Summer 2017

O n the shore of the Piscataqua River, the small city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is approaching the four-hundredth anniversary of its settlement by English immigrants. Although much has changed, portions of the city still retain the air of an early English seaport town, made manifest by its many historic houses, both public and private, that contain important collections of locally made material. The furniture of the Portsmouth area, which had long been of interest to the collecting world, became the subject of intense scrutiny in the late 1980s by a team of scholars led by Brock Jobe of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England). Their efforts resulted in a landmark exhibition in 1992, and an accompanying catalogue, Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast , published in 1993. With introductory essays by James L. Garvin, Johanna McBrien, and Jobe, and with 117 catalogue entries by ten other authors, Portsmouth Furniture instantly became, and has remained, the Bible for studies of the subject. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Portsmouth furniture project is upon us, and the Portsmouth Historical Society has prepared a small show that revisits the ground-breaking effort of the early 1990s, while adding a few objects to the record. Four Centuries of Furniture in Portsmouth includes objects made and used in Portsmouth after 1825 (the rough stopping point of the earlier exhibition) and also encompasses a corollary exhibition of contemporary masterpieces by members of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association. The show also includes several examples of vernacular furniture that reflect a genre of furniture that was largely omitted from the previous show. One of the leitmotifs of the exhibition is the gradual transition—as was the case for so many towns—of Portsmouth from a center of furniture production, with a mix of locally produced objects augmented with some imported goods, to its current status as a retail market for objects made elsewhere—even for IKEA furniture— supplemented by works created by a few studio furniture makers still practicing the workmanship of risk. One lens through which to view this evolution and some of its nuances is the realm of seating furniture, a constant necessity for four centuries. By the early eighteenth century, Portsmouth craftsmen were producing chairs in large quantities not only for local use but for export to ports as far away as Newfoundland. Some local artisans created banister-back chairs (Fig. 1) with carved crests and turned elements that are a signif icant contribution to the expressive arts of the William and Mary period. Chairs made by members of the Gaines family, such as John Gaines III (Fig. 2), have long been recognized for their distinctive forms, including pierced and carved crests. One large subset of Seacoast-area seating furniture that has intrigued collectors and scholars for many years is the group of Fish Tails and Other Tales Seating Furniture from the New Hampshire Seacoast BY GERALDW. R. WARD AND HOLLIS BRODRICK Continues on page 129 2017 Antiques & Fine Art 123