Hello. Thank you for stopping in again. It has been a while since I updated this page, so let me bring you up to date with happenings around the shop.

Last spring the folks at the Common Ground Country Fair asked me to be the "Artist in Residence" at this year's fair held in September. Like all "honors", there was actually alot of extra work attached. I was aked to put together a symposium of Windsor chairmakers for an afternoon discussion program. The number of Maine craftsmen who make traditional handcrafted Windsor chairs is small and contentious. Still, I managed to get a number of us together and the discussion was lively and interesting. John Brandon and Lisa Coit, a husband and wife team who own East Point Conservation, brought a Windsor chair which they had reproduced for a historic site in Virginia. The chair was a shockingly flourescent, shiny green. It looked impossible. But Lisa, an expert in finishing antiques, showed everyone the results of microscopic and spectral analysis of the original paint on the antique being reproduced, that proved that this incredibly gaudy color had in fact been the original finish before the paint aged to a dull flat green.

Andy Abello, a furniture and chairmaker from Edgecomb, brought along his friend Houston Dodge, and one of Houston's chairs, an original Wallace Nutting Combback Armchair. Houston, now in his eighties, is the last living employee of Wallace Nutting's furniture shop in Massachusetts. Houston worked for Nutting in his shop for a year or two right before Wallace died and the Second World War began. Wallace let him sleep in a room at the back of the building to save on rent. He was allowed to use the shop after hours, so he built a number of Nutting's pieces for himself. The Combback Writing-Armchair on my site is a copy of one of Houston's chairs, itself a Nutting design. Houston brought along a 1939 Nutting catalog. The Writing-Armchair shown on this site sold for $33.00 in that year. Wow.

Houston served in the Army Air Corps during the War. He worked in a base support unit in England and Belgium. He took advantage of his spare time and the available tools to build a number of pieces of eighteenth Century furniture. He got them home somehow. He also did work for British antique dealers as a furniture conservator on the side. Think Lovejoy.

Over his lifetime, Houston has collected, taken down, and rebuilt over twelve antique homes, barns, and other buildings. All are currently in use on his farm in Damariscotta. He is a true Maine original.

Repeat visitors to this site will notice that I have finally raised my prices. It has taken me two years to get around to doing it. Given that I make my own turnings and other parts, it no longer makes sense to charge the same price as other makers who purchase turnings to make their chairs. both extremes of the "traditional" chairmaking world are in fact historically authentic. Philadelphia chairmakers contracted out for turnings and seat blanks, New England chairmakers like the Tracy's made everything themselves. So I am not trying to slam anyone for doing things the way they want. I just hope that as a potential buyer of a handcrafted Windsor chair, you can appreciate the extra work and worth of my chairs in relation to the other chairs offered out there.

Finally, I have added several new designs to my site. You will find a charming Tracy Sackback based on an original brought to me several years ago, as well as a new Rhode Island Fanbck. I have included pictures of an elegant Bowback even though it is still under construction.

The back bow and spindles were still loose and had not been glued and wedged when the photos were taken. The spindles sticking up through the back bow and the legs are still overlong and haven't been trimmed yet. This is another design based on an antique which I reproduced.

Andrew, now sixteen, continues to be the webmaster of this site. I hope you appreiciate his work.

Thank you again for stopping in to check us out.