Description:
Secretary with the label of the Greenfield, Massachusetts, cabinetmakers, Isaac Miles (1808-1869) and Joel Livingston Lyons (1814-1893), who sold it to Zenas Clapp of Montague, Mass. The family of David Lyons (1737-1803) moved from Roxbury, Mass, to Colrain in 1784, where there is still an area referred to as Lyonsville. David Lyons worked as a cabinetmaker and tavernkeeper, and his son, Jesse (1767-1830), followed his father's trades as did Jesse's son, Lucius (1804-1859). Joel Lyons' parents were David Lyons' youngest son, physician Dr. Joel Lyons (1783-1857), and his wife Eliza Webb Mason of Gill, Massachusetts; Joel apprenticed in Colrain with his cousin, Lucius shortly after Lucius took over his father's business in 1830. Around 1836, Joel left Colrain to work as a journeyman cabinetmaker in Newark, New Jersey, but returned to Greenfield, Mass, by 1837. There, he formed the partnership of "Lyons & Whitney" that dissolved in 1838 when he then formed a partnership with Isaac Miles, "Miles & Lyons," that lasted until 1869 and was the country's most respected cabinetmaker by the time that Miles died. Like most cabinetmakers of the period, they operated a large mechanized shop and retailed their own furniture, as well as those of other makers, in a sales room. Situated near Greenfield's main intersection, they advertised "Sofas, Chairs. Looking Glasses, Matresses, Patent Spring Beds" along with case furniture. They also served as undertakers, a traditional occupation of cabinetmakers, providing "Coffins, Plates, Shrouds, Caps, &c." The secretary has two sections: the lower one composed of three drawers in a case supported by turned urn-shaped feet; and the upper one is composed of a beveled cornice above a pair of glazed doors with broad Gothic arches, above a pair of exterior drawers (left hand lower glass has two cracks, there since acquisition). This secretary with its expert use of veneers is an outstanding documented example of the cabinetwork available in Franklin County in the mid-nineteenth century.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Glass; Mahogany; Silk Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+88.092 |
