Recreated Masterpieces, Art Matters Spring/Summer 1998
Philadelphia-area craftsmen define the art of furniture. By Arthur W. Howe
From the 1740s to the end of the 18th Century, Philadelphia and the surrounding region led the nation in the arts. Along with the leading painters, sculptors, silversmiths and architects, Philadelphia also defined the art of furniture making.
Distinguished by their Queen Anne and Chippendale styles, Philadelphia cabinetmakers rivaled the best furniture makers of Newport, Charleston and Boston. The work was considered then and now as nothing les than fine art – the stylized embodiment of everything that is beautiful about wood, form and human perspective.
This fact is borne out today as 18th Century Philadelphia chairs, high boys and low boys sell, when available, at prices comparable to the American and European masterpieces of painting and sculpture. At recent auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York, an array of Philadelphia chairs, chests, tables and clocks dominated all other categories of record prices paid for antiques. The most spectacular sale was a walnut high chest, dressing table and side chair made by noted Philadelphia cabinetmaker Thomas Affleck. The lot sold for $2.9 million. A Chippendale carved mahogany armchair sold for $508,000 – almost four times the pre-auction estimate.
Surprisingly, some 250 years after Philadelphia’s “golden age” of furniture making, a sort of cabinet making renaissance is under way. Across the region, artists skilled in joinery, carving and turning are building a quality of furniture that often surpasses the work of the 18th century masters. In fact, no other region in the country comes close to having such a concentration of furniture making talent.
“We’re the best kept secret in the country,” said Lawrence W. Crosson of Lyndel.
Most of the furniture makers work out of rural shops in Chester, Bucks, and Lancaster counties. There they utilize skills largely thought to be anachronistic by the large furniture manufacturing houses: every joint, dovetail, carving is done by hand, with scrupulous fidelity.
The result is furniture of a quality and presence that is often breathtaking.
“Some of it makes your knees weak,” commented Louis “Bert” Irion III, who twenty years ago started a cabinet making shop in Paoli.
The son of a Main Line cabinetmaker, Irion and his shop are largely credited with sparking the mini-furniture making industry in the Philadelphia area. Over the year, many of the original Irion cabinet-makers have gone on to start independent shops of their own or to inspire others to enter the industry. Others have stayed with Irion and refined their skills to levels generally unseen since before the Industrial Revolution.
“In many ways, they have to be better than the original craftsmen to know the ins and outs and distinctions” of all the different furniture styles they make, commented Robert McCullough, and Atglen wood carver who collaborates with cabinet-makers on many of the pieces.
Several years ago, McCullough and long-time Irion cabinetmaker Chris Arato built a Philadelphia Chippendale highboy that featured highly figured crotch Mahogany. The quality of the wood and hand-carved drawers and feet and brilliant hand carved cartouche – the ornament at the top – places the highboy on a plane above almost any other furniture made today or even pieces made 200 years ago.
Another prominent area woodworking, D. Douglas Mooberry, runs Kinlock Woodworking Ltd., a ten-man shop based in Unionville. Begun just 15 years ago, Kinlock distinguished itself like Irion by the unusual talent of its craftsmen and choice of materials. The shop has tackled – and improved on – some of the most impressive furniture designs in history.
Last year, for instance, Kinlock’s cabinetmaker/carver/finisher extraordinary Kevin Arnold led a team of cabinetmakers who spent six months building a replica of a six-shell Newport, R.I., desk that stands nine feet six inches. The statuesque piece is made out of extremely rare quilted (for the pattern) mahogany and six carved shells on the lid and panels. An original desk of this type from the famed Townsend-Goddard shop in Newport sold at Christie’s Auction for $12.5 million. The Kinlock piece is arguably better because of the quality of the wood, which alone cost $7,000.
“It takes your breath away,” admits Mooberry, of the work that comes out of his shop. “You stand back and look at these pieces and think, ‘wow, we did that!’”
Since the furniture being made locally usually consists of unique pieces inspired by 200-year-old antiques, the planning and research before work actually begins on a piece can take weeks. Usually, cabinetmakers visit museums to measure and diagram originals in painstaking detail. The measuring of a single piece can take days. When important pieces of American furniture making surface at auction in New York, local cabinet makers are often invited to visit the galleries or auction houses to measure and copy designs for use in future pieces.
The museum curators and auctioneers have enormous respect for the young Philadelphia area craftsmen and open their doors willingly.
“They know the work we do,” explains carver McCullough.
As accomplished as the furniture makers in the region have become, Mooberry and Irion do not see that he and his colleagues’ work can necessarily be classified as art.
“We’re furniture makers,” Mooberry says. “We strive very hard to make it gorgeous. It’s certainly craft. My feeling is that if you work long enough and hard enough and luck enough you may make a piece of art someday… Art, in my thoughts, is something that happens and it doesn’t happen very often.”
Nonetheless, all agree that the Philadelphia area now boosts the largest – and easily the most talented – collection of high quality furniture makers in the nation.
“There is an abundance of talent,” Mooberry said. “I think that the reason is that there is also an abundance of interest from customer. We do the research and develop the skills to take it (furniture making) to the next level. There are people in this area who know and appreciate that. They understand that it is still possible to get amazingly well-crafted furniture.”
One important reason for this is the quality of mahogany, walnut, cherry and maple used in making the furniture. Both Mooberry and Irion make it a source of pride to find the most striking, figurative wood available. Mooberry recently found in France a rare 50-inch wide log of quilted, South American mahogany. Louis Irion himself has become so involved in the procurement of wood that he spends full time searching the country for the best logs.
“I think that the strongest point about our shop is the wood we use in our furniture and the efforts we go to obtain the quality hardwoods we need. Although I like every aspect of the business, this is the part that fascinates me because of the chance to witness the endless and ever-changing beauty of the wood. Each log to be cut holds the possibility of spectacular wood; every lumber foray is like a hunting trip, searching for that ‘trophy lumber,’” he said.
Irion has left the furniture building side of his business in the capable hands of his long-time cabinetmakers - geniuses like Gerald Martin, Kendl Monn and Chris Arato.
Together, they have produces some of the most striking furniture to come out of Philadelphia in centuries.
Dominating the intersection of quiet Christiana, Lancaster County, Irion Company Furniture Makers reflects a bygone era where cabinetmakers, carvers and finishers work together. While modern power machinery is very much in use, key portions of each piece are done by hand with chisels, planes and rills. Each piece is made ith customer’ involvement along every step – much as it was done in the 18th century.
Much of Irion’s work reflects the simpler, Quaker-inspired Chester County styles of tables, clock and beds. Other Irion furniture is inspired by the New England pieces of Townsend Goddard and the Salem, Mass., cabinetmakers. And finally, of course, Irion’s cabinetmakers tackle the pieces once made by 18th century artists like Thomas Tufft, Thomas Affleck and Benjamin Randolf.
Among it all, Irion says, “I really feel that the furniture from this region is superior.”
One reason for the high level of furniture making expertise in the region is that the craftsmen from throughout the region tend to compete with one another – partly to attract new customers, but also for pride of accomplishment.
“Everyone sees everyone else’s work and learns from it and tried to do better,” said one woodworker.
Says Mooberry: “Woodworkers will never get rich. But at the end of the day there is a tremendous satisfaction, a lot of pride… Life is short. Might as well do something that is worthwhile.”