SHAKER MUSEUM AND LIBRARY TO BE LOAN EXHIBIT AT 54TH WINTER ANTIQUES SHOW WINTER ANTIQUES SHOW CELEBRATES ITS 54TH YEAR
WITH A LOAN EXHIBITION FROM THE SHAKER MUSEUM AND LIBRARY OF OLD CHATHAM, NEW YORK
museum will present lecture series at the Winter Antiques Show; highlights include collecting Shaker boxes and a preview of the museum's future home at the historic Mt. Lebanon site.
Highlights of the loan exhibition include (images are available):
· Red Two-Drawer Blanket Chest, Mount Lebanon, N.Y., 1866. Signed and dated on the underside of a drawer runner by maker Brother Richard Bushnell, this pine blanket box chest is typical of those made for use by Shakers for storage of domestic textiles in dwellings. Bushnell, a North Family Elder, noted that this was the first piece of furniture he ever made.
· Yellow Case of Drawers, Mount Lebanon, N.Y., 1830. This pine case of drawers is typical in the Shakers’ design of communal furniture and extraordinary in finish. Standing over six feet high and with ten drawers, this piece accommodates the storage needs for several Shakers.
· Red & Black Sewing Chair with Drawers, Mount Lebanon, N.Y., 1880. This otherwise common maple chair form, used in Shaker community, was made unique with the addition of two pine drawers mounted under the cloth tape seat and the decorative application of black and red paints in the style of Asian lacquered work.
· Yellow Blanket Chest with Drawer, Mount Lebanon, N.Y., 1830. This pine chest with maple drawer knobs is typical of chests used by Shakers for storage of domestic textiles.
· Red Double Case of Drawers, Mount Lebanon, N.Y., 1825. This sixteen-drawer, pine chest with cherry knobs stands almost seven feet high, requiring the use of a step-stool to reach the highest drawers.
· Yellow Side Chair with Tilters, Mount Lebanon, N.Y., 1840. This typical maple ladder back chair has become an icon of Shaker manufacture. This chair exhibits the Shakers’ tilter buttons on bottom of the back posts, designed to keep the post bottoms flat on the floor when the chair’s user leans it back.
· Side Chair, Mount Lebanon, N.Y., 1850. The lightness of this chair and use of figured maple adds to its delightful appearance. The chair has pewter ball-and-socket tilters on the back posts of the style patented by the Shakers in 1852.
· Blue Pail with White Lid, Canterbury, N.H., 1850. The carefully fitted lid and use of white paint on the interior suggest that this pail with pine staves, lid and bottom may have been used in the dairy.
· Yellow Pail labeled “Rice,” Canterbury, N.H., 1850. This pail retains its original color and is one of a group of buckets labeled for storage of grains kept in Shaker pantries.
· Meetinghouse Bench, Canterbury, N.H., 1850. This bench -- pine seat, cherry crest rail and spindles and birch legs -- is more than 13 feet long. It was used to seat worshippers during Shaker meetings. It was light enough to be moved out of the way to make room for dancing common during the Shakers’ 19th century worship.
· Rocking Chair, adapted to become a Wheelchair, Watervliet, N.Y., 1800-1820. This early rocking chair of maple, oak,
