Description:
Three drawer table with an overhanging square top and tapered legs. The top rails at the front and back of the table extend beyond the case sides to provide additional support for the table top. The table bears several inscriptions. The left side of the top right drawer is inscribed in red pencil "April the 12 1818," and again in white chalk "April the 12 1818." The inside back of the top left drawer is inscribed in white chalk, "April the." The drawers feature several characteristics typically associated with cabinetmaker Abner Allen of the Enfield, CT, Shaker community. The drawer sides taper subtly from bottom to top, the tops of the drawer sides are flat, and the top exterior edges of the drawer backs are chamfered.
Label Text:
Building a Collection, September 27, 2025-February 23, 2025: In the 1780s, The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, better known as the Shakers, gathered a small community of followers in the Connecticut River Valley town of Enfield, CT, some 45 miles south of Deerfield. Considered suspicious because of their celibate lifestyle and religious beliefs, the Enfield Shakers experienced mob violence during their early years in Connecticut. However, tensions decreased in the years following the community’s formal establishment at Enfield in 1792. The Shakers and surrounding “secular” community proved capable of coexisting, oftentimes engaging in business with one another.
Known best for selling packaged seeds (a Shaker innovation), the Enfield community also produced furniture for their own use. While exhibiting unique characteristics, Enfield furniture—such as the table displayed here—also drew inspiration from furniture crafted outside the community. The three-drawer table possesses tapered drawer sides, a feature characteristic of furniture made by Abner Allen of the Enfield Shakers, and found on some western Massachusetts furniture. As one of the first examples of Connecticut River Valley Shaker furniture acquired by the museum, it will not only help to diversify Historic Deerfield’s current holdings of 19th-century Valley furniture, but also enable the museum to broaden the stories it tells, particularly those involving members of America’s marginal religious communities.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2024.15.3 |
