Making Furniture in Preindustrial America The Social Economy of Newtown and Woodbury, Connecticut / Edward S. Cooke, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cooke, Edward S., Jr. (Edward Strong), 1954-

Series:

Studies in industry and society ; 10.

Studies in industry and society ; 10

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

M©obeltischlerei.

Furniture industry and trade.

Furniture.

Economic history.

Furniture industry and trade--Connecticut--History.

Furniture--Connecticut--Woodbury--History--19th century.

Furniture--Connecticut--Woodbury--History--18th century.

Furniture--Connecticut--Newtown--History--19th century.

Furniture--Connecticut--Newtown--History--18th century.

Neuengland.

Connecticut--Woodbury.

Connecticut.

Connecticut--Newtown.

Woodbury (Conn.)--Economic conditions.

Woodbury (Conn.).

Newtown (Conn.)--Economic conditions.

Newtown (Conn.).

Genre:

History.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (xiii, 295 pages :) illustrations)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Johns Hopkins University Press

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Making Furniture in Preindustrial America Edward S. Cooke Jr. offers a fresh and appealing cross-disciplinary study of the furnituremakers, social structure, household possessions, and surviving pieces of furniture of two neighboring New England communities. Drawing on both documentary and artifactual sources, Cooke explores the interplay among producer, process, and style in demonstrating why and how the social economies of these two seemingly similar towns differed significantly during the late colonial and early national periods. Throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century, Cooke explains, the yeoman town of Newtown relied on native joiners whose work satisfied the expectations of their fellow townspeople. These traditionalists combined craftwork with farming and made relatively plain, conservative furniture. By contrast, the typical joiner in the neighboring gentry town of Woodbury was the immigrant innovator. Born and raised elsewhere in Connecticut and serving a diverse clientele, these craftsmen were free of the cultural constraints that affected their Newtown contemporaries. Relying almost entirely on furnituremaking for their livelihood, they were free to pay greater attention to stylistically sensitive features than to mere function.

Contents:

List of Tables and Charts

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Need for the Artisanal Voice (starting p. 3)

1 The Preindustrial Joiner in Western Connecticut, 1760-1820 (starting p. 13)

2 The Social Economy of the Preindustrial Joiner (starting p. 33)

3 The Joiners of Newtown and Woodbury (starting p. 49)

4 Socioeconomic Structure in Newtown and Woodbury (starting p. 69)

5 Consumer Behavior in Newtown and Woodbury (starting p. 91)

6 Workmanship of Habit: The Furniture of Newtown (starting p. 118)

7 Workmanship of Competition: The Furniture of Woodbury (starting p. 151)

Conclusion: The Response to Market Capitalism (starting p. 190)

Appendix A: Biographies of Newtown Joiners, 1760-1820 (starting p. 201)

Appendix B: Biographies of Woodbury Joiners, 1760-1820 (starting p. 217)

Notes (starting p. 233)

Glossary of Furniture Terms (starting p. 273)

Note on Sources and Methods (starting p. 277)

Index (starting p. 285)

Notes:

Open access edition supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities / Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.

The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Originally published as Johns Hopkins Press in 1996

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8018-5253-6

1-4214-3605-1

OCLC:

1128066676