  English products were so much admired in Virginia, in fact, and so easily obtained by those who could afford choice things, that the local artisan had little chance to compete. Whether cause or consequence of this lack of demand for their services, Virginia cabinetmakers appear to have been less highly skilled and less highly schooled in the craft than their colleagues in London and in a number of large colonial cities. There was no “school” of cabinetry in eighteenth-century Williamsburg such as developed in Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston, and elsewhere. A Virginian who wanted fine furniture might order it from one of these cities. More likely, he would buy it at a sale of “venture” furniture made in a northern or middle colony and shipped south to be sold for the best price it would bring. Or, he could send to England for his wants. This was not so difficult a transaction as might at first appear. Tobacco was the source of Virginia’s wealth, and tobacco had to be shipped to England for sale. The typical large Tidewater planter consigned his annual crop to an English merchant who received, handled, and sold it. After expense deductions, the balance in the merchant’s hands represented the planter’s profits. What was more natural than to spend it right there in England? Articles of English make were thought (usually with reason) to be of better material and workmanship than “country made” pieces, and they were undeniably more in fashion. The tobacco ships were returning to Virginia anyway, needed freight for their holds, and could unload almost at the planter’s front door. As a result of these circumstances, it was customary to send with each shipment of tobacco an order for goods to be sent back. This dependence on the English market did not prevail—at least to the same extent—outside of the Chesapeake Bay area. In consequence, cabinetmakers as far apart as Boston and Charleston produced to order some very fine pieces of furniture. Some few examples bear the maker’s signature or shop label; others can be identified with confidence because of characteristic traits in their design or execution. Cabinetmakers of the Townsend-Goddard dynasty in Newport, Rhode Island, produced block-fronted and shell-carved case pieces that sparkle in many museums today. Thomas Affleck, Jonathan Gostelowe, Benjamin Randolph, and others in Philadelphia made that city a center of pre-Revolutionary cabinetry, and created the “Philadelphia Chippendale” school of furniture design. Virginia cabinetmakers, too, rarely labeled or signed their products; or if they did, the products have not survived in more than a very few examples. What is known to be of Virginia origin is rarely ornate. The examples to be seen in Williamsburg today, for instance, are truly provincial: sturdy, generally well-proportioned, capably made, and inclined to be simple in decoration. |
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