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Plain-Style Furniture
Written By: Jane Gibson Nardy - Cashiers Historical Society | Issue: 2018/06 - June
The Cashiers Historical Society in 2008 offered a program entitled “19th Century Plain-Style Furniture Symposium,” with many experts on the subject giving lectures. One of these lecturers was Don Williams, Senior Furniture Conservator for the Smithsonian.
Late in the afternoon of the second day of the symposium, I led Mr. Williams on a tour through the Zachary-Tolbert House, which is filled with plain-style furniture crafted by Mordecai Zachary when he built his boarding house in the 1840s. Mr. Williams and I stepped into the first room where I began my usual tour talk, but I quickly saw I had lost the attention of my guest as he was lying on the floor on his back, under a piece of furniture, and with a flashlight was examining the underside of a table. This is the way the tour continued, room by room.
As Mr. Williams wrote the Cashiers Historical Society a letter after returning to his home, you can hear his own words describing what he thought about Mordecai’s furniture collection. I’ll quote some segments of that letter:
“I can sum up our Saturday afternoon tour through the house in two words: Holy Cow! It was witness and testimony to the work of “wakened hands,” as I saw the tool marks of supremely confident workmen everywhere I turned. Rarely have I ever seen such a body of work that revealed the skill and character of craftsmen to whom exquisite workmanship was as natural as breathing. Their work was not “primitive” or even “plain;” it was simply elegant in its restraint. Thank you for sharing it with me and for letting me share my impressions with your colleagues. You and they have much to be proud of.
“I have a personal mission to help what I call ‘passion museums.’ In other words, museums whose members’ passion is what sustains and makes them charge forward. This describes y’all to a ‘T.’ Your group is so enthusiastic and did absolutely everything possible to make me feel welcome.”
So, dear readers, if you have never seen this one of a kind furniture collection, come by the Zachary-Tolbert House Museum this summer and you may also say, “Holy Cow.” Mr. Williams has at least twice returned to Cashiers, bringing others with him to see Mordecai Zachary’s furniture.
Please phone (828) 743-7710 for information on what days the museum is open.
