Tag Archives: Winterthur

EAIA, Historic Places, Museum

Dominy Clock and Furniture Shop

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As a preservation carpenter and traditional joiner I spend a lot of time trying to retrace the steps of early craftsmen. While the fruits of their labors survive in pockets — the buildings and pieces that survive; the places where they worked and plied their trades often did not. Thus we often have to look for tool marks, log books, letters and newspapers to piece together the life and work of individual craftsmen.

This summer my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the Winterthur Museum and Gardens in Delaware and visit the Dominy Clock and Furniture Shop exhibit which was an exceptional window in the life of an 18th and 19th century family of craftsmen.

Nice long joiner's bench. Chisel racks in the wall and nice big windows to provide light to work by..
Nice long joiner’s bench. Chisel racks in the wall and nice big windows to provide light to work by.

The Dominy’s were a family of craftsmen from Easthampton New York — out on the east end of Long Island, not terribly far from where I grew up in West Islip, NY. Over the course of four generations and active from ~1750-1850 this family produced fine clocks and furniture pieces that were sold locally and in regional markets. The surviving pieces are now prized by collectors.

Templates in the Dominy Furniture Workshop
Templates in the Dominy Furniture Workshop

Beyond the body of their work the shop is notable for how intact it is. The shop and it’s contents were cataloged and moved from Long Island in 1957 then reassembled and put on display at Winterthur starting in 1960.

Massive hold-fasts that would have made Roubo proud. Note that for the hold-fast on the bench, the arm is at an unusual angle.
Massive hold-fasts that would have made Roubo proud. Note that for the hold-fast on the bench, the arm is at an unusual angle.

The tools, benches, templates, partially completed pieces,  log books and parts of the original shop building survived together.

Traditional style bench full of tools, templates and parts ready to go.
Traditional style bench full of tools, templates and parts ready to go.

It looks as if that last Dominy walked off the job and and could be expected to come back and resume work at any moment.

Peering into the Dominy Furniture Workshop from Long Island, NY you can see the great wheel lathe and workbenches
Peering into the Dominy Furniture Workshop from Long Island, NY you can see the great wheel lathe and workbenches

From the great wheel lathe, to the benches and shave-horse they had a sizable and well laid out shop for the time period. The tools were a mixture of locally made and imported tools.

Lathe setup and ready to by used some more
Lathe setup and ready to by used some more

I was fascinated by the tool marks, storage racks and modifications similar to things I’ve done in my own work.

Shave-horse ready to go. Note the sliding deadman on the bench in the background
Shave-horse ready to go. Note the sliding deadman on the bench in the background

In addition there is also the diminutive Clock Shop which is packed full of metal working tools needed to craft intricate gears and other clock component.

Dominy Clock Workshop at Winterthur
Dominy Clock Workshop at Winterthur

Written to go with the exhibit was Charles Hummel’s seminal book ‘With Hammer in Hand’ (1968). The book can be hard to find and on the pricey side as it has long since been out of print, but is worth every cent. I finally obtained a copy this spring as part of the EAIA’s annual fundraiser auction. The book explores the family, the tools, and the work they did in a way that was enjoyable to read. It paints a vivid picture of what life was like for these skilled craftsmen.

If you’d like to plan your own visit to see the Dominy exhibit you can learn more about it here.

If you’d like to visit on a budget, you can view some online video tours of the gallery below as Roy, Norm and even Bob Vila have segments about the shop.

Roy Underhill Visits the Dominy Shop (towards the end of this clip)

Norm Abram visits the shop and builds a replica clock at the New Yankee Workshop

and Bob Vila explores the shop

Take care,
-Bill

Historic Places, Museum

How many tools are in your Tool Chest?

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Tool chests come in all shapes and sizes — from the hand built traditional joiner’s chest, to a mail order gentleman’s chest, to the plastic fantastic junk you find in big box stores today. Depending on what kind of work you do the number of tools you have in your chest may vary, but at some point I think all traditional craftsmen (and craftswomen) wonder how many tools they can actually fit inside their primary chest.

How many tools can you fit into your tool chest?  Don’t worry, if you want to cram in a few extra items before we start counting I’m willing to wait.

Alexander Forbes Tool Chest from the Mid-Late 19th century.
Alexander Forbes Tool Chest from the Mid-Late 19th century.

How many tools did you to fit in your chest? How about 500 tools?!  That’s right, the tool chest shown here once belonged to Alexander Forbes who was a cabinet maker and Pullman car builder from Cleveland Ohio contained over 500 traditional woodworking tools.

Close up of the Forbes Tool Chest from Ohio
Close up of the Forbes Tool Chest from Ohio

This tool chest is currently on display at the Winterthur Museum and Gardens in Delaware and is part of the 400 Years of Massachusetts Furniture display at the museum.

A sampling of the tools from inside the chest
A sampling of the tools from inside the chest

On the wall behind the chest you will see over 100 tools on display from this chest that dates to about 1880. The tools look like they are in exceptionally good shape and would be right at home on my own workbench. This set is representative of the kinds of tools a cabinetmaker would use to make many of the pieces on display in this exhibit.

Side view of Alexander Forbes Toolchest
Side view of Alexander Forbes Tool-chest

Don’t let the painted and time worn exterior finish fool you, the interior of the chest was well laid out and carefully constructed with mahogany tills proudly inlaid and showing off the woodworking skills of Alexander Forbes. He apparently also had incredible spacial relation skills to fit that many tools into that fairly average sized chest and to it in such a way that the tills etc do not get beat up in the process. Having said that I assume he likely only crammed all the tools in there for longer trips; I would think for efficiency purposes he’d likely partially unpack/deploy tools just to make enough room in the chest to access all the tools he’d need on a daily basis.

Tools for learning the trade of cabinetmaking -- any of which could be found on my own workbench
Tools for learning the trade of cabinetmaking — any of which could be found on my own workbench

The display also went to great lengths to explain how craftsmen learned their trade, how they used various woods and how many pieces were constructed.

Dressing Table parts in varying stages of completeness to demonstrate how it is build. Made by Steve Brown (NBSS CFM Instructor and former Dept. head)
Dressing Table parts in varying stages of completeness to demonstrate how it is build. Made by Steve Brown (NBSS CFM Instructor and former Dept. head)

Prominently on display was the partial dressing table shown above which was put together by Steve Brown who is an instructor in the Cabinet and Furniture Making program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. This carefully constructed sample piece concisely shows the progressive steps it took to make a piece like the period dressing table shown to the left of the tool-chest I’ve been admiring.

Sample of the many chair variations created by Massachusetts craftsmen
Sample of the many chair variations created by Massachusetts craftsmen

Moving beyond the intro, the display shows representative samples of ‘Boston’ style furniture in the collection and the wide variety of the objects created by Massachusetts Bay craftsmen during the last 400 years.

Beautiful side chair and high-boy
Beautiful side chair and high-boy

From simple utilitarian stools to high style chest pieces you get a feel for the design elements that representative of the work coming out of Boston and the surrounding area. You will need to visit the exhibit in person to fully experience the depth and variety of style I am talking about.

Floating staircase that was saved from destruction and installed at the museum
Floating staircase that was saved from destruction and installed at the museum

Beyond this exhibition which runs through October 6, 2013, there is a LOT more to see and explore at Winterthur. They offer several tours to parts of the house that are not part of the regular admission, including customized tours you can request, so I highly encourage you to schedule some tours of the other floors when you visit. In the fall I heard thy will also have an exhibit on the costumes of Downton Abbey which will be interesting to see along with all the great furniture, architectural elements (many rooms are furnished with the interior trim that was salvaged from historic homes around the country), and beautiful gardens.

If you’d like to learn more about Winterthur, please check out their website here. And if you’d like to learn more about  ‘400 Years of Massachusetts Furniture’ which is a series of events throughout the year at a consortium of museums and cultural institutions you can learn more about it here.  At the least you’ll learn how to efficiently pack tools in your tool chest….

-Bill