MESDA and the study of early southern decorative arts

Magazine Antiques, March, 2005 by Johanna Metzgar Brown

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The serendipity of discovering a jug by an unknown Richmond pottery manufactory at the same time that a document researcher discovers evidence of the same business is a truly remarkable testament to the success of combining the recording of objects with information from the written record.

In many cases MESDA researchers' field visits have resulted in gifts, bequests, and offers to sell objects to the museum or other public collections decades after the original contact. One such acquisition is a sideboard table (Pl. IX) first examined by MESDA in the 1970s at Mount Airy, the Richmond County, Virginia, house built between 1748 and 1758 by John Tayloe II (1721-1779). This and another Mount Airy sideboard table documented by MESDA were designed by William Buckland, an English-trained builder commissioned to complete the interior woodwork of Mount Airy. The tables were carved by William Bernard Sears, who worked for Buckland. They are rare examples of American furniture designed by a builder to complement the interior architectural woodwork of the house for which they were made.

Much of the interior of Mount Airy was destroyed by fire in 1844. However, Buckland's first commission in the United States survives--the architectural woodwork in Gunston Hall (built c. 1753-1759), the Fairfax County house of George Mason (1725-1792). A careful comparison of the two sideboard tables from Mount Airy with interior architectural woodwork at Gunston Hall has convinced scholars of the close relationship between Buckland's architectural woodwork and the furniture he designed to complement it. (11)

The table illustrated in Plate IX was on loan to MESDA briefly in the 1980s when it was the subject of extensive study by Luke Beckerdite, then a research associate at the museum, who published two important articles about Buckland and his work. (12) It was not until 1993 that MESDA was given the opportunity to acquire the table for its permanent collection. It is strongly related in design to one in Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director (Fig. 1). A copy of this book was listed in Buckland's estate inventory taken in 1774.

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One of the remarkable things about MESDA and its research and collecting efforts throughout its forty-year history is the diversity of objects and information that have been recorded. Some of the objects considered most important today served a humble purpose when made. An example is the expressive pottery lion in Plate II, which is believed to have been made as a doorstop by the potter Solomon Bell, but is now called "one of the most magnificent examples of all of the [Shenandoah] Valley modeled ware." (13) It has become one of the most beloved and recognizable objects in the MESDA collection. Sometimes it is the more whimsical wares, such as this lion, that cause collectors and scholars to consider craftsmen artists rather than technicians.

The Sacrifice of Isaac (Pl. XI), a needlework picture worked in Norfolk, Virginia, by Elizabeth Boush, exhibits not only outstanding technical skill but also considerable artistic flair. Boush completed this remarkable piece in the same year her own portrait was painted by John Durand (w. 1765-1782). (14) Her work is noteworthy for many reasons, not least because it is the earliest colonial southern example on which the student identifies her teacher. MESDA's Index of Early Southern Artists and Artisans records the names of many needlework teachers, and its Catalogue of Early Southern Decorative Arts contains photographic files documenting the work of numerous students, many of whom stitched their own names on their works, but it is rare to find a piece that identifies both student and teacher.