Furniture Seminar: "British by Design: Furniture in the Age of Thomas Chippendale"

Friday, March 15, 2019 - Saturday, March 16, 2019 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM James A. Gray Auditorium

“…every design in the book can be improved, both as to beauty and enrichment, in the execution of it…”

Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman’s and Cabinetmaker’s Director, 1754

Library Bookcase; attr. Thomas Elfe; Charleston, SC; 1765-1775; mahogany, cypress; Acc. No. 949


The MESDA Furniture Seminar provides a biennial forum for collectors, curators, woodworkers, and conservators to explore a variety of topics related to the serious study of antique furniture. The 2019 program will explore the cabinetmaking connections between the British Isles and America, from New England to the Southern colonies.

 


REGISTRATION INFORMATION

This program has sold out.
If you would like to be added to the waiting list,
please email Catherine Carlisle at [email protected].

Full Registration $375.00
Full Registration – Frank L. Horton Society* $365.00
Admits one for all seminar events
 
*To receive your Frank L. Horton Society discount, please be sure you register and/or sign in with your Old Salem Museums & Gardens username and password.

 


SCHEDULE

Friday, March 15

9:30 – 10 a.m. Seminar Check-in
Concourse, Old Salem Visitor Center
900 Old Salem Road
Winston-Salem, NC  27101
10 a.m. Welcome
10:10 a.m. Furnishing Scotland’s Dumfries House
David Jones
Lecturer in Furniture History at the University of St. Andrews
St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland
11 a.m. “1 Leaf & Lock’d Drawer”: Scottish Bedroom Tables in New England and the South
Betsy Davison
Independent Scholar and Author
11:40 a.m. Coffee Break
12 p.m. George Washington’s Consumption of English- and Virginia-made Furniture, 1757-1774
Adam Erby
Associate Curator
George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, Virginia
12:40 p.m. Lunch
2 p.m. Demonstration:
A Chippendale Design in Charleston: MESDA’s Library Bookcase
Steve Latta
Master woodworker and contributing editor of Fine Woodworking
 3:30 p.m. Break
4 p.m. -continued-
Demonstration:
A Chippendale Design in Charleston: MESDA’s Library Bookcase
Steve Latta
Master woodworker and contributing editor of Fine Woodworking
 5 p.m. Reception
6 p.m. Chippendale’s Neo-Classical Marquetry: Design, Materials and Technique
Adam Bowett
Independent British Furniture Historian

 

Saturday, March 16th

9:30 – 10 a.m. Coffee
Concourse, Old Salem Visitor Center
900 Old Salem Road
Winston-Salem, NC  27101
10 a.m. The Influence of Chippendale’s Director on American Furniture
Brock Jobe
Professor Emeritus
Winterthur Program in American Material Culture
Winterthur, Delaware
10:50 a.m. Coffee Break
11:10 a.m. The Northern British Invasion: Scottish Cabinetmakers in the Early South, 1720-1820
Robert Leath
Chief Curator and Vice President of Collections, Research, and Archaeology
Old Salem Museums & Gardens
Winston-Salem, NC
12 p.m. Lunch
1 p.m. “Neat and Substantially Good”: Chippendale’s Paxton and Wedderburn Commissions
David Jones
Lecturer in Furniture History at the University of St. Andrews
St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland
 1:40 p.m. Unanswered Questions: What We Still Don’t Know About Chippendale
Adam Bowett
Independent British Furniture Historian
2:10 p.m. Break
2:30 – 4 p.m. MESDA Collection Study

The 2019 MESDA Furniture Seminar will take place in the
James A. Gray Jr. Auditorium
Old Salem Visitor Center
900 Old Salem Road, Winston-Salem, NC 

TRAVEL DETAILS

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts is one of the museums at Old Salem Museums & Gardens.  MESDA is located in the Frank L. Horton Museum Center at 924 S. Main Street, Winston-Salem, NC  27101.  Seminar lectures will take place in the James A. Gray Auditorium at the Old Salem Visitor Center at 900 Old Salem Road, Winston-Salem, NC  27101.

Seminar Hotel:

A block of rooms has been reserved at the nearby:

Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott
Winston-Salem Downtown
125 South Main Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
1-336-714-2800
Block Name: MESDA Furniture Seminar
*Please note, to ensure a room at the discounted price, reservations must be made by 5 pm on Thursday, February 14, 2019.  Your reservation can be canceled with a full refund up to two days prior to the reservation.

CANCELLATION POLICY

Registrants who cancel at least two weeks prior to a program will receive a full refund minus a $50 handling fee. No refunds will be given for cancellations that occur less than two weeks prior to the event.

INCLEMENT WEATHER

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts follows the inclement weather policies of Old Salem Museums and Gardens. When OSMG is closed, the museum is closed as well. Should this occur, the seminar will be canceled and refunds will be issued. For your own protection, please consider travel insurance to cover fees involved in canceling hotel reservations.