Enfilade

In January at Colonial Williamsburg. . .

Working Wood in the 18th Century: Dining in Style
Colonial Williamsburg, 19–22 and 23–26 January 2014

William Buckland (designer) and William Bernard Sears (carver), sideboard made for the Tayloe family of Mount Airy plantation (MESDA collection at Old Salem in Winston Salem, North Carolina). Photo from the Williamsburg blog  Anthony Hay’s, Cabinetmaker; click on the image for more information.

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Colonial Williamsburg, The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), and Fine Woodworking
present the 16th annual Working Wood in the 18th Century conference at Williamsburg, January 19–22 and 23–26, 2014. Projects and presentations will explore the design and construction of dining room furniture, based on original pieces selected from the collections of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem Museums and Gardens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The pieces to be built cover a range of complexities. Colonial Williamsburg’s Hay Shop staff will reproduce one of the icons of Virginia and southern high-style furniture, the elaborate sideboard table made by William Buckland and William Bernard Sears for the Tayloe family of Mount Airy plantation. The Hay Shop also will make a turned, gate-leg, walnut table, based on the earliest southern gate-leg table known. Steve Latta will demonstrate constructing and decorating a veneered and inlaid, Winchester, Virginia, sideboard. Brian Coe of Old Salem will produce a corner cupboard from the Davidson County, North Carolina, Swisegood school of cabinetmakers. Colonial Williamsburg joiner Ted Boscana will complement Brian’s presentation with a joiner-made, paneled cupboard from the Virginia Eastern Shore. And, Robert Leath, MESDA’s chief curator (first session), and Daniel Ackermann, MESDA’s associate curator (second session), will start things off with an introduction to dining rooms and their furnishings. Partnering with MESDA gives us a chance to focus on southern regional styles and construction, a theme of the new “Masterworks” gallery being installed in the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. Yet, the overall form and decoration of these pieces, whether Baroque in inspiration—drawn directly from Chippendale—or inspired by neo-classical taste, offer approaches and detailing applicable to many examples of Anglo-American furniture made throughout the 18th and into the early 19th centuries.

As last year, Session One runs Sunday through Wednesday and Session Two Thursday through Sunday.

Speakers Include

Daniel Ackermann, associate curator, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Old Salem, Winston-
Salem, North Carolina
Ted Boscana, supervisor, journeyman joiner and carpenter, Colonial Williamsburg
Brian Coe, director of exhibition buildings and furniture maker, Old Salem, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Steve Latta, educator and craftsman, Thaddeus Stevens College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and contributing
editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
Robert Leath, chief curator and vice president of collections and research for the Museum of Early Southern
Decorative Arts, Old Salem, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Kaare Loftheim, journeyman cabinetmaker, Colonial Williamsburg
Bill Pavlak, apprentice cabinetmaker, Colonial Williamsburg
Brian Weldy, apprentice cabinetmaker, Colonial Williamsburg

As always, the conference will be informal. Participants’ comments and questions are welcomed. During morning and afternoon breaks, speakers display their work, tools, and materials; demonstrate techniques; and chat with participants. To include more participants while keeping the conferences small enough for everyone to be involved, two identical programs are offered.

More information is available here»