Introduction
Luke Beckerdite

This volume of American Furniture is dedicated to the memory of John Bivins, a dear friend and brilliant scholar who passed away in August of this year. John was one of the first decorative arts historians to recognize the need for a journal devoted solely to American furniture. He participated in seminars that inspired the Chipstone Foundation to begin publishing American Furniture and served on the editorial advisory board from 1993 to 2001.1

It would be virtually impossible to overstate John’s impact on the American decorative arts field. A graduate of Guilford College, he joined the staff of the North Carolina Department of Archives and History in 1966 and subsequently became Curator of Furnishings for the Historic Sites Division. Shortly after publishing his first book, The Longrifles of North Carolina (1968), he took the position of Curator of Crafts at Old Salem, the restored Moravian Village in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. During his eight-year tenure with that organization, John also served as Curator of Collections and Director of Restoration and published The Moravian Potters in North Carolina (1975), which set a new standard for books on American ceramics.2

In 1975, John left Old Salem to pursue a career as a gunmaker—a trade he had practiced for more than a decade. Renowned for applying European fine arts standards to the production of historic American forms, he influenced the work of leading contemporary arms makers such as Monte Mandarino, Mark Silver, and Mike Ehinger, all of whom were journeymen in John’s shop. Today the term “Bivinsesque” is often used to describe firearms of this genre. John’s immense influence on the contemporary arms field is also the result of his lectures and workshops presented at the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association Gunsmithing Seminars and numerous publications on gunmaking and arms conservation in Rifle Magazine, Muzzleblasts, and the Journal of Historic Arms Making Technology.3

John’s greatest contributions to the history of American furniture began in 1979, when he became Director of Publications at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. During his tenure, MESDA’s Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts attained national prominence and on three occasions articles in that publication received the Robert C. Smith Award. Believing that focused regional studies were more important than collection catalogues, John conceived and initiated MESDA’s Frank L. Horton Series of Monographs. Not surprisingly, the first installment was John’s Furniture of Coastal North Carolina, 1700–1820 (1988), which received the Charles Montgomery Award and is considered by many to be the finest regional furniture study ever published.4

In 1990, John left MESDA to pursue a career as a professional carver and independent scholar. He conserved and replicated architectural carving for George Mason’s house Gunston Hall, and for the Miles Brewton House and St. Michael’s Church in Charleston; produced a series of videos on connoisseurship; and continued to publish books and articles on American furniture. Most recently, John completed the manuscript for The Furniture of Charleston, 1680–1820, which will be released in 2002 as part of the Horton Series.5

John’s legacy encompasses much more than words can express. He was a generous and inspirational colleague, a gifted teacher, and a kind and loyal friend. Many of our lives and careers have been enriched, if not shaped, by the time we spent with John, and I know his sense of humor, his delight in discovery, and the memory of his kind face will never fade.