Over the past two years a portion of my professional life
has been devoted to researching a 19
th century rural Maine cabinet
and chair maker named Jonathan Fisher. This page will remain linked on the sidebar to serve as a resource for
updates and information throughout the course of this project.
Bluehill historian, Brad Emerson has said of the research, “The
furniture has been a relative unknown. Joshua’s project is really important. He
is taking a scholarly and craftsman’s approach to the study and separating fact
from fiction. One of the things that makes the Fisher furniture so important is
that everything survived. Fisher writes about making the furniture and who he
made it for, the tools he made it with survive. It’s really an extraordinary
thing. It’s going to tell us more than we ever knew about Fisher’s position as
a cabinetmaker in the community and as someone who made furniture for himself
and his neighbors. It’s going to be an important addition to the history of
early furniture making in New England and Maine. This is another part of the
story. It’s been waiting for someone like Joshua to come along and take it
apart and put it together.”
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| Fisher's landscape of Bluehill. Courtesy: Maine Memory Network |
THE STORY
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| Fisher's desk and bookcase |
Jonathan Fisher was born October 7
th, 1768 in New
Braintree, MA. He spent his youth in manual labor as well as drawing and
painting. As a child, he decided to pursue academic study and eventually
graduated from Harvard for ministerial training. Jonathan accepted a call to
minister in Bluehill, Maine in 1796. Throughout his life and ministry in
Bluehill, he sought to capitalize on the lack of skilled artisans in the frontier
community by making furniture, straw hats, and household items for sale while providing
decorative painting, well drilling, and bookbinding services, to name a few.
Though never formally trained in a cabinetmaking apprenticeship, Fisher’s manual
dexterity and aptitude were remarkably sophisticated for a rural artisan.
Fisher built numerous articles of furniture from 1798 through
the 1820s. He fabricated a variety of chairs, chests, stands, tables, and even
common domestic items for both personal use and on commission. Fisher’s surviving
furniture exemplifies the conservative vernacular taste so prevalent in preindustrial
New England. Additionally, among his countless ingenious devices, the windmill
which powered his sawmill, lathe, and grindstone is most remarkable.
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| Molding made by Fisher |
THE SURVIVING LEGACY
Most preindustrial cabinet and chair makers have had little
if any of their story survive. Some makers have furniture attributed to them but
no tools survive. Others may have tools but only one or two pieces of
furniture. Few have any meaningful documentary evidence (if they do it is
usually restricted to ledgers alone). Welcome to the dilemma of the furniture
historian.
In contrast to these, the most exciting element of the
Fisher story is the overwhelming body of surviving artifacts from his life and
work. The house Fisher built survives as
a museum to this day as well as much of his furniture (which is on display in the
museum) and his chest of woodworking tools. Astonishingly, beyond the abundance
of material evidence, all but two years of Fisher’s 35 year daily journals
survive in the archives of the museum. Quotidian entries abound such as,
“Spent
most of the day in sawing out legs for light stands” and,
“Turned four chair
posts for Mr. Ellis” and,
“Purchased of Mr. Clark 22 feet of pine board and
worked upon a chest.” This level of documentation combined with the
overwhelming number of surviving artifacts is unparalleled by any other
preindustrial cabinet or chair maker.
THE BOOK
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| Fisher's Workshop built in 1811 |
Because of his prominence in Maine history, numerous
scholars have discussed aspects of Jonathan Fisher and many museum exhibits
have highlighted him. Fisher was a multifaceted individual and although many of
these facets have been discussed, surprisingly, no one has concentrated on the
parson’s furniture making. I’m working to fill that gap.
My research compiled thus far has been well received and I am now under contract with
Lost Art Press to develop a book manuscript. The objective of the book is to tell the
story of Jonathan Fisher as a rural multifaceted preindustrial furniture maker.
Biographical information will lay the ground work for the heart of the book
which focuses on his workshops, tools, and extant furniture. Discussion of his
motivations, aesthetic preferences, and clientele will also be presented.
Finally, both the furniture and the tools will be displayed in catalog format
for a more detailed look at the objects.
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| Fisher's "mahogany" grain painting |
This important story provides fresh insight into furniture
making in rural New England before the Industrial Revolution. It is my hope we will
benefit from better understanding this aspect of our cultural heritage. If you
are interested in the development of the research feel free to follow along at
the blog here. Updates, sneak peaks, upcoming events, and publishing
information will all be made available here at The Workbench Diary. Thank you
for your interest.
If you would like to contact me regarding this research, you
can email me at:
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| Some of Fisher's molding planes |
FURTHER READING
See what Christopher Schwarz has been saying about it:
http://blog.lostartpress.com/2014/07/05/jonathan-fisher-begin-the-begin/
http://blog.lostartpress.com/2014/07/10/one-or-two-of-jonathan-fishers-workbenches/
http://blog.lostartpress.com/2014/07/08/jonathan-fishers-tool-chest-and-tools/
http://blog.lostartpress.com/2014/08/01/if-you-dont-have-a-tenon-saw/
And what Don Williams has said about it:
http://donsbarn.com/the-jonathan-fisher-house/
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