Philadelphia Antiques Show 2022

83 THE PH I LADE L PH I A SHOW 1991 • DIVINE DESIGN: A SHAKER LEGACY The collectors and Philadelphia Show tireless volunteers Robert and Katharine Booth opened their essay for “Divine Design: A Shaker Legacy,” the 1991 loan exhibit that they curated, with a concise and profound observation about Shaker design: “It is somehow strangely appropriate that all the celebrated and cerebral principles of Shaker design can be personified in a simple sewing spool. These tiny turnings of figured or brightly painted hardwoods were made purely for the personal daily use of Shaker sisters, yet they reflect the sense of proportion, color, utility, ingenuity, tidiness, and honesty that pervades the best of the Shaker artifacts.” (p.25) Like the originality of Shaker sewing tables (or, as the Shakers referred to them, work stands), tailoring tables like this one allowed for multiple Believers to share a space and collaborate on a project. The design of this table adapts two common forms: a drop leaf table and a chest of drawers. Here, the top has deep overhangs, and the drawers are set at a high podium—where the drawers are elevated off of the floor like a French commode —so that one could be seated at it for work. Raising the drop leaf broadened the workspace, but also allowed for it to be efficiently stowed. Remarkably, the tailoring table retains its mellowed yellow painted surface. The timing for the 1991 loan exhibit coincided with a time of continued and intense interest in the artistic output of the Society as well as the death of Eldress Bertha Lindsay (1897-1990), the last surviving elder of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming known as the Shaker Society, and the exhibit was dedicated to her memory. After she lost her sight at the age of 90, Eldress Lindsay had recorded her recollections of her life as a member of the Shaker community at Canterbury, N.H. “I want people to know we did have fun and plenty of it,” she stated in an interview. ( NYT , 10/5/1990, D19) The Booths’ loan essay has stood the test of time as a crucial read for students, ably explicating the core tenets linking Shaker theology and design. Appropriately, the essay was elegantly laid out with no extraneous information, exemplifying the Shaker principle that “no task was too small to be done well.” (p.26) Shaker works like the tailoring table “represent the fragile balance between form and function, pragmatism and sublimation, simplicity and novelty…In both concept and execution, they are in total harmony with the Shaker notion that those objects with the highest use intrinsically possess the greatest beauty. Utility and beauty were inexorably linked in the Shaker mind. The very minimalism that made Shaker objects exceptional in their time also underlies their broad appeal today.” (p.25) Shaker Dropleaf Tailor’s Table Hancock, MA, first half of 19th century 12½ x 35½ x 13½ inches Collection of Robert and Katharine Booth