Love the Chippendale, Hold the Pledge at Yale’s Furniture Study Center
What makes a piece of furniture worthy of special display?
And might it be Aunt Tulip’s Chippendale armoire in the attic? Gramp’s tramp desk in the garage? Cousin Shirley’s Regency chair in her parlor — which she swears is a Louis XIV original?
Works of furniture art and craftsmanship as well as pieces that represent the design eras of American life have found a new home of their own at the Leslie P. and George H. Hume American Furniture Study Center at Yale’s West Campus in West Haven, which opened this fall.
The center features 1,300 pieces of American furniture and clocks that range from the 16th century to the present day. The collection is on public display for Friday tours in the new 18,000-square-foot facility.
In separate interviews (and in separate chairs), we asked Patricia Kane and John Stuart Gordon, arts curators of American decorative arts at Yale and the Furniture Study Center, why we’re fascinated by these objects.
Patricia Kane: We relate to furniture because we use it day in and day out. Some of us are lucky enough to live with works of art like paintings and sculptures in our homes, but the majority of Americans probably don’t.
But here at the Furniture Study we not only have great works of art in terms of rare and beautifully made objects but also quotidian, utilitarian pieces, too. For instance we have a pair of wire stacking chairs that are covered with white vinyl that you could have bought 10 years ago at Walmart.
Frank Rizzo: What makes a piece great?
John Stuart Gordon: There are always issues of quality, beautiful craftsmanship, smart design. So you can have a rather traditional form, like a chest of drawers, but it could have incredible inlay work, that really shows mastery of a skill.
FR: How has TV’s “Antiques Road Show” changed how people view your world?
PK: It’s a fascinating program. I often watch it and it definitely makes people aware of things around them. It’s also taught people that you shouldn’t refinish that 18th-century high chest.
FR: And don’t use Lemon Pledge.