Rather Elegant Than Showy: The Classical Furniture of Isaac Vose

A meticulous, lavishly illustrated, contribution to the history of American furniture: the late 18th and early 19th century work of Boston craftsman, Isaac Vose.

Isaac Vose (1767-1823) was well known in his day among style-conscious Bostonians, his name synonymous with furniture of the highest quality and advanced design. His shop, the first on Boston Neck, was in a prominent location and served as a familiar landmark in his South End neighborhood. Throughout the 1820s, 1830s, and as late as 1843, some nineteen years after Vose’s death, auction advertisements explicitly cited his name as the maker of select furniture, with the association connoting quality and calculated to increase its sale price.

Included in this book is a 70-page guide to evaluating furniture by Vose, his partners, employees and contemporaries based on construction and connoisseurship. Additionally, the authors bring to life the tradespeople and their customers in Boston in that era, creating a cultural history as well.

This book gathers in one volume all the known works of Vose as well as those attributed to him, and it is gorgeously illustrated throughout. Isaac Vose’s work should gain recognition for its outstanding contributions to an American vision of classical style.

This book gathers in one volume the known works of Vose as well as those attributed to him, and it is gorgeously illustrated throughout. The authors hope that Isaac Vose’s work will gain recognition for its outstanding contributions to an American vision of classicism, albeit in Boston’s more conservative, less dashy style.