Thomas Day

Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color

Patricia Phillips Marshall, Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780807833414
• eBook ISBN:
  9780807895719
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Interior Design

Thomas Day (1801–61), a free man of color from Milton, North Carolina, became the most successful cabinetmaker in North Carolina — white or black — during a time when most blacks were enslaved and free blacks were restricted in their movements and activities. His surviving furniture and architectural woodwork still represent the best of nineteenth-century craftsmanship and aesthetics.

In this lavishly illustrated book, Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll show how Day plotted a carefully charted course for success in antebellum southern society. Beginning in the 1820s, he produced fine furniture for leading white citizens and in the 1840s and '50s diversified his offerings to produce newel posts, stair brackets, and distinctive mantels for many of the same clients. As demand for his services increased, the technological improvements Day incorporated into his shop contributed to the complexity of his designs.

Day’s style, characterized by undulating shapes, fluid lines, and spiraling forms, melded his own unique motifs with popular design forms, resulting in a distinctive interpretation readily identified to his shop. The photographs in the book document furniture in public and private collections and architectural woodwork from private homes not previously associated with Day. The book provides information on more than 160 pieces of furniture and architectural woodwork that Day produced for 80 structures between 1835 and 1861.

Through in-depth analysis and generous illustrations, including over 240 photographs (20 in full color) and architectural photography by Tim Buchman, Marshall and Leimenstoll provide a comprehensive perspective on and a new understanding of the powerful sense of aesthetics and design that mark Day’s legacy.

Index

Page numbers in italic refer to photographs, illustrations, and captions.

• Abolitionism, 22–23, 50
• Acorn motif, 111, 186–87
• Acroteria. See Thumb motif
• Ader, Paul, 202 (n. 6)
• Advertisements for furniture, 62–63, 64, 67, 118, 227 (n. 24)
• African American craft tradition, 75, 231 (n. 6)
• African Americans. See Free people of color; Slaves
• African art, 7, 231 (nn. 1, 6)
• Agriculture: in Caswell County generally, 12, 13
  • and panic of 1857, 66
  • tobacco farms, 2, 10, 12, 13, 34–35, 61, 66, 91, 192, 218 (n. 124), 243 (n. 133)
• Allen, John, 45, 230 (n. 53)
• Allen, Simone, 202 (n. 7)
• Allison, James, 35
• Alston family, 101, 101
• Angle, Montrose S., 182, 239 (n. 87)
• Architectural woodwork: combined designs for, 139, 247 (n. 22), 247–48 (n. 24)
  • competitors and collaborators of Day for, 135–36
  • and culture of refinement and gentility, 132–35, 140, 142–43, 192
  • and Day's labor force, 139–40
  • Day's style of generally, 131–32, 134–35, 140, 142, 156
  • design sources and process used by Day for, 136–43
  • and joiners, 134–35
  • map of, by Day in North Carolina and Virginia, 133–34, 134
  • and mechanization, 58–59, 140
  • orders for, in late 1840s, 52–55
  • purchasers of Day's woodwork, 134, 135, 246 (n. 7). See also Cabinetmaking trade; Day, Thomas; Mantels; Parlors; Pattern books; Staircases; specific architectural elements; and specific houses and rooms
• Artisan Rococo, 244 (n. 137)
• Art Nouveau, 126
• Aspen Hall rocking chairs, 101, 101
• Atkinson, Adolphus, 14
• Atkinson, Leroy, 14
• Auctions, 62–63, 126
• Badgett House: entrance of, 157
  • newels in, 161, 163, 165, 184
  • stair brackets in, 164, 165
• Bailey, Jonathan, 10
• Bank in Milton, N.C., 13–14, 66, 136, 247 (n. 16)
• Banks, Braxton, 128–29, 245 (n. 155)
• Bannister, David, 191
• Baptist church, 14
• Barfield, Rodney, 5, 6, 202 (n. 8)
• Barnett, James M., 236 (n. 58)
• Barnett-Robertson House, 161, 174
• Bartlett Y...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Thomas Day
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• One A Cabinetmaker by Trade
• Two A Good and Valuable Citizen
• Three Opportunities for an Industrious Man
• Four Unavoidable Encumbrances, Gratifying Accomplishments
• Five An Assortment of Fine and Fashionable Furniture
• Six Bold and Expressive Architectural Woodwork
• Epilogue An Enduring Legacy
• APPENDIX A John Day Sr. Estate Papers
• APPENDIX B Petition from the citizens of Milton on behalf of Thomas Day, 1830
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• Index