Description:
Dressing table in pine made by Anthony Van Doorn of Brattleboro, Vermont. The table has a plain rectangular top with splashboard (it could have also been used as a washstand) over a one long drawer with two wooden knobs (possibly replaced), with four turned legs. There is a paper label glued to the bottom board that reads: "Cabinet Making/by/A. VAN DOORN/BRATTLEBORO VT./All kinds of Furniture, Chairs, Looking-Glasses, Feathers, Coffins, and Grave-Stones, on the best terms." Van Doorn was born in Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1792 and moved to West Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1815, where he established himself as a cabinetmaker. His success as a cabinetmaker was due to his "extraordinary energy and thrift [and] he was soon ranked among the first manufacturers of the kind in the state," but also due to the fact that he was able to harness water and steam power for the production of furniture. An advertisement from 1838 notes that in addition to cabinetmaking, he was giving "instruction in all the branches of the Art of Painting Imitation Wood." He was also listed under "Gravestones." Because cabinetmakers constructed coffins, they also worked traditionally as undertakers; Van Doorn apparently carried the trade a step further by retailing gravestones. Although he had partners over time, he worked alone from 1836-1847, when his sons took over the business, which in the 1850 Industrial Census had a capital investment of $5,500, 18 employees, and an annual output of chairs, bureaus, sofas, tables, mirrors, picture frames, and bedsteads appraised at $12,000. The business lasted until 1851, and Van Doorn died in 1871.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+78.047 |
