1. John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania, in the Olden Time, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Leary, Stuart & Co., 1909), 1:106. Watson's Annals is styled as a collection of "memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents." Loosely organized and seldom documented, it nonetheless provides a lively, albeit mostly secondhand account of Philadelphia's 17th and 18th century inhabitants and their activities. Although Watson conducted his research in the early 19th century, closing his manuscript in 1842, much of his information is derived from personal experiences recollected by the aged citizens whom he interviewed. Many of the privately held documents, which Watson was permitted to review, have not survived. Thus, however problematical or imprecise, the Annals often provide our only record of such events or individuals. Watson, Annals 1: title page, ix-xi.
2. The vellum cover is the verso of a recycled indenture, lined on the inside with a coarse fabric. Paper leaves were then stitched through the fabric into the vellum. An examination of the text of the indenture (which may be partially viewed because of separation of the fabric from the vellum) by Robert S. Cox, APS Manuscripts Librarian, reveals that it was between Jacob Usher, carpenter, and Ruth his wife of the City of Philadelphia, May, 1712, and Richard and Hannah Pill. What property was being "granted and conveyed" cannot be presently seen. A fuller reading may be possible during future conservation of the account book.
3. The cover title is a misnomer. Head's "Books of accounts" are but a single volume. Head Account Book, cover.
4. The George Vaux Papers comprise hundreds of manuscripts relating to the Vauxes, a family intertwined by blood, religion and commerce with Philadelphia's early Quaker merchants. Gathered, preserved and annotated by antiquarian George Vaux VIII (1832-1915), the collection was arranged by his son George Vaux IX (1863-1927), before coming into public hands. It was gifted, in 1991-1992, by George IX's sons, the brothers George Vaux X (1909-1996), and Henry James Vaux, and accessioned by APS in 1992. Vaux Papers, APS. The Vauxes have been likewise generous in their support of Quaker scholarship at their alma mater. Emma Jones Lapsansky, "Gifts to the Quaker Collection," Haverford College Library Newsletter no. 11 (April, 1992).
5. George Vaux [VIII], Pedigrees of my Ancient Furniture/Articles of Virtue etc., note to item #22, dated December 28, 1900, the "Franklin table," a manuscript still in private hands; Freeman/Fine Arts of Philadelphia, Inc. auction catalogue, sale #1000, April £15-17, 1999, lot 779: "Philadelphia Queen Anne Lowboy, circa 1750-1760, Attributed to William Savery, Provenance: From the Estate of George Vaux [X]," (Philadelphia: Freeman/Fine Arts, Inc., 1999); Lita Solis-Cohen, "New Auction Record Achieved for American Tall-Case Clocks," Maine Antique Digest (June, 1999), p. 1-C. The dressing table has secondary woods of poplar and white cedar. It is now in a Philadelphia private collection. At the invitation of Roy E. Goodman, preliminary research on that object was shared with the Franklin community. Jay Robert Stiefel, "The Franklin Table," Franklin Gazette 9, no. 3 (Fall, 1999), pp. 8-9. More detailed information was provided to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in advance of their cataloguing deadline for the exhibit, "Worldly Goods: The Arts of Early Pennsylvania, 1680-1758," held October 10, 1999-January 2, 2001, at which the dressing table was exhibited in an alcove of other objects relating to Franklin. Worldly Goods, checklist #56. Also, enclosed in the letter were copies of Head account book entries, geneaological information on Head, and other information previously shared with Lindsey's assistant Andrew F. Brunk. J. R. Stiefel letter to PMA Curator Jack Lindsey, May 26, 1999, Jay Robert Stiefel Papers, APS.
6. George Vaux [VIII], Pedigrees of my Ancient Furniture, note to item #21, dated December 20, 1900, the "Head Desk;" Freeman/Fine Arts of Philadelphia, Inc. auction catalogue, sale #1000, April £15-17, 1999, lot #793: "Philadelphia Chippendale Slant Front Desk, Circa 1770 to 1780, Provenance: From the Estate of George Vaux [X];" Solis-Cohen, "New Auction Record Achieved for American Tall-Case Clocks," p. 2-C. The "1 Walnut Desk," valued at £5.0.0., the only desk in John Head, Jr.'s estate inventory, went to his daughter, Susannah Head Sansom (1766-1845), wife of William Sansom (1763-1840) and grandmother to George Vaux VIII. The Estate Account Book of John Head Jr., Vaux Papers; Vaux Genealogical Tables; Vaux, Pedigrees. The intact survival of the desk may be fortuitous. In the wake of the British surrender, a contemporary diarist noted, on October 25, 1781, that "J. Head had nothing left whole in his parlour." Extract from diary of Miss Anna Rawle, published as "A Loyalist's Account of Certain Occurrences in Philadelphia After Cornwallis's Surrender at Yorktown," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography16 (1892),106. If the catastrophe described by Miss Rawle befell John Head, Jr., perhaps the desk was maintained at his office or in another room of his house. The desk is now in a Philadelphia private collection. John Head, Sr. "died in 1754, a bit too early to have made the desk." Stiefel letter to Alan Andersen, May 10, 1999. Stiefel Papers.
7. Arthur W. Leibundguth, "The Furniture-making Crafts in Philadelphia c. 1730-c. 1760" (MA thesis, University of Delaware, 1964), p. vi, Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur Museum and Library. Information on John Head and, indeed, any early Philadelphia cabinetmaker was "long overdue." Collectors Timothy A. & Helen Hodges/Stiefel letter, September 25, 2000. Stiefel Papers.
8. Surviving documents do not show Head ever described as a "cabinet maker," a term which would have afforded a greater expectation that Head was worth a closer look. Cf., "Edm[un]d Jones, Cabinet maker" who was admitted as a freeman of Philadelphia on May 20, 1717. Minutes of the Common Council of the City of Philadelphia 1704 to 1776 (Philadelphia: 1847), Photostat 1025, p. 125, Downs Collection.
9. "Item. I give and bequeath to my said Daughter Rebecca [Jones] my Clock & Case. Item. I give and bequeath to my Dear and well beloved wife Rebecca the Choise of the remaining of my Household goods and Furniture enough Sufficiently to furnish one Room and all the remainder of my said Household Goods and furniture I give and bequeath to my said Daughter Susannah and to her Heirs for Ever." Will of "John Head..., Joyner," signed May 11, 1754, with a codicil signed September 19, 1754, and proved October 18, 1754, Philadelphia City Hall, Municipal Archives, Office of the Register of Wills, Will Book K, p. 208, Philadelphia Wills 1754-136 [hereafter cited as John Head's Will]. The state of Philadelphia's early Orphan's Court archives has long been the subject of adverse comment. Marylynn Salmon, "Notes and Documents: The Court Records of Philadelphia, Bucks, and Berks Counties in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Pennsylvania Magazine, 107:250-251. A clerk of the Register's office, who has asked to remain anonymous, has searched several times for John Head's file, and those of his sons Samuel Head and John Head, Jr. He has advised that all three are missing, as of December, 2000. His efforts and courtesies are here acknowledged.
10. Leibundguth, "Furniture-making," p. 48, citing Will Book K, p. 208. As that author cites only to the Will Book and not to the actual file, #136 for the year 1754, there is a question as to whether he saw the original inventory, which would have been ordinarily kept in its file. If he saw a copy, such copy may have survived. In the absence of the original, a copy would be welcome. Leibundguth is deceased and there is no record of the present whereabouts of his papers. Conversation with Jeanne Solensky, Associate Librarian, Winterthur, December, 2000.
11. The Minutes of the Common Council of Philadelphia, or excerpts from them, were among the sources used by Prime and Hornor in identifying artisans and craftsmen working in Philadelphia in the 18th century. Alfred Coxe Prime, The Arts & Crafts in Philadelphia: Maryland and South Carolina 1721-1785 (Topsfield, Mass: The Walpole Society, 1929); William Macpherson Hornor, Jr., Blue Book, Philadelphia Furniture, William Penn to George Washington, Benefactors Issue (Philadelphia: privately printed, 1935), pp. 2-5. Transcriptions of those admitted freemen of the city between April 22-May 27, 1717, the year of Head's emigration, appear in J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1884) vol 1, p.193 n.2; and more particularly in "Minutes of the Common Council," pp. 118-135. As the freeman's profession was sometimes included, the listings provided a useful cross-reference in identifying the names in the Head account book. Some were his customers or suppliers; others were involved as middlemen, delivering the goods, or as ultimate recipients of goods recorded in another's account. Scharf and Westcott expressed the difficulties encountered in search of Philadelphia's history from its public records: "Small and remote provincial cities, in remote and provincial times, do not make much history. Their annals trickle along through lowly, hidden ways, like the brook that still flows but cannot be discovered, for that the grass through which it percolates hides it from sight and makes it inaudible." Scharf and Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1:198.
12. These miscellaneous documents will be cited where relevant to other discussions.
13. Pennsylvania Gazette, July 8, 1762: an advertisement from Thomas Say, "Executor to the late Mary Pound deceased," advertising for public sale, to be held July 24, 1762, "... A Lot of Ground, with an old Building thereon, situate on the North Side of Mulberry-street, called Arch-street..., bounded North by a Lot of Ground late of John Head deceased, East by Ground late of John Head aforesaid, South by Mulberry-street, and West by a Shop and Ground of David Chambers, Stone-cutter...." Roy E. Goodman directed me to an APS card catalogue which referenced this advertisement.
14. Hornor, Blue Book, p. 3. It is unknown from what source Hornor derived the notion that Head was associated with the Suffolk town of "Mildenhall," as that town is not mentioned in other references seen for Head.
15. Dorothee Hughes Carousso, "Esther King of Philadelphia and Bucks Counties and her Bowyer, Lynn and Elfreth Children," The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, reprinted in Genealogies of Pennnsylvania Families (Baltimore: Hi-So, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1982), vol. 2, p. 143 in reprint, article reproduced on Family History: Pennsylvania Genealogies #1, pre-1600s to 1900s, CD 163, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., (c) 1996 Brøderbund Software, Inc., p. 143.
16. Mary McGregor Miller, The Warder Family: A Short History (Clark County [Ohio] Historical Society, 1957), p. 2.
17. Craig Horle, Jeffrey L. Scheib, Joseph S. Foster, David Haugaard, Carolyn M. Peters, & Laurie M. Wolfe, editors, Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania, A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2, 1710-1756 (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1997). While focusing on Pennsylvania Assembly and Council members of the period, Lawmaking also identifies virtually everyone with whom they are recorded to have had contact, all based on an extremely detailed examination of primary sources, including wills, inventories, deeds, and other public and private records. It proved a rich mine of biographical information for identifying and placing in context many of the names in Head's book.
18. "Genealogical Tables of the Ancestry of George Vaux and Sarah H. Morris," in the handwriting of George Vaux VIII [hereafter cited as Vaux Genealogical Tables], in Vaux Papers. George Vaux VIII describes the basis of his research, as follows: "These tables have been prepared with great care from the Records of the Society of Friends in Philadelphia and London, documents on file in the office of the Register of Wills in Philadelphia, marriage certificates[,] birth notes and other papers and memoranda preserved either in my own family or in the families of relatives and to some extent from tradition and published memoirs of ancestors or other persons. All the statements may be considered as established on conclusive evidence except where a line is drawn under them which indicates more or less uncertainty." See the line Vaux has drawn under the first name of Head's father. Vaux has further indicated his apparent uncertainty by placing question marks after that first name and the last name of Head's mother. However, Vaux did not delineate any uncertainty about the fact that John Head's son, John Head, Jr., was married three times: first to Mary Hudson; then, "at Philadelphia [on] 11/20 1759," to Elizabeth Hastings ("d. in Philada 2/12 1770"); and, finally, to Margaret, the "widow of Isaac Attmore," whose maiden name was "White." Genealogical Tables. A variant spelling of "Mace" for John Head's mother's last name and a different birthdate for John Head, Jr., of December 20, 1723, are given on the site of Family Search International Genealogical Index, Film Number 537483, record of John Head[, Jr.]. The date of John Head Jr.'s first marriage, that to Mary Hudson, is given as "2 mo. 15, 1746," in A.S.M., "Replies," under "Notes and Queries," Pennsylvania Magazine, 7:495. Unless otherwise cited, where dates for members of John Head's extended family are hereafter given, they are from the Vaux Genealogical Tables.
19. Letter of Charles C. Cresson to Thomas Stewardson, November 30, 1874, p. 2, Cresson Collection, HSP.
20. The marriage took place within the Quarterly Meeting of Suffolk. Conversation with individual attending Library Desk, Religious Society of Friends in Britain, London. I am undertaking further research into Head's Suffolk roots. Suffolk has "serious bibliographical disadvantages." It has no major county history like those published for neighboring counties in the 18th and 19th centuries. David Dymond, "Suffolk," in C.R.J. Currie and C.P. Lewis, eds., A Guide to English County Histories (Stroud, Glocestersire: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997), p. 367. Also, at this writing, the records of the Suffolk Record Office, Bury St. Edmunds Branch, are only just coming out of storage. Conversation with Jane Isaac, Resident Archivist, Suffolk Record Office, Bury St. Edmunds Branch, January, 2001.
21. The normal apprenticeship lasted from age fourteen for seven years. As Head was born in 1688, and he didn't leave until 1717, he could have worked as a joiner in England for seven or eight years before going to America. Geoffrey Beard e-mail to Stiefel, October 10, 2000, Stiefel Papers; Joiners' Company Records, Manuscripts Division, Guildhall Library, Corporation of London, apprenticeships records, vol. 3, 1698-1710 [Ms. #8052/3]; freedom registers, vol.2, 1687-1710 [Ms. #8051/2], & vol. 3, 1710-1731 [Ms. #8051/3]. There was a "Joseph Head," however, who had apprenticed with Thomas Perry, Joiner for seven years, admitted to freedom on January 20, 1722, well after John Head had departed for Philadelphia. Ms. #8051/3, p. 151. Making matters more difficult, the Inland Revenue apprentice records do not start until 1711, and its accounts of the trade by working craftsmen date from the nineteenth century. This has contributed to "some patchiness in the evidence, particularly for the early eighteenth century," in researching London joiners. Pat Kirkham, The London Furniture Trade 1700-1870 (Leeds: Furniture History Society, by W.S. Maney and Son Ltd., 1988), p. 2.
22. Cresson/Stewardson, November 30, 1874 letter, p. 3, Cresson Collection, HSP.
23. The Vaux typescript is mounted on the page preceding the first numbered page of the manuscript. Head Account Book, inside cover. Of John Head's eleven children, Samuel was the only one not a Quaker. Note on "Henry Baker chart 1667-1880" [chart of descendants, including John Head], Brey Collection, HSP.
24. Head Account Book, March 1, 1904 typescript of George Vaux VIII, inside front cover [hereafter cited as Vaux Typescript]. Apart from joiner John Head and his son, merchant John Head, Jr., the name of a third "John Head" surfaces elsewhere in the Vaux Papers. He is referred to as "John Head of Ipswich, Suffolk, England," whose daughter, Ann Head (1758, Ipswich-1829, Philadelphia) married (August 10, 1779) John Warder (1751-1828), son of Jeremiah Warder and Mary Head Warder (1714, Bury St. Edmunds, England-1803, Philadelphia). Mary Head Warder was the daughter of John Head, Sr. and sister to John Head, Jr. George Vaux IX September 30, 1919 letter to Reuben Haines, p. 1, Vaux Papers. As both John Head, Sr. of Bury St. Edmunds and John Head of Ipswich were from Suffolk, it is conceivable that the families were already related at the time of the 1779 nuptials. But George Vaux IX could not find any such connection, other than that marriage, by which to connect John Head of Ipswich with John Head, Sr. or Jr. Nor could he find any notes made by his antiquarian father bearing on that subject. Vaux Typescript, pp. 1-2.
25. Elizabeth Stillinger, The Antiquers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), p. 4, quoting an 1854 entry in Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas, eds., The Diary of George Templeton Strong (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1952), 2:197.
26. Yolanda Van de Krol, a fellow in the Winterthur Program on Early American Cultural cited the following "Benefits" of working with merchant account books: "1. They are objective. They record ...transactions as they occurred at the price at which they occurred instead of at an estimated value like that of a probate inventory. 2. They allow us to see merchants and consumers in the prime of their economic lives. 3. They are focused on what people made and what they used. 4. They show a "moving picture," not a static one or a snapshot. 5. You may see those missing from traditional documentary records such as women, free blacks and slaves. 6. They provide macro-level data for a particular area. 7. They allow consumption to be traced." Yolanda Van de Krol, "Records of Distribution" (April 26, 1973), Downs Collection.
27. Thomas M. Doerflinger, A Vigorous Spirit: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia (New York: W.W. Norton, 1986), p. 64.
28. Robert J. Wilson III, "Early American Account Books: Interpretation, Cataloguing, and Use," American Association for State and Local History, Technical Leaflet 140, Winterthur, Downs Collection, p. 1. My thanks to Jeanne Solensky for bringing this leaflet to my attention.
29. As so little is known of tradesmen, in particular, the Head account book is especially useful in providing, in minute detail, information regarding their wares, quantities, prices and inter-relationships. Although some of this information will be shared in passing, much is outside the scope of the present paper and will be addressed at a future time.
30. The earliest dated entry is 3/22/18; and concerns a chest of drawers, as does the latest dated furniture entry, 10/27/44. The latest dated entry of any type is 6/1/53, crediting a cash payment. Head Account Book, pp. 49 left [1718], 106 left [1744], 137 right [1753].
31. The Plumley inventory enabled many deductions to be drawn regarding the construction and appearance of Philadelphia's earliest furniture. Philadelphia Wills, 1708-113; Hornor, Blue Book, pp. 8-9; Benno M. Forman, American Seating, 1630-1730, A Winterthur Book (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988), completed, after the untimely death of Benno Forman (1930-1982), by his students Robert Blair St. George and Robert F. Trent, pp. 47, 371-372, Appendix 1.
32. Susan Prendergast Schoelwer, "Form, Function, and Meaning in the Use of Fabric Furnishings: a Philadelphia Case Study, 1700-1775," Winterthur Portfolio, 14:26 (Spring, 1979). E.g., The appraisers of the estate of joiner Joseph Claypoole, Sr., in the inventory taken May 25, 1744, valued as one his "Mens Wearing Apparel" at £3-0-0. Philadelphia Wills, 1744-81. Beds, bolsters, pillows, bed curtains and even the window curtains in Edward Warner's back parlour, were lumped together at £7-0-0. Philadelphia Wills, 1754-141. Of course, the more conversant an appraiser was with the business of the deceased, the more accurate and informative the inventory of that portion of his goods. Clockmaker Peter Stretch and Caleb Jacob inventoried the effects of clockmaker Abel Cottey, who died in 1711, in exhaustive detail. Edward E. Chandlee, Six Quaker Clockmakers (Stratford, Conn.: New England Publishing Co., 1975), pp. 13-19. Much can be learned from the individual clock parts listed, which would not be appreciated were one to examine Cottey's account book alone. If such book ever surfaced, it could, however, be expected to provide detailed information of a different sort, complementing that in the inventory.
33. Inventories can also be useful in showing how and where various pieces of furniture were displayed. See generally Margaret B. Schiffer, Chester County, Pennsylvania Inventories, 1684-1850 (Exton, Pa.: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1974). Insurance surveys, when available, offer the same benefit.
34. Head's account book also provides information where probate records are unavailable for one of several reasons. The records may be lost. They may also be in an unknown jurisdiction for those of Head's customers who died elsewhere. Also, the assets of other customers may have been of insufficient size to merit probate. In those places where only the estates of wealthier individuals were probated, probate data can be skewed. See James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten: the Archaeology of Early American Life (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1977), p. 8.
35. A ledger of Solomon Fussell, a maker of slat-back chairs, has enabled research into that aspect of Philadelphia's furniture trade. Unfortunately, unlike Head's book, which covers his entire professional career in America, only the second and later volume of the Fussell ledger survives. Moreover, the Fussell ledger is largely limited to chairs, whereas Head's encompasses not only chairs, but numerous forms of case pieces. At the time of its discovery, the Fussell ledger was described as "the only known record left by a Philadelphia furniture maker working in [the] 1730-1760 period." Leibundguth, "Furniture-making," p. 49.
36. Research on Boston chairs of 1720-1740 has been greatly advanced by the survival of several letterbooks and account books of the upholsterers Samuel Grant and Thomas Fitch. Brock Jobe, "The Boston Furniture Industry 1720-1740," Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century (Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Press, 1986), pp. 3-48.
37. Leibundguth, "Furniture-making," p. x.
38. Christopher Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 (Leeds: Furniture History Society, 1996), p. 3.
39. Sir Ambrose Heal, The London Furniture Makers from the Restoration to the Victorian Era 1660-1840 (London: Portman Books, 1953, 1988), p. x.
40. Cathryn J. McElroy, "Furniture in Philadelphia: the First Fifty Years," Winterthur Portfolio 13 (1979), p.73, fig.12, 76-77, figs. 16, 17. Some skepticism has been expressed with the "EDWARD EVANS 1707" stamp, on the grounds that having a name punch with a particular date makes no sense. However, there exists an English mahogany chest with "I RICHARDS/1746" struck on its base. Gilbert, Marked London Furniture, p. 3. While John Head sold a "marken Iron" to Robert Webb, there is no evidence that he ever used one himself. Head Account Book, p. 126 left [£0-1-6, 3/15/31].
41. All of the secondary wood is poplar. Chalfant Collection.
42. This chest of drawers has been attributed to either Philadelphia "Joyner" Joseph Claypoole (1677-1744) who advertised that he had "left off his Trade" by 1738 or his son Josiah Claypoole who by 1740 had left Philadelphia to advertise in South Carolina "all sorts of Joyner's and Cabinet-Maker's Work, as Desk and Book Cases, with Arch'd. Pediment and O.G. Heads...." Prime, Arts & Crafts, pp. 162-163, transcribing Joseph Claypoole advertisement, Pennsylvania Gazette, May 18, 1738, and Josiah Claypoole advertisement, The South Carolina Gazette, March 22, 1740; remarks of Andrew Brunk, "Arts of Baroque Pennsylvania," November 12, 1999; Worldly Goods checklist #39.
43. Pieces bearing the labels of Philadelphia cabinetmakers William Savery, Benjamin Randolph, Jonathan Gostelowe, and Thomas Tufft have facilitated attribution of unlabeled furniture to their shops.
44. Leibundguth found only three bills for work by joiner George Claypoole. They covered the period October 30, 1738-September 17, 1762, with a gap as long as ten years in between, and were all to Quaker merchant John Reynell. George's brother, Josiah Claypoole, is recorded as having sold another Quaker merchant, Nathaniel Allen, a pair of walnut chests of drawers, according to a January 20, 1738 entry in the latter's account book. Joiner George Wilson also appears in Allen's account book, credited £2-0-0 for a chamber table on April 6, 1741; and a combined £5-3-0 for a bedstead with black cornice and a set of curtain rods, and a chamber table, on February 23, 1748. Allen's book also discloses, in the period April 1, 1741-June 24, 1745, credits to joiner Francis Trumble for a walnut table, a cornice bedstead, an £8-0-0 double chest of drawers, and two walnut desks, one for £6-0-0, and the other for £6-15-0. The ledger of Dr. Samuel Preston Moore reveals that joiner Henry Clifton paid for medicines with a £0-15-0 "fire screan," on August 11, 1748. Leibundguth, "Furniture-making," pp. 10, 13; 18, 22, 23, citing Account Book of Nathaniel Allen, HSP, pp. 49 [Josiah Claypoole], 164 [Francis Trumble], 169 [George Wilson]; and Ledger of Samuel P. Moore, 1745-1780, Library Company of Philadelphia [manuscript available at HSP], p. 37 [Henry Clifton]. A 1768 advertisement later announced the dissolution of the "PARTNERSHIP of HENRY CLIFTON and JAMES GILLINGHAM, (Joiners)...." Pennsylvania Chronicle, September 5, 1768, reproduced in facsimile in Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, Colonial Craftsmen of Pennsylvania, Reproductions of Early Newspaper Advertisements from the Private Collection of Alfred Coxe Prime (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, 1925), p. 9, no. 56. Clifton, describing himself as a "joiner, Cabinet and Chair Maker," announced his relocation to Arch Street. Pennsylvania Chronicle, August 13, 1770, cited in Prime, Arts & Crafts, p. 163. Much earlier, on 11/2/24, Head had debited Hinery [Henry] Clifton for a "Clos Stol" and a "Litel Table." Head Account Book, p. 60 left [£1-0-0 close stool, £0-4-6 table]. Head's Clifton may or may not be the joiner. If he is the joiner, he may have relied on Head for certain types of furniture.
45. See the advertisement of "Francis Trumble, Cabinet and chair-maker, &c. at the sign of the Scrutore, in Front-street, near the New-market Wharff, on Society Hill, Philadelphia, makes and sell the following goods in mahogany, walnut, cherry-tree, maple, &c. viz. Scrutores, bureaus, sliding-presses, chests of drawers of various sorts, breakfast tables, dining tables, tea tables, and card tables; also cabin tables and stools." Pennsylvania Gazette, August 8, 1754, cited in Prime, Arts & Crafts, p. 184.
46. See, e.g., Prime, Arts & Crafts.
47. This is especially so among Philadelphia Quakers who tended, especially in the earliest decades, to intermarry within their faith, often to persons already related. E.g., Vaux Transcript. The 1900 Pedigrees journal of George Vaux VIII is an excellent example of family documentation entitled to greater weight. It is particular as to furniture description, location and line of descent or other method of acquisition. It is further advantaged by the antiquarian's proximity to the original owners or those who inherited directly from them, and his first-hand recollections. Vaux, Pedigrees.
48. Chalfant Collection [fig. 4, one of a pair]; Richard and Pamela Mones Collection. But what if another chest of drawers, without such a high degree of identity to the Beake chest, still had in common with it that unusual foot? As Beake may have gotten his feet from a turner who supplied other cabinetmakers, the feet, alone, would not be determinative. A walnut blanket chest with similarly shaped feet, c. 1710, has a history of descent in the Randolph and Richardson families. American Art Association, Inc., Colonial Furniture: the Superb Collection of the Late Howard Reifsnyder, auction catalog (New York, 1929), lot 616. Solid attribution to the same shop requires comparison of all of these pieces against the signed Beakes chest and a larger group of furniture of similar appearance and construction.
49. See David Hewett, "Documentation, Attribution, and Research Use and Misuse," Maine Antique Digest (September, 1982), p. 18-D.
50. Effective structural analysis "requires a relatively large body of data." Philip D. Zimmerman, "Workmanship as Evidence: a Model for Object Study," Winterthur Portfolio 16, no. 4 (1981), pp.285-286. Zimmerman and others have been successful in applying such analysis to attribution of mid- to late-18th century Philadelphia furniture. Philip D. Zimmerman, "Methodological Study in the Identification of Some Important Philadelphia Chippendale Furniture," in Ian M.G. Quimby, ed., "American Furniture and Its Makers," Winterthur Portfolio 13 (1979), pp. 193-208; Luke Beckerdite, "An Identity Crisis: Philadelphia and Baltimore Furniture Styles of the Mid Eighteenth Century," in Catherine E. Hutchins, ed., Shaping a National Culture: The Philadelphia Experience, 1750-1800 (Winterthur, Del. Winterthur Museum, 1994), pp. 243-281.
51. Stiefel-Storb correspondence in Stiefel Papers; remarks of Christopher Storb, "Arts of Baroque Pennsylvania," November 12, 1999; Lita Solis-Cohen, "Seminar Sheds New Light on Early Philadelphia Decorative Arts," Maine Antique Digest (January 2000), p. 10-A <http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/pma0100.htm>. One note of caution must be sounded before attributing all such clockcases to Head. As Head sold blind fretwork to Thomas Maule, and Maule later advertised the sale of such fretwork, there can be no certainty that all clockcases with identical fretwork were from the same shop. Also, Maule appears to have had a close connection with Head, perhaps training with him. He bought a joiner's bench, wood, and other supplies from Head, at about the time when the latter ceased recording furniture transactions in his book. Thus, if trained by Head, Maule's construction practices may have been similar to Head's, complicating the differentiation of their pieces. Head Account Book, p. 91 left; Thomas Maule advertisement, Pennsylvania Gazette, August 14, 1755.
52. Respectively, Chalfant Collection; Mones Collection. Personal conversations with Skip Chalfant and Rick Mones, respectively, December, 2000.
53. As Brunk was Assistant Curator and Research Associate for the Worldly Goods exhibition to be opened in five months time, I immediately alerted him to the discovery and significance of the Head account book, and provided PMA copies of 108 dated entries from the account book, spanning twenty years, and genealogical information regarding Head. Personal conversations; Stiefel-Brunk correspondence, Stiefel to Lindsey May 26, 1999 letter, Stiefel Papers; Solis-Cohen, "Seminar Sheds New Light on Early Philadelphia Decorative Arts," p. 10-A.
54. Beatrice B. Garvan, "22. High Chest and Dressing Table," Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976), pp. 25-26; The Pulse of the People: New Jersey 1763-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Museum, 1976), p. 56. The pair, as of 1909, were owned by Mr. John T. Morris and Miss Lydia T. Morris at "Compton." Robert C. Moon, The Morris Family of Philadelphia, 5 vols. (Philadelphia: Ketterlinus Litho. Mfg. Co., 1909), 5:248 plates opposite. The configuration of the top of the high chest has been the subject of controversy. The photograph in the Moon book shows it as having a galleried, concave-sided top above the cornice. Ibid. It has been depicted without the gallery, which was probably a Victorian addition, but with its concave-sided top. Hornor, Blue Book, pls. 12, 13; Garvan, "22. High Chest and Dressing Table," pl. 22. At some point the concave top was removed. PMA photograph by Graydon Wood, 1994, Accession #'28-7-12, 13, MS Word Label ID #979, distributed December 27, 2000. It has since been restored. Worldly Goods, fig. 167. Another disagreement has arisen over primary wood of the pair. Moon, The Morris Family of Philadelphia, 5:248 plates opposite [mahogany]; Hornor, Blue Book, p. 10, & pls. 12 & 13 [walnut veneer on drawer fronts, carcass of solid walnut]; PMA MS Word Label ID #979 for the Graydon Wood photograph ["walnut veneer"]; Garvan, "22. High Chest and Dressing Table," p. 26 ["solid walnut"]; McElroy, "Furniture in Philadelphia," fig. 10 ["Black walnut (Juglans nigra)"]; Worldly Goods, checklist #38 ["Walnut"]. Conservator Christopher Storb, who examined both pieces, has confirmed that the carcasses are of solid walnut, as are the curled walnut drawer fronts. Personal conversation, November, 2000. Differences have also existed over the pair's secondary woods. Worldly Goods, checklist #38 caption ("poplar, white cedar, yellow pine"); contra as to poplar, Winterthur, Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, Data Sheet #89.220, September, 1989 ("Black walnut, yellow pine, cedar"). If the pair does contain poplar, this raises an attribution issue, as Head's only expressly recorded purchases of poplar were not until 1743. Head Account Book, p. 69 right [Mickel Branin, "By - 6 peeses of popler," 9/7/43, £1-12-0; "By - 64 foot of 4 Inch popler," 3/12/45, £0-15-4. See the discussion in section on woods used in Head's shop.
55. Head Account Book, p. 87 left [Casper Wister]. Based on the "14 - 4 mo. 1726" Wistar entry, Brunk ascribed the Wistar pair to Head, and dated the transaction as "April 14, 1726." Worldly Goods, p. 106 fig. 167 caption; remarks of Andrew Brunk, "Arts of Baroque Pennsylvania," November 12, 1999. However, an April date for the fourth month would be inconsistent with Head's practice of following the Julian calendar passim. The Julian calendar's fourth month would have been June. The Wistar order was thus recorded to mean June 14, 1726, not April 14. Also, as the order was not dated before the May wedding, and was anyway charged to Wistar and not to Catherine or her parents, it is difficult to accept that the high chest and dressing table were part of Catherine's dowry. Worldly Goods, checklist #38 caption ["thought to have been made as part of the dowry furniture of Catherine Johnson (1703-1786) of Germantown for her marriage to Caspar Wistar on May 25, 1726"]; contra, Garvan, "22. High Chest and Dressing Table," p. 25, ["[w]hether purchased as dowry or for furniture for their house is unknown"]. The exhibition catalogue gives only three dates for Head as "Documented References." Worldly Goods, p. 250 in Appendix I [1717, 1726, 1754]. Cf. Hornor, Blue Book, p. 3 [1717, 1754]; Stiefel to Lindsey, May 26, 1999, Stiefel Papers [1688, 1712, 1717, 1722-1752, 1754].
56. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of Lydia Thompson Morris, 1932-45-82; Worldly Goods, checklist no. 59; contra, Moon, Morris Family, 5:250 and plate opposite (clock, which was owned by John T. Morris and his sister Lydia T. Morris in 1909, had belonged to Thomas Chalkley [d. 1741]). Thus, further investigation is needed to clarify provenance before linking this piece of furniture definitively to Head's entry for Wistar.
57. Head Account Book, p. 87 left.
58. Garvan, "22. High Chest and Dressing Table," p. 26; Benno Forman comment, in October, 1974, recorded by Deborah Dependahl Waters, in "Additional Comment," dated February, 1975, on Data Sheet, Winterthur Museum, Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, DAPC Acc. No. 75.266. Joseph Richardson was described as "Gold Smith in Front Street." Pennsylvania Gazette, February 21, 1738. The Richardson high chest, together with an accompanying dressing table with slightly different turnings, was once owned by pioneer collector Robert Simpson Stuart, who acquired them from Richardson descendants. Stuart, an expert on early brass hardware, also attested that the chest's "engraved brass escutcheons, back-plates and tear-drops (all cast) are the original ones." Robert S. Stuart, "The Richardson Family of Silversmiths," Connoisseur 199, no. 881 (November 1978), p. 206, figs. 15 & 17. Caspar Wistar witnessed the estate inventory of another Front Street neighbor, Anthony Morris, in 1721, which appraised, at £10-0-0, another "chest of drawers & table." Garvan, "22. High Chest and Dressing Table," p. 26. That Morris had no account with Head, but his son did. Head Account Book, p. 87 left.
59. Mary Thomas Seaman, Thomas Richardson...and His Descendants in The United States of America (New York: Thomas A, Wright, 1929), top photograph and caption opposite p. 56. Joseph Richardson, Sr.'s set of six walnut Queen Anne side chairs, c. 1735-1740, which descended in the same manner as the high chest and dressing table, also survives in a Philadelphia private collection. Each chair is incised "IR" on the inside of its seat rail, in a style consistent with Joseph Richardson, Sr.'s silver mark. Seaman, Thomas Richardson, right side of lower photograph opposite p. 56; Stuart, Richardsons, p. 206, fig. 16; Worldly Goods, checklist #126 [each illustrating one chair of the set]. Two from the set are shown [fig. 26].
60. Remarks of Alan Miller, "Arts of Baroque Pennsylvania," November 12, 1999; Solis-Cohen, "Seminar Sheds New Light on Early Philadelphia Decorative Arts," p. 10-A; Worldly Goods, checklist #36.
61. Head Account Book, p. 7 [Simond Hagal/Edgell].
62. Head Account Book, p. 9.
63. March 5, 1742 appraisal of goods and chattels of James Steel. Philadelphia Wills, 1741-261[cedar chest of drawers appraised at £3-0-0].
64. Head Account Book, p. 87 left.
65. Hornor, Blue Book, p. 46. Samuel Powel, Jr. was born in 1705 and died at age 42. He altered the family name from "Powell." He married Mary Morris, daughter of brewer Anthony Morris. Powel built a mercantile fortune on top of the one left him by his father, Samuel Powell, Sr., who was widely known as "the rich carpenter." Robert H. Wilson, Philadelphia Quakers 1681-1981 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1981), p. 26.
66. Philadelphia Wills, 1741-261; Head Account Book, pp. 103 left [Steel], 109 right [Stretch].
67. Head Account Book, pp. 3 [Woodrop], 5 [Cox]; Hornor, Blue Book, pp. 51 [Wooddrop], 70 [Cox].
68. Head Account Book, p. 95 left [Solomon Crison, 7/28/28, £5-10-0]. It was sold within the last two years by H. L. Chalfant Antiques and presently resides in a Pennsylvania private collection. Personal conversation with Chalfant, January 12, 2001.
69. Mones Collection. It bears the labels of goldsmith Joseph Richardson, Sr., and merchant Joseph Trotter. Rick Mones has documentation of its provenance.
70. Head Account Book, p. 46 left. An oak scale box bearing a Joseph Richardson, Sr., label has been donated to Winterthur by the Schwarz Gallery. Conversation with Robert Schwarz, January, 2001.
71. See Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten, pp. 6-7, questioning whether the opulent artifacts of museum collections convey a much richer level of material wealth than was in fact the case among the broader community.
72. Pioneering collectors such as Joseph and Jean McFalls, Jr. and the late Robert Simpson Stuart and, more recently, Richard Dietrich, Skip Chalfant, Anne and Fred Vogel, Pam and Rick Mones, and others have sought to redress this imbalance.
