American Furniture 2018 (American Furniture Annual);

The Chipstone Foundation’s annual American Furniture and its sister publication Ceramics in America are the most influential publications to have emerged in the decorative arts field during the last twenty-five years. These journals continue to set new standards for cutting edge research, photography, and graphic design while forging links between academia, museums, craftspeople, and the collecting world.

This volume of American Furniture is chronologically and geographically diverse, featuring articles on the labels of Philadelphia, cabinetmaker William Savery; clock cases attributed to Daniel Spencer, who moved from Providence, Rhode Island to Lexington, Kentucky, Boston baroque chairs, and paint-decorated chests attributed to Robert Crossman of Taunton, Massachusetts. The latter two articles are lavishly illustrated and are essentially catalog raisonés of their subjects.

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.

Table of Contents

Editorial Statement
Luke Beckerdite

Luxury of Choice: Boston’s Early Baroque Seating Furniture
Erik K. Gronning

Revisiting Taunton: Robert Crosman, Esther Stevens Brazer, and the Changing Interpretations of Taunton Chests
Emelie Gevalt

A Rhode Island Cabinetmaker in Kentucky: Revelations of a Clock Reexamined
Tara Gleason Chicirda and Mack Cox

Dating William Savery’s Furniture Labels and Implications for Furniture History
Philip D. Zimmerman

Book Reviews, edited by Gerald W. R. Ward

Bibliography, compiled by Gerald W. R. Ward

Index