2018 Charleston Antiques Show

32  /  2018 the interior of the Russell House. These early efforts were the foundation of today’s museum collection. Though the objects on display are not original to the house, they are all of the highest museum quality and represent the standard of craftsmanship Russell undoubtedly enjoyed during his lifetime. The collection does include one object original to the house — a single bowback windsor chair. This ubiquitous chair form has been reproduced for the entry hall complete with the original oxblood paint finish discovered during forensic paint investigations. Although wealthy planters and merchants such as Russell were known for importing great quantities of goods from abroad, they also furnished their residences with furniture and silver made in Charleston. Due largely to the patronage of some of the wealthiest men in British North America, Charleston’s craftsmen flourished from the 1750s until the 1820s, creating some of the finest decorative art on the Atlantic coast. Following the end of the Civil War, the Lowcountry’s planter elite, financially ruined, sold huge quantities of their belongings at auctions in the north. The focus of the Foundation’s recent The exhibit gallery allows Historic Charleston Foundation staff to display fine and decorative art which may fall outside of the period of interpretation in the main house. Credit: Rick Mckee. facing page Typical of furniture made by cabinetmakers of Charleston’s Scottish school, the cabinet on stand is crowned by an elegant sweeping pediment with four corner finials, as well as a prominent central finial standing on a plinth. This original finial crowns the exquisite tympanum’s dark-ground floral inlay with delicate shaded leaves, blooms, and ribbon. Credit: Russell Buskirk.