AFA Autumn 2018

Autumn 102 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com The Furniture of Nathan Lumbard and His Circle On October 13, 2013, more than two hundred people gathered at Old Sturbridge Village for a conference that explored the career of the Federal-era cabinetmaker Nathan Lumbard (1777–1847). A single craftsman had rarely received such intense focus, but Lumbard stood out as an especially creative artisan, who fashioned furniture celebrated for dramatic displays of inlaid urns and eagles, f lowers and vines. 1 The subject was a most appropriate one for the host institution, because Lumbard had made his best documented furniture in the town of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, before moving to Sutton, twenty miles to the east, in 1803. The only missing element to the session was a permanent record of the conference. The lectures offered a format for a book: essays on the man, his furniture, and his contribution to New England furniture making. Yet, a volume on Lumbard also deserved to include entries on individual forms. This task demanded further research and a source of support to underwrite the cost of the publication. Thanks to the generosity of the Richard C. Von Hess Foundation and the Ebert Charitable Foundation, the project moved forward and in 2018 culminated in Crafting Excellence: The Furniture of Nathan Lumbard and His Circle . As we researched for the book, several key points became clear. Lumbard’s story was not that of a solitary craftsman working in isolation. He was part of a richer, more complex narrative that involved a larger cast of characters. Oliver Wight (1765–1837) loomed large. The Sturbridge cabinetmaker emerged as Lumbard’s likely master, the person from whom the young boy learned his trade and gained an understanding of neoclassicism. No two individuals could be more different. Judging by Wight’s portrait, house, and handful of extant accounts, the prudent Lumbard served an ambitious, over-extended entrepreneur with a penchant for pretension. Wight had to leave Sturbridge not once but at least three times for bankruptcy. Despite his misfortunes, he still managed to continue his trade intermittently in Sturbridge and take on several apprentices between 1791 and 1805. One of those boys may well have been Ebenezer Howard (1781–1854). He, too, became a key figure in our tale, for two chests ascribed to Lumbard bear Howard’s name in pencil. Both date to about 1800, when Howard was nineteen and probably an apprentice or journeyman for Lumbard or Wight. Together, Wight, Lumbard, and Howard form a triad of tradesmen whose careers overlapped for a short time around 1800. The most accomplished of the group was probably Lumbard, followed by Howard, but the inspiration for their designs likely came from Wight. by Brock Jobe, Christie Jackson, and Clark Pearce