1. Peter Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1958), p. 3.
2. For more on Buckland, see Rosamond Randall Beirne and John Henry Scarff, William Buckland, 1734–1774: Architect of Virginia and Maryland (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1958); William Voss Elder, III, “The Adams-Kilty House in Annapolis,” Maryland Historical Magazine 60 (September 1965): 314–24; Elizabeth Brand Monroe, “William Buckland in the Northern Neck,” M.A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1975; Barbara A. Brand, “The Work of William Buckland in Maryland, 1771–1774,” M.A. thesis, George Washington University, 1978; and Luke Beckerdite, “William Buckland and William Bernard Sears: The Designer and the Carver,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 8, no. 2 (November 1982): 6–41; “William Buckland Reconsidered: Architectural Carving in Chesapeake Maryland, 1771–1774,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 8, no. 2 (November 1982): 42–88; and “William Buckland Reconsidered: Architectural Carving in Virginia and Maryland, 1755–1775,” M.A. thesis, Wake Forest University, 1985. Beckerdite refutes several attributions made by other authors.

3. Beirne and Scarff, William Buckland, p. 1. Joiner’s Company Register of Apprentice Bindings, 6:47v, Guildhall Library, London. For more on the Palladians and furniture design, see Michael I. Wilson, William Kent, Architect, Designer, Painter, Gardner, 1685–1748 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984); and Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs, pp. 7, 8.

4. For more on early rococo designs, see Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs, pp. 13, 14, 38–40; Morrison H. Heckscher, “Lock and Copland: A Catalogue of the Engraved Ornament,” Furniture History 15 (1979): 1–23, and pls. 1–67B; and Elizabeth White, comp., Pictorial History of British 18th Century Furniture Design: The Printed Sources (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collector’s Club, 1990), pp. 38, 39. For more on Chippendale, see Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale (New York: MacMillian Co., 1979).

5. Indenture between William Buckland and Thomson Mason, August 4, 1755, George Mason Papers, Gunston Hall Plantation, Mason Neck, Virginia. Alexandria Gazette and Daily Advertiser, September 4, 1817. As quoted in Beirne and Scarff, William Buckland, pp. 25, 26.

6. Paine’s “Plan, Elevation, &. Section of a Gothic Temple” is reproduced in White, Pictorial History, p. 136.

7. Frederick D. Nichols, “The Importance of William Buckland,” Buckland: Master Builder of the 18th Century (Mason Neck, Va.: Regents of Gunston Hall, 1977), pp. 8–9. Batty Langley’s The City and Country Builder’s and Workman’s Treasury of Designs (London, 1740), pl. 75. The author thanks John Bivins for the Langley references. Buckland’s inventory listed “Gibbs Designs” (James Gibbs, Book of Architecture [1728]), “The London Art” (William Salmon, Palladio Londonensis, or the London Art of Building [1734, enlarged ed. 1738]), “Hopuss’ Measurer” (Edward Hoppus, The Practical Measurer [1736]), Langley’s “Gothic Architecture” and “Essay on ditto” (Batty Langley, Gothic Architecture [1747], and probably The City and Country Builder’s and Workman’s Treasury of Designs [1740]), Swan’s “British Treasury,” “Architect,” and “Carpenter’s Instruction” (Abraham Swan, The British Architect; or The Builder’s Treasury of Staircases [1745], A Collection of Designs in Architecture [1745], and Designs in Carpentry [1759]), “Ware’s Designs” (Isaac Ware, A Complete Body of Architecture [1756], “Chippendale’s Designs” (Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director [1754, 1755]), “Johnsons Carver’s Designs” (Thomas Johnson, One Hundred & Fifty New Designs [1761]), “Lightholder’s Designs” (Thomas Lightoler, The Gentleman & Farmers’ Architect [1764], or William Halfpenny, Thomas Lightoler, and Robert Morris, The Modern Builder’s Assistant [1742]), and an unidentified volume by Robert Morris (“An Inventory of the Goods and Chattels of William Buckland, 1777,” Anne Arundel County Inventories, 125:337).

8. William Halfpenny’s New Design’s for Chinese Temple’s, Triumphal Arches, Garden Seats, Palings &c. (1750). “An Inventory of the Goods and Chattels of William Buckland.”

9. The earliest description of Brent’s account is in Berine and Scarff, William Buckland, p. 37. Beirne and Scarff’s footnote for the suit (“Richmond County Order Book 15, July 1763–1764, f. 293”) is an incorrect citation for the original order book entry of July 6, 1763 (Richmond County Court Order Book 15, pp. 143–44, Richmond County Court House, Warsaw, Virginia). Moreover, the authors’ footnote is for a brief order book entry rather than for the detailed account that they describe in William Buckland. Accounts and other forms of evidence exhibited in court are separate from the order books and are stored unbound under the heading “court papers.” I have been unable to locate the detailed account described in William Buckland, but a handwritten transcript is in the Beirne and Scarff personal notes (William Buckland Manuscripts, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore) and appears to have been traced from the original account. Brent’s account of time against Buckland (£50.6.81/2) and other enumerated expenses totaled £58.2.81/2. The grand total after subtracting debits (£36.9.8) and adding interest (£1.4.5) was £15.17.5, which the Richmond County Court awarded him on March 5, 1765 (Richmond County Court Order Book 15, p. 387). Further indications of the accuracy of Beirne and Scarff’s copy is a debit entry in Brent’s account, “To Cash pd. Charles Hammond 59/6—£2.19.6” (Buckland Manuscripts). On October 3, 1763, James Hunter & Co. sued Buckland for £3.1.11 (Richmond County Court Order Book 15, p. 183). As evidence Hunter & Co. presented Charles Hammond’s account, which had a June 10, 1762, entry, “To Cred. James Brent—£2.19.6 (Richmond County Court Papers, 1763). The quote regarding Sear’s passage to Virginia is in Susan A. Plaskett, Memories of a Plain Family, 1836–1936 (Washington: Franklin Press, 1936), p. 16. This oral history reportedly passed from Charles Lee Sears to Plaskett’s mother. Alexandria Herald, May 4, 1818.

10. The chair is marked IV on the front seat rail and is probably from a set of six or more. Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754; reprinted, London: J. Haberkorn, 1755), pl. 25. The first and second editions (1754, 1755) generally contain the same plates. The 1762 edition varies considerably.

11. Chippendale, Director (1755), pls. 21–25.

12. Although aspects of the joinery are crude (e.g., heavily undercut stretcher tenons), in many respects the chair is overbuilt. The seat rail tenons are unusually large, and they are secured with enormous pegs.

13. The author thanks John Bivins and Susan Bourchardt for information on the canopies. Mr. Bivins made copies of the now-missing canopies, substituting pagoda-shaped hoods for those shown in the photograph. For more on the display of ornamental ceramics, see Anna Somers Cocks, “The Nonfunctional Use of Ceramics in the English Country House During the Eighteenth Century,” in Gervase Jackson-Stops, Gordon J. Schochet, Lena Cowen Orlin, and Elisabeth Blair MacDougall, eds., The Fashioning and Functioning of the British Country House (Washington: Distributed by the University Press of New England for the National Gallery of Art, 1989), pp. 105–215.

14. Buckland Indenture. Pohick Church, Minutes of the Vestry: Truro Parish Virginia, 1732–1785 (Annandale, Va.: Baptie Studios, 1974), p. 82. Estate Papers of John Ferguson, Fairfax County Will Book B-1, 1752–1767, p. 357.

15. Accompanying Buckland were his wife, Mary Moore, and their daughter Mary. The date of their marriage is unknown, but their daughter was born on September 3, 1758 (Nichols, Buckland: Master Builder, p. 9). Buckland sporadically purchased provisions from Tayloe through August 23, 1768 (Account Book-Letterbook of Stephen Loyde [1708–1711], Account Book-Letterbook of John Tayloe [1687–1747], Account Book-Letterbook of John Tayloe [1721–1799, 1717–1778], Virginia Historical Society, Richmond). For more on Mt. Airy, see Thomas T. Waterman, The Mansions of Virginia, 1706–1776 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1945), pp. 253–61. The author thanks Marc Winger for information on the original interior plan of Mt. Airy. Only one entry for Buckland in Tayloe’s account book dates after November 1764 (Account Book-Letterbooks of Lloyd, Tayloe, and Tayloe). John Tayloe provided security for Buckland in two lawsuits, one in 1763 (John Tarpley vs. William Buckland, July 6, 1763, Richmond County Court Order Book 15, p. 143) and another in 1764 (Hugh Walker vs. William Buckland, September 4, 1764, Richmond County Court Order Book 15, p. 312).

16. The author thanks Morrison Heckscher for calling the pier table to his attention.

17. The sideboard table is illustrated in all three editions of Chippendale’s Director. Buckland also used an intersecting circular fret on the door entablatures in the “dining room” of the Chase-Lloyd house in Annapolis.

18. Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 3d ed. (1762; reprinted, New York: Dover, 1966), p. 8. Although the leg blocks are secured with eighteenth-century wrought finish nails, microscopy by Colonial Williamsburg furniture conservator Cary Howlett indicates that the blocks and table have slightly different finish histories. John Bivins conserved the sideboard table in 1983.

19. Antiques 43, no. 3 (March 1943): 142.

20. Chippendale, Director (1755), pl. 17.

21. Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, 2 vols. (Framingham, Ma.: Old American Co., 1928), 1: pl. 774. The author thanks Charles Phillips for this reference.

22. John Orr vs. William Bernard Sears, April 8, 1765, Loudoun County Court Order Book B, 1762–1765, p. 8. William Beard vs. William Bernard Sears, September 11, 1766, Loudoun County Court Order Book C, 1765–1767, p. 195. Summons for William Bernard Sears, Thomas Sorrell, and John Lewis, August 8, 1768, Loudoun County Court Order Book D, 1767–1770, p. 93. Randall Indenture, April 2, 1765, Richmond County Deed Book 12, p. 611. Richmond County indentures frequently were recorded in deed books and proven later in court. Randall’s indenture was proven on May 6, 1765 (Richmond County Court Order Book 15, p. 404). Beirne and Scarff stated that Buckland took Randall as an apprentice in 1763 (Beirne and Scarff, Buckland, p. 44); however, I was unable to locate corroborating evidence. Memorandum Book of Robert Wormley Carter, February 6, 1766, folder 19, Carter Family Papers, Manuscript Department, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg. John Tayloe to Landon Carter, January 3, 1768, folder 2, Carter Family Papers. William Buckland to Robert Carter, March 25, 1771, Carter Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. The earliest reference to Buckland working in Maryland is November 1771 (“Account between Edward Lloyd and James McCubbin,” November 1771, William Cooke Papers, Maryland Historical Society). Edward Lloyd purchased Samuel Chase’s unfinished house in July 1771 (James Bordley, Jr., “New Light on William Buckland,” Maryland Historical Magazine 46 [June 1951]: 153–54). The tradesmen who accompanied Buckland to Annapolis were joiners John Ariss Callis, John Randall, and Samuel Bailey, and probably the carver Thomas Hall. Callis described himself as a resident of Annapolis in a letter of attorney to Richmond County lawyer, Benjamin Branham (John Ariss Callis to Benjamin Branham, recorded November 7, 1772, Richmond County Court Order Book 17, p. 527). Both Randall and Bailey are listed in Buckland’s inventory (Anne Arundel County Inventories, 125:337). A carver named Thomas Hall ran away from Buckland in December 1773 (Maryland Gazette, December 16, 1773). Hall probably was the London carver mentioned in Buckland’s letter to Robert Carter (William Buckland to Robert Carter, March 25, 1771).

23. William Buckland to Benjam Branham, recorded November 7, 1772, Richmond County Deed Book 13, pp. 457–59. Maryland Gazette, December 15, 1774. Several items listed in Buckland’s estate inventory reveal that his Annapolis shop made furniture:

Anne Arundel County Inventories, 125:337. No furniture from Buckland’s Annapolis shop is known.