Editor’s Introduction

             The study of early Tennessee furniture makes an important contribution to our understanding of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century life on the southwest frontier. For generations, scholars and readers of the state’s early years assumed that life in the state’s formative years was devoid of art, culture, and refinement. However, even the earliest settlers brought along fine items of decorative arts, from personal items such as jewelry to much larger items, such as expertly carved, if conservatively conceived, pieces of furniture.

            For instance, in his 1873 account of the settlement and development of Rutherford County, local historian John C. Spence noted the presence and work of furniture makers within two years of the establishment of the county seat of Murfreesboro. Spence wrote that early on there were cabinet makers “at work, making furniture of all kinds then in demand.” The first was A. Handsberry, who arrived in 1813, followed soon by James Crichlow and Samuel Patton. “Those working at the cabinet business,” Spence observed, “were having the best class of lumber,” with cherry, walnut, and poplar being particularly in demand. Spence even described part of the time-honored process of making furniture by hand:

A quantity of bees wax was used in finishing off work, Beauros [sic], tables and many other articles. First put on the wood with a hot iron then scraped off, leaving the pores of the wood filled. Rubbing with a woolen rag gave a glossy shining appearance. Varnish had not come in general use in the shops. They used veneering on a great deal of their work. This article they made in the shop by sawing with a saw made for the purpose, two men using [it.] All work of this description sold fast as the shops could make.^[1]

             Cabinetmakers and carpenters in the early generations of Tennessee settlement produced thousands of pieces of furniture, from functional pieces nailed together to intricately designed, dovetailed works that reflected their own interpretations of prevailing eastern styles. Today, only a relative handful of representative pieces survive, offering mute testimony about the nature of craftsmanship, the wonderful wood available, and the overall conservative aesthetic of furniture design in early nineteenth century Tennessee.

            This publication, “First Rate & Fashionable”: Handmade Nineteenth century Furniture at the Tennessee State Museum, provides for a careful analysis of thirty pieces of Tennessee furniture not often studied by scholars or seen by the public. The pieces reflect the traditions of all three Grand Divisions of the state as well as documenting the various styles, building periods, and craftsmen of early Tennessee handmade furniture. Through these handcrafted treasures, curator Michael W. Bell presents an excellent sample of the rich collections of Tennessee decorative arts held at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville.

Carroll Van West

Senior Editor