51st Annual Delaware Show

Collectors of early furniture made in the Delaware River Valley recognize the pale, straw-color cedar boards used as drawer bottoms in case pieces made from the late 17th century onward. Gabriel Thomas’s 1698 account of West New Jersey enumerates cedars among the species exported to Philadelphia: “Timber-River, alias Glocester River, which hath its name (also) from the great quantity of curious Timber, which they send in great float to Philadelphia, . . . as Oaks, Pines, Chestnut, Ash, and Cedars.” Cedar transported to Philadelphia was then re- exported westward to Chester County and appears in the 1737 inventory of cabinetmaker Joseph Hibberd, which lists “some split ceder for drayor bottomes,” contradicting the belief that only Philadelphia cabinetmakers used cedar for such purposes. 2 Inland waterways as well as social and religious networks help account for the movements of two early Quaker craftsmen—William Beake(s) III and Seth Pancoast, a joiner and cabinetmaker—who sought economic prosperity on both sides of the Delaware River. Thomas Kitchin, A MAP OF/ MARYLAND/ with the/ DELAWARE/ COUNTIES/ and the Southern Part of/ NEW JERSEY/ &c, 1757. Winterthur Museum purchase 1982.309 — 27 —