Conference | 76th Annual Williamsburg Antiques Forum
From Colonial Williamsburg:
76th Annual Antiques Forum: Domestic Affairs
Online and in-person, Colonial Williamsburg, 23–27 February 2024
Registration due by 1 February 2024 (virtual registration by 10 February)
From London to Nova Scotia, New England to Virginia and the Carolinas, the Mid Atlantic to the Gulf South: all make an appearance at Colonial Williamsburg’s 76th Annual Antiques Forum: Domestic Affairs. Join us as we explore fashions, furnishings, and the familial while traveling through time and space and delving into houses and histories. We will journey through public and private collections, revealing new research, revitalized spaces, and the fascinating stories that are told by objects, architecture, and interiors.
On opening day of this year’s Antiques Forum, we are joined by Tim Whittaker, former Director of The Spitalfields Trust, who introduces the visionaries and eccentrics who saved the Georgian architectural legacy of East London. Robert Leath, Executive Director of Edenton Historical Commission, then dives into four centuries of North Carolina History as he examines the story of Hayes Plantation. Chief Curator Adam Erby reveals recent discoveries from Mount Vernon, and architectural paint conservator Maeve Woolley Delph peels back the layers on the interior paint restoration of Wilton House Museum. Trevor Brandt from Americana Insights and Colonial Williamsburg’s Associate Curator of Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture, Kate Teiken Rogers round out our visit to houses and objects as they take a deeper look at spiritual labyrinths in Pennsylvania German fraktur and portraiture of early Williamsburg residents, respectively.
On Sunday, Cynthia Cooper from the McCord Stewart Museum reveals the unlikely travels of an 18th-century dress from Virginia to Quebec City. We then travel to Mississippi as Jefferson Mansell, Historian with the Natchez National Historical Park, looks at the rise of the of the Natchez suburban estate. In the afternoon, attendees are invited to venture to the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for an update on recent acquisitions in the foundation’s collection, with mini-lectures by Colonial Williamsburg’s Curator of Furniture Tara Chicirda; Senior Curator of Mechanical Arts, Metals, and Numismatics Erik Goldstein; and Curator of Costumes and Textiles Neal Hurst. Following afternoon refreshments, lectures resume in the Virginia Room of the Lodge with the Carolyn and Michael McNamara Young Scholars Series, sponsored by The Decorative Arts Trust and featuring emerging scholars Ahmauri Williams-Alford (Telfair Museum), Henry Beard (Old Salem), and Cecelia Eure (Winterthur). The Annual Forum Shields Tavern Barbecue, sponsored by Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, concludes the day.
We explore indoors and out, above ground and below on Monday with independent scholar Errol Manners addressing “Ceramics and the Garden: Display, Delight, and Consumption,” and Drayton Hall’s Director of Archaeology Luke Pecoraro investigating Drayton Hall’s designed landscape. Colonial Williamsburg’s Director of Archaeology Jack Gary and Associate Curator of Ceramics and Glass, Angelika Kuettner then join our guest speakers on stage to discuss garden ceramics, archaeology, and historic preservation. In the afternoon attendees are invited to an open house at Custis Square to see the ongoing garden archaeology project and join Colonial Williamsburg’s Nation Builder Kurt Smith for a fascinating look at “Thomas Jefferson and English Gardens,” inspired by the visits of both men spanning different centuries. The Margaret Beck Pritchard Associate Curator of Maps and Prints, Katie McKinney, will end the day with a look at Robert Furber, his prints, and their influence on garden and floral arrangement design in the 18th century and today.
Our final day of lectures ventures to New England and the Mid-Atlantic with Historic Deerfield’s Amanda Lange looking at ceramics for the American home. Montgomery County Pennsylvania’s Daniel Hiester House is the subject of this year’s Collectors Talk, given by scholar and owner Lisa Minardi, while Matthew Skic, Curator of Exhibitions, Museum of the American Revolution, takes a look at the material world of the Forten Family of Philadelphia. Brenton Grom, Director of Connecticut’s Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum discusses how the spectacle of house museums can bring us together, and architectural historian Willie Graham gives our closing keynote highlighting remarkable discoveries during the restoration of Cloverfields, one of Tidewater Maryland’s grandest houses. A night to remember follows with live entertainment for the closing dinner.
Images from the Forum Flyer: Top Left: Detailed shot of a three-piece Court Suit, Warsaw, Poland, 1787–95, silk, linen, wool, iron, silver, gold, garnets, wood, paper (Transfer from The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA, 2023-21,1-3). Bottom Left: Portrait of Helen M. Eddy, Joseph Whiting Stock, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1845, oil on canvas (Bequest of Abby M. O’Neill, 2018.100.3). Top Middle: Three-piece Court Suit, Warsaw, 1787–95, silk, linen, wool, iron, silver, gold, garnets, wood, paper (Transfer from The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA, 2023-21,1-3). Bottom Middle: Hong Bowl, Jingdezhen, China, ca. 1787–88, hard-paste porcelain (Museum Purchase, The Joseph H. and June S. Hennage Fund, 2023-4). Top Right: Portrait of Major General Alexander Finley Whitaker possibly by John Bradley, New York, ca. 1835, oil on mattress ticking (Museum Purchase, Hank and Dixie Wolf in honor of Margaret Beck Pritchard and Laura Pass Barry, 2023.100.1). Bottom Right: Armchair, London, 1763–67, mahogany (Museum Purchase, 1959-351,3).
Conference | Working Wood in the 18th Century: By the Book
From Colonial Williamsburg:
Working Wood in the 18th Century: By the Book
Online and in-person, Colonial Williamsburg, 25–28 January 2024
Registration due by 1 January 2024
Printed words and images: How did 18th-century craftspeople turn them into actions and objects? How did craftspeople fill in the blanks left by what was unwritten or unillustrated? And how can the ink they left on paper inform our understanding of a past in which most craft knowledge was shared orally? Join tradespeople and scholars from Colonial Williamsburg and esteemed guest presenters as they explore woodworking by the book.
All lectures will take place in the Hennage Auditorium, at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. In-person capacity is limited and those on the waitlist will be notified via email should space become available. Virtual capacity is unlimited.
Christopher Schwarz—woodworker, author, and publisher of Lost Art Press—will open the conference with a keynote on the long historical arc of woodworking books. Later, he’ll demonstrate the low workbench illustrated by M. Hulot in L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien (1775) to explore how the design has persisted among chairmakers up to the present. Chairmaking of a different flavor will be the focus of demonstrations by master cabinetmaker and educator Dan Faia, who will explore the structure and ornament of a high-style neoclassical chair design published by George and Alice Hepplewhite in The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1789). Colonial Williamsburg cabinetmakers Bill Pavlak and John Peeler will explore how 18th-century craftspeople could use Thomas Chippendale’s elaborate published patterns as a springboard for designing and building chairs in the ’plain and neat’ manner favored by colonial Virginia’s fashion-conscious consumers.
In the realm of architectural woodworking, Colonial Williamsburg’s joiners Brian Weldy and Peter Hudson will employ a variety of 18th-century pattern books to design and build a door, its frame, and the decorative woodwork that surrounds it. In a panel moderated by supervisor-journeyman Matt Sanbury, apprentice carpenters Harold Caldwell, Mary Lawrence Herbert, and McKinley Groves will crack open Joseph Moxon’s late 17th-century work Mechanick’s Exercises to put his lessons in carpentry to the test. Does Moxon’s writing accurately reflect the practices of carpenters?
Decorative techniques are discussed at length in period writings, though usually in an incomplete manner. Conservators Chris Swan and Sarah Towers will introduce their recent exploration into traditional silvering techniques for carved picture frames. Harpsichord makers Edward Wright and Melanie Belongia will explore decorative veneering methods that are useful for furniture and musical instruments alike. In both cases, presenters will show how the written word combined with hours of experimentation at the bench led to successful results.
In addition to bringing the techniques and designs from books to life, we’ll also explore books themselves from a variety of perspectives. Whitney L.B. Miller, author of Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed, will share how she was inspired to turn her research on Henry Boyd—a free Black furniture maker, inventor, and abolitionist who was born into enslavement—into a book for today’s children. Colonial Williamsburg’s curator of furniture Tara Chicirda will introduce the role that pattern books and price books played in the cabinetmaker’s trade. To learn about what went into making detailed printed illustrations, master engraver Lynn Zelesnikar will demonstrate her craft while reproducing a plate from Chippendale. She and Bill Pavlak will also compare notes on how to turn the same ornamental pattern into a two-dimensional engraving or a three-dimensional wood carving. Any collection of books needs shelves, and decorative arts historian Thomas Savage will deliver our banquet keynote on the acclaimed Holmes-Edwards library bookcase, a beautifully crafted home for books with a compelling story of its own.
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