American Classical Furniture 1810-35: The Schrimsher Collection

Bold, stately, and elegant furniture is revealed in this entirely new survey of design, regional varieties and workshop collaborations in the American East Coast in the early nineteenth century.

Collectors Randy and Kelly Schrimsher began collecting American Classical decorative art in the late 1980s. Their notable collection now comprises over 100 pieces of furniture by some of the most celebrated cabinetmakers from across 5 key centers of Classical furniture production that emerged in the United States at the end of the eighteenth century: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, with works by Duncan Phyfe, Charles-Honoré Lannuier, Isaac Vose, William Hancock, the Finley Brothers, Anthony Quervelle, and Joseph Barry. It is this exploration of ＂the inter-city connections＂ through a series of thematic essays, case studies, and accompanying illustrated catalogue entries by heralded furniture historians, that set this new volume apart.

Wonderful examples of objects by all these makers and their shops are explored by city to illustrate regional varieties and workshop collaborations. In addition to the 100 full-page color illustrations of different pieces of furniture from the Schrimsher Collection across the main production cities, the book features nearly 90 additional comparative illustrations covering pattern books, designs, prints and historic views, plus photos of chair legs, supports, capitols, gilding, and a pictorial glossary. Arranged across approximately 4-5 appendices, this provides an important source of new information for scholars.

Matthew A. Thurlow is the executive director, Decorative Arts Trust Board. Prior to heading the Trust, Matt served as assistant director of Development for Major Gifts and Planned Giving at Winterthur; and research associate and installations coordinator in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Wendy A. Cooper is curator emerita and formerly the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Senior Curator of Furniture, Winterthur Museum.

Clark Pearce is an independent furniture historian who serves as an advisor to collectors and institutions in America and internationally, and manages conservation projects for private clients and museums.

After a thirty-year career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Peter M. Kenny retired in 2014 as the Ruth Bigelow Wriston Curator of American Decorative Arts and administrator of the American Wing.

Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley is the Montgomery-Garvan curator of American decorative arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Gregory Weidman is nationally recognized as a leading authority on Maryland furniture and historic interiors. She is a curator at Hampton National Historic Site in Baltimore County, and curator for Baltimore’s other National Park Service site, Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine.

For over 30 years Christine Thomson has been a furniture and decorative surfaces conservator with emphasis on the study and treatment of painted, lacquered, gilded and varnished surfaces.