Description:
This lowboy, which could have used as a dressing table or server, was made by Dr. Edwin Cyrus Thorn (1874-1920). Dr. Thorn, one of two doctors in Deerfield, and his wife, Luanna A. (Franklin) Thorn (1874-1965), lived on lot 26, which Luanna bought in 1905 and is now known as the Wells-Thorn House. Both Edwin and Luanna Thorn were very involved with the Deerfield Arts and Crafts Revival movement, which was first formalized as the 'Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts' in 1899 and then changed to 'Deerfield Industries' in 1907. Spending his spare time as a woodworking hobbyist, Thorn collaborated with other men, including his brother-in-law, Charles Franklin and his neighbor, Caleb Allen (brother of the Deerfield photographers Mary and Frances Allen) to design and build colonial revival furniture. Each summer between 1904 and 1907 he displayed a “lowboy” in the annual exhibition of crafts organized by members of the Deerfield Village Industries. Rather than replicating an eighteenth-century dressing table, Thorn derived this serving table’s outsize proportions from the base of a high chest, and crafted the case and legs from cherry. It is almost identical in proportion to 91.049, which is made of ebonized oak and features fluted columns on each side and carved shell, whereas this example is less ornate. It appears to retain its original surface. It descended to his daughter, Emily, and was bought from her estate. Thorn's furniture was first exhibited at the third Deerfield Arts & Crafts exhibition, which was open from July 29 to August 3, 1901. On August 17th of that year, he was among seven directors elected to the Deerfield Arts & Crafts Society. Thorn is known to have made furniture in Deerfield from 1901 to 1907. In 1903, he was elected director of furniture of the Deerfield Arts & Crafts Society. See also 79.053 and 80.080.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2019.46 |
