Boston and the Bay, 1620-1690

  • Alexander, Jennie, and Peter Follansbee. Make a Joint Stool from a Tree: An Introduction to 17th-Century Joinery. Fort Mitchell, Ken.: Lost Art Press, 2012.
  • Chinnery, Victor. Oak Furniture: The British Tradition: A History of Early Furniture in the British Isles and New England. Woodbridge, England: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1979.
  • Cullity, Brian. A Cubberd, Four Joyne Stools & Other Smalle Thinges: The Material Culture of Plymouth Colony. Sandwich, Mass.: Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, 1994.
  • Cummings, Abbott Lowell. Rural Household Inventories: Establishing the Names, Uses, and Furnishings of Rooms in the Colonial New England Home, 1675-1775. Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1964.
  • Fairbanks, Jonathan L., and Robert F. Trent. New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century. 3 vols. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1982. See esp. vol. 3.
  • Forman, Benno M. American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730: An Interpretive Catalogue. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988.
  • Manca. Joseph. “A Matter of Style: The Question of Mannerism in Seventeenth-Century American Furniture.” Winterthur Portfolio 38, no. 1 (spring 2003): 1-36.
  • St. George, Robert Blair. The Wrought Covenant: Source Material for the Study of Craftsmen and Community in Southeastern New England, 1620-1700. Brockton, Mass.: Brockton Art Center-Fuller Memorial, 1979.
  • Tarule, Robert. The Artisan of Ipswich: Craftsmanship and Community in Colonial New England. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
  • Trent, Robert F., ed. Pilgrim Century Furniture: An Historical Anthology. New York: Main Street/Universe Books, 1976.

From the Coast to the Valley, 1640-1730

  • Hosley, William N., Jr., and Gerald W. R. Ward, eds. The Great River: Art and Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820. Hartford, CT: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1985. (See esp. essay on furniture by Philip Zea.)
  • Luther, Clair Franklin. The Hadley Chest. Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood and Brainard Co., 1935.
  • Luther, Clair Franklin. Supplemental List of Hadley Chests Discovered since Publication of the Book in 1935, Together with Changes in Ownership as Reported. Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood and Brainard Co., 1938.
  • Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. “Hannah Barnard’s Cupboard: Female Property and Identity in Eighteenth-Century New England.” In Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on Personal Identity in Early America, ed. Ronald Hoffman, Mechal Sobel, and Fredrika J. Teute, 238-73. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA, 1997.
  • Zea, Philip. “The Fruits of Oligarchy: Patronage and the Hadley Chest Tradition in Western Massachusetts.” In New England Furniture, 1-65.
  • Zea, Philip. “Rural Craftsmen and Design.” In New England Furniture: The Colonial Era, by Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, 47-72. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.

From Joiner to Cabinetmaker: The Early Baroque Style, 1690-1730

  • Cooke, Edward S., Jr. “The Warland Chest: Early Georgian Furniture in Boston.” Maine Antique Digest (March 1987): 10C-13C.
  • Courts and Colonies: The William and Mary Style in Holland, England, and America. New York: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1988. (See esp. Philip M. Johnston, “The William and Mary Style in America.)
  • Forman, Benno M. American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730: An Interpretive Catalogue. New York: W.W. Norton, a Winterthur Book, 1988.
  • Safford, Francis Gruber. American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1. Early Colonial Period: The Seventeenth-Century and William and Mary Styles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007.
  • Trent, Robert F. “The Early Baroque in Early America: The William and Mary Style.” In American Furniture with Related Decorative Arts. 1660-1830, ed. Gerald W.R. Ward, 63-90. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1992.

 

Line and Form: The Late Baroque Style, 1730-1760

  • Heckscher, Morrison H. American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2. The Late Colonial Period: Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985.
  • Jobe, Brock. “The Boston Furniture Industry, 1720-1740.” In Boston Furniture, 3-48.
  • Jobe, Brock, and Myrna Kaye, with the assistance of Philip Zea. New England Furniture, the Colonial Era: Selections from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
  • Richards, Nancy E., and Nancy Goyne Evans, with Wendy A. Cooper and Michael Podmaniczky. New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods. Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Museum, 1997.
  • Whitehill, Walter Muir, Jonathan L. Fairbanks, and Brock Jobe, ed. Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century. A Conference Held by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 11 and 12 May 1972. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 48. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1974. 

Curving Outward, 1730-1760

  • Hosley, William N., Jr., and Gerald W.R. Ward, eds. The Great River: Art and Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820. Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1985. (See esp. essay on furniture by Philip Zea.)
  • Kaye, Myrna. “Concord Case Furniture: Cabinetry Twenty Miles from the Bay.” In The Bay and the River, 1600-1900, ed. Peter Benes, 29-42. Boston: Boston University, 1982.
  • Richards, Nancy E., and Nancy Goyne Evans, with Wendy A. Cooper and Michael Podmaniczky. New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods. Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Museum, 1997.
  • Wood, David F. “A Group of Concord, Massachusetts, Furniture.” Antiques 151, no. 5 (May 1997): 742-47.
  • Wood, David F., ed. The Concord Museum: Decorative Arts from a New England Collection. Concord, Mass.: Concord Museum, 1996.

Revolutionary Rococo, ca. 1745-1790

  • Forman, Benno M. “Salem Tradesman and Craftsmen Circa 1762: A Contemporary Document.” Essex Institute Historical Collections 107, no. 1 (January 1971): 62-81.
  • Heckscher, Morrison H. American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2. The Late Colonial Period: Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985.
  • Heckscher, Morrison H., and Leslie Greene Bowman. American Rococo: Elegance in Ornament. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992.
  • Jobe, Brock, and Myrna Kaye, with the assistance of Philip Zea. New England Furniture, the Colonial Era: Selections from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
  • Keno, Leigh, Joan Barzilay Freund, and Alan Miller. “The Very Pink of the Mode: Boston Georgian Chairs, Their Export, and Their Influence.” AF 1996, 267-306.
  • Richards, Nancy E., and Nancy Goyne Evans, with Wendy A. Cooper and Michael Podmaniczky. New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods. Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Museum, 1997.
  • Whitehill, Walter Muir, Jonathan L. Fairbanks, and Brock Jobe, ed. Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century. A Conference Held by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 11 and 12 May 1972. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 48. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1974.
  • Widmer, Kemble, II, and Joyce King. “The Documentary and Artistic Legacy of Nathaniel Gould.” AF 2008, 1-25.
  • Rococo Reimagined, 1755-1790
  • Brown, Michael K. “Scallop-top Furniture of the Connecticut Valley.” Antiques 117, no. 5 (May 1980): 1092-1099.
  • Hosley, William N., Jr., and Gerald W.R. Ward, eds. The Great River: Art and Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820. Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1985. (See esp. essay on furniture by Philip Zea.)
  • Jobe, Brock, Jack O’Brien, and Gary R. Sullivan. Harbor and Home: Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710-1850. Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2009.

Everyday Expressions, 1700-1800

  • Benes, Peter D., ed. Rural New England Furniture: People, Place, and Production. Boston: Boston University for the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, 2000.
  • Cullity, Brian. Plain and Fancy: New England Painted Furniture. Sandwich, Mass.: Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, 1987.
  • Evans, Nancy Goyne. Windsor Chair Making in America: From Craft Shop to Consumer. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2006. See also two other titles by this author on Windsors and their use.
  • Fales, Dean A., Jr. America Painted Furniture, 1660-1880. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1972.
  • Little , Nina Fletcher. Little by Little: Six Decades of Collecting American Decorative Arts. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1984.
  • Morse, John D. Country Cabinetwork and Simple City Furniture. Winterthur Conference Report 1969. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1970.

 

Eagles, Columns, and Urns, 1790-1820

  • Foley, Paul J. Willard’s Patent Time Pieces: A History of the Weight-Driven Banjo Clock, 1800-1900. Nowell, Mass.: Roxbury Village Publishing, 2002.
  • Lahikainen, Dean T. Samuel McIntire: Carving an American Style. Salem: Peabody Essex Museum, 2008.
  • Lahvis, Sylvia Leistyna. “Icons of American Trade: The Skillin Workshop and the Language of Spectacle.” Winterthur Portfolio 27, no. 4 (winter 1992):213-34.
  • Lahvis, Sylvia Leistyna. “The Skillin Workshop.” Antiques 155, no. 3 (March 1999): 442-51.
  • Montgomery, Charles F. American Furniture, the Federal Period. New York: Viking, 1966.
  • Mussey, Robert D., Jr. The Furniture Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour. Salem: Peabody Essex Museum, 2004.
  • Mussey, Robert D., Jr., and Christopher Shelton. “John Penniman and the Ornamental Painting Tradition in Federal-Era Boston.” AF 2010, 2-27.
  • Stoneman, Vernon C. John and Thomas Seymour, Cabinetmakers in Boston, 1794-1816. Boston: Special Publications, 1959.
  • Stoneman, Vernon C. A Supplement to John and Thomas Seymour, Cabinetmakers in Boston, 1794-1816. Boston: Special Publications, 1965.
  • Swan, Mabel M. Samuel McIntire, Carver, and the Sandersons, Early Salem Cabinet Makers. Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, 1934.

Expanding Markets, 1790-1820

  • Baron, Donna K. “Furniture Makers and Retailers in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Working to 1850.” Antiques 143, no. 5 (May 1993): 784-95.
  • Colglazier, Gail Nessel. Springfield Furniture, 1700-1850: A Large and Rich Assortment. Springfield, Mass.: Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, 1990.
  • Hall, Elton W. “New Bedford Furniture.” Antiques 113, no. 5 (May 1978): 1105-27.
  • Jobe, Brock, and Clark Pearce. “Sophistication in Rural Massachusetts: The Inlaid Cherry Furniture of Nathan Lombard.” AF 1998, 164-96.
  • Jobe, Brock, Jack O’Brien, and Gary R. Sullivan. Harbor and Home: Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710-1850. Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2009.
  • Zea, Philip. Useful Improvements, Innumerable Temptations: Pursuing Refinement in Rural New England, 1750-1850. Deerfield, Mass.: Historic Deerfield, 1998.
  • Zea, Philip. “William Lloyd and the Workmanship of Change.” In Rural New England Furniture, 60-75.

Scrolls and Pillars, 1815-1840

  • Cooper, Wendy A. Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993.
  • Feld, Stuart P., with an introductory essay by Page Talbott. Boston in the Age of Neo-Classicism, 1810-1840. New York: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1999.
  • Hall, John. John Hall and the Grecian Style in America: A Reprint of Three Pattern Books published in 1840 with an Illustrated Essay by Thomas Gordon Smith. New York: Acanthus Books, 1996.
  • Talbott, Page. “Boston Empire Furniture.” Antiques, pt. 1, 107, no. 5 (May 1975): 878-87; pt. 2, 109, no. 5 (May 1976): 1004-13.
  • Talbott, Page. “Continuity and Innovation: Recliners, Sofa Beds, Rocking Chairs, and Folding Chairs.” Antiques 161, no. 5 (May 2002): 124-33.
  • Talbott, Page. “The Furniture Trade in Boston, 1810-1835.” Antiques 141, no. 5 (May 1992): 842-55.
  • Talbott, Page. “Seating Furniture in Boston, 1810-1835.” Antiques 139, no. 5 (May 1991): 956-69.

 

The Eclectic Years, 1835-1890

  • Cooke, Edward S., Jr. “The Boston Furniture Industry in 1880.” Old-Time New England 70, no. 257 (1980): 82-98.
  • Ettema, Michael J. “Technological Innovation and Design Economics in Furniture Manufacture.” Winterthur Portfolio 16, nos. 2/3 (summer/autumn 1981): 197-223.
  • Seidler, Jan. “The Furniture Industry in Victorian Boston.” Nineteenth Century 3, no. 2 (summer 1977): 64-69.
  • Seidler, Jan. “A Tradition in Transition: The Boston Furniture Industry, 1840-1880.” In Victorian Furniture: Essays from a Victorian Society Autumn Symposium, ed. Kenneth L. Ames, 65-84. Philadelphia: Victorian Society in America, 1982.
  • Seidler, Jan. “Transitions in New England’s Nineteenth-Century Furniture Industry: Technology and Style, 1820-1880.” In Tools and Technologies: America’s Wooden Age, ed. Paul B. Kebabian and William C. Lipke, 64-79. Burlington, Vt.: Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, 1979.
  • Smith, Nancy A. “Boston Nineteenth Century Pianoforte Manufacture: The Contributions of Jonas Chickering.” In Victorian Furniture: Essays from a Victorian Society Autumn Symposium, ed. Kenneth L. Ames, 103-14. Philadelphia: Victorian Society in America, 1982.
  • Yehia, Mary Ellen. “Chairs for the Masses: A Brief History of the L. White Chair Company, Boston, Massachusetts.” Old-Time New England 63, no. 2 (fall 1972): 33-44.

Commerce and Tradition, ca. 1800-1900

  • Benes, Peter D., ed. Rural New England Furniture: People, Place, and Production. Boston: Boston University for the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, 2000.
  • Derby and Kilmer Desk Company. Tenth Illustrated Catalogue and Price List of the Derby Roll-top Desks and Improved Office Furniture Specialities. Boston: by the Company, 1889.
  • Evans, Nancy Goyne. Windsor Chair Making in America: From Craft Shop to Consumer. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2006. See also two other titles by this author on Windsors and their use.
  • Fales, Dean A., Jr. America Painted Furniture, 1660-1880. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1972.
  • Little , Nina Fletcher. Little by Little: Six Decades of Collecting American Decorative Arts. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1984.
  • Mühlberger, Richard. American Folk Marquetry: Masterpieces in Wood. New York: Museum of American Folk Art, 1998.
  • Paine Furniture Company. One Hundred Years of Paine’s, 1835-1935: A History of America’s Oldest Furniture Store. Boston: by the Company, 1935.

The “Furniture Capital of New England,” 1840-1950

  • Adamson, Jeremy. American Wicker: Woven Furniture from 1850 to 1930. New York: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Rizzoli, 1993.
  • Adamson, Jeremy. “The Wakefield Rattan Company.” Antiques 142, no. 1 (August 1992): 214-21.
  • Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Company. Classic Wicker Furniture: The Complete 1898-1899 Catalog. Reprint. New York: Dover Publications, 1992.
  • Scott, Tim. Fine Wicker Furniture, 1870-1930. West Chester, Pa.: Schiffer Publishing, 1990.

 

The Arts and Crafts Movement, 1870-1920

  • Bakker, Keith. “H.H. Richardson’s Furnishings.” In The Makers of Trinity Church in the City of Boston, ed. James F. O’Gorman, 83-103. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press in association with Trinity Church in the City of Boston, 2004.
  • Cooke, Edward S., Jr. “”The Aesthetics of Craftsmanship and the Presence of the Past”: Boston Furniture-Making and Wood-Carving.” In Inspiring Reform: Boston’s Arts and Crafts Movement, ed. Merilee Boyd Meyer, 58-69. Wellesley, Mass.: Davis Museum and Cultural Center, 1997.
  • Farnam, Anne. “A.H. Davenport and Company, Boston Furniture Makers.” Antiques 109, no. 5 (May 1976): 1048-55.
  • Farnam, Anne. “H.H. Richardson and A.H. Davenport: Architecture and Furniture as Big Business in America’s Gilded Age.” In Tools and Technologies: America’s Wooden Age, ed. Paul B. Kebabian and William C. Lipke, 80-92. Burlington, Vt.: Robert Hull Fleming Museu, University of Vermont, 1979.
  • Kaplan, Wendy, et al. “The Art That is Life”: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920. Boston: Little, Brown for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a New York Graphic Society Book, 1987.
  • Meyer, Merilee Boyd, et al. Inspiring Reform: Boston’s Arts and Crafts Movement. Wellesley, Mass.: Davis Museum and Cultural Center, 1997
  • Prouty, F. Shirley. Master Carver from Germany’s Passion Play Village to America’s Finest Sanctuaries: Johannes Kirchmayer, 1860-1930. Foreword by Gerald W.R. Ward. Portsmouth, N.H.: Peter E. Randall, 2007.

Pilgrims and Patriots: The Colonial Revival, 1876-1945

  • Axelrod, Alan, ed. The Colonial Revival in America. New York: W.W. Norton for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1985. (See esp. the introduction by Kenneth L. Ames.)
  • Denenberg, Thomas A. Wallace Nutting and the Invention of Old America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
  • Jenkins, Emyl. Emyl Jenkins’ Reproduction Furniture: Antiques for the Next Generation. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
  • Lindquist, David P., and Caroline C. Warren. Colonial Revival Furniture. Radnor, Pa.: Wallace-Homestead Book Co., 1993.
  • [Nutting, Wallace]. Wallace Nutting’s Biography. Framingham, Mass.: Old America Company, 1936.

 

Mid-Century Modern, 1920-1960

  • Baker, Donna S., ed. Heywood-Wakefield Blond Furniture: Depression to ‘50s. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2005.
  • Ostergard, Derek E. Bent Wood and Metal Furniture, 1850-1946. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986,
  • Swedberg, Robert W., and Harriett Swedberg. Furniture of the Depression Era: Furniture and Accessories of the 1920’s, 1930’s, and 1940’s. Paducah, KY: Collector Books, 1987.
  • Thompson, Jane, and Alexandra Lange. Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2010.

In the Studio, 1945-2013

  • American Craft (1978– ); published by the American Craft Council; titled Craft Horizons from 1941-78.
  • American Period Furniture: Journal of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (2001–).
  • Antonsen, Lasse B., et al. Craft Transformed: Program in Artisanry. Brockton, Mass.: Fuller Museum of Art, 2003.
  • Cooke, Edward S., Jr. New American Furniture: The Second Generation of Studio Furniture Makers. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989.
  • Cooke, Edward S., Jr., Gerald W.R. Ward, and Kelly H. L’Ecuyer, with the assistance of Pat Warner. The Maker’s Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990. Boston: MFA Publications, 2003.
  • Koplos, Janet, and Bruce Metcalf. Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
  • Lauria, Jo, and Steve Fenton. Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007.

The Furniture Industry: Manufacturers and Retailers, 1945-2013

  • Buehlmann, Urs, and Al Schuler. “The U.S. Household Furniture Industry: Status and Opportunities.” Forest Products Journal 59, no. 9 (September 2009): 20-28.
  • Furniture World (1870–); first published in 1870, this industry periodical has undergone many transmutations and slight title changes; current issues are available in digital form; see http://www.furninfo.com.
  • Home Furnishings Business (January 2006—).