Shaker furniture from South Union, Kentucky

Magazine Antiques, May, 1997 by Tommy Hines

By the early 1920s the nine Shakers remaining at South Union decided to begin selling furniture they no longer used. The first of the three auctions, on May 8, 1920, was recorded with little fanfare in the community journal:

Sold old furniture today...at the church door to the highest bidder....Several pieces brought over $100.00 each. All went high. Beyond our expectations. One old corded bedstead brought $35.00. Candlesticks were in demand but none could be found Return not given. The guess was between $3,000.00 and $4,000.00. (Whatever it is - I think is better than leaving the furniture for the rats to destroy in the attic.)(11)

The second auction was held on September 18, 1920, and the third, on April 8, 1922, was advertised in a broadside as the "Last Call! for Antique Furniture at Shakertown, KY." and listed "Chest of Drawers, Tables, large and small, Twin Beds, Wardrobes, Cupboards, Straightback Chairs" of walnut, cherry, and oak.(12) The presence of oak furniture is evidence that wordly furniture was being used by the community.

By the time the auction was held, the Shakers at South Union were gone, for the community was officially closed on March 15, 1922. Earlier in the year the ministry at Mount Lebanon had decided to shut down the village, giving each of the nine inhabitants the choice of passage to Mount Lebanon or a check for ten thousand dollars to begin a new life in the world. All but two chose the world.

South Unions auctions, although a sad end to a once thriving community, have been a most valuable resource for documenting the objects in the Shaker Museum at South Union. More than 80 percent of the collection can be traced directly to one or another of the sales. With this provenance as well as recurring design characteristics, historic photographs, and written records, the material culture of South Union begins to make sense. Looked upon for many years as second best or ignored altogether, South Union furniture is now being recognized for what it is - a southern Kentucky interpretation of the rules. It may not fit the mold of the eastern Shakers' classic period, but the offering by the "outer branch" to godly perfection celebrates the diversity of America's longest lived communal experiment.

1 John Meacham, Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, to Mother Lucy Wright in New Lebanon, New York, August 21, 1810 (IV A 52, Western Reserve Historical Society library, Cleveland, Ohio).

2 Franklin [Kentucky] Favorite, June 6, 1886.

3 "Journal or Diary of a Tour made by the Ministry of New Lebanon to the Shaker Societies in the Western States, Written by Elder Giles B. Ave" (VB 163, Western Reserve Historical Society library).

4 Letter from the South Union Ministry to the Mount Lebanon Ministry, January 15, 1867 (IV A 63, Western Reserve Historical Society library).

5 Letter to Tommy Hines, March 1, 1996.

6 Between January and June 1815, the South Union Shakers sold "2 walnut tables [at] $14 each/l cupboard [at] $15/1 bedstead [at] $1.25/2 circular cherry tables [at] $15 each/1 Buroe [at] $16" (account book, South Union, 1815; II B 55, Western Reserve Historical Society library).