised through the case sides and have exposed tenons, all on four inset wheels, old refinish, (imperfections), ht. 33, top wd. 36 1/2, case wd. 32 1/4, top dp. 24, case dp. 19 3/4 in. Literature: Religion in Wood, p. 89.
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This small counter is an uncommon form. The case is supported by two hidden stretchers with wheels set into them, making the piece portable, presumably for use in a workshop or kitchen setting. Wheels were sometimes used on much larger Shaker counters, but this small example is atypical. $8,000-12,000
The counter as used in the Andrewses’ home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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60 Shaker Pine “Pan” Cupboard, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, molded, rectangular overhanging top above a case with a hinged door with molded recessed panel opening to two shelves, all on molded bracket feet, old natural finish, (imperfections), ht. 25 7/8, case wd. 21, dp. 14 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, 1936; Religion in Wood, p. 84; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 165.
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This small cupboard is something of a mystery. The construction of the applied bracket base with ogee feet suggests an origin at Hancock, while the general form could as easily have been made at Mount Lebanon. The lack of notes pertaining to its provenance makes a firm attribution difficult. The piece appears to be varnished. A photograph of this cupboard in use at the Andrewses’ Richmond cottage appears in the October 1936 issue of The Magazine Antiques. A similar small cupboard— referred to as a “pan cupboard”—is illustrated in the January 1933 issue of The Magazine Antiques. $4,000-6,000
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61 Shaker Pine Cupboard, New Lebanon, New York, early 19th century, the dovetailconstructed case with a hinged door having a recessed panel and beaded surround opening to two shelves, all flanked by beaded corners, turned wooden pull, refinished with traces of red paint, (imperfections), ht. 24 1/2, wd. 32, dp. 15 3/4 in. $600-800
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62 Colorless Blown Glass Pitcher, 19th century, baluster-form with ear-shaped handle with scrolled terminal, polished pontil, ht. 7 1/2 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979. In the May 1979 issue of The Magazine Antiques it is reported that this pitcher had been acquired from a Shaker community. The Shakers did not manufacture glass, but instead purchased what they needed for household and industrial use from worldly glassmakers. $300-500
63 Two Blown Cobalt and Colorless Glass Dome String Dispensers, 19th century, with applied transparent cobalt blue bands on top and bottom rim, (base chips), ht. 4 5/8, 5 1/2, dia. 5 3/8, 5 in., respectively. These string dispensers were reportedly used in a Shaker herb or medicinal products shop but may also have been used in a community’s trustee’s office, where worldly visitors could buy Shaker products, and the string used to tie up the packages. $200-300
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64 Shaker Cherry Armless Rocker, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1840, with three arched slats, old refinish, ht. 37 1/2, seat ht. 14 1/2 in. This chair is easily attributed to New Lebanon based on a number of features. The frame of the chair is canted back to accommodate the sitter, a feat all the more impressive given that it is screwed onto thin rocker blades. The slats are mortised into the posts, and the top slat is through pinned. The collar turning between the top of the rear posts and the finial (Shakers called them pommels) is a hallmark type for this community. The tape seat (Shakers called it listing) has been replaced. $200-300
65 Shaker Production Armless Rocking Chair, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1880, with bar and three arched slats, original surface, (imperfections), ht. 33 3/4, seat ht. 15 in. $100-150
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66 Shaker Maple and Cherry Stand, Hancock, Massachusetts, or Enfield, Connecticut, c. 1850, the rectangular top with slightly rounded edge above two dovetail-constructed drawers mounted on channels, which can be opened in both directions, with turned wooden pulls, the underside of one drawer with blue printed label reading “THE BERKSHIRE MUSEUM/ ANDREWS/#15,” all on a turned pedestal and tripod base of spider legs, old finish, (very minor imperfections), ht. 26 1/4, wd. 22, dp. 18 3/4 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 181. Exhibitions: Berkshire Museum, 1932; possibly Whitney Museum, 1935, #11. A number of two-drawer stands survive that were made in the Hancock Bishopric, two examples of which are featured in this sale (see Lot 67). Upon being released from his position as Senior Elder in the Bishopric, Elder Grove Wright settled at the Enfield, Connecticut, community.
His personal journal for 1860, in the Andrews Collection at Winterthur, records the process of making two-drawer work stands: Thursday, May 3: I began to make two work stands for Elder Sister Clarissa Friday, May 4: I work making stand legs &c. Monday, May 7: I work at making stands Wednesday, May 9: I am at work on the stands Saturday, May 12: I made the 4 drawers for the two stands Elder Grove’s prominence in Bishopric leadership, and the constant rotation among Hancock, Tyringham, and Enfield, as well as his demonstrated collaboration with other cabinetmakers such as Elder Thomas Damon, make community attributions of two-drawer workstands very difficult, and arguably irrelevant. The square top, spider legs, and more simply turned pedestal are the chief differences between this example and Lot 67. $10,000-15,000
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Shaker Furniture, plate 15, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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67 Shaker Maple and Pine Stand, Hancock, Massachusetts, or Enfield, Connecticut, c. 1840, the rectangular top with rounded corners above two drawers with exposed dovetailed fronts mounted on channels, which can be opened in both directions, with brass pulls, the underside of one drawer with blue printed label reading “THE BERKSHIRE MUSEUM/ANDREWS/#17,” all on a turned pedestal and tripod base of cabriole legs, old finish, (imperfections), ht. 23 3/4, wd. 19, dp. 16 1/2 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, 1929; Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plate 15; Shaker: Furniture and Objects, p. 68, plate 22; The Magazine Antiques, 1979; and Gather Up the Fragments, p. 180. Exhibitions: Berkshire Museum, 1932; possibly Whitney Museum, 1935, #11; Renwick, 1973.
A number of two-drawer stands survive that were made in the Hancock Bishopric, two examples of which are featured in this sale (see Lot 66). Upon being released from his position as Senior Elder in the Bishopric, Elder Grove Wright settled at the Enfield, Connecticut, community. See the note on Lot 66 for Elder Grove Wright’s account of his working process specific to twodrawer stands like these. The small brass pulls and exposed dovetails are details similar to other one- and two-drawer stands made in the Bishopric. Many Hancock Bishopric stands display the same beveled edges on the undersides of the legs, as well as a neatly cut foot. The pedestal of this example has a subtle swelled turning. $15,000-25,000
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The pitcher as used in the Andrewses’ home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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68 Stoneware Pitcher with Shaker-made Wooden Cover, Mount Lebanon, New York, mid-19th century, baluster-form pitcher with a Shaker-made carved maple cover, carved to conform to the rim of the pitcher, with turned hardwood knob; a note in the interior, inscribed in Faith Andrews’s hand reads “Sadie Neale/Herb Shop/New Lebanon...,” overall ht. 8 7/8 in.
69 Twenty-two Shaker-made Wooden Thumbscrews, Tilter Bobs, and Pegs, eight carved and turned thumbscrews, six tilter bobs, eight turned pegs, an oval chair pommel segment, and a small turned wooden cap; twenty-four items total. $200-250
Literature: The Magazine Antiques, 1936; The Magazine Antiques, 1979; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 340. The ceramic pitcher was made by a nonShaker potter, but the carefully crafted lid was made by the Shakers. It is carved from a single piece of hardwood, and carefully rounded on the top edges. The bottom has been relieved to fit the pitcher, and a turned hardwood knob is threaded into the top. $600-800
69
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70 Shaker Woven Splint Basket, possibly Enfield, Connecticut, c. 1820, rectangular form with fixed upright bent ash handle with single notch to accommodate the rim, the rim wrapped with single lashing, the vertical splints alternately cut off and turned down on the exterior near the rim, (minor imperfections), ht. to rim 5 1/4, ht. to top of handle 9 3/4, wd. 9, lg. 11 1/4 in. $800-1,200
71 Shaker Small Oval Tray, pine bottom with bent maple sides joined with a single finger fastened with copper tacks, original yellow stain, ht. 1 1/8, wd. 3 7/8, lg. 5 7/8 in. $200-250 72 Shaker Pine Tray, 19th century, rectangular tray with canted sides, applied iron braces on the corners and applied carved handles, natural surface, (losses, wear), ht. 3 3/4, wd. 12 5/8, lg. 17 3/8 in. Literature: Religion in Wood, p. 91. $300-500
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73 Shaker Needlework Sampler, “Charlotte M Stevens was born in Hancock October 25th AE. 1808. Marked in her 11th year AE. 1819.,� stitched with silk threads on a linen foundation, with five rows of alphabets, enclosed on three sides with a geometric border, (toning), 8 3/8 x 9 1/2 in., in a later mitered wood frame. Shaker samplers tend to lack the decoration found on samplers executed by non-Shaker girls. The maker, Charlotte M. Stevens, was born in Hancock, Massachusetts—the location of a Shaker community beginning in the early 1780s. However, no record of her has been found among its members, which is not unusual for children in Shaker communities. A Charlotte Stevens was admitted as a twelve-year-old to the Shirley, Massachusetts, Shaker community in June 1815. She apostatized on August 20, 1821. We cannot be certain that this is the same Charlotte Stevens. $800-1,200
71
73
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74 Shaker Red-painted Butternut and Pine Hanging Cupboard, early 19th century, the rectangular top with half-round edge above a hinged door with beaded recessed panel opening to two shelves and applied half-round bottom edge, turned wooden knob, repainted red, (imperfections), ht. 25 3/4, wd. 21, dp. 14 1/4 in. $1,500-2,500
88
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75
75 Shaker Blue/Gray-painted Peg Rail, 19th century, the rectangular form with chamfered upper and lower edges, and four turned pegs, (imperfections), ht. 3, lg. 55 in. $300-500 76 Four Shaker Pine Peg Rails, 19th century, the rectangular forms of varied length with turned pegs, (imperfections), ht. 2 1/2, lg. 25 1/2 to 69 in. $300-500
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77 Shaker Pine Built-in Dumbwaiter/ Cupboard, possibly New Lebanon, New York, mid-19th century, the rectangular frame with beaded edge enclosing a vertically-sliding paneled door with two recessed, molded wooden panels, opening to a shelved interior, original dark brown stained surface, ht. 75 3/4, wd. 32, dp. 9 1/2 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979. In the May 1979 issue of The Magazine Antiques it is reported that this unique piece was “originally built in, it combines an open cupboard with a dumb-waiter: the paneled door at the bottom slides up, and the set of shelves behind it could be lowered to the kitchen below.” Two similar, though larger, dumbwaiters are still extant in the 1830 Church Family Shaker brick dwelling at Hancock, Massachusetts. The North Family dwelling at Mount Lebanon, New York, also had a dumbwaiter used to bring food up from a cold storage room in the basement. $1,500-2,500
78 Shaker Single-door Cupboard with Drawer, 19th century, the paneled door opens to five shelves, with thumbmolded drawer below, old surface, (alterations), ht. 53, case wd. 18, case dp. 15 in. A handwritten label with minor losses on the underside of a shelf reads “Docters [sic] No. 8/Cubberd[sic] mad-/1868 Marc-.” $1,000-1,500
79 Shaker Pine Built-in Cupboard, mid19th century, with single hinged door opening to four shelves, (imperfections), ht. 48, wd. 20, dp. 12 1/4 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979. $400-600
90
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78
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80 Shaker Cherry and Butternut Drop-leaf Table, Sister’s shop, Canaan, New York, early 19th century, rectangular overhanging drop-leaf top on a straight apron with two scratch-beaded drawers, one on each side, with turned wooden pulls, supported on square tapering legs, old mellow surface, ht. 28, closed wd. 13, open wd. 27 1/4, lg. 36 in. Provenance: John Roberts, Canaan, New York, to Faith Andrews. Literature: Religion in Wood, p. 79. This double drop-leaf table represents Shaker craftsmanship at its most austere. It is finished in a red wash. The square legs taper in thickness from the skirt to the floor. A similarly plain double drop leaf table exists from the Watervliet, New York, community (see Rieman and Burks, Encyclopedia, pp. 232-233). Tapered leg Shaker tables were also made at New Lebanon, New York, Hancock, Massachusetts, and Enfield, Connecticut. $8,000-12,000
92
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80
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81 Shaker Red-painted Cherry Drop-leaf Table, Sabbathday Lake, Maine, early 19th century, the rectangular overhanging drop-leaf top supported by pullout leaf supports, and straight skirt joining square tapering legs, old red paint, (imperfections), ht. 27 3/4, dp. 36, wd. open 33 3/4 in. $2,500-3,500
82 Shaker “3” Production Tilter Chair, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1875, with three arched slats joining slightly raked stiles, the topmost stamped “W” on left side, original finish, ht. 34, seat ht. 13 in. $300-500 83 Shaker Production Tape-seat Stool, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1900, marked inside one leg, original surface, (imperfections), wd. 13 1/2, seat ht. 17 1/2 in. Stools of this style were manufactured for sale by Brother Robert M. Wagan’s chair company, based at Mount Lebanon’s South Family. Photographs of Sister Sarah Collins, as well as South Family’s chair showroom, show stools of this type were sold into the 1930s. $300-500
94
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82
83
The chair showroom at the South Family, Mount Lebanon, New York. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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84 Shaker Painted Oak Sleigh Bench, c. 1830, the canted sides with arched tops joined by mortised seat with diagonal bracing, early yellow-green paint, (lacks horizontal boards at base), ht. 25 1/2, wd. 33, dp. 9 1/2 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 373. Andrews family tradition states that this bench was made for use on a Shaker sleigh. It is certainly a unique form, and the entire frame is held in tension, with the splayed sides attached to the seat by diagonal stretchers. Additionally, the sides are screwed into the seat. The bottoms of the sides are relieved on the inside, and numerous nail holes on the outside show where it was nailed into place, which lend to the plausibility of its use as a sleigh bench. $800-1,200
85 Shaker Oak and Maple Bench, first half 19th century, the rectangular plank top with chamfered lower edge on splayed, turned, swelled, tapering legs, (minor imperfections), ht. 23 7/8, top 22 1/2 x 16 1/4 in. This is one of a number of sturdy benches that the Andrewses located in their frquent searches through Shaker workshops. The legs on this bench are very subtly turned, with scribe marks highlighting the swells. The legs are mortised into the top and splayed for stability. See Lot 20 in this sale for another example. $800-1,200
96
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86 Shaker Red Oak Bench, probably New Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, rectangular plank top with chamfered underside edge, on splayed rectangular, chamfered, tapering legs, old refinish with remnants of gray and red paint, (imperfections), ht. 14 1/4, wd. 50 3/4, dp. 16 1/4 in. $800-1,200
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87 Shaker Pine, Butternut, and Oak Bench, New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, the single board top bolted to perpendicular supports with canted ends, on canted, turned, slightly swelled, tapering legs with bulbous turning near the bottom, old surface, (minor imperfections), ht. 23, wd. 42, dp. 20 in. Tom Queen notes that a table with similar turned legs, attributed to the Shakers in New Lebanon, appears in The American Shakers and Their Furniture, by John Shea, p. 47. $800-1,200
88 Shaker Pine Bench, 19th century, the seat with straight skirt with shaped ends joins the two mortised supports, old surface, ht. 10 1/2, wd. 23 1/2, dp. 9 1/2 in. $400-600
98
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89 Shaker Cherry and Maple Mirror Holder with Mirror, molded mitered wood mirror frame with reddish-brown stain, supported on a maple backboard with two peg holes and molded cherry shelf support with three brass pins on the front edge for hanging small items, overall ht. 25 1/2, wd. 14 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture, plate 7; Religion in Wood, p. 87; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979. Exhibitions: Possibly Whitney Museum, 1935, #24. Shaker life was extremely hierarchical, and all members were expected to follow their lead, from the rank-and-file member up to the family Elder or Eldress, to the Ministry Elder and Eldress, and on to God. The “Millennial Laws,” first instituted in 1821, regulated Shaker life. Although surely not adhered to at all times and places in the 200-year-plus history of the sect, they do provide insight into an ideal set of “best practices” (to use a modern term). In the 1845 revision of the Millennial Laws, mirrors are found in Section X: Orders concerning Furniture in Retiring Rooms: “One good looking glass, which ought not to exceed eighteen inches in length, and twelve in width, with a plain frame. A looking glass larger than this, ought never be purchased by Believers.” $1,500-2,500
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90 Shaker Oblong Maple Dough Bowl, with integral carved handles on ends, natural dry surface, ht. 4 1/2, wd. 13 3/4, lg. 26 1/4 in. $300-500
92 Shaker Red-stained Pine Tray, square tray with dovetail-constructed canted sides, original dry surface, (shrinkage cracks on the bottom), ht. 5 1/4, wd. 15 in. Literature: Religion in Wood, p. 90. $400-600
91 Large Turned Maple Dough Bowl, probably Shaker, 19th century, with incised collar and line turnings on lower interior and exterior, dry natural surface, (imperfections), ht. 6 5/8, dia. 22 3/4 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979. $300-500
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93 Shaker Small Green-painted Dome-top Box, 19th century, the nail constructed box with wire hinges, ht. 3 1/2, wd. 8, dp. 3 3/4 in. $200-250
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93
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Tailoring Shaker Brother Isaac Newton Youngs, of New Lebanon, New York, wrote the following about Shaker tailoring in his 1856 “Concise View Of the Church of God and of Christ, On Earth”: Tayloring. There was an experienced workmen, in the beginning of the Chh. David Slosson who wro’t at this trade— and had several apprentices. They cut and made all the kinds of garments that males wear, excepting shirts, frocks, and handkerchiefs. After a short time those apprentises were chiefly dispersed, some to other churches, to set up the business there. Some quit working at the trade. Enough remained to do the work for the Church. The accomodations, aparatus &c. for this business was very limited & simple. The art of cutting was not reduced to rule: but the learner depended very much on the immediate instruction of an experienced workman. After about thirty-five years there were rules compiled for cutting, which greatly assisted the learner, whereby he was less liable to important errors. Within thirty years the business of making garments for the males has devolved more upon the sisters, and of late they have done pretty much all the sewing; but the cutting is still done by the males. Brother Isaac was a tailor, as were many members of the Shaker Ministry in communities both east and west. These wooden rules (Lots 94-96) were crafted from carefully selected pieces of wood in order to avoid warping and cracking. Two have large holes to facilitate hanging from a peg (Shakers called them “pins”) in a tailor’s workroom.
94 Shaker Wooden Tailor’s Ruler, 19th century, with curved edge reportedly for cutting sleeves, incised measurements with handwritten numbers in black ink, lg. 36 in. $400-600
95 Shaker Cherry Ruler, 19th century, with incised measuring increments and numerals, one end with large pierced hole suitable for hanging on a peg rack, (crack on one end), 1 x 32 in. $300-500
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96 Shaker Maple Tailor’s Ruler, dated “1846,” with a curved edge reportedly for cutting sleeves, with incised measuring increments, numerals, and “1846” date on the reverse, one end with large pierced hole suitable for hanging on a peg rack, lg. 36 1/8 in. $600-800
97 Pair of Shaker Maple Sock Dryers, shaped flat panels, each inscribed with the number “11” in ink, ht. 22 1/4, wd. 10 in. $100-150
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Top to bottom: 94, 95, 96
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98 Oval Carrier, made by George Roberts, who was not a Shaker, but worked for the Shaker Neale sisters, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1930, pine bottom with bent maple sides joined with two fingers fastened with copper tacks, and fixed upright handle, (repair on handle), ht. 7 1/2, wd. 11 1/8, lg. 14 1/2 in. Oval carriers, both lidded and unlidded, were a natural outgrowth of the oval box industry at the Church Family, Mount Lebanon. Typically pine “headers” (tops and bottoms) were joined to steam-bent maple sides by finely cut, iron-tacked finger joints. This example in tiger maple is finished in a clear varnish and joined with copper tacks. Atypically, the bail is also made of tiger maple and joined to the side with copper washers and rivets. Handles were typically made of ash for strength. This carrier is remarkably similar to the one depicted in John Kassay’s Book of Shaker Furniture, p. 23. $300-500
Above: Shaker Furniture, plate 38, photograph by William F. Winter. Opposite: The table as used in the Andrewses’ home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Both: Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
104
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99 Shaker Pine and Birch Worktable, Canterbury, New Hampshire, c. 1840, overhanging rectangular top with breadboard ends, on four block- and ring-turned, slightly swelled, tapering legs joined by a straight apron, with thumbmolded drawer, turned wooden pull, traces of red wash, (minor imperfections), ht. 25 5/8, top 29 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. Literature: Shaker Furniture, plate 38; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 139. The overall form, particularly the square to round transition in the slender legs, divided by a small ring turning, is similar to other tables with provenance from Canterbury. $4,000-6,000
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Shaker Furniture, plate 9, photograph by William F. Winter. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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100 Shaker Birch and Pine Table, Alfred, Maine, c. 1830, oval overhanging top on square and tapering turned legs, ending in button feet, refinished, (minor imperfections), ht. 26 3/4, top 30 x 22 1/2 in.
101 Shaker Pine Work Stand, rectangular overhanging top with breadboard ends on square tapering legs, with straight apron, dry, natural surface, (restored), 28 1/4, top 29 1/2 x 19 1/4 in. $600-800
Literature: Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, plate 9; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 139. Exhibitions: Shaker Exhibition, Berkshire Museum, October 1932. The Andrewses acquired this table as Alfred was closing in 1931. The top is pine, and the skirt and legs are birch. Note the turning of the foot, it is quite similar to other Alfred drop-leaf tables. In Shaker Furniture, the Andrewses note, “The oval topped table was one of several used in a sister’s shop at Alfred.” $3,000-5,000
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102 Shaker Carpenter’s Workbench, 19th century, the heavy rectangular top on a narrow case of two dovetailed drawers and two shelves joining heavy posts which have screw notches at the bottom to affix the piece to the floor, old worn red-washed surface, (imperfections), ht. 33 1/4, wd. 57, case wd. 24, dp. 13 1/2 in.
108
The heavy frame of this piece indicates it was probably built for use in a Shaker workshop. At one time it was built-in, as evidenced by the lack of a back on the drawer case. The second drawer has two integral rows of pointed wooden dowels, perhaps used as a rack for tools. $800-1,200
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103 Shaker Pine Washstand, Mount Lebanon, New York, c. 1820, the splashboard with quarter-round sides on an overhanging rectangular top above two hinged doors with recessed, molded panels opening to a single shelf, traces of yellow-ochre wash, overall ht. 36, shelf ht. 24 3/4, overall wd. 56 1/2, dp. 17 in. Literature: Religion in Wood, pp. 33, 86; The Magazine Antiques, May 1979; The Book of Shaker Furniture, pp. 210-11; Gather Up the Fragments, p. 146.
The Andrewses acquired this piece from the North Family at Mount Lebanon. The relatively large size of this washstand indicates it was likely made for use in an area other than a typical Shaker retiring room. It was reported that this piece was originally used in the infirmary of the North Family (The Magazine Antiques, May 1979). Scholar and cabinetmaker John Kassay echoed this in his Book of Shaker Furniture. It is made almost entirely of pine, save the maple pulls. The top overhangs the case asymmetrically by 3 1/4 in. on the right side. However, small hardwood pegs on both sides of the case suggest the piece was not designed to be set into a corner. The large knots on the splashboard are unusual for Shaker work, perhaps further indication of the rough use intended for this piece. $15,000-25,000
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104 Shaker Woodbox over Drawer, Canterbury, New Hampshire, c. 1830, the top shelf with straight back and canted ends continuing to the box with molded slant lid, above a single drawer and high demilune cutouts, old surface with worn salmon paint, ht. 47 1/2, wd. 30 1/2, case dp. 18 1/4 in. Literature: The Magazine Antiques, May 1979. Possibly from the Shaker community of Canterbury, New Hampshire. A small note inside says, “Canterbury was used for Ministry.� While many Shaker woodboxes have legs, the presence of a drawer, possibly for kindling, makes this example uncommon. See Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture, p. 395, for a Canterbury sewing desk with a similar demilune cutout on the case sides. $1,500-2,500
110
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105 Shaker Pine Storage Box, 19th century, rectangular dovetail-constructed box with cutout handholds on the slightly arched ends, brown stained surface, (imperfections), ht. 9 3/4, wd. 10 1/2, lg. 18 in. $400-600
105
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Labels The Shakers were renowned in America by the mid-19th century for their sophisticated herbal medicine business. Brother Isaac Newton Youngs of New Lebanon, New York, chronicled the evolution of Shaker medical practice in his 1856 manuscript “Concise View of the Church of God and of Christ on Earth”: In the first opening of the gospel, it was a peculiar trait of the Believers’ faith not to rely much on outward means and remedies to remove diseases and infirmities, a learned physician was considered as very needless and unprofitable in general cases. It was recommended to rely more on the power of God, and on zeal & energy of spirit, than on the skill of a doctor. And especially it was enjoined not to apply to worlds’ doctors, if it could be avoided in reason…But the gift of healing by supernatural power was too precious to be granted as a common favor;—and as the body is subject to disease, it was indispensible that there should be some means for the releif of the afflicted. Therefore, an order of physicians, two males, and two females, was set apart in the Chh. to officiate in the medical line, & to these the brethren & sisters were to apply, each in their own order, males to the males & females to the females…About the year 1800, there was a little apartment, perhaps fifteen feet square, fitted up for the brethrens’ use, with a much less cellar attached…in 1827 there was a commodious apartment, and ample cellar room provided, which have remained to this time… Shaker physicians were also skilled herbalists, and employed “vegetable” or “botanical” medicine in treating their patients. The Shaker medicinal herb gardens, particularly at New Lebanon, New York, Canterbury, New Hampshire, and Harvard, Massachusetts, were renowned throughout America and Europe. During the 1850s world-famous botanist Asa Gray of Harvard College even facilitated a correspondence between herbalist Elder Elisha Myrick of the Harvard Shakers and William J. Hooker, Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens (Kew Gardens). The Shakers produced fluid extracts prepared in a pioneering vacuum pan, as well as dried herbs and compounded medicines. Brother Isaac memorialized the “herb business” in his “Concise View”: The gathering of Medicinal herbs has been practised almost from the first, more or less, for the use of physicians at home...About the year 1820 there was some beginning at preparing roots and herbs for sale, by drying, pressing and papering them, in nice compact form. There soon began to be a demand and ready market for roots and herbs, and an increasing attention was turned to the business. In addition the dried roots & herbs, they soon went into making various kinds of extracts. As the business increased, more room and accomodation was indispensible. A building 50 by 25, two story was erected for a drying house, and pressing, in the year 1832. To show the increase of the business we may state, that, in 1831 there were about 4000 lbs. of roots & herbs put up for sale.—in 1836 about 6000. In 1849 there were pressed of roots and herbs about 16,500 lbs. In 1850 there was a great increase of accommodations in the business, by the remoddling of two buildings, one for the extract business, and one for drying and pressing herbs, &c. the latter of which was 100 feet by & two story high. Also there was added a steam boiler and vacuum pan, with various aparatus and fixtures connected. The amount of herbs &c. pressed and prepared this year (1850,) was about 21,000, and extracts made about 7000, in the new works.
The Andrewses were fortunate to obtain original furniture and medical equipment, as well as thousands of colorful extract and medicine labels, which bear beautiful testament of the Shakers’ innovative herbal medicine practices.
112
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106 Shaker Butternut and Pine Herb Cupboard, North Family, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1860, the top with overhanging rounded edges above two hinged cupboard doors with recessed panels and beveled edges fitted with brass and porcelain hardware opening to three shelves, on a projecting base of four drawers with divided interiors, turned pulls and printed paper labels applied to the drawer-fronts indicating the onetime contents, the feet an extension of the case sides, old surface, (imperfections), ht. 66, case wd. 46, dp. 18 3/4 in. Literature: Religion in Wood, p. 91; Masterpieces of Shaker Furniture, Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews (Mineola, New York, Dover Publications, 1966), cover illustration and p. 91; Shaker: Furniture and Objects, p. 53, plate 6; The Book of Shaker Furniture, p. 63, plate 26; and Gather Up the Fragments, p. 148. Edward Deming Andrews’s reminiscence of finding this cupboard and its mate (now at Hancock Shaker Village), is highly evocative of what it must have been like to explore the buildings at Mount Lebanon: “The ‘nurse shop’ at the North family, New Lebanon, was located on the second floor of the second family dwelling. In one long narrow room, brightly lighted by south windows there were two identical cupboards to hold the medicinal herbs grown in the physic gardens and widely used in the Shaker infirmaries. Herb labels are pasted on the outside of the four deep drawers. The wood is butternut.” In another document Andrews wrote: “Through the kindness of Sister Rosetta Stephens we obtained both pieces.” Shaker furniture scholar and cabinetmaker Tim Rieman dates this piece to circa 1860 based on the use of butternut, which is rarely seen in earlier Mount Lebanon pieces. It has full plank sides, and the back of the case is constructed of horizontal boards that run all the way to the floor. The drawers are divided for the storage of medicinal herbs. The intact labels pasted to the front of the drawers read: Lemon Balm, Catfoot, Tanzy, Peppermint, Wormwood, Mother Wort, and Cohosh. In the catalog for the 1973 Renwick exhibition Shaker Faith Andrews remembered that the present lot “was filled with herbs when we bought it.” $40,000-60,000 The Second North Family dwelling at Mount Lebanon, New York. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS
114
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The herb cupboard as used in the Andrewses’ home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
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107 Shaker Herb Broadside “Makedo” Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, mid-19th century, the roughly circular cardboard form covered with labels, (water damage), ht. 8 1/2, dia. 12 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments, p. 191. An excellent example of the accidental preservation of Shaker printing is this pasted-up box covered entirely in broadsides advertising Sarsaparilla, Phthisis Eradicating Syrup, and Vegetable Pulmonary Pills. The contents of the box, when it was found by the Andrewses, included a sister’s net cap and shoe, a section of peg-rail, palm leaf bonnet braiding, a duster handle, and spool. Boxes such as this are wonderful instances of the Shakers’ eminent practicality in reusing materials.
109 Shaker Medicinal “Asthma Cure” Bottle in Original Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, 19th century, the wooden box covered with polychrome lithographed paper with printed inscriptions: “The Shaker Asthma Cure/For Asthma Only,” “Manufactured By the Mount Lebanon Society of Shakers,” “Price One Dollar,” and the Shaker agent’s name “D.C. Brainard,” with conforming cavity holding a glass bottle with similar applied lithographed labels, a printed paper listing the rules which “should be strictly observed in connection with the Shaker asthma cure,” and one with printed testimonials of the cure, (imperfections), box 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. $200-250
The frugality of the anonymous brother or sister who made this item insured the chance survival of these seemingly unrecorded broadsides. Few such boxes are known, though noted scholar and collector M. Stephen Miller acquired one that yielded very early examples of Shaker hymn printing. While one would hate to think of this box being deconstructed, it is true that a paper conservator might carefully exhume even more treasures from this object than currently meet the eye. $6,000-8,000
108 Shaker Medicinal “Asthma Cure” Bottle in Original Box, Mount Lebanon, New York, 19th century, the wooden box covered with polychrome lithographed paper with printed inscriptions: “The Shaker Asthma Cure/For Asthma Only,” “Manufactured By the Mount Lebanon Society of Shakers,” “Price One Dollar,” and the Shaker agent’s name “D.C. Brainard,” with tin swivel cover opening to a conforming cavity holding a glass bottle with similar applied lithographed labels, a printed paper listing the rules which “should be strictly observed in connection with the Shaker asthma cure,” and one with printed testimonials of the cure, box 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. The New Lebanon, New York, Shakers manufactured their Asthma Cure during the 1880s and 1890s. The labels affixed to the wooden box and bottle are the most colorful ever used by the Shakers to market one of their medicines. $200-250
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110 Seventeen Shaker Herb Labels, New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, black letterpress ink mostly on blue, yellow, green, brown, orange, cream, or white paper.
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The colorful labels used in the mid-19th century Shaker herbal medicinal industry have long been a favorite of Shaker collectors. The Andrewses discovered the mother lode of these in an old shop building at New Lebanon, New York. The wonderful variety of colors, and type and border fonts, make these visually appealing. The canted font on the orange “Sarsaparilla� label looks surprisingly modern for the c. 1850 date. $200-250
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111 Seventy Shaker Herb Labels and an Unlabeled Seed Packet, New Lebanon or Watervliet, New York, 19th century, black ink letterpress on mostly white paper.
These strip labels were applied to cardboard cylinders of medicinal extracts at both New Lebanon and Watervliet, New York. The Andrewses, as well as Charles Adams of the New York State Museum, recovered many of these directly from Shaker buildings in the 1930s. Also in this lot is one blank, unused seed packet. The Shakers were the first to commercially package small quantities of garden seeds as we buy them today. $200-250
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112 Nine Shaker Labels, New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, black or black and red letterpress ink on pink, yellow, blue, or white paper. This is an assortment of larger labels used for medicinal and cosmetic products produced by the New Lebanon, New York, Shakers. Rose Water was also used in cooking. “Healolene� was a salve sold by both the New Lebanon and Enfield, Connecticut, Shaker communities. $200-250
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113 Fourteen Shaker Herb or Product Labels, New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, black or purple letterpress ink on orange, pink, white, or blue paper. The wide variety of labels here includes herbal medicinal extracts, candy (Sugared Butternuts), culinary and cosmetic extracts (Lavender), wines, sauces, and even an antidiarrheal drug called “HOT DROPS, or No. 6.� $200-250
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114 Seven Shaker Printed Labels, likely New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, including “Tartaric Acid.,” Golden Seal.,” and “Opodeldoc.,” lg. to 5 1/4 in. This group of labels contains some rare, and possibly previously unknown, examples. $200-250
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115 “Mall” of Printed Shaker Herb and Plant Labels, New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, black ink letterpress on colored paper bound with string on one edge, sixteen full pages with seven labels on each, and twentytwo partial pages, full pages 6 1/2 x 5 3/4 in. These labels were printed at New Lebanon, New York. Shakers called these bound sheets a “mall” of labels. They were printed on larger sheets and then trimmed into individual labels for a variety of uses in the household and various industries. The rare (and possibly only) surviving examples, offered here and as part of Lot 116, are for the most part uncut. $400-600
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116
116 “Mall” of Printed Shaker Herb and Plant Labels, and Others, New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, the “mall” with black ink letterpress on yellow paper bound with string on one edge, eight additional unbound and uncut sheets, and a blackberry extract label, mall pages 6 1/2 x 5 3/4, other sheets to 6 1/2 x 5 in.
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The labels here represent a wide range: from medicinal extracts of herbs to chemical compounds, and even textiles. The “Fluid Extract Blackberry” label would have been affixed to a jar of the same. $300-500
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117 Thirty-eight Medicinal Bottle Labels for “Norwood’s Tincture of Veratrum Viride,” New Lebanon, New York, 19th century, black letterpress on white paper. One of the longest lasting industries of the New Lebanon, New York, Shakers was the manufacture of the Fluid Extract of Veratrum Viride.
The Shakers are known to have produced it from the 1850s to the 1940s. This medicine, derived from the white hellebore plant, depressed the respiratory and circulatory system, and had to be administered by a skilled physician or it might kill the patient. The Shakers worked closely with Dr. Wesley C. Norwood of Cokesbury, South Carolina in the marketing and sale of this product, hence “Norwood’s Tincture of Veratrum Viride.” $200-250
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118 Lithograph “Shakers Near Lebanon,” first half 19th century, showing lines of Shakers dancing in a Shaker building, with applied title below, sheet size 9 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. According to Rob Emlen, an authority on the subject who was consulted in the cataloging of this print, of which there are at least 20 variants, this print is most likely related to one printed by Pendleton between 1829 and 1834, though that is impossible to prove. This determination is based on the appearance of pleats in the women’s capes, the buttons and swallowtails on the men’s frock coats, and the wording of the legend below. $200-250
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119 Three Shaker-related Prints, last half 19th century, a print from The Graphic, May 14, 1870, titled “Shakers at Meeting. The Final Procession.,” and two smaller prints titled “A Shaker Sleighing Party,” and “Shakers Going to Meeting.,” largest 10 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. $75-100
120 Silkscreen Reproduction of a Shaker Inspirational Drawing, mid-20th century, ink on paper, titled A Bower of Mulberry Trees, after the original by Hannah Cahoon, sight size 19 1/4 x 25 1/2 in., in a yellow-stained mitered wood frame, (toning, light stains). $100-150
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121 Silkscreen Reproduction of a Shaker Inspirational Drawing, The Canal Press, Frenchtown, New Jersey, 1949, ink on paper, titled The Tree of Life, after the original by Hannah Cahoon, the tree with leaves and red and green blossoms, above the signed and dated verse below, sight size 18 3/4 x 25 1/4 in., matted and framed, (toned, lettering faded). $100-150
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122 Silkscreen Reproduction of a Shaker Inspirational Drawing, The Canal Press, Frenchtown, New Jersey, 1949, ink on paper, titled An Emblem From the Heavenly Sphere after the original by Polly Collins of Hancock, Massachusetts, the verse at top surrounding a rainbow and heart motif, above sixteen vignettes showing biblical figures and objects of spiritual importance, sight size 19 1/2 x 25 1/2 in., framed, (toned, lettering faded). $100-150
123 Silkscreen Reproduction of a Shaker Inspirational Drawing, 20th century, ink on paper, titled The Tree of Light or Blazing Tree after the original by Hannah Cahoon, the tree with green leaves issuing red “blazes,” above the dated and inscribed verse below, sight size 18 x 23 1/4 in., framed, (lettering slightly faded). $100-150 124 “Shaker at Renwick Gallery” Exhibition Poster, 1973, printed on cream paper with blue lettering and a silhouette of a Shaker rocking chair, 30 x 21 1/2 in., unframed. The Renwick Gallery (a branch of the Smithsonian Institution) hosted an exhibition of furniture and objects from the Andrews Collection, which ran from November 2, 1973 through April 7, 1974. The exhibition was a commemoration of 200 years of the American Shakers. $30-50
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125 Three Photographs of the Andrewses, mid-20th century, the first showing Faith Andrews, bust-length, in profile, seated in a Shaker chair; the second showing Ted Andrews, three-quarter-length, in profile, seated in a Shaker chair reading at a table; the third showing Faith and Ted seated in the grass outside their home, “Shaker Farm,” in Richmond, Massachusetts; each 8 x 10 in. $200-250
126 “Shaker Houses, Enfield.” Woodcut Engraving, late 19th century, removed from John Warner Barber’s Connecticut Historical Collections, published in 1838, p. 85, the image showing several Shaker buildings with figures farming, identified below and further inscribed in pencil “-CONN.” for Connecticut, image size 2 1/4 x 3 3/4 in., framed and matted. $100-150
127 Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect, by Edward Andrews and Faith Andrews (Connecticut: Yale University Press, New Haven, 1939), First edition (second printing), red cloth cover with dust jacket. This is the first book on Shaker furniture published by Edward and Faith Andrews. $100-150
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128 Eleven Shaker Titles, 20th century, including books and pamphlets on Shaker furniture, boxes, gift drawings, textiles, music, and industry. $200-250
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129 Ninety-five Shaker-related Titles, 20th century, including books and pamphlets related to Shaker architecture, furniture, culture, religion, literature, crafts, gardening, and medicine. $600-800
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Ejner Handberg (1902-1985), a master craftsman, made the bench (Lot 130) and three trays (Lot 131). Handberg was born in Denmark and lived in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, for many years where he produced some of the finest Shaker furniture reproductions. The bench was a gift from Ejner to Faith Andrews. Faith considered him one of the best modern craftsmen working in the Shaker tradition, and gave him a “Reward of Merit,” written in her hand, in which she states that he approaches “perfection in workmanship.” She employed him to produce Shaker furniture reproductions for sale by her short-lived Guild of Shaker Crafts.
130 Shaker Reproduction Pine Bench, Ejner Handberg, second half 20th century, the rectangular seat joining two supports with demilune cutouts and shaped brackets, with stenciled maker’s logo and impressed “E. HANDBERG” underneath the seat, ht. 16 1/2, lg. 35 1/2, dp. 9 1/4 in. $200-250 131 Three Guild of Shaker Crafts Inc. Trays, Ejner Handberg, Spring Lake, Michigan, late 20th century, rectangular pine trays with canted sides, medium brown stained surface, with stenciled maker’s logo and impressed “E. HANDBERG” on the bottom, one 6 3/4 x 10 3/4, two 8 7/8 x 15 in. $100-150 132 Yellow-painted Reproduction Shaker Drying Rack, late 20th century, throughtenon construction, ht. 48 1/4, wd. 21 in. $100-150 133 Two Free Blown Colorless Glass Globes, America, 19th century, used but not made by the Shakers, the spherical forms with lateral openings, raised on cylindrical necks, ht. approximately 7 1/4, dia. approximately 5 1/2 in. These globes were collected by Faith and Ted in the 1930s from the Hancock Shakers, who obtained them from the outside world, reportedly for use in an herb or pharmaceutical shop. $100-150 134 Five Pieces of Colorless Glassware, mostly America, 19th century, used but not made by the Shakers, consisting of blown and blownmolded items including a wine, other drinking vessels, and a canister with applied rings, accompanied by a note in Faith Andrews’s hand, ht. to 8 1/2 in. Faith Andrews’s letter reads in part, “These glass containers came into our collection early in the 1930s from the Hancock Shakers—the Church and East Families. While the Shaker [sic] never developed a glass industry they bought their herb and pharmaceutical containers from the world…” $100-150
135 Sixteen Free-blown or Blown-molded Glass Items, America, 19th/20th century, including bottles, small tubes, canisters, etc., ht. to 14 1/2 in. A letter written by Faith Andrews in reference to this glass reads in part: “These glass containers came into our collection early in the 1930s from the Hancock Shakers—the Church and East Families. While the Shaker [sic] never developed a glass industry they bought their herb and pharmaceutical containers from the world...the pair of pale green “catsup” bottles described as a cathedral design were used in the bottle-ing [sic] of Shaker Catsup for the worlds [sic] people.” $200-300 136 Four Shaker Wood and Iron Tools, America, 19th century, two cobbler’s hammers, an awl, and a small plane, lg. to 11 1/4 in. Literature: Similar tools are shown in Gather Up the Fragments, p. 358. $30-50 137 Shaker Tin “Make-do” Wall Sconce, 19th century, the conical shade above the rectangular back and demilune shelf, (imperfections), ht. 15 in. $100-150 138 Ten Tin Jelly or Sugar Molds, America, late 19th century, possibly made and certainly used by the Shakers, the scalloped forms with flat bottoms, (some rust and accumulated grit), ht. 1 in. Similar molds are shown on p. 341 in Gather Up the Fragments, with a caption explaining that the Shaker tin-making enterprises and the worldly ones made very similar products, and thus tinware is often difficult to attribute to the Shakers. $20-30
End of the Andrews Shaker Collection
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The North Family, Mount Lebanon, New York, as seen from the monitor of the Great Stone Barn. Image courtesy of Hamilton College, Communal Societies Collection, Richard Brooker Collection.
Essays: Jean M. Burks Christian Goodwillie
The Shakers and Modernism Jean M. Burks
Progressive American collectors, artists, and curators like Edward Deming Andrews, Charles Sheeler, Holger Cahill and Juliana Force independently discovered the Shakers and promoted their designs to the public in the 1920s and 1930s. During this formative period, the direction of Modernism was defined by the convergence of Shaker-inspired contemporary painting initiatives, innovative museum exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney in New York City and the Washington-based Depression-era project, the Index of American Design. It was the Shaker Believers’ communistic approach—not in the sense of their political ideology but in their efforts to provide practical products to facilitate daily life for the brothers and sisters within their community—which resonated with the world outside their villages 100 years later. The Shakers’ belief system converged with the guiding principles of this new, 20th century aesthetic with shared objectives of order, functionality, progress, patterns, and profitability. Order The Shakers embraced ‘Gospel Order’ which permeated every aspect of their sacred and secular lives. Religious dance was a powerful symbol of synchronization in their cultural system. Brothers and sisters were instructed to perform set patterns and rehearsed in practice sessions to guarantee proper discipline and organization in their worship. The Shakers created a hierarchical structure to administer the spiritual, domestic and business needs of each community, where equal pairs of males and females were appointed to leadership positions. Order also determined the physical layout of each village which was divided into several different families or “orders” of up to 100 people, each based on progressive levels of spiritual commitment to the Shaker faith. Domestic order was maintained in the strict management and movement of household goods throughout each community. There was a place for everything and everything in its place: buildings and rooms were identified by letters and numbers respectively and corresponding objects labeled accordingly to ensure their return to their proper location. Purely utilitarian racks (Lot 6) were constructed for communal use, with identical, repeating units to reveal, rather than conceal the contents, anticipating contemporary open storage systems that became popular one hundred years later.
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Functionality While the Shakers were unaware of the aesthetic implications of Louis Sullivan’s 20th century doctrine of “form follows function”1 their literature contains such phrases as “beauty rests on utility. That which has in itself the highest use possesses the greatest beauty.”2 The concept of built-in closets, cupboards, and drawers was not a common feature of worldly 18th-century interiors. Up until the 1800s Americans relied primarily on movable wardrobe units such as the Dutch Kas or German Schrank to store clothing, which suggests that the Shakers were among the first to adopt and institutionalize built-in drawers and closets as an integral part of their interiors. Furniture was designed from the inside out, letting the essential structure dictate each form and therefore its external appearance, often resulting in a specialized layout like the 1840 schoolhouse cupboard over drawers built to store textbooks, supplies, maps and educational charts (Lot 41). The Shakers’ ingenious adaptation (Lot 66) of worldly 19th-century sewing stands, allows two sisters simultaneously, working together, to access both drawers by pushing or pulling the knobs situated at either end.
Progress “We have a right to improve the inventions of man, so far as is useful and necessary”3 Items made for community use reflect the Shakers’ attitude towards adaptation, evolution and progress. The Believers followed worldly practice in using a variety of seating materials including wood, splint, rush or rattan cane, a natural fiber that resists bugs and contributes to the chair’s physical lightness, delicacy and portability. While chair tapes were used in the 18th and 19th centuries for clothing ties like apron strings as well as carpet bindings, the idea of weaving cloth strips together to form a seat probably originated with the Shakers about 1830 and had the advantage of being colorful, comfortable, durable and easy to install (Lot 64). The concept of handweaving narrow wool strips and assembling them to create a webbed surface, anticipates the 20th century aluminum tube lawn chair with interlaced vinyl seat. Always searching for new technologies to simplify their lives and streamline their work, the Shakers embraced change, unlike the Amish with whom they are often confused. One progressive example is the chair tilter invented by brother G.O. Donnell of Mount Lebanon and submitted to the United States Patent Office in 1852.
According to the specifications, this device consists of a separate ball and socket applied inside the back posts which allows “the chairs [to] take their natural motion of rocking backward and forward, while the…feet rest unmoved; flat and square on the floor or carpet…”4 The Shakers often took the realities of human behavior into consideration when making design decisions. They recognized the natural tendency for Believers to tip their straight chairs back on the rear posts and invented “a new and improved mode of preventing the wear and tear of carpets and the marring of floors caused by the corners of the back posts of chairs.”5 (Lot 57)
Profitability and Marketing
Patterns
and honest before the world, without hypocrisy or any false
Believers trying to create a heaven-on-earth as part of their
covering.”7 A trustee at the Harvard community summarized
daily routine strived for perfection in all things temporal. “A
this philosophy with the motto “A good name is better than
circle may be called a perfect circle when it is perfectly round.”6
riches”8—a personal warranty for Shaker-grown and Shaker-
Perfection required patterns and precise measurements which
sold quality which was echoed by all of the communities, with
played an important part in Shaker workshops and were
various implied guarantees of excellence. The Mount Lebanon
developed to ensure consistency and uniformity in a variety of
chair business venture was so successful that imitations started
products. Curved yardsticks to accurately measure rounded
flooded the market and the Shakers realized they had a product
human body dimensions allowed Shaker tailors and tailoresses
and a reputation they needed to protect. Consequently in 1875
to custom make garments for each member of the Shaker
they trademarked a logo and affixed a gold transfer decal to
family (Lots 94 and 96).
every genuine Shaker chair in order to proclaim its true origin
Shaker villages became successful entrepreneurs and developed and promoted a wide variety of products to help finance their communities. One significant market influence the Shakers maintained outside their communities was the thriving branding and distribution of a large variety of commodities. Their products became widely known for exceptional quality as the sect deliberately developed a reputation for straightforward business dealings, trustworthiness, and fairness. “We want a good plain substantial Shaker article, yea, one that bears credit to our profession & tells who and what we are, true
and guarantee authenticity. Their sales and marketing strategy Precise and replicable, templates enabled the Believers to
paid dividends for them both literally and figuratively for years to
make exact duplicates of many objects ranging from room-size
come. They designed and printed chair catalogues with prices
stoves cast from Shaker-made wooden patterns at commercial
and descriptions of the numerous options available to the
foundries to oval boxes (Lot 22). Although the oval box enjoyed
consumer. In addition to a choice of eight graduated sizes from
an extended history in Europe and America, it remains the
#0 (smallest) to #7 (largest), customers could select: straight or
single most recognizable form associated with the Shakers,
rocking models; with or without arms: slatted or taped back;
who relied on wood and wood products to promote their
and topped with finials or a cushion rail (Lot 65) designed to
financial well-being as well as to perform their routines of daily
hold the ties of a back pillow. In addition, chairs were available
life. Brothers used wooden molds to form these nested utility
in a range of finishes from “natural” to a dark ebony stain and
boxes in 12 standard graduated sizes for both household and
with a variety of seating tape colors.
workshop use at most communities from the 1790s until the 1940s. Starting in the 1860s, the Mount Lebanon Shakers developed a
Holger Cahill and the Index of American Design
commercial manufacturing operation selling chairs to the world.
The word “modern” derives from the Latin modernus, meaning
The chief difference between communal and production seating
“just now” and “new-fashioned” as opposed to antiquated or
is that the latter used uniformly interchangeable parts, put
obsolete. Author, critic, and curator Holger Cahill (1887-1960)
together in assembly line fashion—true hallmarks of an industry.
played a significant role in promoting and defining the birth of
The acceptance of machine technology such as jigs, boring
this new world view. In 1932-33, Cahill served as acting director
machines and duplicating lathes, allowed for standardization
of the Museum of Modern Art where he put together several
of components, while a division of labor facilitated mass
notable exhibitions and accompanying catalogues, including
production and anticipated the precepts of Modernism.
American Sources of Modern Art; Art of the Common Man in
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America, and New Horizons in American Art.9 With President
The word “ergonomics” comes from the Greek “ergon,”
Roosevelt’s creation of the New Deal, and the establishment
meaning work, and “nomos” meaning “laws” and today is used
of the Federal Artists Project in 1933, Cahill was appointed the
to describe the science of “designing the job to fit the worker,
National director of the Work Projects Administration—including
not forcing the worker to fit the job.” Ergonomics covers all
the Index of American Design—from its inception in 1935 until
aspects of a task, including the physical stresses it places
its conclusion in 1942. The fundamental purpose of the WPA
on joints, muscles, nerves, tendons, and bones. Clearly this
was to give work to many commercial draftsmen, illustrators
shaped seat was consciously and creatively constructed to
and graphic artists. In addition to helping them financially,
improve the comfort of Shaker Sisters assigned to weaving
the Index documented and visually preserved for study those
tasks requiring long periods in a seated position (Lot 42). The
objects produced for everyday use by American artisans and
contemporary press expressed great interest in the images
craftsmen—rather than academically trained artists—providing
of Shaker artifacts included in the “New Horizons” show. A
the public a longstanding, reliable, standard reference. At his
clipping from the Massachusetts Berkshire Eagle notes, “what
lecture before the Metropolitan Museum of Art audience on
the Shakers conceived out of their unworldly hearts and with
March 28, 1937, Mr. Cahill explained that “a search for a usable
their patient hands, has become a new school of design, a
American past in the field of decorative arts has been carried
school considered highly ‘modern,’ and worth the consideration
on by the Index…” which seeks “to gather a body of traditional
of students of such things.”11
material which may form the basis for an organic development of American design” in the future. He hoped the watercolor
One of the objectives Holger Cahill set for the Index was to
renderings would serve as both a record and a sourcebook to
realize this egalitarian vision of mass-produced, affordable,
“stimulate the artist, designer and manufacturer of articles of
utilitarian goods that would enhance the lives and homes of
everyday use to build upon our American tradition” in creating a
all people “from the shaping of a teacup to the building of a
new aesthetic.10 Organized by state and eventually consisting of over 18,000 watercolor drawings, Cahill included four examples of innovative Shaker designs selected from the recently completed Massachusetts Index in the Allied Arts section of his 1936 Museum of Modern Art exhibition catalog entitled New Horizons in American Art. The painted pine loom stool from the Andrews collection, made by the Mount Lebanon Shakers about 1830, and rendered in 1936 by artist Irving Smith is truly a design which can be considered an early recognition of the value of ergonomic solutions.
city.”12 He wrote that the art of the Shakers was a forerunner of contemporary design in its “severe integrity in handling materials, its discarding of ornament in favor of unadorned surface and its sense of fitness and function.”13 It is this interest in, and experience with Modern Art that was instrumental in shaping the direction of the Index which can be seen in the overwhelming emphasis upon the Shaker renderings in Massachusetts, New York, and Kentucky. As Cahill stated, “The organization of the Project has proceeded on the principle that it is not the solitary genius but a sound general movement which maintains art as a vital, functioning part of any cultural scheme. Art is not a matter of rare, occasional masterpieces.”14 He advanced a philosophy that applauded artistic production by and for a wide swath of American society rather than valuing only unique pieces created by and for elites. In the Andrewses’ many publications they identified Shaker design as a uniquely American phenomenon. In a letter to Cahill, February 28, 1936, Andrews offered “two tentative outlines for work in the Shaker section of the Index of Design: one a two-months’ and the other a six-months’ program,”15 featuring much of his own Shaker material obtained from the Hancock and Mount Lebanon communities which, ultimately, were documented by Artists for the Massachusetts and New York State projects. Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) integrated Shaker objects into his
Illustration 1
contemporary paintings and photographs of domestic interiors between 1926 and 1934 to help establish a modern American art that was independent of European prototypes. Showing
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a deep respect for Shaker design, he wrote, “The Shaker
One critic asserted “Diamond…with great ingenuity and
communities in the period of their greatest creative activity have
imagination adapted the type of construction used by the
given us abundant evidence of their profound understanding
Shakers to modern-day needs. The result is a knockout.”19
of utilitarian design in their architecture and crafts. They understood and convincingly demonstrated that rightness of proportion in a house or a table, with regard for efficiency in 16
use, made embellishment superfluous.” Sheeler discovered and began to collect Shaker furniture in the 1920s and encouraged his neighbor in Salem, New York, Juliana Force (1876-1948}, first Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, to add Shaker items to her personal collection. She purchased a 1795 farmhouse in 1928, and filled it with Shaker furniture and artifacts. In renaming her property Shaker Hollow Farm, she anticipated the newly fashionable and positive use of “Shaker” long before its popularity after World War II. Juliana Force recognized the lasting worth of Shaker art and the pioneering work of the Andrewses. Their scholarship and collection fit in perfectly with the enterprise of establishing a museum to feature the vernacular and the new in American art. The Whitney’s pivotal 1935 exhibition entitled “Shaker Handicrafts” included furniture and accessories lent by the Andrews shown in groupings of objects and types as well as
Shaker furniture had come to represent a native modernism, which was recognized and celebrated as a viable source for American design. The Herman Miller manufacturing company continues to produce licensed works by iconic industrial designers George Nelson (1908-1986), Charles Eames (1907-1978), and Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988). The business principles and values articulated in their 1948 catalogue included the statement that “the product must be honest,”20 a cornerstone of the Shaker belief system. The Believers’ execution of physical “order” in their built-in storage systems, resonates with 1950s modular units offering wide options for combining components to satisfy specific storage needs in different spaces. Shaker perfection obtained through handmade patterns and mechanical progress is realized in midcentury mass-produced products using innovative materials like aluminum, fiberglass and plywood. Furthermore, their reliance on replicable hand-made crafts using patterns could be more easily translated into mass-produced designs for the
room settings.
greater good, than one-of-a-kind objects. Marketing, brand
Although created over a hundred years apart, Shaker and
The Shakers and the industrial designers are problem-solvers
20th
century modern design share philosophical and physical
parallels. As early as 1937, the Herman Miller Company of Zeeland, Michigan (1923-present) debuted a line of Shaker-
development and profitable sales are also mutual objectives. concerned with generic concepts that have broad application and successful user interface rather than individual solutions to one-time problems.
inspired furniture created by Freda Diamond (1905-1998), which was available at department stores like Wanamakers
A direct international connection between the Shaker and
in New York and marketed to consumers as contemporary.17
20th century Scandinavian aesthetic occurred in 1927 when
An article in the New York Sun underscored the relationship
an unidentified Mount Lebanon production armed rocker with
between “source material for the designs, developed by Freda
cushion rail found its way to Copenhagen, Denmark. There
Diamond [which] were unearthed by WPA Federal Art Project,”18
it attracted the attention of the influential Danish designer
and which are arguably the first commercially produced Shaker-
Kaare Klint (1888-1954) who was conducting a pioneering
themed decorative arts.
investigation into the study of human proportions and their relationship to furniture design. Klint directed his students at Copenhagen’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts to execute detailed measured drawings of chairs from around the world that he considered to be examples of proven ergonomic strategies. Inspired by the Shaker rocker’s graceful proportions, Klint commissioned one of his students to draft schematics and make a sample to serve as a teaching aid. Originally unaware of the chair’s specific origins, believing it to be a generic American rocking chair in the Colonial style, he eventually discovered its true identity when Edward D. and Faith Andrewses’ book Shaker Furniture was translated into Danish in 1937. Klint is considered the father of Danish Modernism and his appreciation of Shaker design resonated with the next generation of Danish furniture.
Illustration 2, Freda Diamond Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
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When Børge Mogensen (1914-1972) was appointed by the Danish cooperative chain to design attractive, affordable everyday furniture for mass-production by their FDB Mobiler factory, he created several highly successful models consciously inspired by and clearly based on Shaker prototypes. The J39 low back dining chair that he debuted in 1947 which has been in continuous production ever since its inception, utilizes a handwoven seat in natural or black yarn that has its roots in the Shakers’ wool tape webbing.
Illustration 3
Illustration 4
The accompanying trestle table also dating from 1947 is clearly inspired by one pictured in Shaker Furniture, the Andrewses’ influential book published in 1937, which for the first time, made Danes aware of the idea behind some of their iconic furniture of the period. FDB Mobiler’s products, which owe so much to 19th century Shaker design, introduced the United States to Scandinavian modern style, where it remains popular and affordable here today to consumers of all ages, largely through the success of the Swedish retail company Ikea. Shaker furniture has become a timeless, utilitarian, art form.
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Bibliography & Illustrations 1. Louis H. Sullivan (1896). “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered.” Lippincott’s Magazine (March 1896): 403-409.
18. Elizabeth McRae Boykin, “Shaker Furniture of Last Century,” Atlanta Constitution, November 2, 1937, 14.
2. Edward Deming and Faith Andrews, Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1937), 21.
19. Lenore Kent, “Shaker –Type Furniture in Tryout Stage,” Washington Post, September 11, 1938.
3. Father Joseph Meacham, as quoted in Flo Morse, The Shakers and the World’s People (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1987), 133. 4. United States Patent Office specification, March 2, 1852, no. 8771. 5. Ibid. 6. Calvin Green and Seth Y. Wells, A Summary View of the Millennial Church, or United Society of Believers (Commonly Called Shakers) (Albany: Packard & van Benthuysen, 1823), 320. 7. Orren Haskens, “Reflections, 1887,” Western Reserve Historical Society Shaker Collection, Cleveland, IIA:B. 8. M. Stephen Miller, From Shaker Lands and Shaker Hands (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2007), 56. 9. American Sources of Modern Art, May 10 to June 30, 1933, The Museum of Modern Art (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1936). American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America 1750-1900 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1932). New Horizons in American Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1936). 10. Holger Cahill Lecture before the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, March 28, 1937, Archives of American Art, Series 4. Writings, Lectures and Speeches by Cahill, [“WPA-FAP”] Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mar 28, 1937, reel 5290, frames 1333-1355. 11. “Shaker Crafts Unique,” Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, October 7, 1936. 12. Archives of American Art, Cahill, 1941, from Virginia Tuttle Clayton, Erika Doss, Elizabeth Stillinger, Deborah Chotner, Drawing on America’s Past: Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index of American Design (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 27.
20. Stanley Abercrombie, George Nelson: The Design of Modern Design (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1995), 99.
Illustration 1 Shaker Loom Stool, c. 1830 [Mount Lebanon, New York] Index of American Design 329 Massachusetts New Horizons in American Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1936) Illustration 2 Freda Diamond interior. Freda Diamond Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution Illustration 3 J39 Chair Borge Mogesen (1914-1972) Manufactured by Frederica Designed ca. 1947, this example manufactured ca. 2006 Denmark Beech and natural paper yarn Collection of Bob and Aileen Hamilton Photograph by David Hollinger Illustration 4 Shaker Table Borge Mogensen (1914-1972) Manufactured by Frederica Designed ca. 1947, this example manufactured ca. 2006 Denmark Beech Collection of Bob and Aileen Hamilton Photograph by David Hollinger
13. Holger Cahill introduction to Erwin O. Christensen, The Index of American Design (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1950), xxi. 14. Holger Cahill Lecture before the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, March 28, 1937. 15. Archives of American Art, RG 69 Box 15 Entry 1021 Section II File; Craft Survey. 16. Constance Rourke, Charles Sheeler: Artist in the American Tradition (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1938). 17. Freda Diamond Collection, Folder 10, box 3 and box 4, Archive Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
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Foundation Pillars: The Gifts of the Andrewses to Shaker Scholarship Christian Goodwillie
In the 2008 book and exhibition Gather Up the Fragments:
These same resources remain available for further, fresh
The Andrews Shaker Collection, Mario S. De Pillis and I argued
interpretation by today’s generation of Shaker scholars—again,
that Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews were key
an important legacy of the Andrewses.
to the preservation of Shaker culture. It seems silly to even have to make that point, but in recent times the Andrewses’
Shaker objects have been highly collectible for many years.
reputation has been attacked in a number of publications.
The Andrewses were instrumental in creating the market for
While certain criticisms of the couple are fair, others are
them. Along with collecting for themselves, they promoted
merely academic hairsplitting, or anachronistic applications of
Shaker furniture through articles in The Magazine Antiques,
today’s standards to events that took place between seventy
mounted exhibitions (one of which featured Shakers themselves
and ninety years ago. Regardless, after all the arguments
as lecturers), and sold pieces to prominent cultural figures
have been made, the fact remains that major collections of
in the 1930s. Among their advocates and clients were the
Shaker material at Hancock Shaker Village, Winterthur, The
painter Charles Sheeler, Juliana Force, first Director of the
American Museum in Britain, and The Metropolitan Museum
Whitney Museum, Homer Eaton Keyes, founder and editor of
of Art, are all testament to the Andrewses’ determination to
Antiques, Henry Allen Moe of the Guggenheim Foundation,
acquire, preserve, and place Shaker materials. The present
Ananda Coomaraswamy of the Museum of Fine Arts, and
essay looks at a few key objects—each an avenue in itself to
American poet and critic Mark Van Doren. The Andrewses sold
a larger field of study within Shakerism—and each an object
to numerous other clients, some of whose collections have
that passed from the Shakers directly to the Andrewses, and
only recently become publicly available. The estate of Dorothy
subsequently to either a museum collection, or remaining in the
Canning Miller Cahill, Curator of the Museum of Modern
family until the present. It is important to reiterate that most of
Art beginning in 1947, gave four pieces to Hancock Shaker
the objects collected by the Andrewses were acquired directly
Village in 2004. Some of these came from the Andrewses,
from the Shakers. This was facilitated by the couple’s interest in
who ironically had run afoul of Miller’s husband Holger Cahill,
building relationships with individual Shakers. Undoubtedly, the
Director of the Federal Art Project, as they guided his artists
Andrewses’ enthusiasm, social skills, and yes, their obsessive
documenting Shaker culture along the Massachusets/New York
and unabashed acquisitiveness, all factored into the assembly
border. The Cahills and Andrewses mended their relationship
of their tremendous collection. Their written legacy serves as a
in later years, and it was partially in light of this that Dorothy
valuable starting point to anyone studying the sect, and despite
Canning Miller Cahill wished her pieces to reside with the larger
the occasional errors (found in nearly every work of non-fiction)
Andrews Collection at Hancock. The successful 2012 and
or overgeneralizations (common to pioneering work in any field),
2013 auctions of the Dr. J.J. Gerald and Miriam McCue Shaker
the couple based their books and articles on objects, books,
Collection also featured pieces acquired from the Andrewses,
and manuscripts that they collected and preserved.
as Dr. McCue carefully recorded in his notebooks. The market for Shaker antiques continues to grow, and while the median prices for common objects may have dropped in recent years, new records continue to be set for the best pieces.
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Shaker material culture has commanded a perhaps outsized
Sadie Neale, one of the last Shakers at Mount Lebanon’s Church
portion of the public’s attention in contrast to the actual
Family—the first communal family established by Shakers—had
religious beliefs and history of Believers (as Shakers referred
carefully saved this seminal document among papers she kept
to themselves). Some might fault the promotional efforts of
in her own retiring room. She clearly saw the value in it, and her
the Andrewses for this. However, before issuing such a hasty
entrusting it to the Andrewses speaks volumes—not selling it to
judgment one should consider the veritable trove of manuscript
them, nor did they to Winterthur, but entrusting it. This foundation
and printed materials preserved by the couple. The collections
document was also printed privately for the Andrewses in a
at Winterthur and Hancock alone can boast of over 500
limited edition in 1935.
individual manuscripts and more than 700 imprints gifted by the Andrewses. There are many treasures among these, a few of which I’ve chosen to highlight here. Following the deaths of the English Shaker leaders, Mother Ann Lee and Father James Whittaker in particular, Americans lead by Father Joseph Meacham oversaw the gathering of Shaker converts into the communal order that has defined their history. This communal order, and its legal boundaries, was defined by the covenant entered into by all fully committed church members. Originally an oral agreement between Elders and members, the covenant was first written down at New Lebanon, New York, in 1795. Imagine the Andrewses’ great delight, when Sister Sadie Neale of Mount Lebanon gifted it to them. In their collecting memoir Fruits of the Shaker Tree of Life, they recalled:
“Covenant of the Church of Christ in New Lebanon,” 1795 ASC 721, Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
Often we talked with Sadie about the doctrines of the Shakers and the principles of their temporal economy, and through her instrumentality we acquired a considerable part of our library. One day, as we were discussing such matters, she became strangely quiet and distracted, then told us she had a document which she wanted us to have. Going over to a box by her bedside in which she kept farm accounts, memorabilia and other papers, she extracted, after some search, a manuscript booklet with a faded blue cover. It was the original Shaker covenant, signed in 1795 by the founders of the New Lebanon Church!1
Another document preserved by the Andrewses captures the epochal journey of missionaries Benjamin Seth Youngs, Issachar Bates, and John Meacham to the subjects of the Kentucky Revival in 1805. The journal, kept by Youngs, is an octavo volume, tightly bound, comprising 302 pages written in a miniscule hand that often wanders up the margins and between lines. It recounts the arduous journey of the three men, beginning with their departure from New Lebanon, New York, at three AM on January 1 in the dead of winter.
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This journey resulted in the conversion of three leaders of
The Andrewses collected a number of objects left by faithful
the Revival: Richard McNemar, John Dunlavy, and Matthew
Brother Isaac. As Glendyne Wergland’s biography One Shaker
Houston, and the eventual establishment of seven additional
Life amply shows, Youngs applied his skillful hands to nearly
Shaker communities in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. The
every aspect of life at New Lebanon. One of the Andrewses’
Andrewses found it “tucked away in a chest drawer in an
favorite Shaker poems was his “History in Verse,” a humorous,
2
anteroom of a New Lebanon dwelling.” The manuscript is
yet earnest, look back at his life written when Youngs was forty-
crucial not just to the understanding of Shaker expansion in
four. With great understatement Youngs wrote:
the Midwest and upper South, but the development of the Second Great Awakening and the fracture of Protestantism in the crucible of frontier revivalism. It was among the manuscripts gifted to Winterthur by Faith Andrews.
I’ve always found enough to do, Some pleasant times, some grievous too Of various kinds of work I’ve had Enough to make me sour or sad, Of tayl’ring, Join’ring farming too, Almost all kinds that are to do, Blacksmithing, Tinkering, Mason work, When could I find time to shurk? Clock work, Jenny work, keeping school Enough to puzzle any fool! An endless list of chores & notions, To keep me in perpetual motion O who on earth could have invented Such a picture her presented? How well applied the saying comes, “Jack at all trades, good at none!”
Brother Isaac’s characteristic modesty cannot eclipse the magnificence of his intellectual and material legacy. In the “Diary,” 1805, kept by Shaker missionary Benjamin Seth Youngs ASC 859, Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, The Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection.
present auction there is an oval box that miraculously still contains dried flakes of “Irish Glue,” an animal-based glue commonly used in the nineteenth century. Carefully incised on
Tucked into that same drawer in the New Lebanon dwelling
the underside of the lid of the box are the initials “I Y”—almost
house—one wonders which one???—was found the most
certainly for Isaac Newton Youngs. Perhaps Brother Isaac used
important Shaker-authored history of the sect written during
this glue in his clockmaking, or another woodworking pursuit.
the nineteenth century. This manuscript, Brother Isaac Newton
This cannot be known, but the Andrewses preserved this
Youngs’s “A Concise View of the Church of God and of Christ
beautiful box, and its otherwise mundane contents, in a manner
on Earth: Having its Foundation in the Faith of Christ’s First
that would have pleased Youngs.
and Second Appearing,” presents a thoughtfully organized and highly detailed history of Shakerism over its 525 pages. Youngs, one of the great Shaker polymaths, excelled at cabinetmaking, building, printing, music, journaling, tailoring, clock making, and a variety of other practical pursuits. His “Concise View” was written from 1856 to 1860, and treats Shaker history, religion, building, music, crafts and trades, publishing, agriculture, and numerous other pursuits in a systematic fashion. It is a cornerstone text in understanding the New Lebanon community, at very least, and Shakerism in general, as New Lebanon strove to set the pattern followed by all Believers. This manuscript is another jewel in the crown of the Andrews collection at Winterthur. The “Irish Glue” box with “I.Y.” stamped into the lid, Lot 21.
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Brother Isaac was integrally involved in the construction of the
The Andrewses explored many buildings at both the Hancock,
New Lebanon Shakers’ new schoolhouse in 1839. He framed
Massachusetts and New Lebanon, New York Shaker
the building, and, as Jerry Grant documented in his Shaker
communities. Their privileged access was a result of their
Furniture Makers, Youngs even designed desks for the students
ability to cultivate friendships with the Shakers themselves.
and teachers. The Andrewses were privileged to explore
Along with Sister Sadie Neale, Sister Alice Smith of Hancock
the disused building and found a treasure trove of Youngs’s
was a great friend of the Andrewses. Smith was considerably
desks, and multiple copies of both editions of Youngs’s Short
younger than Neale, who was already in her seventies when
Abridgment of the Rules of Music. Discovering Youngs’s
the Andrewses met her. Sister Alice was only in her forties
musical instructor lead to the Andrewses’ publication of the first
when the Andrewses first visited Hancock. In fact, it was she
full-length study of Shaker music, The Gift to Be Simple (1940).
who greeted them at the kitchen entrance on both of their
The 1839 schoolhouse was also home to what Faith described
initial visits to Hancock. It was through Sister Alice that the
as “one of the choicest pieces in the collection.” Again, it was
Andrewses acquired many of the renowned gift drawings that
Sister Sadie Neale who sold the Andrewses the formidable
became the crown jewels of their collection. In the Andrewses’
cupboard over drawers that was used in the classroom. A
telling Sister Alice first presented the images to them as a test
stereoview of circa 1875 documents the piece in situ with
to see what their reaction might be.
Shaker teachers, including Calvin Reed, in the foreground. The photo shows a print hung from the two pegs (or “pins,” as the Shakers called them) on the frieze of the piece. This supply cupboard features a security mechanism of a rod that can be lowered through aligned holes drilled in the drawer fronts below, thus locking the drawers. Perhaps students have not changed as much as we might have hoped in the last 180 years. Did Brother Isaac have a hand in this cupboard, as he had with the desks and the building itself? This can never be known with certainty. But, what can be known is that this is one of the very few pieces of Shaker furniture that can be documented in a nineteenth century image in its location of use. No wonder the Andrewses prized it so highly.
Blazing Tree, Hannah Cohoon, Hancock, Massachusetts, 1845 Collection of Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
We saw quite a bit of Alice and we came to know her so well that we were allowed to come and visit evenings with Alice in her room, which was a beautiful room. And this one night, she had been talking to us quite a bit about herself and her Shaker life, feeling a little bit discouraged by the way things were then, having been overworked, being the youngest one there, and she told us that she decided that she again would open this chest in the closet and take out the roll of drawings which she had done, maybe three or four times before, to show to people, and found that people laughed and ridiculed them, and she had made up her mind that if the Andrews felt that way she would destroy them as they had planned originally. And when she unrolled the drawings, there were perhaps six there, and we were speechless, fortunately. We didn’t know what we were looking at, but we knew it was very precious and there was only the sound of our breathing. We couldn’t talk about it. And Alice had said would you like to take them and study them? And we did. Then the Shakers from other communities
Detail of cupboard in stereoview A photograph of the schoolroom c. 1875 shows this cupboard at left. Courtesy of Hamilton College, Communal Societies Collection, Richard Brooker Collection
heard about these drawings and other drawings became available.3
Alice Smith Sister Alice Smith Collection of Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
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The Andrewses considered the gift drawings among their
The doors, window and door casings, moldings, peg rails, and
most important discoveries. More drawings were discovered
other architectural elements salvaged from the building remain
in the Hancock Shakers’ Meetinghouse, and other examples
in the collections of Hancock Shaker Village and the American
were acquired from Sadie Neale and Elder Arthur Bruce of
Museum in Bath, England. The Andrewses’ exertions in saving
the Canterbury, New Hampshire, Shaker community. The
this structure, at a time when historic preservation was in its
Andrewses began preparing a monograph on the artwork as
infancy in the United States, are further evidence of the all-
early as the 1930s. Faith Andrews eventually published it in
encompassing nature of their mission to document and save
1969, after Ted’s death, as Visions of the Heavenly Sphere:
Shaker culture.
A Study in Shaker Religious Art. Others, such as Daniel Patterson, Sally Promey, Jane Crosthwaite, and Sandra Soule,
During the latter half of the twentieth century the American
have studied the Shakers’ gift drawings, publishing important
public probably most associated the Shakers with well-made
interpretations of their meaning, and factual data about the
antique furniture. Two quotes are often invoked in association
artists. Sister Alice tragically passed away in 1935 from
with this. Trappist monk Thomas Merton said “the peculiar
stomach cancer, aged 54. She would be glad to know that the
grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by
treasures she had cared for, and entrusted to her friends the
someone capable of believing that an angel might come and
Andrewses, have been carefully preserved by Hancock Shaker
sit on it.” Conversely, Sister Mildred Barker of the Sabbathday
Village and enjoyed by millions around the world, most recently
Lake, Maine, Shakers lamented that non-Shakers admired
at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Shaker material culture at the expense of the Christ-life embraced by Believers. Barker’s quote “I almost expect to be remembered as a chair or a table” nicely encapsulates this. During the nineteenth century, however, the Shakers were probably best known for the herbal and medicinal preparations. Under the influence of Samuel Thomson, as well as Christian evangelical preacher Elias Smith, the American public moved toward the practice of “vegetable medicine.” Herbs were ingested or applied in dry form, or via fluid extracts and compounded medicines. The Shaker physicians and herbalists were known throughout the United States, and even in Europe, for their expertise in growing, drying, pressing, and extracting botanical medicines. Newspapers commonly carried advertisements from merchants selling Shaker herbs, and the name Shaker was a byword for quality. This industry was
The 1786 Meeting House at the Hancock Shaker community.
pursued on the largest scale at New Lebanon. An illustrated
Collection of Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
1857 article by artist and journalist Benson John Lossing in Harper’s captured the industry at its height and described the
The scope of the Andrewses’ preservation efforts took an
process used to make extracts.
unexpected turn in 1938, when the Hancock Shakers decided to remove their 1786 Meetinghouse from the property. The Shakers had not worshipped in the building since the late nineteenth century, and the Trustee at Hancock, Frances Hall, viewed it as a maintenance burden and safety hazard. The Andrewses did not have the personal financial resources to pay for the documentation and dismantling of the structure. Luckily, their friend Sadie Neale agreed to cover the associated costs. In a lengthy discussion of these circumstances in Gather Up the Fragments I point out the irony of a Shaker Sister at New Lebanon giving money to non-Shakers to pay another Shaker Trustee at Hancock to save a Shaker Meetinghouse! However, those were the circumstances surrounding the Andrewses’ documentation and salvage of the beautiful interior of the building, which was otherwise destroyed.
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Benson John Lossing’s 1857 engraving of the Shakers’ extract laboratory at New Lebanon, New York
The Extract House, in which is the laboratory, for the preparation of juices for medical purposes, is a large frame building, thirty-six by one hundred feet. It was erected in 1850. It is supplied with the most perfect apparatus, and managed by James Long, a skillful chemist, and a member of the Society. In the principal room of the laboratory the chief operations of cracking, steaming, and pressing the roots and herbs are carried on, together with the boiling of the juices thus extracted. In one corner is a large boiler, into which the herbs or roots are placed and steam introduced. From this boiler the steamed herbs are conveyed to grated cylinders and subjected to immense pressure. The juices are then put in copper pans, inclosed in iron jackets, in such a manner that steam is introduced between the jackets and the pans, and the liquid boiled down to the proper consistency for use. Some juices, in order to avoid the destruction or modification of their medicinal properties, are conveyed to an upper room, and there boiled in a huge copper vacuum pan, from which, as its name implies, the air has been exhausted. This allows the liquid to boil at a much lower temperature than it would in the open air.4
different preparations and quantities. Both cupboards are in the collection of Hancock Shaker Village.5 Shakers used the same medicines they produced for sale within their own communities. Tangible proof of this fact is found on two matching cupboards-over-drawers. Ted Andrews’s reminiscence of finding these pieces is highly evocative of what it must have been like to explore the buildings at Mount Lebanon: The ‘nurse shop’ at the North family, New Lebanon, was located on the second floor of the second family dwelling. In one long narrow room, brightly lighted by south windows there were two identical cupboards to hold the medicinal herbs grown in the physic gardens and widely used in the Shaker infirmaries. Herb labels are pasted on the outside of the four deep drawers. The wood is butternut.6 Sister Rosetta Stephens of the North Family, another Shaker friend of the Andrewses, sold them both pieces. One example
The Andrewses preserved much of the material evidence of
remains in the collection at Hancock Shaker Village.7 Both
this industry, including thousands of colorful labels used by the
cupboards have full plank sides, and the case backs are
Shakers for their products. Collector and scholar M. Stephen
constructed of horizontal boards that run all the way to the
Miller was told by Faith Andrews that they “swept bundles of
floor. The drawers are divided for the storage of medicinal
these labels into shopping bags at the medicine shop at New
herbs. The intact labels pasted to the front of the example in
Lebanon.”
the Andrews Family Collection read: Lemon Balm, Catfoot, Tanzy, Peppermint, Wormwood, Mother Wort, and Cohosh. In the catalog for the 1973 exhibition Shaker Faith Andrews remembered the example offered in the present sale: “was filled with herbs when we bought it.”8
Shaker medicinal herb and extract labels
While this group of labels was found by the Andrewses at Mount Lebanon, both that community and the community at Watervliet, New York used identical labels for their herbal preparations. These labels were placed on both the bottles containing the preparations, and the cardboard cylinders used to package the bottles. The Andrewses also acquired the cupboards specially constructed to store the labels from both New Lebanon and Canterbury. The Canterbury cupboard contains pockets for sorting 216 different labels that were affixed to the wrappers of a tremendous variety of herbs, in
One of a pair of cupboards found by the Andrewses at the North Family’s infirmary, New Lebanon, New York, Lot 106
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The last object I’d like to address is the ugly duckling of this auction. However, it serves simultaneously as a perfect illustration of Shaker utility, and of the Andrewses’ preservation ethic—which are quite similar as it turns out. The Shakers, and most nineteenth-century people, regularly reused printed waste sheets to construct all sorts of boxes. NonShaker bandboxes have become an invaluable source for identifying early wallpaper patterns. An excellent example of the accidental preservation of Shaker printing is this pastedup box covered entirely in broadsides advertising Sarsaparilla, Phthisis Eradicating Syrup, and Vegetable Pulmonary Pills. The contents of the box when it was found by the Andrewses included a sister’s net cap and shoe, a section of peg-rail, palm leaf bonnet braiding, a duster handle, and spool. Boxes such as this, sometimes referred to as “make-do,” are wonderful instances of the Shakers’ eminent practicality in reusing Yellow-painted Wooden Pail, Lot 1.
materials.
The Andrewses collected all of the workaday items made, and used, by the Shakers. Many of these objects were put to rough duty at that time, but today are prized as finely crafted, almost sculptural embodiments of the Shaker ethos. Such an object is the yellow pail in this auction, which was made at Canterbury sometime in the mid-nineteenth century. This lidded pail exhibits many of the hallmarks of cooperage from that community. The staves are joined with a “V” shaped notch, and chamfered at the bottom to guard against splitting. The wire bail is set into a diamond-shaped bail plate (strap iron cut on the diagonal) that has been relieved at the top to accommodate the iron rim. The turned hardwood handle has a double central scribe line and chamfered ends to prevent
Make-do Box, Lot 107.
splitting. The bottom is turned, and beveled at the outer edge to fit into the staves. The numeral “1” is stamped into the
The fact that the Andrewses chose to keep this rather motley
bottom, and a “5” is stamped into the underside of the lid. Best
time capsule intact following its discovery demonstrates
of all, to contemporary tastes, the exterior is finished in bright
their intuitive respect des fonds—a cornerstone of archival
chrome yellow paint and the inside has a clear varnish. Objects
philosophy—”respect the original order.” The Shaker who
like this—far-travelers that have withstood the vicissitudes of
reused these broadsides was making a practical, and frugal,
time, beauty intact—in a strange way bear witness to an ethic
decision to repurpose excess materials in a different way to
central to Shakerism, Mother Ann’s zen-like enjoinder to “Do all
construct a useful object befitting the Millennial Church. The
your work as though you had a thousand years to live; and as
materials that ended up in it over time were perhaps accidental,
you would if you knew you must die tomorrow.” Shakers would
and it probably missed a trash-collecting sweep at some point.
probably reject the notion that the beauty outsiders perceive
Serendipitously it ended up in the hands of the Andrewses,
in this pail somehow reflects their own dedication to living the
who may have purchased it from, or were given it by, Sister
Christ life. The very tenets of that life oblige them to do so,
Sadie Neale at New Lebanon (though this is undocumented).
notwithstanding the perfection often found in the creations of
The net result is that we have the survival of a marginal Shaker
their hands. Regardless, the Shakers’ assured salvation affords
object, that preserves multiple examples of otherwise unknown
them the luxury of living outside temporal limits. For the rest
Shaker medicinal broadsides, that have been repurposed into
of us, we must catch and appreciate beauty where we find it,
a box containing the bric-a-brac of Shaker life. In a way that
while we can. The Andrewses recognized that beauty in the
I never quite realized in 2008 when preparing Gather Up the
products of Shaker hands, which were guided by Shaker faith.
Fragments—this is it.
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Bibliography 1. Andrews and Andrews, Fruits of the Shaker Tree of Life (Stockbridge, Mass.: Berkshire Traveler Press, 1975), p. 91. 2. Ibid., p. 122. 3. Faith Andrews, interview by Robert F. Brown, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, January 14, 1982, p. 4, uncataloged archival document, Andrews Shaker Collection, Winterthur. 4. Benson John Lossing, as quoted in Don Gifford and June Sprigg, An Early View of the Shakers, (Hanover [N.H.]: University Press of New England, 1989), 50. 5. See Andrews Collection, Hancock Shaker Village 1962.473 (New Lebanon) and 1962.474 (Canterbury). 6. “Descriptive Catalogue,� restricted archives. Item #19, Andrews Shaker Collection, Winterthur. 7. Andrews Collection, Hancock Shaker Village 1962.411 8. A.D. Emerich, Shaker: Furniture and Objects from the Faith and Edward Deming Andrews Collections (Washington: Published for the Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973), p. 53.
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Bibliography — Andrews Auction Catalog
“Antiques in Domestic Settings: Solutions and Suggestions. Shaker Home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Deming Andrews in Pittsfield, Massachusetts,” The Magazine Antiques 30 (October 1936), pp. 162-163. Andrews, Edward Deming. The Community Industries of the Shakers (Albany: The University of the State of New York, 1932). Andrews, Edward Deming and Faith Andrews. “Craftsmanship of an American Communal Religious Sect: Notes on Shaker Furniture,” The Magazine Antiques 14, (August 1928), pp. 132-136. Andrews, Edward Deming and Faith Andrews; photographs by William F. Winter. Shaker Furniture: the Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect. (New Haven: Yale University Press; London : H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1937). Andrews, Edward Deming and Faith Andrews. “The Furniture of an American Religious Sect,” The Magazine Antiques 16, (April 1929), pp. 292-296. Andrews, Edward Deming and Faith Andrews. “An Interpretation of Shaker Furniture,” The Magazine Antiques 23, (January 1933), pp. 6-9. Andrews, Edward Deming and Faith Andrews. Religion in Wood: a Book of Shaker Furniture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966). Andrews, Edward Deming. Shaker Handicrafts: [exhibition] November 12 to December 12, 1935, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1935). Christensen, Erwin O. The Index of American Design with an introduction by Holger Cahill (New York: Macmillan; Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, 1950). De Pillis, Mario S. and Christian Goodwillie. Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection (Pittsfield, MA: Hancock Shaker Village; New Haven, Conn.; London: Distributed by Yale University Press, 2008). Emerich, A. D. Shaker: Furniture and Objects from the Faith and Edward Deming Andrews Collections (Washington: Published for the Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973). Kassay, John. The Book of Shaker Furniture (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980). New Horizons in American Art; with an introduction by Holger Cahill (New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1936). Rieman, Timothy D. and Jean M. Burks. The Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2003). Shaker, a Uniquely American Aesthetic: Notable examples from the Collection of the Late Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews (New York: David A. Schorsch, 1990). Winchester, Alice. “Living with Antiques: the Connecticut Home of Mr. and Mrs. David V. Andrews,” The Magazine Antiques 115, no. 5 (May 1979), pp. [1042]-1047. Youngs, Isaac Newton. “A Concise View of the Church of God and of Christ on Earth: Having its Foundation in the Faith of Christ’s First and Second Appearing, New Lebanon, 1856;1860. Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection, ASC 861, Winterthur, Delaware.
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Upcoming Auctions The Howard Roth Collection of Early American Iron
Part I: August 9, 2014, Marlborough, MA Part II: October, 2014, Boston, MA For more information, please contact the Americana department at 508.970.3200, or email americana@skinnerinc.com 150
Upcoming Auction American Furniture & Decorative Arts
August 9 & 10, 2014, Marlborough, MA For more information, please contact the Americana department at 508.970.3200, or email americana@skinnerinc.com Polychrome Floral Wrought Iron and Carved Wood Decoration
151
Conditions of Sale 1. Some of the lots in this sale are offered subject to a reserve. The reserve is a confidential minimum price agreed upon by the consignor and Skinner, Inc. below which the lot will not be sold. In most cases, the reserve will be set below the estimated range, but in no case will it exceed the estimates listed. A representative of Skinner, Inc. will execute such reserves by bidding for the consignor. In any event and whether or not a lot is subject to a reserve, the auctioneer may reject any bid or raise not commensurate with the value of such lot. 2. All property is sold “as is,� and neither the auctioneer nor any consignor makes any warranties or representation of any kind or nature with respect to the property, and in no event shall they be responsible for the correctness, nor deemed to have made any representation or warranty, of description, genuineness, authorship, attribution, provenance, period, culture, source, origin, or condition of the property and no statement made at the sale, or in the bill of sale, or invoice or elsewhere shall be deemed such a warranty of representation or an assumption of liability. 3. Except as provided in paragraph 1 above, the highest bidder as determined by the auctioneer shall be the purchaser. In the case of a disputed bid, the auctioneer shall have sole discretion in determining the purchaser and may also, at his or her election, withdraw the lot or reoffer the lot for sale. The auctioneer shall have sole discretion to refuse any bid, or refuse to acknowledge any bidder. Any bidder that plans on spending in excess of $100,000 should make arrangements with the accounting department at least five (5) days in advance of the sale, as a deposit may be required to participate. 4. All merchandise purchased must be paid for and removed from the premises the day of the auction. Skinner Inc. may impose, and the purchaser agrees to pay, a monthly interest charge of 1.5% of the purchase price of any lot or item lot not paid for within thirty-five (35) days of the date of sale. Skinner, Inc. shall have no liability for any damage or loss to property left on its premises for more than three (3) days from the date of sale. If any property has not been removed within three (3) days from the date of sale, at the option of Skinner, Inc. (a) Skinner Inc., may impose, and the purchaser agrees to pay, a monthly storage charge of 1.5% of the purchase price of any lot or portion of a lot not removed within the three days, and/or (b) Skinner Inc. may place the merchandise in a subsequent auction, without Reserve, to be sold to the highest bidder, and after deducting the standard commission and any additional charges that may apply, remit the proceeds to the purchaser. 5. Skinner accepts cash or check for payment. Personal checks will be acceptable only if credit has been established with Skinner, Inc. or if a bank authorization has been received guaranteeing a personal check. Skinner, Inc. reserves the right to hold merchandise purchased by personal check until the check has cleared the bank. The purchaser agrees to pay Skinner, Inc. a handling charge of $25.00 for any check dishonored by the drawee. Please contact Accounting for additional payment methods. Skinner does not accept payment by credit card for merchandise purchases. 6. If the purchaser breaches any of its obligations under these Conditions of Sale, including its obligation to pay in full the purchase price of all items for which it was the highest successful bidder, Skinner Inc. may exercise all of its rights and remedies under the law including, without limitation, (a) canceling the sale and applying any payments made by the purchaser to the damages caused by the purchaser’s breach, and/or (b) offering at public auction, without reserve, any lot or item for which the purchaser has breached any of its obligations, including its obligation to pay in full the purchase price, holding the purchaser liable for any deficiency plus all costs of sale. 7. In no event will the liability of Skinner, Inc. to any purchaser with respect to any item exceed the purchase price actually paid by such purchaser for such item. 8. Shipping is the responsibility of the purchaser. Upon request, our staff will provide the list of shippers who deliver to destinations within the United States and overseas. Some property that is sold at auction can be subject to laws governing export from the U.S., such as items that include material from some endangered species. Import restrictions from foreign countries are subject to these same governing laws. Granting of licensing for import or export of goods from local authorities is the sole responsibility of the buyer. Denial or delay of licensing will not constitute cancellation or delay in payment for the total purchase price of these lots. 9. All purchases are subject to the Massachusetts 6.25% sales tax unless the purchaser possesses a Massachusetts sales tax exemption number. Exemption numbers from other states are accepted in Massachusetts if presented with a business card or letterhead. Dealers, museums, and other qualifying parties can apply for a Massachusetts exemption number prior to the auction by contacting the Massachusetts Department of Corporations and Taxation at 100 Cambridge Street in Boston. 10. A premium equal to 23% of the final bid price up to and including $100,000, plus 20% of the final bid price from $100,001 up to and including $1,000,000, plus 12% of the final bid price from $1,000,001 and over will be applied to each lot sold, to be paid by the buyer as part of the purchase price. 11. Bidding on any item indicates your acceptance of these terms and all other terms printed within, posted, and announced at the time of sale whether bidding in person, through a representative, by phone, by Internet, or other absentee bid. 12. Skinner, Inc. and its consignors make no warranty or representation, express or implied, that the purchaser will acquire any copyright or reproduction rights to any lot sold. Skinner, Inc. expressly reserves the right to reproduce any image of the lots sold in this catalog. The copyright in all images, illustrations and written material produced by or for Skinner, Inc. relating to a lot, including the contents of this catalog, is, and shall remain at all times, the property of Skinner, Inc. and shall not be used by the purchaser, nor by anyone else, without our prior written consent. 13. These conditions of sale shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (excluding the laws applicable to conflicts or choice of law). The buyer/bidder agrees that any suit for the enforcement of this agreement may be brought, and any action against Skinner in connection with the transactions contemplated by this agreement shall be brought, in the courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or any federal court sitting therein. The bidder/buyer consents to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts and waives objections that it may now or hereafter have to the venue of any such suit.
Revised January 8, 2014
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Absentee Bid Form Sale Title
Sale Date
First Time Bidder?
YES
NO
Customer #
Name (Please Print)
Business Name
Address City
Phone #
Alternate #
check if change in address
State
Zip Code email
I wish to place the following bids in the sale listed above. I understand that Skinner, Inc. will execute bids as a convenience, and will not be held responsible for any errors or failure to execute bids. I understand that my bids are executed and accepted as per Conditions of Sale as printed in the catalog of this sale. Signature (Required)
Lot #
Date
Description
Bid confirmation via email?
YES
Bid Price
NO
FOR OFFICE USE Marlborough
Boston
Phone
63 Park Plaza Boston, MA 02116 617.350.5400 Fax 617.350.5429
Fax
Person
274 Cedar Hill Street Marlborough, MA 01752 508.970.3000 Fax 508.970.3100
Employee:
www.skinnerinc.com
Board of Directors
Chairman of the Board - Stephen L. Fletcher Richard Albright John Deighton Barnet Fain Karen M. Keane Andrew Payne Chairman Emerita - Nancy R. Skinner
Administration
President/Chief Executive Officer - Karen M. Keane Chief Financial Officer - Don Kelly Executive Vice President - Stephen L. Fletcher Vice Presidents - Eric Jones, Marie Keep, Gloria Lieberman, Carol McCaffrey, Kerry Shrives, Stuart G. Slavid, Robin S.R. Starr
Expert Departments
20th Century Design - Jane D. Prentiss American & European Paintings & Prints - Robin S.R. Starr Assistants: Kathy Wong, Elizabeth C. Haff, Michelle Lamunière American Furniture & Decorative Arts - Stephen L. Fletcher Deputy Director: Chris Barber; Assistant: Karen Langberg American Indian & Ethnographic Art - Douglas Deihl Antique Motor Vehicles - Jane D. Prentiss Asian Works of Art - Judith Dowling Assistants: Helen Eagles, Suhyung Kim Books & Manuscripts - Devon Gray Bottles, Flasks & Early Glass - Stephen L. Fletcher Ceramics - Stuart G. Slavid Clocks, Watches & Scientific Instruments - Robert C. Cheney Assistant: Jonathan Dowling Couture - Anne Fallon Discovery Auctions - Anne Fallon Assistants: Melissa Riebe, Kyle Johnson European Furniture & Decorative Arts - Stuart G. Slavid Assistants: Leah Kingman, Stephanie Opolski Fine Wines - Marie Keep Assistant: Michael J. Moser Historic Arms & Militaria - Joel Bohy
63 Park Plaza Boston, MA 02116 617.350.5400 Fax 617.350.5429 274 Cedar Hill Street Marlborough, MA 01752 508.970.3000 Fax 508.970.3100 2332 Galiano Street Coral Gables, FL 33134 305.503.4423
www.skinnerinc.com 154
Jewelry - Victoria Bratberg Assistants: John Colasacco, Katie Simonetti Judaica - Kerry Shrives Musical Instruments - Director Pro Tem: Jill Arbetter Assistant: Horst Kloss Oriental Rugs & Carpets - Lawrence Kearney Assistant: Erika Jorjorian Silver - Stuart G. Slavid Toys & Dolls - Anne Fallon Auctioneers - LaGina Austin, Chris Barber, Robert C. Cheney, John Colasacco, Stephen L. Fletcher, Karen M. Keane, Marie C. Keep, Gloria Lieberman, Jessica R. Lincoln, Kerry Shrives, Stuart G. Slavid, Robin S.R. Starr, Laura V. Sweeney
Exhibitions & Property Distribution
Finance Department
Subscriptions
Service Departments
Marlborough:
Warehouse Manager - Fred Trottier, 508.970.3261
Auction Coordinator - Melanie Trottier-Mitcheson, 508.970.3103
Boston:
Auction Coordinators - Jessica R. Lincoln, 617.874.4308,
Benjamin Evans, 617.874.4329
Marlborough:
Accounts Receivable - Denise Johnson, 508.970.3269
Accounts Payable, Consignment - Kathleen Hayes, 508.970.3268
Accounts Payable, Trade - Kevin Rota, 508.970.3283
Credit Supervisor - William Madden, 508.970.3266
Marlborough:
Jessica Turner, 508.970.3240
Advertising/Production Manager - Pamela Van de Houten Appraisal & Auction Services - LaGina Austin, Christine E. Finn, Rachel Kingsley, Ava Pandiani Boston Gallery Director - Laura V. Sweeney Assistant Gallery Director: Paige Lewellyn Gallery Assistant: Ryan O’Hara Consignment Services - Patricia Walker King, Carol Zeigler, Kealyn Garner Customer Relations - Carol McCaffrey Institutional Relations - L. Emerson Tuttle Human Resources - Carol McCaffrey Image Editor - John Cornelius Information Technology & Internet Auctions - Kerry Shrives Assistants: Timothy Shaughnessey, Melissa Riebe Lead Designer - Kristina Harrison Managing Director - Marie C. Keep Marketing & Public Relations - Kate de Bethune, Kathryn Gargolinski, Jessica Turner Photographers - Stanley P. Bystrowski, Jeffrey R. Antkowiak Receptionists - Marlborough: Katie Fitzgerald Boston: Bridget Spears Regional Director—Florida - April L. Matteini, G.G. Staff Portraits - Cheryl Richards Photography Transportation - Eric Jones
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Directions to the Marlborough Gallery
SKINNER
From Boston and Points East: Take the Massachusetts Turnpike (Route 90) West to Route 495 North at exit 11A. Proceed on Route 495N to exit 23C, Simarano Drive. Keep left at the fork in the ramp. At the bottom of the exit ramp take a left at the lights onto Simarano Drive. Take a right at the next light onto Cedar Hill Street. Skinner is at #274 on the left.
From Points North: Take Route 495 South to exit 23C, Simarano Drive. Stay left at the fork in the ramp, and turn left onto Simarano Drive. Take a right at the next light onto Cedar Hill Street. Skinner is at #274 on the left.
From Points West: Take 290 East toward Marlborough. Merge onto Route 495 South via exit 26A, toward Cape Cod. Take the Simarano Drive exit, 23C. Stay left at the fork in the ramp, and turn left onto Simarano Drive. Take a right at the next light onto Cedar Hill Street. Skinner is at #274 on the left.
From Points South: Take Route 495 North to exit 23C, Simarano Drive. At the bottom of the exit ramp take a left at the lights onto Simarano Drive. Take a right at the next light onto Cedar Hill Street. Skinner is at #274 on the left.
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Marlborough Hotels Courtyard by Marriott
Hampton Inn
75 Felton St. (exit 24B off 495) Marlborough, MA 508.480.0015
277 Boston Post Rd. West (exit 24B off 495) Marlborough, MA 508.787.9888
Embassy Suites 123 Boston Post Rd. West (exit 24B off 495) Marlborough, MA 508.485.9500
Holiday Inn and Suites 265 Lakeside Ave. (exit 24A off 495) Marlborough, MA 508.481.3000
Marlborough Travel Services & Car Rentals Ultimate Livery
Enterprise Car Rental
To Logan Airport
Hotel Pick-up and Delivery 364 Maple Street (Rt. 85) Marlborough, MA 508.480.0221
$46.00 each way for one $56.00 each way for two Private car and driver $147.50 one way Servicing all Marlborough hotels
Hertz Car Rental 80 Northborough Rd East Marlborough, MA 01752 508.481.7300
410 Maple Street (Rt. 85) Marlborough, MA 508.229.2756
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Marlborough Area Restaurants Allora Ristorante
Longhorn Steakhouse
Guiseppe’s Grille
139 Lakeside Ave. Marlborough, MA 508.485.4300
191 Boston Post Rd. Marlborough, MA 508.481.4100
35 Solomon Pond Rd. Northborough, MA 508.393.4405
Boston Market
Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub
Yoong Tong
185 Boston Post Rd. West Marlborough, MA 508.229.2525
32 Boston Post Rd. West Marlborough, MA 508.480.8899
China Taste
Panera Bread
Thai Cuisine and Sushi 278 Main Street Northborough, MA 508.393.7714
197 Boston Post Rd. West Marlborough, MA 508.229.2882
197 Boston Post Rd. West Marlborough, MA 508.281.6161
Fish Restaurant & Wine Bar
29 S. Bolton St. Marlborough, MA 508.460.3474
237 Boston Post Rd. West Marlborough, MA 508.481.3464
Jake’s Restuarant & Coffee Shop
Tandoori Grill
30 Main Street Marlborough, MA 508.480.0414
Linguini’s Italian Eatery 350 Boston Post Rd. West Marlborough, MA 508.481.9747
158
Subway
197 H Boston Post Rd. West Marlborough, MA 508.357.6551
Wildwood Steakhouse 189 Boston Post Rd. East Marlborough, MA 508.481.2021
Tomasso The Crossings 154 Turnpike Rd. Southborough, MA 508.481.8484
Catalog Subscription Form Prices effective January 17, 2014. Catalog subscription price includes quarterly brochure. Subscription effective one year from date processed. No refunds for previous subscriptions. Renewal notice will be sent one month prior to expiration. Subscriptions do not include Discovery, Estates, and other special sales. Post-auction prices are available online at www.skinnerinc.com
Please check the appropriate boxes:
U.S./Canada
Quarterly Brochure (Included with catalog subscription)
No charge
Foreign (payable in U.S. dollars only)
No charge
American Furniture & Decorative Arts
$120
$143
European Furniture & Decorative Arts
$120
$143
American & European Paintings & Prints (two books)
$135
$158
American & European Fine Prints & Photogrpahy
$60
$73
American & European Fine Paintings & Sculpture
$110
$133
Fine Jewelry
$120
$143
20th Century Design
$60
$73
Asian Works of Art
$60
$73
Fine Oriental Rugs & Carpets
$18
$25
American Indian & Ethnographic Art
$60
$73
Fine Books & Manuscripts
$30
$36
Fine Ceramics
$60
Fine Musical Instruments
$60
$73
Science, Technology & Clocks
$60
$73
Fine Wines
$60
$73
All Above Departments
$750
$915
$73
Subtotal
MA residents 6.25% sales tax
Total
MasterCard/VISA #
Exp. Date
Signature
Check enclosed
Name
Business Name
Mailing Address City email address
State
Zip Tel: (
)
Please enclose payment with subscription form and mail or fax to: Skinner, Inc., Subscription Department, 274 Cedar Hill Street, Marlborough, MA 01752 508.970.3100
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