Paint, Pattern, and People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850

Winterthur, Del./ Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. Hardbound. VG/VG. Burnt orange woven cloth with gilt spine lettering, color illustrated dust jacket, color illustrated end pages, 277 pp., profusely illustrated with color and bw photographs. Paint, Pattern, and People explores the fascinating and diverse furniture of southeastern Pennsylvania through the people who made, owned, inherited, and collected it. Delving into the cultures and creativity of the area's inhabitants, primarily those of British and Germanic heritage, this comprehensive work looks closely at localisms and regionalisms of form, ornament, and construction that were influenced by ethnicity, religious affiliation, settlement patterns, socioeconomic status, and the skills of the craftsmen.William Penn's policy of religious tolerance attracted people of various faiths and ethnic backgrounds, making Pennsylvania the most culturally diverse of the thirteen colonies. Through the study of well-documented furniture, fraktur, needlework, paintings, and architecture produced by this mixed multitude, the region's great diversity comes into focus. Paint, Pattern and People is a significant contribution to the literature in the field, presenting new scholarship as well as never-before-published furniture and related objects. Distributed for the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate. Contents as follows: Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- People: A Great Mixed Multitude -- Places: Regional Forms and Local Expressions -- Families: Owners and Inheritors -- Makers: From Cradle to Coffin -- Endnotes -- Checklist -- Selected Bibliography -- Index.