Lowell Lecture
Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts Furniture: Form, Function, and Fabrication
Date & Time
Sept. 17, 2014
Location
Old South Meeting House
310 Washington Street Boston, MA 02108
Driving Directions
Speaker(s)
Gerald W. R. Ward, Senior Consulting Curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Presenting Organization
Paul Revere Memorial Association
Topics
Lecture #3, 2014 Paul Revere Memorial Association Lecture Series Lecture Title: Restrained Elegance: Boston Furniture in the Rococo Style Bostonians in the mid-eighteenth century only cautiously embraced the lively international "modern" style that collectors have come to call "Chippendale" and art historians the "rococo." Nevertheless, some Boston cabinetmakers and carvers, such as George Bright, John Cogswell, and John Welch, created masterworks in this ornamental, curvilinear mode that owes its name to the Englishman Thomas Chippendale and his influential book of designs. Using objects from important public and private collections, Gerald W. R. Ward, Senior Consulting Curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will examine Boston rococo furniture in the context of its heyday in Boston in the 1760s and 1770s.