Summer 2017

Fig. 8: Jack in the Pulpit armchair, by Jeffrey Cooper (b. 1951). Portsmouth, 2012. Cherry. H. 40, W. 23, D. 22 in. Collection of the artist. Photo by Bill Truslow. Known especially for his carving and sculptural objects, Jeffrey Cooper works in Portsmouth and is the current chairman of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association. His training began on a commune in Oregon in the 1970s, and continued through study with Ken Harris at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen; at the University of New Hampshire, with Dan Valenza; and continued with additional study at Peter’s Valley Craft Center in New Jersey and elsewhere (see www.cooperwoodsculptor.com). Informed by his love of nature, evidenced here in the floral carving that adorns both the front and back of this side chair, Cooper’s work is well suited for the office, the home, and the garden. His carved animal benches in the Portsmouth Public Library, for example, delight that institution’s many young visitors and are but one of his commissions for public seating in venues across the country. He was also selected to prepare the coffins that were used in the re-interment ceremony at the African Burying Ground in Portsmouth in 2015. As a studio furniture maker creating “bespoke” work in a small shop, Cooper has much in common with his seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Portsmouth predecessors in the furniture trades, although his artistic vision and approach are contemporary. His work represents an option for today’s consumers, particularly those who value individuality, artistry, and the hand of the maker. so-called “fish-tail” chairs (Figs. 3, 3a). In the evocative words of Philip Zea in Portsmouth Furniture , these chairs have crest rails with “paired fish-tails perpetually poised for a dive into the briny deep,” and feature “dorsal fins and flukes” fashioned from thin boards with the aid of a template. (Wallace Nutting referred to these elements as “winged rails,” a term perhaps as accurate but far less picturesque.) First identified as a local Piscataqua-area product in 1930 by Walter A. Dyer, as Zea notes, these chairs were probably made by a local chairmaker or turner such as George Banfield (or Banfill), William Dam, John Mills, or Richard Mills. Graphically compelling and linked to the sea, the area’s “fish- tails”—some if not all surely from Portsmouth—represent a local preference that persisted for much of the eighteenth century. The Portsmouth Furniture exhibition brought to light the work of Robert Harrold, a London-trained craftsman, who arrived in Portsmouth and introduced his version of the English rococo (Fig. 4), drawing on pattern and design books. Fancy-painted seating furniture from the early nineteenth century (Fig. 5) was both made and imported into Portsmouth. After the economic Panic of 1837, Portsmouth’s furniture makers entered a difficult period, many closing their shops because of lack of business caused by debt or competition from cheaper imports. Some imported objects are important documents of local material culture, whether used in the negotiations for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty ending the Russo- Japanese War (Fig. 6) in 1905, or at Rock Rest (Fig. 7), an important African-American guest house in Kittery Point, Maine. Such average-quality objects, from a connoisseurship point of view, are nevertheless powerful, tangible reminders of momentous events and significant aspects of American life. The craft of furniture making continues into the twenty-first century (Fig. 8), with artisans creating reproductions of classic forms as well as craftsmen who put their own spin on today’s “bespoke” work. Furniture making in and around Portsmouth remains a strong tradition. Four Centuries of Furniture in Portsmouth, with the New Hampshire Furniture Masters is on view at the Discover Portsmouth Center, Portsmouth, N.H., through June 18, 2017. For information call 603.436.8433 or visit www.portsmouthhistory.org. Th is article is adapted from the accompanying catalogue by Gerald W.R. Ward, with the assistance of Hollis Brodrick and Lainey McCartney (Portsmouth: Portsmouth Historical Society, 2017). Funding for the catalogue was provided by Craig and Alison Jewett.  Gerald W.R. Ward is consulting curator, Portsmouth Historical Society, and the Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture Emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Hollis Brodrick , is a member of the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association. Continued from page 123 2017 Antiques & Fine Art 129