Sideboard
Georgetown, South Carolina, 1795-1810
Mahogany with holly, ebonized maple, satinwood, and yellow pine
Catalog no. 156
Knife Boxes
England, 1770-1800

Mahogany with boxwood, stained maple, and pine
This sideboard represents one of the most widely available variations of the form in both Britain and the United States. Made in South Carolina, it is ascribed to Georgetown, a small seaport about sixty miles north of Charleston. In spite of its southern origin, the piece closely resembles contemporary New York sideboards, particularly in the design and arrangement of the inlaid panels and stringing. The migration of New York furniture and cabinetmakers to the Low Country is well documented. So lucrative was the market that in 1797, South Carolina cabinetmaker Charles Watts advertised in a New York newspaper for “8 to 15 Journeymen Cabinet and Chair-Makers, to go to Charleston, while in 1818, another enterprising Charleston tradesman opened a shop called ”The New-York Cabinet Furniture Warehouse.“

The English knife boxes have a history in the Low Country. Such small wooden wares were imported from British specialists in large numbers.

Card Table
Charleston, South Carolina, 1805-1815
Mahogany with satinwood, maple, white pine,
and ash
Catalog no. 77

The cosmopolitan nature of early national Charleston is reflected in the design sources that shaped this straightforward but visually arresting card table. For instance, the form of the turned leg can be traced to cabinetmaking traditions from Boston and Salem, Massachusetts. On the other hand, the D-shaped top indicates Charleston's long-standing affinity for British cabinetmaking traditions.

Armchair
Probably Coastal North Carolina, 1720-1770
Maple
Catalog no. 7

By 1700, urban New England chair makers had achieved substantial levels of production. For example, between 1734 and 1746, John Underwood of Boston made 6,180 turned chairs. Records reveal that some of these wares were exported to other regions, including the coastal South.

The only banister-back chair presently attributed to the Carolina Low Country, this example clearly reflects a southeastern North Carolina artisan's efforts to emulate imported New England goods. The chair is reminiscent of contemporary banister-back chairs from the Piscataqua region of coastal New Hampshire and Maine and similar forms made in southern Connecticut. Yet several features confirm its southern origin. Four distinctly turned feet, in-curved arms, and the ornately turned rear stretcher represent common southern approaches.

This chair suggests the manner in which regional styles were absorbed and remolded by artisans working in different cultural contexts. Considered in this light, the chair should not be regarded as a degenerated interpretation of New England tradition; instead, it must be viewed as a North Carolina chair with a strong New England accent.

Northern Influences in the Low Country

Northern craft traditions began to arrive in the Carolina Low Country late in the seventeenth century with the importation of Boston turned chairs and other forms. Trade dropped off during the mid-eighteenth century. Northern influences virtually disappeared from Low Country furniture, only to reappear in the early national period with the expansion of the coastal trade and the arrival of quantities of northern export-grade furniture in the neoclassical taste.