New Discoveries in Georgia Painted Furniture by Georgia Museum of Art

Georgia Painted Furniture New Discoveries in

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January 26 - April 27, 2008 G E O RG I A M U S E U M O F A RT The University of Georgia

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G e o r g i a M u s e u m o f A r t

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The University of Georgia Philip Henry Alston, Jr., Gallery

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Co-curators Ashley Callahan, curator, Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts, Georgia Museum of Art Dale L. Couch, senior archivist and historical research advisor, Georgia Archives With assistance from Rosalie Haynes, ornamental painter

Georgia Painted Furniture

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New Discoveries in

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January 26 - April 27, 2008

Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, the Friends of the Museum, and the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations, and corporations provide additional support through their gifts to the Arch Foundation and the University of Georgia Foundation.

Georgia Museum of Art 706.542.GMOA | www.uga.edu/gamuseum Hours TUE • THU • FRI • SAT | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. WED | 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. SUN | 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $2 Photography by Michael McKelvey A new map of Georgia with its roads and distances, 1852. Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/ University of Georgia Libraries Cover: No. 4

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his exhibition was organized to coincide with the

Fourth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts and to provide an opportunity for scholars, collectors, and enthusiasts to see and discuss extraordinary examples of painted furniture from Georgia. Along with the proceedings from the 2008 symposium, the museum will publish an updated version of the text in this brochure reflecting the insights and discussions emerging from the symposium. It is with much gratitude and respect that I thank the lenders to this exhibition for

their generosity in sharing their collections with the museum and for their roles as stewards of Georgia’s decorative arts. Dale Couch and I saw many more fine examples of painted furniture than we could include in the exhibition and we acknowledge—and are excited by—the fact that so much more exists and is in good hands. The Georgia Museum of Art will continue to exhibit painted furniture and other decorative arts, and I am always happy to learn about “new” objects that we might feature in future projects. Many thanks also to Dale Couch for serving as co-curator for this exhibition and for bringing so much enthusiasm and knowledge to the project; to Rosalie Haynes and Deanne Deavours for sharing their excitement and thorough understandings of paint and furniture; and to Haley Garrett, decorative arts intern. As with every exhibition at the museum, this project required the involvement and support of the entire staff, whose efforts Dale and I have greatly appreciated. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions and support of Billy Allen, David Carmicheal, Sally Hawkins, Bob Jackson, Greg Jarrell, Ted Martin, and Dip Polatty. A s h l e y C a l l aha n

Curator, Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts, Georgia Museum of Art

A i n t r o d u c t i o n

Colorful Past, the theme of the Fourth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, offers an excellent opportunity to examine recent discoveries in the painted vernacular furniture that is central to the experience of nineteenth-century Georgians. Moreover, it provides a chance to investigate connections between these surfaces and the painted (and unpainted) built environment of that period. Paint surfaces are among the most fragile elements of material heritage. Extant examples and those that survive behind later coats of paint can provide a tantalizing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Technicolorâ&#x20AC;? glimpse of a past mostly viewed through the faded sepia tones of early photographs or imagined in the presence of overly refinished products aesthetically sanitized for Colonial Revival collectors. The goals of New Discoveries in Georgia Painted Furniture are to celebrate this colorful past and to present an opportunity to reflect on the history of painted surfaces in Georgia.

Georgia

New Discoveries in

Painted

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no. 5

Writing Chair, ca. 1840

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Unidentified maker

[Warren County, Georgia, area]

Yellow pine, birch, ash; 40 ¹/16 x 31 ¹/2 x 32 ³/16 inches Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; gift of Beverly Hart Bremer GMOA 2000.61

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Furniture

i n t r o d u c t i o n

Georgia was a fluid construction as a state,

Chatham County, Georgia, and Beaufort County,

and its political and cultural borders have not

South Carolina, can be difficult to identify as

always aligned. Present northwest South Carolina

specifically Carolinian or Georgian, as they often

was once part of Georgia, a jurisdiction that

exhibit an equal record imprint in both areas.

was transferred to the neighboring state in the

The borders of Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida

Treaty of Beaufort in 1787. The South Carolina

present similar situations. Hard political borders

section of the Central Savannah River Area was

seldom serve the formatting of cultural history.

well within the cultural domain of Augusta and,

When studying the decorative arts of Georgia,

indeed, is home to present day North Augusta.

determining the state of origin for objects

Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century residents of

from these border areas can be challenging, if not impossible. Therefore, we embrace the

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no. 8

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Chest, ca. 1820–40

related cultural expressions and interactions. Another important goal of this exhibition

Unidentified maker

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neighboring regions as repositories of important

[middle Georgia]

is to present paint on furniture in the context

Yellow pine 35 ³/8 x 56 ⁵/8 x 24 ¹/4 inches Private collection

of related aspects of the “built” environment,

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so several examples of painted architectural elements are included. Though the names of

individuals who made and/or painted nineteenth-

backgrounds as diverse as painters in other

century Georgia furniture are often lost, one

parts of the country.3 Though most of those

category of craftsman clearly connected to some

described in Appendix I cannot be linked yet

painted furniture is the ornamental painter,

to specific surviving wall treatments or objects,

an important fixture in interior architectural

their stories represent the varied backgrounds

decoration in the nineteenth century.

and accomplishments of ornamental painters in

this state and attest to Georgia’s participation cross the U nited S tates in

in the national fashion for painted furniture

the late eighteenth and nineteenth

and interiors. It is likely that some of the pieces

centuries, ornamental painters carried

of furniture in this exhibition were decorated

on a wide range of work and made their presence

by individuals who advertised as ornamental

felt in many aspects of daily life, painting the signs consumers passed as they walked along Main Street, enlivening the walls of newly built homes with graining or marbling, adding scrolling lines or flowers to furniture, and producing special parade banners for clubs and fraternal organizations. Sumpter Priddy, author of American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts, 17901840, notes that ornamental painting was an emerging art at the turn of the nineteenth century and

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that it involved skills as simple as applying a thin line on a chair back and as complicated as decorating an entire room.1

no. 25

Footstool, ca. 1840–60

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Possibly made by Morgan Brothers [DeKalb County, Georgia]

Nancy Goyne Evans, in her study of Christian M. Nestell, an ornamental painter working in

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Rhode Island, also addresses the diversity of skills and services encompassed by the role of

Poplar spokes and unidentified wood 7 ⁷/8 x 12 ³/4 x 8 ⁵/16 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register

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ornamental painter: painting military standards, signs, fire buckets, carriages, and ensigns for

painters, while less formal works may have

ships, as well as providing oil and water gilding

been executed by rural craftsmen influenced

and re-gilding, supplying Masonic banners and

by their work.

aprons, graining door and interior woodwork, 2

and, of course, decorating furniture.

Appendix II provides abstractions of selected advertisements for paints and related

Georgians provided a supportive market for

materials from Georgia newspapers. While

ornamental painters, who possessed skills and

these abstractions only represent a paucity

i n t r o d u c t i o n

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no. 19

category was “painters and varnishers,” and the

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number had grown to 697.6 The 1870 Census

Wardrobe, ca. 1820–50

also lists forty-one “manufactories” connected

Unidentified maker

to paint and varnish. These establishments

[Georgia]

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Yellow pine with poplar panels 88 x 48 x 19 ¹/8 inches Private collection

probably reflected the increased marketing of prepared and premixed paints. This evidence

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demonstrates that Georgians of a wide range of class and race pursued color as an enhancement of life.

of the massive evidence provided by paint

A review of previous publications featuring

advertisement in Georgia newspapers, they

Georgia furniture, many of which are listed in

do clearly indicate the kinds of pigments and 4

paints available throughout the state over time.

the bibliography, reveals a significant amount

Although it is a largely random sampling, the

of painted furniture in the state. Often, tables,

list presents examples from across the state for

chairs, cupboards, and chests are painted a single

part of the eighteenth century and most of the

color (blue, green, ochre, black, brown, or red),

nineteenth century. The importation of paints

sometimes they are grained, and occasionally

and related commodities was a massive and

they feature unusual motifs or patterns, such as

sustained phenomenon. The commodities represented in these advertisements were commonplace, and it is clear from one Georgia Supreme Court case source that standard freight rates existed between New York and Savannah.5 The use of paint grew with settlement and population, as attested by the increasing numbers of professional painters over time. The 1850 Federal Census of Georgia lists 199 painters and glaziers. By 1870, the

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no. 24

Demilune table, ca. 1830–60

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Unidentified maker

[probably Hart County, Georgia]

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Yellow pine 33 7/8 x 36 7/8 x 21 5/8 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David Miller

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the carrot-like designs on the Franklin County

exhibition is to continue to raise awareness

chest in Neat Pieces: The Plain-Style Furniture

of the importance of painted surfaces.

of Nineteenth-Century Georgia (cat. no. 92).

Mrs. Charlton M. Theus, in her book

These publications also note many objects with

Savannah Furniture, 1735-1825, and Katharine

remnants or evidence of paint, reminding later

Wood Gross (Farnham), in her master’s thesis,

collectors of earlier fads for stripping furniture

“The Sources of Furniture Sold in Savannah,

to reveal the wood grain. Another goal of this

1789-1815,” both document early examples of painted furniture in Georgia.8 Theus includes

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no. 9

Chest, ca. 1820-40

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later list from an auction of the estate of I.

[DeKalb County, Georgia]

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estate inventory and appraisal from 1791 that includes a “pine painted bookcase.”9 A slightly

Unidentified maker

Yellow pine 22 x 39 ¹/2 x 17 ¹/2 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Norman D. Askins

a list of furniture from George Basil Spencer’s

Walburger in 1797 includes “12 green chairs,”

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while an inventory and appraisal list from 1828 for Isaiah Davenport mentions “6 plain black

chairs” and “2 painted pine toilette tables.”10

fresher paint sometimes is necessary. Serious

Theus and Gross both reference a Windsor

restoration or conservation is not speculative;

chair maker from Philadelphia, Nathaniel

it is based on good science. In addition to a

Brown, who died in 1803 and had in his estate

few select objects with conserved or restored

inventory “a lot of paint, oil, jugs, brushes, and

surfaces, this exhibition also includes objects

paint stores” as well as many chairs and chair

with lightly altered surfaces, early but not

parts. Gross documents another early chair

original paint, and unrestored surfaces in order

maker, Silas Cooper, who advertised in 1809

to emphasize the importance of appreciating

that he “elegantly painted, gilt and finished to

and understanding these various states.

order.” Gross also notes that Windsor chairs

Several of the works in this exhibition clearly

in numerous colors (green, yellow, black, and

demonstrate the possibility of recovering the

mahogany-color) were imported to Savannah

original paint decoration from under later

during the period she studied. Nancy G.

layers of enamel paint. Enamel paints were

Evans, in her extensive study of Windsor chairs,

ubiquitous early in the twentieth century

addresses importation to the South and reports

and often deployed with a regularity that

that “The first mention of red Windsors occurs

approached that of spring cleaning. It is likely

in the accounts of a Philadelphia supercargo,

that much of Georgia’s painted heritage

who commented in 1784 on colors suitable

on furniture and architecture lies beneath

for the Southern market.” Thus, in addition

these thick, resistant overcoats. Restoration

to furniture made and painted in Georgia,

and conservation of such works should be

Georgians in the late eighteenth and early

undertaken with caution, as the original

nineteenth centuries (and probably later) also

finishes easily can be removed with later layers,

owned imported painted furniture, and possibly

thus losing an important artistic statement.

imported unpainted furniture that then was

painted in Georgia.

Surface History and Condition

ometimes the over - painting

itself is an important part of the character of a piece of furniture. The

Elbert County “safe” (no. 17) may have had several layers of dark finish applied before the

Nowhere in the collecting of decorative arts

present lamp-black surface was added. This

is the question of condition more controversial

accretion of paint and texture, along with the

than in the area of painted furniture.

addition of naïve hardware, created a statement

Collectors understandably are wary of

about the object’s history. Paint as process can

alterations of paint, and some viewers may be

be viewed as a form of patina. Patination has

perplexed to find restored painted surfaces

long been a desirable characteristic for high-

displayed in museums. As it is important to

style furniture, and paint accretion can be a

museums to present the original intent of

similarly appreciated feature, particularly on

the maker–consumer matrix when possible,

vernacular furniture. The evaluation of any

s u r f a c e

h i s t o r y

a n d

c o n d i t i o n

painted surface is a judgment call employing the

of the time of its creation. We share the spirit

most subjective of parameters: the gut feeling.

of decorative arts historian John Kirk’s position

Nonetheless, a later paint can be an important

posed in relation to furniture losses: that we

feature of an object. Examples abound of

should be able to enjoy what is left.17 Collecting

eighteenth-century American furniture with

standards should take into consideration

nineteenth-century paint, the result of which is

Georgia’s inhospitable climate for objects and

both honest and charming.

its tumultuous history. Few objects in the state

Irish furniture provides a truly dramatic

have survived “untouched.”

example of how the social history of paint

Catholicism had been suppressed. Each home

Outside Views and Traveler Commentary

periodically was called into use for community

Traveler commentary is a major historical

worship, and, as preparation for this event,

source for comprehending any society. In the

the furniture in each household was painted

nineteenth century, Georgia was the subject of

every few years. Consequently, the heavy paint

moral critique for racial slavery and post-bellum

accretion of Irish furniture produces its own

violence. This criticism, even when sincere and

aesthetic, a form of patination imbued by

well founded, clouded visitors’ experience of the

poignant social history rather than atmosphere.

region. Nineteenth-century moral condemnation

During the period in which this furniture was

of slavery drew heavily on its “degenerate”

stripped and imported to America, it lost much

effect on slaveholders, not simply its injustice

accretion interplays with its aesthetic. Throughout its colonial experience, Ireland’s

of its “Irishness.”

Original early paint decoration is a valuable and

opposition to the expansion of slavery resulted

exciting commodity when encountered, but the

from fear of the effect of African Americans

partial survival of under-paint carefully exposed

on the dominantly white culture of the North.

to reveal some of the original intent of the artist

Even after the Civil War, some states and locales

is also important, both artistically for itself as well

passed laws to prevent the settlement of free

as for the evidence it provides.

black citizens.

While some objects in this exhibition appear

to African Americans. In fact, part of the

It is in this context that visitors commented

never to have been over-painted, these cannot

on Georgia paint, or, more precisely, its absence.

be regarded as untouched. Oxidation has

Unpainted homes and furniture readily were

changed the color, shade, and compositional

interpreted as corrupt or untended. One of the

contrast of even these pieces of furniture. In

most graphic comments was made by Dr. C. G.

effect, painted furniture survives in a continuum

Parsons, a northern travel writer. Referring to the

of condition. The only total loss is the com-

homes of slaveholders, Dr. Parsons wrote, around

pletely stripped surface, which has become an

1855, “Sometimes you will not see furniture

object more representative of the “period of

amounting to five dollars in value in a wealthy

knotty pine,” a Colonial Revival aesthetic, than

planter’s house. I have seen such houses without

a particle of paint on the inside, or on any article

etc., with which our house is furnished, and they

of furniture. A few old oak chairs, made by hand,

are very neat pieces of workmanship—neither

in the rudest manner, covered with deer skins

veneered or polished indeed, nor of very costly

or green hides untanned—a hard pine table,

materials, but of the white pine wood planed

unplanned [sic]—a wooden poker, instead of a

as smooth as marble—a species of furniture

shovel and tongs, in the rock chimney fire place,

not very luxurious perhaps, but all the better

comprise the whole inventory.”

adapted therefore to the house itself.”19

Frances Kemble Butler, a British-born actress who married into a wealthy coastal Georgia family, took a more aesthetic view of

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the rudimentary planter home; speaking of her

[Greene County]

here a gang (for that is the honorable term) of wash-hand stands, clothes presses, sofas, tables,

Chest, ca. 1800–25

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Unidentified maker

husband’s bondspeople, she wrote: “There are . . . carpenters. . . . The latter constructed the

no. 6

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Yellow pine 25 ¹/₂ x 44 ¹/₂ x 19 ¹/4 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David Miller

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o u t s i d e

v i e w s

a n d

t r a v e l e r

c o m m e n t a r y

orthern writers readily

Few Persons take the trouble to calculate the

created stereotypes from funda-

real cost of paint, which seems a much more

mentally non-representative

economical material to use than it is in reality.

experiences. Parsons presents a few late settled

If the sums spent on external painting were

“piney-woods” homes as representative of the

added to the value of the brick or stone used

interior of Georgia, and Fanny Kemble stresses

in the building, they would often procure

a home that may have been built as a part-time

materials that would need no painting at all.

household and fails to describe numerous lavish

And the same rule applies to the interior.

homes near her. Kemble does seem to recognize

Well-grained white pine costs as much as oiled

an aesthetic consistency in the simplicity of the

Southern pine, and the latter is really beautiful

unadorned furnishings, and, in fact, unpainted

material when oiled or varnished, while the

wood did represent its own aesthetic. Today, the

graining is but a sham and pretense, however

rare survivals of unpainted interiors in Georgia

well it be executed.20

include Travelers Rest (Jarrett Inn) near Toccoa and Cedar Lane Farm, a well-publicized plainstyle period house near Madison. The modern eye has little trouble in discerning the beauty of the nut-brown patinated yellow pine. Such interiors and unpainted objects evoke in the contemporary viewer a sense of calm; one can regard them as visual mantras. Today’s audiences do not see them as uninspired crudities of nineteenth-century living. The modern view of unpainted surfaces might have found at least some supporting

Since the Neat Pieces exhibition in the early 1980s, collectors of Georgia furniture have developed an appreciation for original surface; however, “original surface” has become original painted surface in the minds of many collectors. Contemporary connoisseurship demands that “original surface” apply to originally unpainted items as well.

Meaning in Color

sentiment among nineteenth-century northern

Certainly, the best documented symbolism in

commentators. Through the lens of parsimony,

connection to Georgia color is that of “haint

Calvert Vaux, an architect and landscape

blue.” Light blue carried European connotations

designer, affirms the aesthetic of the unpainted

of heavenliness, and Africans attributed

“cracker” domain:

protective qualities to the color. Referring to the homes of Georgia coastal African Americans,

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no. 16

Cupboard, ca. 1840-80

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homes they keep alive many of the old practices of their ancestors. They paint the doors and

Unidentified maker

[Elbert County, Georgia, descended in Smith family of Bowman]

Yellow pine 60 x 35 ¹³/16 x 18 ³/8 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register

Margaret Davis Cate wrote, in 1955: “In these

windows blue, believing that, since blue is the color of Heaven, the devil will not come near the

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blue opening in the house, so they will be safe and secure.”21

m e a n i n g

i n

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c o l o r

ne of the most significant

examples of “haint blue” was uncovered

Americans and color was related by Paul Smith,

during restoration of the ceiling of

an ex-slave from Georgia who participated in the

the slave quarters of the Owens-Thomas House

Works Progress Administration interviews with

in Savannah and is exhibited in that museum.

persons formerly in bondage. Smith recounted

The blue door in this exhibition (no. 2) came

that “old folks,” implying black antecedents, had

from an African American house in Eatonton, an

been “fetched” by boats painted red. He said

area known for its retention of African culture.

that the Africans were attracted to the bright

This is the area where the writer Joel Chandler

red boats, which were left empty. When they

Harris was infused with the African folk tales

investigated the ships, they were captured and

that became the basis for his children’s stories.

brought to America as slaves. This anecdote

no. 12

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Chest, ca. 1840–80 Unidentified maker

[probably north Georgia]

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A tragic connection between African

Yellow pine 25 x 37 ¹/2 x 16 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David Miller

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may well represent culturally internalized stereotypes, but it seems to point to Westerners’

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use of color as a means to take advantage of

[Eatonton, Georgia]

essentially valueless, trade beads to create unfair exchanges with American Indians.

Some color had obvious symbolic overtones.

Door, ca. 1840–80

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Unidentified maker

Africans, similar to their use of colorful, but 22

no. 2

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Yellow pine and metal hinges and catch 84 x 33 ³/₄ x approx. 1 inches Collection of Mary and Jack Latimer

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For example, the use of turpentine and lampblack on coffins was clearly a fitting reference to grief and loss. Similarly, one nineteenthcentury Georgia diarist recounted her wedding, in which her wedding dress was white, but her second-day dress was of a color poetically named “Ashes of Roses.” 23 This shift in color in combination with the name of the shade clearly represented the young woman’s loss of virginity, or deflowering. On the whole, however, color was deployed less for symbolism than for personal taste and fashion, and color use was conditioned chiefly by availability. In fact, modern viewers tend to ascribe meaning to color that did not exist when it was applied. For example, the gendered indications of pink and blue are largely a twentieth-century convention. T. R. R. Cobb, a Confederate brigadier general, painted his house in Athens an emphatic rose tint. One of the patriarchs of Georgia, a state in a region known in the mid-nineteenth century for its retrenchment of patriarchy, would have seen no contradiction to his masculinity in this color choice.24

Graining, Especially Oaking Graining, the practice of painting one wood to look like another, was significant to Georgia’s painted milieu.25 As noted in Appendix I, many

g r a i n i n g ,

e s p e c i a l l y

o a k i n g

of Georgia’s ornamental painters were skilled

revival with the Arts and Crafts Movement.

grainers who created surfaces resembling

Oak was used as a primary wood in the

numerous types of wood. For example, Edward

seventeenth century, but it soon was abandoned

King advertised in Columbus in 1858 that he

for furniture use in North America in lieu of

did graining “in imitation of Mahogany, Black

the more workable cabinet woods, such as

Walnut, Bird’s Eye Maple and Oak,” and James

walnut, cherry, and maple, afforded by that

W. Shannon, in Atlanta in the 1880s, did graining

continent. While oak went out of style in early-

imitating black walnut, English and French

eighteenth–century America, its use flourished

walnut, ash, mahogany, oak, rosewood, and

in provincial Britain.29

chestnut.26 Frequently, graining was used to

Leary O’Brien, an Irish-born South Carolinian

who moved to Georgia as a pioneer educator,

activity devoted to the Live Oak, such as ship

wrote, in 1856, “He is buried in a Beautiful

building, which had evolved to need the large

Mahogany colored Metallic burying case (or

irregular timbers only available from this tree.

Coffin) in the burial ground at the old Methodist

The coast teemed with American and foreign

Church in Cuthbert, Randolph C., Geo.,”

shipwrights, and Georgia’s economy was tied

illustrating the value ascribed to surfaces that

deeply to this wood.30 Also, it is interesting

looked like mahogany.27

that white oak planks were offered for sale in

Savannah on November 13, 1802, from William

make an inexpensive wood or material such as pine resemble a more expensive wood, often mahogany. Referring to his son, diarist Andrew

ak may have been rarely

used in Georgia, but it certainly served for utilitarian purposes. The

coast of Georgia from 1790 to 1820 was full of

h e ro o t s o f g r a i n i n g i n

Brown, just arrived in the schooner Betsey.31

Georgia are deep. The estate of

Again, this reference supports the idea that oak

George Whitfield, the famous

served specific utilitarian needs. Yet another example of a similar functional usage of oak

colonial evangelist, contained a “Wainscot desk and bookcase painted mahogany color.”

comes from a well-documented slave carpenter,

Although the latter example might be an oak

Woodson, who was in bondage to William

(as wainscot sometimes implied) desk painted

Duncan of Savannah and worked there and

to resemble mahogany, much graining that

in Cass County near the mountains. While

survives in Georgia consists of soft woods painted to resemble oak, sometimes referred to as “oaking.” The paradox invoked by “oaking”

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is that, in a country filled with oak trees, the

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Wardrobe, ca. 1810–40 Unidentified maker

use of oak as a finished wood in cabinetmaking

[Jasper County, Georgia, descended in the Pound family]

and interior appointment was extremely rare in

Yellow pine 88 x 53 ⁷/8 x 55 ³/4 inches Collection of Rick Setser

the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century United States before its late-nineteenth–century

no. 18

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g r a i n i n g ,

e s p e c i a l l y

o a k i n g

Woodson is recorded as making and selling

the oak) continued to be produced, and token

furniture, including bookcases and tables (on

amounts of this furniture appear to have made

his “own” time), which evidence suggests were

it to the South. In South Carolina, Elizabeth

primarily of mahogany and walnut, he did make

Allston lamented the wreckage of Sherman’s

a wagon body of oak, “which Duncan reported

army: “They set fire to the house . . . have 32

was ‘as good a piece of work as anyone can do.’”

destroyed everything in the house . . . . Some

In England, the retention of large amounts

beautiful old English oak chairs they smashed

of oak interior wainscoting and oak furniture, along with its continued use in provincial areas,

The use of oak graining was ubiquitous

made this important wood part of that country’s

throughout the United States, and notable

cultural identity. It is ironic that American use

examples exist in Georgia; earlier oaking

of oak was negligible but that oak graining was

in the state may well have been connected

common in the United States. At the heart of this paradox is the fact that Americans continued to derive their cultural identity in part from British cultural icons. The literature of Britain, particularly romantic novels, was the stock of American education and consumption and is laced with multitudinous references to the centrality of oak in the settings of its life and drama.33

omantic B ritish literature

emphasized the native wood that had come to be seen as the embodiment

of British, particularly English, character. The Gothic revival aesthetic emphasized oak to the point that many early painted pieces of furniture were stripped to accommodate this interest. The British use of oak is ironic in that some of the wood used was American oak. The Gillows firm, a notable and fashionable cabinetmaking business, recorded the use of American oak in its products.34 As indicated by this firm’s reference to oak, some urban work, such as the “fumed” oak furniture of the second quarter of the nineteenth century (which was treated with ammonia to darken or richen the color of

and took the seats off them.”35

to the Regency expression of William Jay’s

professional ornamental painter. It contrasts

architecture, which the Oak Room in the Telfair

strongly with the oak graining on the wardrobe

Mansion exemplifies. The Old Governor’s

in this exhibition, which was produced by a

Mansion in Milledgeville exhibits remnants

vernacular painter (no. 18).

of a complex floor cloth that feature an oak-

After referencing prominent designer and

grained background. The Ware-Lyndon House

writer A. J. Downing, an Augusta newspaper

in Athens also displays oak graining, as does

highlighted the popularity of oaking through its

the Callaway home at Callaway Plantation

description in 1860 of an unidentified house:

near Washington, Georgia. Numerous pieces of vernacular furniture in Georgia have been recorded with oak graining. The oak graining in Hay House in Macon was produced by a

We have seen the prettiest effects produced by the following means: The hall was papered with oak paper, in panels; the wood work, doors, sash, mouldings, &c., being grained of a slightly darker shade of oak, and the whole neatly varnished; a geometrically figured oil cloth of three colors: brown, stone color, and white, covered the floor; whilst the furniture consisted simply of two walnut chairs of a Gothic pattern, and a table and hat-rack of a similar style. . . . All the interior wood work was grained to resemble oak, and varnished. The only exception being the washboards, which were marbled in imitation of Egyptian black marble.37

Another notable example of this treatment is the Bird-Pierce-Campbell House, from the first half of the nineteenth century, on Broad Street in Sparta (the former residence of the late David Williams), Hancock County, which exhibits

•

no. 22

Sugar box, ca. 1820–70

•

Unidentified maker

[probably Washington County, Georgia]

•

Unidentified wood and iron 8 ⁵/8 x 13 ³/4 x 8 ⁵/8 inches Collection of Mark Phillips

• 23

f i n a l

t h o u g h t s

traces of oak graining on its woodwork as well

The use of oaking was a reach for antiquity

as the imprint of grained wallpaper on its early

in the Anglo world just as marbleizing was a

plaster surfaces. A later house, also in Hancock

reach for the classical. The deployment of oak

County (presently the home of Leonard Wirkus),

graining, both consciously and unconsciously,

displays oak-grained walls and walnut-grained

indicated that Americans still regarded “taste” as

doors and trim. This latter example appears to

a commodity from the old world. In nineteenth-

date from 1870 to 1890.

century Georgia, medieval common law was

Not all nineteenth-century references to

routinely invoked and Blackstone’s Commentaries

oaking exhibit enthusiasm for the practice.

on the Common Law was a ubiquitous feature

Capt. George W. Pepper of General William

of Georgia domestic libraries. In 1859, the

Tecumseh Sherman’s staff likened the skin color

architectural specifications for a new courthouse

of a biracial slave to what “house-painters palm

for Banks County demanded a contract with

off as imitation of oak” and went on to describe

the builder in which “Doors [were] to be well

that color as “sickly, pale yellow.”

Thus, Georgians (and other Americans)

painted oak color, [and] to be made with lumber two inches thick . . . . Doors painted oak color

eschewed the actual use of oak during most

well hung with rought [sic] hinges and with

of the nineteenth century but painted other

good nob [sic] locks affixed.”40 In the context

woods to look like oak. The irony is emphasized

of the Banks County Historic Courthouse,

by the availability of oak in Georgia and

the presence of “oaken” doors underlined the

the international export of the wood. The

ancient roots of the law that was discussed

predominance of English design patterns

routinely in that setting.

and manuals certainly contributed to the presence of American oaking, but the literary imagination and the persistent American self-

Final Thoughts

identification with Britain’s Gothic revival

The forces that shaped American painted

instilled this practice. Hundreds of British

material culture are embedded in the Georgia

literary references to oak created an icon for the

oeuvre. These influences reached the lower

“fancying” of old England. This reference to

southern Piedmont, Georgia included, in a

cultural origins undoubtedly played well in the

different sequence than in other colonies,

South, where the planter class saw themselves

and integration, acculturation, and a general

in terms of English gentry and local yeoman

mixing of sources resulted in a peculiar

farmers of prominence often were referred

amalgamation of styles. For example, many

to as “Squire.” Oaking, like much ornamental

painted pieces of furniture in Georgia are

painting, was the point of departure for a flight

neither predominantly English nor Germanic

of fancy, a sort of time travel to one’s presumed

in their decoration. The seminal settlement

origins. As such, oaking may have reflected the

of Franklin County was largely from second-

complex American preoccupation with origins

generation Pennsylvania families living in

and shifting identities.

North Carolina’s Yadkin River Valley. Among

these settlers were Germanic and English, as

treatments show about regional patterns of

well as African and Huguenot, descendants.

architectural history?

This demography spread across the upper

The continued study of Georgia painted

Piedmont. Significantly, part of Walton County

furniture is likely to reveal only slight differences

was originally Old Franklin County, an area

from the national norm. It is, however, interesting

that has produced notable paint-decorated

to see this body of objects as representative of

furniture. This production is likely a tendency

the far-reaching integration of American culture.

inherited from the Delaware River Valley

Individual examples, or features, of Georgia

origins of some of its settlers. Likewise, original

pieces referencing almost all aspects of the nation

Wilkes County, between Franklin County and

can be found. In the words of Deanne Deavours,

Augusta, was settled predominantly by people

who in large part introduced Georgia vernacular

from the lower Chesapeake region. Patterns

furniture to the national canon: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Americana

of culture transferred from that region reflect

means Southern too.â&#x20AC;?

generations of acculturation. The painted chair in the collections of the Georgia Museum of Art (no. 5), for example, has four turned feet, a characteristic of Chesapeake turned chairs that probably results from French Huguenot influence.

A s h l e y C a l l aha n

Curator, Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts, Georgia Museum of Art da l e L . c o u ch

Senior Archivist, Georgia Archives his exhibition exists in a

continuum of research conducted in the field of Georgia decorative arts.

We gratefully acknowledge the earlier work done on Georgia painted furniture and note the following questions raised during research for this exhibition in the hope that future scholars will be able to address them: How were washes used on furniture in Georgia?41 Did schoolgirls paint furniture in Georgia? What were the differences between the kinds of importations purchased by the planter class versus those purchased by yeoman farmers? What would a closer scholarly examination of the few identifiable groups of furniture, such as the tartan chests, contribute to our understanding of the general milieu?42 What would a photographic survey of early interior painted

•

Selections Exhibition• Mary Cronic Chest The initials painted on this chest (no. 11), dated 1839, are those of Mary Ann “Polly” Cronic. She was born in 1823, the sixth child of John Simeon Cronic (b. 1781 Orangeburg, South Carolina; d. 1833 or 1840, Walton County, Georgia) and Jane Jennie Pike (b. 1782, Connecticut or South Carolina; d. 1863, Jackson County, Georgia). By at least 1824, John and Jane lived in Walton County, where Polly was born and this chest likely was Photograph of Mary Cronic, private collection

made. Two years before the date on the chest, a John Cronic, probably Polly’s father or brother, is listed as a trustee of Union Hill Academy in Walton County, which may be an important detail in determining the circumstances of the origin of the chest’s decoration. Though the 1860 and 1870 Censuses indicate that Polly could neither read nor write, and the 1880 Census that she could not write, it seems unlikely that she was illiterate, given her family’s connection to an academy. Polly married Anderson Harrison Titshaw (b. 1823, Edgefield District, South Carolina; d. 1888, buried in Hall County, Georgia) in 1846

Photograph of J. A. P., Willie Mae, and Vickie, September 25, 1965, private collection

in Walton County, and by the mid-1850s they were living in Jackson County, where Anderson was a farmer. The Titshaw and Cronic families have a long history together; both probably were originally German, both settled in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, by the early 1750s, and

both were migrating to the same militia district

wife were living in Gwinnett County, where they

in Walton County, Georgia, in the early 1800s.

remained until at least the mid 1910s. She died in

Numerous marriages have occurred between

Coweta County.

the families.

They had one child, John Anderson Preston

Anderson served in the Confederate States

“J. A. P.” Titshaw, who was born in 1878 and died

Army and was captured in Virginia in 1864.

in 1967 in Coweta County, Georgia. His first

He and Polly were charter members of the New

wife, Leantha Ola Brown, whom he had married

Liberty United Methodist Church, organized

in 1900 in Gwinnett County and with whom he

in 1873, in Jackson County. In 1882, she filed for

had four children, died in 1907, also in Gwinnett

divorce in Jackson County, where she died and

County. He remarried in 1918 in Gwinnett

was buried in 1883.

County to Nancy Elizabeth “Lizzie” Puckett (b.

Polly and Anderson had seven children, the

1878; d. 1963, buried in Coweta County, Georgia),

fifth being Simeon Simpson Titshaw, who was

and she and J. A. P. were the third generation to

born in 1854 in Hoschton in Jackson County,

own the chest.

Georgia, and died in 1914 in Buford, Georgia.

Lizzie and J. A. P. had one child, Willie Mae

He married Alcye Adeline Phillips (b. 1859;

Titshaw, who was born in 1919 and died in 2000

d. 1946, Newnan, Georgia), and they were the

in Bremen, Haralson County, Georgia. She

second generation to own the chest. Like his

married Charles Page Rumph (b. 1918, Camilla,

father, Simeon was a farmer. By 1900, he and his

Georgia; d. 1992, Albany, Georgia) in 1956. (She

No. 11 Chest, 1839 Unidentified maker [Walton County, Georgia, for Mary Cronic]; Yellow pine; 24 ⁷/8 x 49 ¹/2 x 19 ³/4 inches; Private collection

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later married Earl Winters [b. 1906; d. 1982,

The maker and painter of this chest remain

Coweta] in 1967.) Willie Mae received the chest

unidentified. The surface is extremely oxidized,

from her mother, and passed it to her only

but the ground color appears to be in the yellow

child, Vickie Elizabeth Rumph, born in 1957

family, possibly ochre. The painter also used a

and the last family member to own the chest.

soft red, a dark and apparently somewhat stable

According to Vickie, the last few generations

green, and possibly oyster white for a few of the

especially treasured the “chist,” as they called

dots. The cotton and pine trees were executed

it, and let it leave the family only after facing

freehand, while the dots were made using a

extreme hardship.

stencil or stamp. The painter went back over

Vickie recalled many of the items stored in

the leaves and incised lines to suggest veins.

the chest over time: the family Bible, rationing

The chest is unique among Georgia painted

coupons, quilts made by Willie Mae and by

furniture and without its carefully documented

Nancy Titshaw, J. A. P.’s leather tools, and objects

provenance could easily be mistaken for an

belonging to Simeon Titshaw. J. A. P. explained

example from any other area of the Southern

to Vickie that Mary Cronic had had a difficult

backcountry.

life, and Vickie understood the chest to be Mary’s dower or hope chest. Vickie also related the care her mother took when she moved the

Alsabrook “Huntboard”

chest: “I remember when we moved from the

This sideboard or slab (no. 23) has a recovery

old ‘Summers’ homestead on Corinth Road in

history of descent in the Alsabrook family of

Newnan how it was raining. Momma wrapped the chest up as if it were me on the back of the old International Pickup truck belonging to Mr. Earl Winters. I know she rode on the back with an old piece of plastic covering it, along with all of the Quilts she could possibly find. The chest never got wet ever!” She also wrote, “How ultimately precious it has been throughout the Cronic and Titshaw families, one generation after another,” and described how even when the family did not have enough food in the home, they had happiness and many memories of the cherished chest.44

No. 23 Sideboard or slab, ca. 1830–60 Unidentified maker [Chattahoochee River Valley, probably Heard County, Georgia or Randolph County, Alabama] Yellow pine; 55 ⁷/8 x 63 ³/4 x 21 ¹/2 inches; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David Miller

No. 1 Wainscot, 1818 Samuel Holland [dates unknown, working in Milledgeville]; Yellow pine; 11 ¹/4 x 81 x 1 ⁵/8 inches; Collection of Mary and Jack Latimer

Randolph County, Alabama. The family lived

own expressive characteristics. Between the

within a few miles of the Georgia border, their

large, swooping forms on the drawers is a

names occur in records throughout the region,

central door, painted to suggest a blond wood

and this piece of furniture may have been

panel framed by carefully arranged wood

constructed and painted in either state.

veneers. Jean Lipman and Alice Winchester,

In the twentieth century, this form,

in The Flowering of American Folk Art, liken

characterized by its extreme verticality and

this type of uninhibited ornamentation to the

shallow case and widely recognized as distinctly

creations of the Abstract Expressionists in

southern, began to be called a huntboard.

the 1950s.46

The origin of the term huntboard and the original use of this type of furniture are unclear, although many speculations exist. The word

Milledgeville Wainscot

“huntboard” is not found in wills or estate

The house in Milledgeville from which this

inventories in the nineteenth century. Instead,

piece of wainscot came was torn down in the

there are references to “slabs,” which could

1960s. Remarkably, someone salvaged this

also refer to tables, and “sideboards,” which

signed section of the wall, preserving a hint

could also refer to the lower and wider form.

of the formal, Neoclassical character of the

The most frequently cited explanation for the

room. The wainscot has blue trim molding, a

term is that this form was associated with the

red background, and yellow cut corner painted

hunt. Possibly, after a long day of riding, hunters

panels with red graining or feathering. Samuel

would stand around the tall huntboard, moved

Holland, who may have been an itinerant

outdoors for the occasion, to take refreshment.

ornamental painter, signed his work and

The proportions likely developed to adapt

dated it 1818. Frederick Doveton Nichols, in

to the architectural scale in the South, where

The Early Architecture of Georgia, describes

ceilings were high.

The remarkable freehand decoration on this

a house in Milledgeville with painted and grained wainscot and a marbleized fireplace

piece of furniture conveys both control and

as having a typical interior painted finish of

artistic freedom. The graining does not try to

the period 1808 to 1830, indicating that this

replicate a particular wood with verisimilitude;

architectural fragment likely is representative

rather, the gestures of graining take on their

of Milledgeville Federal architecture.47

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culture, so this wardrobe would have been particularly fashionable. The emulation of rosewood reflects an exoticism that emphasized tropical locales. Brazil, the source of most rosewood, occupied a notable place in the imagination of the Anglo-American mind. The plantation society there, in combination with the huge reserves of unexplored land, created an idea of a parallel United States to the South, especially in the southern perspective. (In fact, Brazil was the chosen point of exile for thousands of Southerners at the end of the Civil War.) The use of the Moorish arch was derived from the revival architecture that celebrated the area of the Mediterranean Sea. These up-to-date motifs, along with the competent, crisp execution of the composition, suggest a professional hand.

Elbert County “Safe” Although this piece (no. 17) is referred to in the Heard family as a “safe,” it is not certain whether this nomenclature signifies the nineteenthcentury term for cupboard or whether this No. 20 Wardrobe, ca. 1855–85 Unidentified maker [Franklin, Heard County, Georgia]; Poplar (primary), yellow pine (secondary); 80 ³/8 x 51 ³/4 x 26 ⁷/8 inches; Private collection

item was used to store important papers. Like many such utilitarian objects, it may have had numerous uses over time. It may have been created as a bedside commode, with the door

Wardrobe with Moorish Arches

concealing a chamber pot, or it may have been

Of all the pieces of furniture in this exhibition,

well have been to secure this latter imported

this wardrobe (no. 20) seems the most likely to

commodity, or this change could have been made

have been decorated by an ornamental painter.

with the filing of important papers, money, or

The skillfully executed rosewood graining and

other valuables in mind.

Moorish arches easily could translate to an 48

designed for storage of food items, perhaps sugar. The later adaptation of heavy hardware could

The accretion of more than one finish on the

architectural setting. In the mid-nineteenth

piece of furniture, including layers of lamp-black

century, such exoticism permeated Georgia

and varnish, gives it an acquired character that

embellishment and the pains taken to chamfer its post components, apparently to lighten its appearance.50 The embellishment of utilitarian items associated with women’s work was often the result of a symbolic or dower gift. Such an item could be made or provided by a suitor or an older male relative, and its decoration honors the female’s future role in the family and community. These added details also may have brightened the repetitiveness of the work of quilting or may have celebrated the sense of community when several women worked together to finish a quilt. Typically, quilt frames had strong cloth strips attached to the long edges, as seen here, No. 17 Safe or cupboard, ca. 1820–50 Unidentified maker [Elbert County, Georgia]; Yellow pine; 27 ⁵/8 x 25 x 23 ¹/8 inches; Collection of Peggy and Denny Galis

to which the quilt could be basted. Instead of providing enough room to stretch an entire quilt, this frame is designed so that the quilt is rolled from one side to the other, providing a narrow section of quilt surface to work on and occupying a minimum of space.

is appealing to the tutored eye. Although the “safe” displays accomplished joinery, the drawer face on this object is crudely chamfered. Its early wooden pulls punctuate the composition of the box, and its tapered legs add interesting lift.

Oglethorpe County Quilt Frame Quilt frames took many forms in the nineteenth century, from simple squares balanced on four chairs or hung from the ceiling to sturdy structures with table-like legs.49 The notable aspect of this utilitarian form is its paint

No. 21 Quilt frame, ca. 1800–60 Unidentified maker [probably Oglethorpe County, Georgia]; Yellow pine; 32 ⁷/8 x 90 ³/16 x 32 ⁵/16 inches; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register

a p p e n d i x

Ornamental Painters Though not exhaustive, this appendix documents information about a number of prominent ornamental painters in Georgia.

S A V A N N A H Michael Canavan advertised in Savannah in 1804 that he conducted “all manner of ornamental and coach painting, with mantlings, arms, ciphers or any other kind of ornaments that may appear most suitable to taste and fancy,” as well as “sign and house, together with riding and chamber chair painting both ornamental and plain, gilding, etc.”51 He acknowledged being a stranger to Savannah and offered to “produce specimens of his workmanship for the convincing satisfaction” of potential patrons.52 In 1822, Patrick Marlow advertised in Savannah that his business had recently moved to a new address near the bay, where he planned to continue painting, gilding, glazing, and paper hanging, “on the most modern and approved principles.” Among his skills were painting walls in “Oil or Destemper [sic] Colours” and ornamenting them “in the most Fashionable European style.” He also kept on hand various oils, paints, and brushes and sold mixed colors with directions for using them, if required. He noted that he attended to orders from the country, meaning smaller towns and other areas outside of the city.53 Alexander Meldrum, in 1831, also advertised that he painted and ornamented walls “in Oils or Water Colors.” Additionally, he did house, sign, and ornamental painting, in particular “Imitations of Fancy Woods, Marbles, & c.” He listed Thomas Young, Esq., as a reference and gave the address of his “Paint shop” as Johnson’s Square.54 John Oliver established his painting business in 1840, and continued working until the 1880s as a house and sign painter, gilder, grainer, and glazier. He advertised in the 1871–72 city directory that his was an “old established paint shop.” He also dealt in paints, oils, brushes, glass, sashes, blinds, doors, and more, calling his shop “Oliver Paint and Oil House.”55

After the Civil War, Irish-born Christopher Murphy (ca. 1836–1895) began working as a painter in Savannah and soon established a partnership with Charles Clark. Murphy & Clark advertised as house, sign, ship, and steamboat painters in 1870. They did gilding, graining, marbling, glazing, and paper hanging and also sold paints, oils, and related materials.56 In 1874, they noted that they were prepared “to offer estimates for every description of Painting in any part of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.”57 Murphy’s son, Christopher P. H. Murphy (1869–1939), joined the business in 1888 but also developed an interest in traditional fine arts painting.58

A U G U S T A Numerous ornamental painters worked in Augusta, including Richard P. Spelman (or Spellman) and his son Richard P. Spelman, Jr., both of whom were born in New York, around 1796 and 1822, respectively. Spelman, Sr., advertised in Augusta by 1826, though an advertisement from that year indicates that he was continuing his existing business of “House, Sign, and Ornamental Painting at his old Shop,” and that he also did “Writing and enameling on Glass, Painting and Gilding, on Silk, re-varnishing and polishing piano fortes, re-gilding fancy chairs, &c.,” as well as “Preparing Oil and water colours for Amateurs.”59 The next year he moved from his old location, opposite the Planters’ Hotel, to No. 6 Ansley’s Range.60 In the following few years he added a line to his advertisement indicating that he would pay cash for old sign board, which, presumably, he would reuse.61 In 1830, he advertised an additional service, selling “Mixed Paint of all colors and in any quantity” and loaning suitable brushes.62 The 1850 Census lists both father and son as painters and married (the father to a woman from South Carolina and the son to a woman from Georgia) with children. The 1860 Census lists Spelman, Sr., more

specifically as a sign painter. Spelman, Jr., appears again in the 1880 Census as a painter, and his son William, born ca. 1855, is also listed as a painter. William B. Davies advertised in Augusta in 1830 that, in addition to house, sign, and ornamental painting, he also did glazing, sign painting, and chair painting.63 C. M. Curtis & Co. advertised in 1835 as a new business in house and sign painting, gilding, glazing, and imitation of wood and marble. Curtis offered as references Dr. Thomas I. Wray, John W. Wilde, Esq., Ralph Ketchum, Esq., Mr. E. W. Spotford, Mr. P. McGran, and Messrs. Price & Mallery. The company proclaimed that they “intend[ed] conducting the above business in all its various branches and hope[d] by punctuality and attention to merit the patronage of their friends and the public in general.”64 Ezra F. Doolittle was another ornamental painter originally from New York working in Augusta by the later nineteenth century. According to the 1882 city directory, he employed other painters, including African Americans.65 Documentation of one ornamental painter, States Lewis, reflects the potentially itinerant nature of the craftsman. Lewis advertised in Augusta in 1830 that he did “House, Sign, and Ornamental Painting” as well as “Glazing and Paper Hanging.”66 Three years later, he advertised in Athens that he intended to move there, and informed readers that he had “served a regular apprenticeship at the above line of business [House and Sign Painting, Glazing and Paper Hanging].”67 He subsequently appears in Columbus, where he advertised house and sign painting and “a splendid assortment of window shades . . . far superior to any offered for sale in a Southern market,” in 1838 and is listed in the 1840 and 1850 Censuses.68 He may have moved yet again, as a States Lewis appears in the 1855 Alabama Census in Macon County.69

M A C O N Daniel T. Rea, a third-generation painter, was born in Massachusetts around 1810 and worked in Macon. He first married Elizabeth Graves (b. ca. 1815, Virginia; d. 1837, Georgia) and later married Louisa J. Craig from Columbia, South Carolina, in 1839. He advertised in 1836, “House and Sign Painting, Chair Painting, Oil Nut and Burnished Gilding, Gilding and Glazing, Paper Hanging, and Enamelling seals,” and that he employed “some of the most efficient workmen in

the state.”70 An advertisement from 1837 replaces “Chair Painting” with “Fancy Chair Painting,” and adds “Imitation of Woods and Marble.”71 Rea sold his business to William Pinkham in 1840.72 He later moved to Mobile, Alabama, where he married Eliza Laws (born in Tennessee around 1828) in 1857, and remained there until at least 1880.73 Rea likely was connected with Daniel Rea & Son, a prominent ornamental painting firm in Boston.74 In 1841, William C. Houghton advertised a variety of ornamental painting areas, “Standards, Transparencies . . . Window Shades, Signs,” as well as graining, marbling, and, interestingly, “Landscapes on walls.”75 Houghton associated with William H. Clarke, Jr., who was a fancy, sign, and ornamental painter.76 H. L. Dure advertised that, in addition to house, sign, and ornamental painting, he also revarnished old chairs.77 A Mr. Patterson similarly advertised house, sign, and ornamental painting as well as the repainting of old chairs. Sherwood & Patterson advertised in 1846 that, along with house, sign, and ornamental painting and graining, they re-bottomed, painted, and gilded old chairs.78 William G. Brown advertised house, chair, and ornamental painting.79 Macon newspapers record an abundance of paint availability, primarily at drugstores, but also at the shops of individuals who worked as ornamental painters. An early painter, Francis H. Hickimburg, advertised in 1825 that he had just opened a “Painting shop” and that he would do house and sign painting. He kept “Ready mixed Paints of all colours . . . constantly on hand.”80 One store in 1839 was called a “Paint & Oil Store.” This shop, owned by Clark and Smith, offered “paints of all colors, ready prepared and mixt [sic] for use” and advertised that they were prepared to do house, sign, and ornamental painting.81 Similarly, J. H. & W. S. Ellis sold a variety of paints and varnishes and advertised separately that they did “House Painting, plain and ornamental, either in the city or country,” and that they repainted and ornamented chairs, painted signs, and did “Fancy painting of various descriptions.”82

A T H E N S C. S. Oliver, who was born in England ca. 1805, operated a furniture warehouse by 1846 in Athens. In addition to making and selling “every description of

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Furniture,” he “repaired, cleaned and varnished” old furniture and worked as a house, sign, and ornamental painter.83 He was in Clarke County by at least 1840, and was still working as a painter, according to Census records, in 1850, 1860 and 1870. In Athens, the Parr family worked in ornamental painting for several generations. Benjamin H. Parr (born around 1815 in Georgia, married to Sarah Sison around 1849), was a house painter in Athens by midcentury, and the 1850 Census lists him and his sons James S. and Bowles W. as painters.84 The 1870 Census lists Benjamin as a farmer and his son Vardy J. as a house painter. The 1880 Census records him and two sons, Charles A. and MacKafee (or McAffee), as painters. In 1879, Parr & Brothers advertised “House and Sign Painting, Graining, Marbling, Glazing, Paper Hanging, &c.,” as well as kalsomining (a form of whitewashing).85 Like many other painters, they noted that work in the country would be attended to promptly. Charles Morton Strahan, in his book Clarke County, Ga. and the City of Athens (1893), describes the Parr Brothers’ business, which operated until 1904, as having a store on Jackson Street and a paint mill on West Broad Street. He notes that three of the brothers were formally involved with the firm, while seven brothers were active in the painting business in Athens, following in the footsteps of their father.86 He added that their work was well done, that they used “the best grades of paints,” that they did exterior work and interior work, and that one of their recent jobs was for the First Methodist Church. He wrote, “A majority of the signs which adorn the business part of the city is the result of their handiwork.” According to Strahan, at their mill they ground and mixed paints for others as well as for their own use.87 They advertised in the 1889 city directory that, in addition to being house and sign painters, they were dealers in wallpaper, paints, oil, varnishes, and brushes. Calvin W. Parr, son of Benjamin H. Parr and senior partner in 1893 of Parr Brothers, built a house in Athens in 1889 on Bloomfield Street that features elaborate stenciled decoration on the walls and ceilings, one of his specialties.88

C O L U M B U S In 1853, E. T. Taylor & Co. manufactured sashes, blinds, and panel doors and offered “Doors painted

plain, or grained, in the highest style of the art.”89 Moses Garrett (born in South Carolina around 1801) advertised in 1841 extensive information about his window blind and sash factory and mentioned his work as a house, sign, and fancy painter.90 Other individuals listed in his household in the 1850 Census include B. A. Patillo, a carpenter; John Hitchcock, a machinist; and Christopher Bowen (or Bowers), a painter. Edward J. King (born in Ireland around 1819) advertised in Columbus in 1858 that he did house, sign, and fresco painting, as well as “GRAINING in imitation of Mahogany, Black Walnut, Bird’s Eye Maple and Oak.”91

A T L A N T A Atlanta supported many ornamental painters both before and after the Civil War, including John A. Paris and William Mackie (or Mackey). According to Carlyn Crannell, in her dissertation on art activity in Atlanta, Paris (born about 1830 in South Carolina) advertised in the Georgia Temperance Crusader in 1859 that he did all types of house and sign painting, including “Graining, Fresco and Ornamental Work, and Imitation of all kinds of Wood and Stone.”92 He advertised in 1877 that he did house and sign painting in all of its branches and is listed in the 1880 Census as a sign painter.93 Mackie (born around 1827 in Scotland, according to the 1860 Census) also advertised in 1859 in the Georgia Temperance Crusader that he was a “fresco painter and grainer” and that he had moved to Atlanta permanently. He announced that he created show cards and “carved letters made to order in any style.”94 He is listed as a sign painter in the 1860 Census. After the war, he won awards for gilding on glass and sign painting at the 1871 state fair.95 In 1873, Mackie, now called “a celebrated painter,” executed an elaborate series of figural wall paintings featuring Knights Templars for the new Hall of the Coeur de Lion Commandery, No. 4, Knights Templars, at the corner of Pryor and Decatur Streets.96 Two years later Mackie lost all of his effects in a fire on Whitehall Street.97 An article after the war notes that the paint business was strong in Atlanta because the city consumed so much paint during rebuilding.98 C. S. Oliver, possibly the same one working in Athens, “exhibited remarkable skill in fancy painting” in 1869, when he decorated the interior of the store occupied

by Peck, DeSaulles & Co.99 C. J. Oliver, who was born in England around 1835, advertised in 1873 that he did kalsomining, “as well as Graining, and all other kinds of Plain and Ornamental House Painting.”100 That same year Dan McDuffie and Brother advertised as “Plain and Ornamental Plasterers.”101 David F. Holloway is listed as a house painter in Newberry County, South Carolina, in 1870 and advertised in 1876 in Atlanta that he was prepared to do “Painting & Graining” and “House and Sign Painting.”102 He was still in Fulton County in 1880. James W. Shannon, another post-war ornamental painter, specialized in graining and, in 1885, boasted that he was “one of the finest grainers in the south.”103 He did graining work for the drugstore of Stoney & Sauger. The Atlanta Constitution includes the following description: “The work done by Mr. Shannon for Stoney & Sauger has been much admired, as, indeed, it should be. The entire wood work, including the shelving, counters, doors and prescriptions case, have been painted in black walnut finish. He has introduced panels of English and French walnut of a lighter shade. The effect produced by these panels is charming, and they look as if they were raised, though they are worked on a perfectly flat surface[.] So perfect has Mr. Shannon done the painting, that many have already thought it genuine walnut.”104 Also about this time he did graining in the residence of C. Howard Finley on Washington Street. He specialized in ash, though he also did mahogany, oak, rosewood, and chestnut; the Atlanta Constitution stated that he had “attained perfection in the art of graining or imitating natural woods,” and that he learned his trade by copying natural woods. He worked with R. C. Bosche & Co., sign painters.105 Another ornamental painter, James D. Pannell, made news for his troubles with women. In 1885, the Atlanta Constitution reported that Pannell’s home was Carroll County, where he had a wife and several children. Subsequently, he moved to Atlanta with one child and they lived with a woman whom he introduced as his wife. The sheriff took him back to Carrollton, where he promised to provide for his family but quickly left town. About a month later, he was arrested in Texas for marrying or attempting to marry again. Shortly before the article in the Atlanta Constitution, he had appeared in Selma, Alabama,

a town “noted for its pretty ladies,” where “his reputation as a painter spread in the city and work poured in upon him.” He soon became engaged to a young woman, but his marriage plans were foiled when a gentleman from Atlanta traveling through Selma revealed Pannell’s history to the young woman’s brothers.106 Pannell escaped again, possibly to practice his trade in yet another city.

D U B L I N Charles Poland, who was born in Germany around 1830, advertised in Dublin, Georgia, in 1878 that he would do “House, Sign and Ornamental Painting,” as well as “Graining, Papering, and Calsomining, Plastering, and Repairing of Plastering.” Additionally, he noted that he would “Paint Buggies.”107 The local newspaper noted with pride two instances of Poland’s work with stores: in 1878, he did the painting for the new store for Jones & Company, and the newspaper lauded his work and the carpenter’s as “a perpetual and eloquent advertisement of their faithfulness and skill,” and in 1880, the newspaper noted that it was “generally agreed” that Poland “did the best job of painting and graining” the counters and shelves of J. W. Peacock & Company’s store “that he has ever done in Dublin.”108 The paper also reported on signs he painted, including a “flaming new sign” for the new drugstore in 1879 and the sign for a Mr. Maddox’s bar a week later and claimed that “the State can not produce a more skillful handler of the brush.”109 According to the newspaper, he traveled often for jobs in other towns, including Condor and Montezuma. While the 1870 Census lists his occupation as farmer, he is listed in the 1860, 1880, and 1890 Censuses as a painter. He married a woman from Georgia named Mary, and they had several children. Though clippings from Laurens County newspapers indicate that in 1884 he was building a new home in Thomasville, he evidently remained in or returned to Laurens County, where he died in 1921.110

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Selected and Abstracted Advertisements in Georgia Newspapers, 1763–1869, for Paints and Related Goods

Please note that many original spellings, spacing, and punctuation of newspaper advertisements are retained.

Georgia Gazette (Savannah), November 30, 1763 Henry Lewis Bourquin: Venice turpentine, Spirit of Turpentine. Georgia Gazette (Savannah), May 26, 1763 Morel and Telfair: Linseed oil in jars, Prussian and Fig Blue, Verdigreate, Spanish Brown, White Lead, Yellow Okre, Venetian Red ground in oil, lamp black. Georgia Gazette (Savannah), October 27, 1763 Andrew Johnston: Oil of turpentine, gold and silver leaf. Georgia Gazette (Savannah), January 26, 1764 Douglas Campbell: From Bristol: Jars of linseed oil, kegs of white lead. Georgia Gazette (Savannah), May 10, 1764 James Bell, arrived from London: Begs leave to inform the public that he carries on the business of painting, glazing and gilding

and painting floor cloths in the neatest manner. He also understands hanging paper, cleaning family pieces . . . Georgia Gazette (Savannah), June 7, 1764 Wanted an apprentice to the painting business . . . Enquire of the Printer. Georgia State Gazette or Independent Register (Augusta), November 3, 1787 George Barnes & Co: From London, paints and oils. Southern Sentinel and Gazette of the State (Augusta), April 23, 1795 Joseph Hutchinson: Linseed oil; white lead; Spanish brown; yellow ochre. Southern Sentinel and Gazette of the State (Augusta), July 30, 1795 John McIver & Co.: Paints and oils. Augusta Herald, April 13, 1815 William Lawrence: Assortment of paints, dyestuffs . . . linseed oil, copal varnish, verdigris, white lead, red lead, acqua fortis, oil vitriol.

Southern Recorder (Milledgeville), May 2, 1820 Richard Morgan & Son: Are constantly receiving by the Boats from Darien, extensive supplies of all kinds of Groceries. Oils, Paints, &c. Southern Recorder (Milledgeville), July 11, 1820 Jaillet & Buchanon: Train and Linseed Oil, White Lead in oil and kegs; Spanish Brown and Whiting; Prussian Blue; Venetian Red; New-Orleans Indigo; Spanish Flotant de Putty; Brimstone; Glauber Salts; Rotten Stone; Logwood; Dry Verdigris; English Chalk; Opodeldoc Glue; Spirits of Turpentine; Sand Paper. Southern Recorder (Milledgeville), September 11, 1821 A. Rossetter: Received from New York: 400 gallons Linseed Oil; 100 gallons of Spermaceti Oil; 45 kegs London ground White Lead; 25 kegs Spanish Brown; 500 lbs Whiting; 2 casks lampblack; 5 gallons Copal Varnish; 4 packs Gold Leaf; 2 packs Silver Leaf; 10 lbs best Spanish Indigo; A general assortment of DRY PAINTS and Paint Brushes.

Southern Recorder (Milledgeville), October 1, 1822 Redding & Washburn: 50 casks of London ground White Lead; 100 casks of American ground White Lead; 20 casks of Spanish Brown ground in lead; 3 casks of Linseed Oil. Southern Recorder (Milledgeville), November 12, 1822 Linseed & Train Oil; Spirits of Turpentine; White and Red Lead; Patent Yellow; Venetian Red, Spanish Brown; Stone Ochre, Rotten Stone; Pomice; Lampblack; Sugar of Lead; Blue and Brecu Paint, ground in Oil; Ivory, Black, Chinese Vermillion; Drop lake; Terr De Sienna, gold and Silver Leaf, Fig Blue; Sponge; Logwood and Sand Paper. Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), January 4, 1825 Thomas Metcalf: Paints and twenty casks of lime. Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), May 10, 1825 Thomas Metcalf: 170 kegs of white lead ground in oil. Georgia Messenger (Macon), 1825 Ellis, Shotwell & Co.: Drug Store has paints, oils, putty, etc. Georgia Messenger (Macon), December 21, 1825 Francis Hickimburg, painter: Ready mixed paints of all colors, glass, putty, lampblack, & c. Macon Telegraph, March 7, 1829 N. Childers: Paints, Oils, Linseed Oil; Spirits Turpentine; White Lead and Spanish Brown in Oil; Verdigris dry and in Oil; Spanish Whiting.

Georgia Messenger (Macon), June 4, 1831 L. Newcomb Drug Store (October 22, 1831, same list with William Ward): Paints and Oils. White Lead, 1st & 2d quality; Red Lead; Spanish Brown; Venetian Red; Yellow Ocher; Rose Pink; Litharge; Black Lead; Lamp Black; Whiting; Ivory Black; Rotten Stone; Verdigris; Pumice Stone; Prussian Blue; Chrome Yellow; Chalk White; Chalk Red; Mineral Green; Copal Varnish; Japan Varnish; Leather Varnish; Smalts all colours; Camels Hair Pencils; Terre de Sienna; Umber Turkey; Vermillion; Gold Leaf; Stone; Ocher; Patent Yellow; Rosin; Logwood Stick; ditto pure ground; Paint brushes of all kinds; Spirits Turpentine; Linseed Oil; Train Oil; Neats foot oil. Macon Georgia Telegraph, January 14, 1836 Dr. H. Loomis, new drugstore: Paints: White Lead, Red Lead, Black Lead, Litharge, Verdigris, Chromic Green, Chromic Yellow, Spanish Brown, Yellow Ochre, Stone Ochre, Umber, Venetian Red, Lampblack, Rosepink, Terra de Sienna, Vermillion, Prussian Blue, Osborn’s water colours. (also oils and brushes) Macon Georgia Telegraph, January 14, 1836 Charles Campbell: 128 Kegs White Lead; 150 gallons Linseed Oil; 30 gallons Whale oil; 150 gallons Spirits Turpentine; Copal Varnish, Furniture Varnish, Litharge, Chrome Yellow, Chrome Green, Umber, Ivory Black, Prussian Blue, Vermillion, India Red, Paris Green, Verdigris, Smalts all colours, White Frosting,

Venetian Red, Spanish Brown, Red Lead, Yellow Ocre, Whiting, Glue, Gold Leaf. Columbus Enquirer, March 11, 1836 Drs. Urquhart & Ware: White Lead, dry and in oil; Garmine; Chrome Yellow; Chrome Green; Drop Lake, No. 1, Drop Lake No. 2; Flake White; Gine, best; Ivory Black; Lamp Black; Gold Leaf; Silver Leaf; Lytherage; Pumice Stone; Rotten Stone; Prussian Blue, Nos. 1 & 2; Putty; Red Lead; Verdegris, dry and in oil; Vermilion Chinese; Black Lead; Yellow Ochre dry and in oil; Venetian Red, dry and in oil; Spanish Brown, dry & in oil; Frostings, Blue; Frostings, White; frostings, green; Smalts, Green; Smalts Red; Smalts Brown; Rose Pink; Sand Paper; Spanish Whiting; Spirits Turpentine; Terra de Sienna; Turkey Umber; Copal Varnish; Leather Varnish; Japan Varnish; Linseed Oil; Train Oil; Lamp Oil; Sperm Oil; With a good assortment of Painters and Glaziers Tools. Macon Georgia Telegraph, April 14, 1836 J. H. & W. S. Ellis: Paints, Varnishes, White Lead, Venetian Red, Chrome Yellow, Red Lead, Litharge, Lamp Black, Whiting, Terra de Scinna, Spanish Brown, Linseed Oil, Spts. Turpentine, Copal Varnish, Japan Varnish, Leather Varnish, Picture Varnish, also; Window Glass, Paint Brushes, &c. Macon Georgia Telegraph, November 24, 1836 Formerly Ellis Shotwell, now H. & J. Shotwell, Drug Store: Paints, Dye Stuffs, Oils 250 kegs White Lead in oil, 25 kegs Venetian Red in oil, 30 kegs Spanish Brown in oil, 2000 lbs Soap Stone Paint in oil, 6 kegs Yellow Ochre in oil, 20

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canisters Verdigris in oil, 200 lbs Spanish Brown dry, 200 lbs Venetian Red dry, 800 lbs Yellow Ochre dry, 1500 lbs Spanish Whiting dry, Red Lead, Chrome Green, Kings Yellow, Verdigris, P russian Blue, Stone Ochre, Rose Pink, Litharge, Spanish Pumice Stone, Umbar, Lamp Black, Ivory Black, Chinese Vermillion, Black Lead, Chalk, Drop Lake, Spanish Float Indigo, Cale’d Plaster, Water Lime, Terra de Sienna, Green Blue and Black Paint mixt, Blue Brown & Green Smalts, Frostings, Blue White Brown and Purple; Gold Bronze, Carmine Saucers, Pink saucers, Longwood in sticks, Longwood ground and chopped, Fustic, Madder. Camwood, red Sanders, Copperas, Braziletto Wood, Annatto, 300 gallons Linseed Oil, other oils and varnishes, Ground-paint Brushes assorted sizes, Varnish Brushes assorted sizes, Sash Tools assorted sizes, Badger’s Hair Blenders, Graining Blenders, Camels Hair Blenders, Fancy and plain Hair Brushes assorted sizes, other brushes. Macon Georgia Telegraph, March 19, 1839 Clark and Smith: Well selected stock of pure white Lead; English and American Linseed Oil, Turpentine, Putty, Paints of all colors, ready prepared and mixt for use, at the lowest price. Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), June 13, 1840 Paints and Oils with goods from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, England and France.

Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), January 1, 1846 Stewart Beggs druggist: Paints, oils, varnishes, brushes, dye stuffs.

A. A. Cleveland: From N. Y. and Philadelphia, among other items too tedious to mention, window glass, putty, oils, varnishes, turpentine, drugs.

Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), January 31, 1846 Varnishes . . . carriage glass, etc at “Charleston Prices.”

Southern Watchman (Athens), February 5, 1862 Indigo, Madder, Logwood, Venetian Red, Spanish Brown.

Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), March 4, 1846 William H. Tutt, Druggist and Apothecary: Oils, dye stuffs, brushes, gum shellac, glue, indigo, linseed oil, Prussian blue, red lead, spirits turpentine, vermillion, white lead, whiting.

Southern Banner (Athens), August 27, 1862 Venetian Red; Spanish Brown.

Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), May 13, 1846 Brushes: Painters ground, sash tool brushes, all sizes painters dusters, fitches, sables, real with and without handles, hand dusters, sweeping, scrubbing, whitewash, crumb, varnish . . . and a variety of others. Augusta Daily Constitution (Augusta), March 7, 1850 Lewis M. Hatch of Charleston: Paints, white lead, oils, etc. Augusta Evening Dispatch (Augusta), January 28, 1857 Plumb & Leitner: Whitelead of the Best Brands, oils, colored Paints, Paint mills, FireProof Paint for Fences and Roofs; Gold Leaf, Gold foil, Drugs, Chemicals: “We keep on hand a full assortment of Paints, Oils, best French and American Window Glass.” Wilkes Republican (Washington), July 3, 1857

Albany Patriot, April 21, 1864 Spanish Brown, Venetian Red, Yellow Ochre, Cochineal, V emillion, Verdigris, Annotta &c. Albany Patriot, October 13, 1864 L. E. Welch, druggist: Indigo, Spanish Brown, Venetian Red, Red lead, Vermillion, Cochineal, Yellow Ochre. Bainbridge Argus, January 16, 1869 Vaughn and Gibson’s groceries: Drygoods, drugs, paints, oils, garden seeds. Southern Sun (Bainbridge), April 15, 1869 Dr. J. A. Butts and Co. druggist: Chemicals, perfumery, paints, oils, varnishes, paint brushes. Bainbridge Argus, February 20, 1869 John K. Hoppel brush manufacturer at 329 Pearl St., New York: Makes superior quality of paint brushes.

Bibliography Georgia Furniture

Georgia Ornamental Painters

Atlanta Historical Society. Neat Pieces: The Plain-Style Furniture of Nineteenth-Century Georgia. Athens: University of Georgia Press in conjunction with the Atlanta History Center and the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, 2006; reprint of 1984 edition with new foreword by Deanne D. Levison. Doezema, Marianne, ed. Georgia’s Legacy: History Charted Through the Arts. Exhibition catalogue. Athens: Georgia Museum of Art, 1985.

Crannell, Carlyn Gaye. “In Pursuit of Culture: A History of Art Activity in Atlanta, 1847-1926.” PhD diss., Emory University, 1981.

Ford, Vic, et al. By Southern Hands: Piedmont Furniture Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. Athens, GA: Lyndon House Arts Center, 2004. Green, Henry D. Furniture of the Georgia Piedmont before 1830. Exhibition catalogue. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1976. Moye, Sue McLendon. Inventory of Early Stewart County (circa 1850): Furniture, Decorative Styles and Accessories. Columbus, GA: Lower Chattahoochee Area Planning and Development Commission, 1977. Wagner, Pamela. Hidden Heritage: Recent Discoveries in Georgia Decorative Art, 1733-1915. Exhibition catalogue. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1990.

Koch, Mary Levin. “A History of the Arts in Augusta, Macon, and Columbus, Georgia, 1800-1860.” Master’s thesis, University of Georgia, 1983.

American Painted Furniture and Ornamental Painters Evans, Nancy Goyne. “The Christian M. Nestell Drawing Book: A Focus on the Ornamental Painter and His Craft in Early Nineteenth-Century America.” In American Furniture 1998, edited by Luke Beckerdite, 99–163. Hanover, NH: Chipstone Foundation, 1998. ___, “Surface Treatments,” 143–89, 207–13, in Chapter 3, “Construction and Design,” in Windsor-Chair Making in America: From Craft Shop to Consumer. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2006. Hollander, Stacy C. “Surface Attraction: Painted Furniture from the Collection.” Folk Art 30, no. 4 (Winter 2005/2006): 52–61.

A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe, 170–85. Seattle: Marquand Books in association with Yale University Press, 2006. Lipman, Jean, and Alice Winchester. The Flowering of American Folk Art (1776-1876). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Viking Press in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974. Moss, Roger W., ed. Paint in America: The Colors of Historic Buildings. Washington, DC: Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1994. Priddy, Sumpter. American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts, 1790-1840. Milwaukee: Chipstone Foundation and Milwaukee Art Museum, 2004. Schaffner, Cynthia V. A., and Susan Klein. American Painted Furniture, 1790-1880. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1997. Solis-Cohen, Lita. “The Winterthur Furniture Forum: What Is Original?” Maine Antique Digest (May 2006), http://maineantiquedigest.com/ articles_archive/articles/may06/ winterthur0506.htm.

Kane, Patricia. “Painted Furniture: From Plain to Fancy.” In Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana, edited by Jane Katcher, David

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Checklist of the Exhibition •

Architectural Elements 1. Wainscot, 1818 Samuel Holland [dates unknown, working in Milledgeville] Yellow pine 11 ¹/4 x 81 x 1 ⁵/8 inches Collection of Mary and Jack Latimer 2. Door, ca. 1840–80 Unidentified maker [Eatonton, Georgia] Yellow pine and metal hinges and catch 84 x 33 ³/4 x approx. 1 inches Collection of Mary and Jack Latimer 3. Door, n.d. Unidentified maker [Macon, Georgia] Yellow pine 83 x approx. 35 ¹/2 x 1 ¹/2 inches Private collection

Chairs 4. Windsor chair, ca. 1800–30 Unidentified maker [possibly Athens, Georgia] Stiles possibly hickory or ash; arms probably soft maple; seat possibly poplar; rest unidentified ring porous hardwood 33 ³/8 x 23 ³/8 x 20 ¹/8 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register

5. Writing chair, ca. 1840 Unidentified maker [Warren County, Georgia, area] Yellow pine, birch, ash 40 ¹/16 x 31 ¹/2 x 32 ³/16 inches Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; gift of Beverly Hart Bremer GMOA 2000.61

Chests 6. Chest, ca. 1800–25 Unidentified maker [Greene County] Yellow pine 25 ¹/2 x 44 ¹/2 x 19 ¹/4 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David Miller 7. Chest, ca. 1800–40 Unidentified maker [possibly Franklin County, Georgia, area] Yellow pine 21 ³/8 x 38 ³/4 x 17 ⁹/16 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register 8. Chest, ca. 1820–40 Unidentified maker [middle Georgia] Yellow pine 35 ³/8 x 56 ⁵/8 x 24 ¹/4 inches Private collection 9. Chest, ca. 1820–40 Unidentified maker [DeKalb County, Georgia] Yellow pine 22 x 39 ¹/2 x 17 ¹/2 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Norman D. Askins

10. Chest, ca. 1820–50 Unidentified maker [possibly Habersham County, Georgia] Yellow pine 24 ¹/4 x 45 ⁷/16 x 20 ¹/2 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register 11. Chest, 1839 Unidentified maker [Walton County, Georgia, for Mary Cronic (1823–1883)] Yellow pine 24 ⁷/8 x 49 ¹/2 x 19 ³/4 inches Private collection 12. Chest, ca. 1840–80 Unidentified maker [probably north Georgia] Yellow pine 25 x 37 ¹/2 x 16 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David Miller 13. Chest, ca. 1840–80, later stenciling Unidentified maker [possibly Habersham County, Georgia] Yellow pine 18 x 25 ¹/8 x 14 ³/4 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register

Cupboards 14. Corner cupboard, ca. 1780–1800 Unidentified maker [Old Franklin County, Georgia, descended in the Hughes and Morehead family] Primarily yellow pine 89 ³/4 x 55 ³/4 x 26 ⁷/8 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register

15. Corner cupboard, ca. 1810–40 Unidentified maker [Wilkes County, Georgia, descended in the Holliday family] Yellow pine 93 ¹/2 x 44 ³/8 x approx. 38 inches Collection of David and Linda Chesnut 16. Cupboard, ca. 1840–80 Unidentified maker [Elbert County, Georgia, descended in Smith family of Bowman] Yellow pine 60 x 35 ¹³/16 x 18 ³/8 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register 17. Safe or cupboard, ca. 1820–50 Unidentified maker [Elbert County, Georgia] Yellow pine 27 ⁵/8 x 25 x 23 ¹/8 inches Collection of Peggy and Denny Galis

Wardrobes 18. Wardrobe, ca. 1810–40 Unidentified maker [Jasper County, Georgia, descended in the Pound family] Yellow pine 88 x 53 ⁷/8 x 55 ³/4 inches Collection of Rick Setser 19. Wardrobe, ca. 1820–50 Unidentified maker [Georgia] Yellow pine with poplar panels 88 x 48 x 19 ¹/8 inches Private collection

Additional forms 21. Quilt frame, ca. 1800–60 Unidentified maker [probably Oglethorpe County, Georgia] Yellow pine 32 ⁷/8 x 90 ³/16 x 32 ⁵/16 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register 22. Sugar box, ca. 1820–70 Unidentified maker [probably Washington County, Georgia] Unidentified wood and iron 8 ⁵/8 x 13 ³/4 x 8 ⁵/8 inches Collection of Mark Phillips 23. Sideboard or slab, ca. 1830–60 Unidentified maker [Chattahoochee River Valley, probably Heard County, Georgia, or Randolph County, Alabama] Yellow pine 55 ⁷/8 x 63 ³/4 x 21 ¹/2 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David Miller 24. Demilune table, ca. 1830–60 Unidentified maker [probably Hart County, Georgia] Yellow pine 33 ⁷/8 x 36 ⁷/8 x 21 ⁵/8 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David Miller 25. Footstool, ca. 1840–60 Possibly made by Morgan Brothers [DeKalb County, Georgia] Poplar spokes and unidentified wood 7 ⁷/8 x 12 ³/4 x 8 ⁵/16 inches Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register

20. Wardrobe, ca. 1855–85 Unidentified maker [Franklin, Heard County, Georgia] Poplar (primary), yellow pine (secondary) 80 ³/8 x 51 ³/4 x 26 ⁷/8 inches Private collection

Notes 1 Sumpter Priddy, American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts, 17901840 (Milwaukee: Chipstone Foundation and Milwaukee Art Museum, 2004), 47. 2 Nancy Goyne Evans, “The Christian M. Nestell Drawing Book: A Focus on the Ornamental Painter and His Craft in Early Nineteenth-Century America,” in Luke Beckerdite, ed., American Furniture 1998 (Hanover, NH: Chipstone Foundation, 1998), 104–105. Kimberly King Zea provides an examination of another ornamental painter, David Morrill, in her essay “‘A Son… Of Whom I Can Find No Record’: David Morrill, Ornamental Painter of Strafford and Norwich, Vermont,” available on the Dartmouth College Library website, www.dartmouth. edu/~library/Library_Bulletin/Aprl1996/LB-A96-Zea.html. 3 Mary Levin Koch, “A History of the Arts in Augusta, Macon, and Columbus, Georgia, 1800-1860” (master’s thesis, University of Georgia, 1983). Koch created an appendix with a list of painters, sculptors, and daguerreotypists and includes many house, sign, ornamental, and chair painters with references to published advertisements by them. 4 Georgia continues to import almost all its pigment. Nonetheless, its inhabitants have been vigilant for opportunities related to the state’s geology. During the Civil War, when alternatives to imports were essential, the Daily Constitutionalist of Augusta reported: “We have been presented by Mr. J. H. Neel, of Powelton, G., with a specimen of rock and powder, said to be an admirable substitute for copper as for dye purposes. The rocks, or boulders are about the size of a hen egg, up to that of a goose egg, and are found in great abundance upon the plantation of the late Mr. Adam Jones, in Warren county. These rocks are hollow, and on being broken open are found to contain a red powder, which, on being diluted with water produces the dye, which has been freely used by negroes in the neighborhood for some years past, but did not receive the attention of the white people until very recently. The subject is worthy the attention of geologist [sic] and chemists, and if any experiments are made with it, we shall be pleased to learn the result.” (Daily Constitutionalist [Augusta, GA], June 5, 1862, recorded on Vicki Betts’s page of the University of Texas at Tyler website, www. uttyler.edu/vbetts/.) These rocks are found throughout middle Georgia and are referred to as “paint rocks.” They were the basis of some glazes on pottery and were occasionally used for crude paint. Tradition holds that they were used by American Indians. Today, Cartersville, Georgia, is home to the only year-round mining operation for the pigment ochre. See New Riverside Ochre Company, Inc., website at www.nroonline.com for more information. 5 Thos. R. R. Cobb, “Reports of Cases in Law and Equity Argued and Determined in The Supreme Court of the State of Georgia From Decatur Term, 1854, to Savannah Term, 1855, inclusive,” Reporter, vol. 16 (Athens, GA: Reynolds & Bros, 1855), 563. 6 J. D. B. DeBow, The Seventh Census of the United States, 1850 (Washington, DC: Robert Armstrong Public Printer, 1853); and Francis A. Walker, The Ninth Census, vol. 1, The Statistics of the Population of the United States . . . (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1872). 7 Atlanta Historial Society, Neat Pieces: The Plain-Style Furniture of Nineteenth-Century Georgia (1983; repr. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006).

8 Mrs. Charlton M. Theus, Savannah Furniture, 1735-1825. Savannah [?], 1967); and Katharine Wood Gross, “The Sources of Furniture Sold in Savannah, 1789-1815” (master’s thesis, University of Delaware, 1967). 9 Theus, 18. 10 Ibid., 19 and 22. 11 Ibid., 48–49, and Gross, 23. 12 Gross, 24. 13 Ibid., 61. 14 Nancy Goyne Evans, Windsor-Chair Making in America: From Craft Shop to Consumer (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2006), 151. 15 For more on this issue, see Lita Solis-Cohen, “The Winterthur Furniture Forum: What Is Original?” Maine Antique Digest (May 2006), http://maineantiquedigest.com/articles_archive/articles/ may06/winterthur0506.htm. 16 Claudia Kinmonth, Irish Country Furniture: 1700-1950 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993). 17 John T. Kirk, Early American Furniture: How to Recognize, Evaluate, Buy, and Care for the Most Beautiful Pieces—High Style, Country, Primitive, and Rustic (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976). 18 Charles Grandison Parsons, Inside View of Slavery: or, A Tour Among the Planters (Boston: J. P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland: O. Jewett, Proctor and Worthington, 1855), 112–13. 19 Fanny Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-39 (New York: Harper, 1863), 25–26. 20 Calvert Vaux, Villas and Cottages, first ed. (1857), quoted in The Magazine Antiques (July, 1977), 135. This quote was submitted to The Magazine Antiques by John Lovell. 21 Orrin Sage Wightman and Margaret Davis Cate, Early Days of Coastal Georgia (St. Simons Island, GA: Fort Frederica Association, 1955), 139. The authors wish to acknowledge Jack Latimer for sharing this reference. 22 For the complete interview, see: George P. Rawick, ed., The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, vol. 13, Georgia Narratives, parts 3 and 4 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1972), 320. 23 Josephine Baker Martin, ed., Life on a Liberty County Plantation: The Journal of Cornelia Jones Pond (Darien, GA: Privately printed by the Darien News, 1974), 40. 24 See Patrik Jonsson, “Backstory: Cry Over a Hue,” Christian Science Monitor (May 12, 2006); and Historic T. R. R. Cobb House website, www.trrcobbhouse.org. 25 The authors wish particularly to acknowledge the assistance of Rosalie Haynes, an experienced grainer, in evaluating grained surfaces for this exhibition. 26 Advertisement, Columbus Enquirer, February 23, 1858; “Handsome Painting,” Atlanta Constitution, January 27, 1884; and Carlyn Gaye Crannell, “In Pursuit of Culture: A History of Art Activity in Atlanta, 1847-1926” (PhD diss., Emory University, 1981), 257. 27 Andrew Leary O’Brien, The Journal of Andrew Leary O’Brien (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1946), 59.

28 Georgia Archives, Colonial Estate Records, Inventory Book F. 29 Eighteenth-century Georgia may have had slight transference of the provincial British use of oak. The estate of Sir Patrick Houston, a prominent colonial Georgian, held “an English oak scrutiore [sic],” while the 1767 inventory of another prominent figure, Bartholomew Zoublerbuhler, lists “an old Oak desk,” and many estate inventories reference wainscot. Ibid. 30 Virginia S. Wood, Live Oaking: Southern Timber for Tall Ships (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1981). 31 Elizabeth Evans Kilbourne, Savannah Georgia Newspaper Clippings, vol. 5 (Savannah, E. E. Kilbourne, 1999), 89. 32 William A. Byrne, “The Hiring of Woodson, Slave Carpenter of Savannah,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 77, no. 2 (1993): 247. 33 An online search of the works of Sir Walter Scott, a common author in Georgia libraries, resulted in countless examples of oak, such as “oaken cabinet,” “massive oaken table,” “oaken press,” “oaken settle,” and “oaken-seat,” “oaken beams,” and “oaken stand.” Henry Merrell impatiently awaited his marriage in Georgia when he alluded to the poem “The Mistletoe Bough,” by Thomas Haynes Bayly. The poem includes the lines “The holly branch shone on the old oak wall . . . ” and “an oak chest, that had long lain hid, Was found in the castle—they raised the lid.” The bride in this poem was discovered years later in an oak chest after she had playfully hidden there. James L. Skinner III, The Autobiography of Henry Merrell: Industrial Missionary to the South (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991), 194. For the full text of the poem, see the MediaDrome website, http://www. themediadrome.com/content/poetry/bayly_mistletoe_bough. htm. 34 John T. Kirk, American Furniture and the British Tradition to 1830 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 13. 35 William Dusinberre, Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Rice Swamps (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000), 374–75. 36 For more information on the Oak Room, see Frank G. Matero, “A Rare Example of Early Nineteenth Century Trompe L’oeil Decoration: The Octagonal Reception Room at Telfair Mansion, Savannah, Georgia,” Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology 15, no. 3. (1983): 34–38. 37 From Southern Field and Fireside, June 9, 1860, recorded on Vicki Betts’s page of the University of Texas at Tyler website, http:// www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/. 38 Capt. George W. Pepper, Personal Recollections of Sherman’s Campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas (Zanesville, OH: Hugh Dunne, 1866), 14. 39 The term “fancying” is used here in the meaning established by Sumpter Priddy in American Fancy. 40 Jessie Julia Mize, The History of Banks County, Georgia: 1858-1976 (Homer, GA: Banks Chamber of Commerce, 1977), 23. 41 An important dimension of the study of painted furniture concerns the washes that were applied to furniture. Modern collectors often refer to “Pokeberry washes” or red washes. Sometimes these washes were used on furniture to enrich a varnished finish. The desk and bookcase from the lower southern Piedmont in the collections of the Georgia Museum of Art may have been subject to this method to convert its river birch primary wood to a mahogany appearance. (Independent scholar George Williams has identified and discussed this feature of Piedmont furniture finish.) Sometimes washes were used independently to imbue an object with color and uniformity, particularly if it was constructed of mixed woods. A rare example of a discussion of this type of finish is found in the Works Progress Administration’s Slave Narratives. Malindy Maxwell of Arkansas related, “White folks had fine chests to keep their bed

clothes in. Some of them was [sic] made of oak, and pine, and cypress. They would cook walnut hulls and bark and paint them dark with the tea.” Malindy Maxwell interview, Arkansas Slave Narratives, Access Genealogy: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/ scripts/data/database.cgi?file=Data&report=SingleArticle& ArticleID=0028516. 42 See Pamela Wagner, Hidden Heritage: Recent Discoveries in Georgia Decorative Art, 1733-1915, exh. cat. (Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1990), Fig. 52, for one chest. At least two others are held in private collections. 43 Correspondence between private collector and Vickie Rumph; Titshaw family Bible, private collection; U.S. Census records; Social Security Death Index; and John Chestia Titshaw Moon Apperson and Ann Acker Titshaw, researchers, and Ann Acker Titshaw, compiler, The Titshaw and Cronic Families of America (Atlanta: A. A. Titshaw, 1984). 44 Written oral history letter, Vickie Elizabeth Entrekin to Ashley Callahan, September 25, 2007. 45 While the proportional system of these slabs is characteristic of the southern Piedmont, similar small sideboards have been noted in other regions, including Rhode Island, Canada, the British Isles, and the Caribbean. 46 Jean Lipman and Alice Winchester, The Flowering of American Folk Art (1776-1876), exh. cat. (New York: Viking Press in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974), 232. 47 Frederick Doveton Nichols, The Early Architecture of Georgia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957), 137. He describes another house the same way in The Architecture of Georgia (Savannah: The Beehive Press, 1976), 43. For more on Milledgeville Federal see Betty Snyder, “Milledgeville FederalStyle Architecture,” 153–76, in Ashley Callahan, ed., Georgia Inside and Out: Architecture, Landscape and Decorative Arts: Proceedings from the Second Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts (Athens: Georgia Museum of Art, 2005). 48 A Georgia architectural example of this motif can be viewed in image brk009 (photograph of the gothic portico of the Eudora Plantation before its restoration, Brooks County, Georgia, ca. 1964) in the Vanishing Georgia section of the Georgia Archives website (http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/vanga/html/vanga_ homeframe_default.html). 49 Thanks to curatorial assistant Susan Gunter for her help with this section. 50 A water table also from Oglethorpe County (Neat Pieces, Fig. 79) has similar lamb’s tongue chamfering. Thanks to Levon Register for bringing this connection to our attention. 51 For more references to painters in Savannah, see Gross. 52 September 21, 1804, Kilbourne, 217. 53 Advertisement, Savannah Georgian, November 16, 1822. 54 Advertisement, Georgian (Savannah), August 18, 1831. 55 Savannah City Directory for 1867 (Savannah: N. J. Darrell & Co. Publishers, 1867) and Estill’s Savannah Directory for 1874-’75 (Savannah: J. H. Estill, 1874). 56 David E. Kelley, Building Savannah (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000), 52. 57 Estill’s Savannah Directory for 1874-’75, 287. 58 Feay Shellman, Christopher P. H. Murphy 1869-1939: A Retrospective (Savannah: Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1985). Christopher P. H. Murphy’s son, Christopher A. D. Murphy, also had a successful career as an artist in Savannah. Lynn Barstis Williams, Imprinting the South: Southern Printmakers and Their Images of the Region, 1920s-1940s (Tuscaloosa:

n o t e s

University of Alabama Press, 2007), 78.

88 “Calvin W. Parr House.”

60 Advertisement, Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser, September 29, 1827.

90 Advertisement, Columbus Enquirer, May 12, 1841.

61 See, for example, Advertisement, Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser, December 13, 1828. 62 Advertisement, Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser, October 30, 1830. 63 Advertisement, Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser, August 18, 1830. 64 Advertisement, Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), January 1, 1835. 65 James Baldwin, a house, sign, and ornamental painter in Columbus, employed “Several first rate workmen” as painters a few decades earlier. Advertisement, Columbus Enquirer, February 11, 1851. 66 Advertisement, Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser, March 6, 1830. 67 Advertisement, Southern Banner (Athens), July 6, 1833. 68 Advertisement, Columbus Sentinel and Herald, June 28, 1838. 69 Another instance of itinerant craftsman involvement in painting occurs in Milledgeville in 1818, when a coach-maker and retailer, Pullen & McNellage, advertised for a journeyman painter. Advertisement, Georgia Journal (Milledgeville), May 19, 1818. 70 Koch, 164; and advertisement, Macon Georgia Telegraph, April 14, 1836. 71 Advertisement, Macon Georgia Telegraph, March 30, 1837. 72 Koch, 164. 73 Posting by Dot Fowler, Rea’s great-granddaughter, on genealogy.com, July 23, 2002. He may have spent time in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1850 according to another posting, by Mary Sue Bynum, on March 10, 2000. Bynum also notes that he did portraiture (March 9, 2000). 74 For more on the firm see Mabel M. Swan, “The Johnstons and the Reas—Japanners,” Antiques 43, no. 5 (May 1943): 211–13. Account books for Daniel Rea & Son are in the collection of Baker Library at Harvard University. 75 Koch, 26; and advertisement, Macon Georgia Telegraph, November 2, 1841. 76 Koch, 157. 77 Ibid, 153. 78 Advertisement, Georgia Telegraph (Macon), March 24, 1846. 79 Koch, 149. 80 Advertisement, Georgia Messenger (Macon), December 21, 1825. 81 Advertisement, Macon Georgia Telegraph, March 19, 1839. 82 Advertisement, Macon Georgia Telegraph, April 14, 1836; and advertisement, Macon Georgia Telegraph, January 14, 1836. 83 See, for example, advertisement, Southern Banner (Athens), September 22, 1846. 84 “Calvin W. Parr House,” Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia, http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/athens/ PARR.htm. 85 Advertisement, Southern Watchman (Athens), October 28, 1879. 86 In 1883, the Atlanta Constitution reported that ten brothers were involved in the business. “Athens, Georgia,” Atlanta Constitution, August 26, 1883. 87 Charles Morton Strahan, Clarke County, Ga. and the City of Athens

(Athens: C. P. Byrd, Printer, 1893), 84.

59 Advertisement, Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser, September 23, 1826.

89 Advertisement, Columbus Enquirer, December 13, 1853. 91 Advertisement, Columbus Enquirer, February 23, 1858. 92 Crannell, 253. 93 Advertisement, Daily Constitution (Atlanta), December 12, 1877. 94 Georgia Temperance Crusader, July 1, 1859; and National American, March 24, 1859, quoted in Crannell, 253. 95 Atlanta Constitution, October 21, 1871, quoted in Crannell, 253–54. The Southern Life Insurance Company in 1870 sought to “encourage artists and designers” by offering a fifty dollar premium for the “finest specimen of ornamental sign painting on plate glass.” Untitled, Atlanta Constitution, September 13, 1870. 96 “Coeur De Lion Commandery,” Atlanta Constitution, April 15, 1873. 97 “Destructive Fire,” Atlanta Constitution, March 18, 1875. 98 “Atlanta. The ‘Gate City’ Between the West and South . . . ,” Atlanta Constitution, September 14, 1873. 99 Untitled, Atlanta Constitution, October 27, 1869. Oliver was planning to work next on “the interior of [banker John H.] James’ magnificent residence on Peachtree street.” Peck, DeSaulles, & Co.’s new location was in a building on Whitehall Street owned by James. Advertisement, Atlanta Constitution, October 9, 1869. 100 Advertisement, Atlanta Constitution, July 26, 1873. 101 Advertisement, Atlanta Constitution, September 9, 1873. 102 Advertisement, Constitution (Atlanta), April 26, 1876. 103 “To the Public,” Atlanta Constitution, May 31, 1885. The Atlanta Constitution recognized him “As the finest painter in his line” the previous year. “Handsome Painting,” Atlanta Constitution, January 27, 1884. 104 “Handsome Painting.” 105 Crannell, 257. 106 “Married Many Times,” Atlanta Constitution, June 5, 1885; and “Pannell Still at Large,” Atlanta Constitution, June 7, 1885. 107 Advertisement, Dublin Post, August 8, 1878. 108 “The Joneses’ New Store,” Dublin Post, December 11, 1878; and “Local Affairs,” Dublin Post, November 3, 1880. He later sold wallpaper through Jones Bros. “Local Affairs,” Dublin Post, September 17, 1879. His work at Peacock’s took a couple of weeks to complete. “Local Affairs,” Dublin Post, October 6, 1880; and “Local Affairs,” Dublin Post, October 20, 1880. 109 “Local Affairs,” Dublin Post, April 9, 1879; and “Local Affairs,” Dublin Post, April 16, 1879. 110 December 24, 1884 entry in Tad Evans, Laurens County, Georgia Newspaper Clippings (Savannah: T. Evans, 2002), 164.