American Furniture 2020

This volume of American Furniture covers a diverse range of subjects. Articles by Luke Beckerdite and Jay Stiefel focus on eighteenth-century Philadelphia woodworkers, including joiner John Head and carvers Brian Wilkinson and Samuel Harding, while Erik Gronning and Amy Coes’ essay sheds light on a previously unknown and early group of furniture attributed to Newport cabinetmaker Christopher Townsend. Misconceptions and mistakes in wood identification, which is critically important to understanding early American furniture, is the subject of an article by Dr. Harry Alden, who is arguably the leading authority on wood identification in the United States. Nancy Goyne Evans’ essay rounds out the 2020 volume by examining the interaction of woodworkers with the business community that facilitated those trades.

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.