Furniture Heritage

Exhibition Views: High Point's Furniture Heritage

2009-05-29T16:14:00.018-04:00

High Point and furniture are synonymous. It's difficult to think of one without also thinking of the other. Furniture fuels our local economy to the tune of more than eight billion dollars a year. This exhibit is about High Point's furniture industry -- the people who made it, the people who sold it, and the impact it has had on our community. High Point is the furniture capital of the world.

During the 1950s, Tomlinson's Gainsborough chair was one of the most popular upholstered chairs in the region. The red one is probably the biggest one ever made. It was used as a throne on a parade float.

This 1913 aero-view of High Point shows which part of the city was home to most of the furniture factories. Visitors can play the game on the reader rail to discover what has happened to the old factories.

Our exhibit takes you behind the scenes and inside a twentieth-century furniture factory.

We have some really fascinating machinery on view.

Visitors to the exhibition have an opportunity to learn how furniture is constructed.

Furniture has been made in High Point since 1889. In our "furniture showroom" we display examples dating from ca. 1900 to 1955.

Many industries have been established in High Point to serve the furniture industries. Veneer, mirrors, photography, and furniture-finishing technology are a few. Free-lance furniture designers also make up a significant part of the local population. High Point is now the center for furniture design and display.

Photography has been a potent tool for selling furniture. High Point has more studio space for photography than anywhere else in the world. Most of it serves the furniture industry.

Few people know that Tomlinson, a High Point company, originated the idea of displaying furniture for the trade the way it would look in a home. Tomlinson was also the first High Point company to make furniture in suites in antique styles. These three pieces are from a Tomlinson dining room set of the 1920s.

The marketing area of the exhibit features a great insider's look at High Point's furniture market, an industry trade show held twice each year -- the largest in the world. Visitors to the exhibition can pick through Bill Byers' briefcase to see how High Point's furniture market affects the local economy.

The guest seating area is called the Chair Park. It is filled with chairs made recently in High Point. Visitors can sit in each chair and read about the designer and the history of the company that made it. Visitors can also review the exhibition videos and read back issues of Furniture Today and other industry publications.

The Opening: Hooray, we made it to the big day!

2009-05-28T09:53:00.010-04:00

The opening was a big success! Guests came dressed up.

Rev. Ron Wilkins, former High Point City Councilman, read a poem he wrote in honor of High Point’s sesquicentennial.

A flutist played in the hospitality area.

The food was delicious. Everyone was excited.

We had a ribbon cutting with lots of flashing photography (http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/277047-High_Point_Museum_traces_area_s_furniture_heritage.php). The guests rushed to the gallery to see the exhibit. They loved it. We were happy.

Two upholsterers from Pearson’s in High Point demonstrated their knowledge and skill. They were terrific. Our guests were fascinated.

The exhibit looks good on television, too. Check out this segment recorded on the day after opening (http://www.news14.com/content/top_stories/609787/museum-highlights-city-s-furniture-heritage/Default.aspx?ap=1&Flash).

At 9 p.m. we were exhausted and ready to call it a great day.

Rhapsodizing on the exhibit process by Ellen Denker:
Some people compare exhibitionizing to child birth – long months of planning and expectation, hard work in the final moments, and a wonderful outcome. I have always demurred this comparison because I think bringing a child into the world is a much greater accomplishment with far more lasting value. However, there is one area in which the two activities overlap -- the final moments are so difficult one is tempted to mutter “never again,” but then the result is so glorious that the hardest parts are immediately forgotten and the process seems completely doable again.

Installation Weeks Five and Six

2009-05-27T14:31:00.010-04:00

Installation Weeks Five and Six: Slowly, But Surely

We have been so busy the past two weeks that we had no time to blog. We will try to remedy that today by catching up.

As before, many activities were going on outside the museum rather than in the gallery during Week Five. All the graphic pieces of the exhibit – text panels, labels, prints, photographs – were produced at a special graphics production house. This material was delivered all at one time. In addition, our carpenter was working on platforms and cases in his own workshop. They will be brought in over a ten-day period during weeks five and six. Most came in finished, but one or two came in parts that needed to be assembled on site.

Monday, May 18, was exciting, because all the graphic pieces came in from the printer. Also our designer was on site to oversee and instruct the exhibit installers about where to hang everything. See her at left. She is on the phone and cutting mats at the same time.

And the installers were right on it. Things started going up on the walls very quickly. In fact, the gallery was a beehive of activity.

The progress was astounding. The exhibit we have labored over on paper went from its usual two-dimensional form to three dimensions. We can walk through it rather than just read through it. We are happy with the results. Here, the carpenter's assistants are moving in the pieces that will be used to erect a beautiful case to hold upholstered chairs:

Here is the case when finished:

You can see why we are happy. We only wish we had enough time to accomplish everything before the big opening on May 26.

Weeks Five and Six also mark the beginning of steady publicity activities. The opening of the exhibit has been announced in some print publications that have long lead times. Now we are working with the short-term media – radio and television – getting on the local radio morning shows, doing early-morning remotes for the local tv stations, and getting noticed by the newspapers. All this took a lot of planning by our community relations director.

Installation Week Four

2009-05-11T14:43:00.008-04:00

Installation Week Four: Watching a Ballet of Hydraulics, Levers, and Muscles

We had the privilege this past week to watch a crew of seasoned movers manage some large, heavy, and extremely bulky objects from off-site storage several miles away to the exhibition floor. At the museum end of the move, they were hampered by direct access to the gallery. Despite a loading dock being part of our exhibit, useful devices like a fork-lift could go no further than the doorway. This is where one sees the application of geometry and good old-fashioned ingenuity. Suddenly the building of the pyramids without benefit of a fork-lift, back-hoe, or crane seems possible. Levers, blocks, and wheels were indispensible, but modern mechanical devices were almost unnecessary. The best way to describe the process was like watching a ballet – coordinated, rehearsed, and muscular.

We took some pictures, but they hardly convey the efforts of the crew that served us. Our proverbial hats are off to them!

Prior to the arrival of the big stuff we had measured and laid out the objects on paper in a conventional floor plan. Last week we marked the floor for placement. These measurements insured that the objects will be inaccessible to visitors once the “fence” around the machine area is erected.

If you refer back to pictures on previous blogs you can see how the exhibit is taking shape.

Installation Week Three

2009-05-04T11:00:00.003-04:00

Installation Week Three

Last week was relatively quiet as far as installation goes, although we were still busy with the last bits of proof reading and with getting ready for our opening celebration. More platforms arrived.

The faux painter changed the look of the loading-dock door, which will be background for the factory portion of our exhibition. At larger museums, the loading dock is separated from galleries. For smaller buildings we often have to contend with backstage functions imposing on the front of the house. Most museums with this problem would want to hide their loading dock door during exhibitions with some kind of baffle, but we decided to embrace ours as factory ambiance for the large machinery. Everyone is excited by the transformation of the door. The faux painter is now getting ready to create our brick wall.

Some of the flat-screen TV monitors were installed last week as well. Right now they look vacant to be sure, but we have already produced the videos that will be shown on them. We could tell you what the videos are about, but that would spoil the surprises. Each has been specially themed to the place where it will appear in the exhibition.

In the exhibition development process, we try to think about the many ways we can connect with visitors through their senses. All exhibits engage sight to some extent, and for many art exhibits that is the primary way for visitors to understand the material on view. History exhibits are a bit different in that visitors want to be able to travel back in time. Engaging the senses is a good way to help that happen. The videos will titillate sight and sound at the same time. We have also introduced smells and ambient sounds, and we will give visitors many opportunities to engage their sense of touch. We have not addressed taste on its own, although the smells might be strong enough to taste.

Events are moving fast in week four already, but I’ll wait until Friday to fill you in. Thanks for visiting.

Installation Week Two

2009-04-27T10:33:00.003-04:00

Installation Week Two

We had a power outage on Friday and accompanying computer issues. Needless to say, we couldn’t post on our regular schedule.

Installation progress made last week was minimal because we were focused on proofreading the final copy that’s been set and ready to send to the printer. This was our last chance to catch a pesky typo, review credit lines, and check object numbers. At this writing, everything has been returned to the designer. The print part of the furniture exhibit is now in final production mode.

In the meantime, the carpenter brought in the first of the platforms. We are thrilled with their design and finish. And we are looking forward to seeing the others as they are delivered.

Also the A/V installer has been working in the gallery, wiring the locations for the video feeds that will come from DVD players in a locked closet. We expect this to reduce the sort of petty vandalism that most museums suffer. For many years museums locked the video output devices in kiosks that had to be monitored individually. More and more, museums are choosing centralized video output in order to reduce the time staff spends managing individual stations and to add another layer of security for the equipment.

Stay tuned for more excitement. We are working towards May 5 as our big move-in day, which means lots of background projects will have to be accomplished this week.

Furniture Exhibit Preparations: Background

2009-04-17T16:31:00.005-04:00

Last Thursday we saw the first construction for our new furniture heritage exhibition, which opens May 26th. Many people ask how an exhibit goes together. In the interests of transparency, which is all the rage these days, we thought we would give you a “behind the scenes” look at how our gallery comes together over the next six weeks. We will be posting weekly updates on the construction, arrival of objects from off-site storage, and installation of the exhibition.

Although we started construction last week, there has been a lot going on to prepare for the first foray into changing the exhibition. In the gallery, the old exhibit has been removed and the museum’s objects returned to their regular storage locations. The bulk of the exhibition was traveling, so all of those objects (mostly watercolors and gouaches) had to be repacked in their crates. The crates were picked up by a shipper.

Once the gallery was clear, the painters came in to patch the walls and apply the new wall colors for the furniture exhibition. The designer has specified three different colors, so all of that had to be mapped out for the painters.

Development of the content of the exhibition has been going on for the last ten months. The first script was sent out to readers in July 2008. Before we could get to that point, however, we had many months of research, learning the history of the region’s furniture industry and surveying objects in public and private collections that might be suitable to include. Script development is a rather complicated ballet of list making and word smithing, punctuated with drawing preliminary floor plans and brainstorming design and interpretive ideas. Some sections of the first script and their attendant objects are winnowed as the twin realities of space and budget begin to take hold. All along the way, the museum’s staff, our volunteers and our advisory committee members are reading the script (and its subsequent iterations) and giving us their critiques. Exhibit development is definitely a group activity.

Two weeks ago, the designer laid out the floor plan with tape on the gallery floor and we all began to get excited about the project. That is, going from paper to life-size is truly invigorating. Our volunteer docents get more enthusiastic with every viewing of the space. Today, they were invited to read the script taped to the gallery walls.

We have included a few gallery views taken this morning. By next week at this time all of these areas will have changed, and you dear reader will witness those changes.

Photos above:

top--The newly-built wall will mimic the entrance to a furniture factory.

middle--In the gallery, we taped off the spaces where objects will be grouped and made full-size templates of the objects to see if they will fit. Beyond the machinery area you can see pictures of exhibit objects taped to the walls to help us visualize how the exhibit will look when finished.

bottom--Our docent crew has come in for their first look at the mock up. They read the text panels and label copy for typos, asked questions, gave some good suggestions, and told us they love it all. This is very encouraging.

Conserving Authenticity

2009-01-02T15:40:00.005-05:00

The recent return of our Marsh kitchen cabinet from our esteemed conservator Todd Jorgensen (www.antiquepreservation.com) suggested we re-visit our entry of October 14. When we acquired the cabinet last summer we were excited that it had retained so much of its original surface, although the paint was flaking badly. Many years of being located next to a sunny window had undermined the adherence of the original paint to the wood underneath. Still we felt certain that our conservator would be able to deal with this problem. What we did not know at the time was the extent of his enthusiasm for working on an everyday piece of furniture made in the middle twentieth century with common materials. He was excited about the cabinet and its outcome.

Most persons who acquire a kitchen cabinet (also called Hoosier cupboard because so many were made in Indiana) either strip all the paint from the wood or paint over the original paint. Both of these approaches are legitimate in terms of current aesthetics – what you want in your own home. But museum audiences want to experience the past as it was. In other words, we can more readily imagine Mrs. Fisher making bread and biscuits at this cabinet if it looks like it did in her kitchen.

Our conservator honored our wishes by doing a light surface cleaning followed by an application of B-67, an acrylic resin that secured the original paint to the wooden carcass, and a final polish with microcrystalline wax. He did not in-paint the surface to make it look new, but left it as Mrs. Fisher would have seen it in her later years – clean, but worn.

Visit the High Point Museum after May 26, 2009 and you can see the cupboard yourself.

Sustainability and Furniture: An Opinion

2008-11-21T15:32:00.001-05:00

My name is Ellen Denker and I am the Director of the Furniture Heritage Project at the High Point Museum. I want to make it clear from the start that the following short piece is my own opinion and does not represent, as far as I know, the opinion of the High Point Museum, its staff, its board of directors, or of the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is currently funding the Furniture Heritage Project at the High Point Museum. This is just me, Ellen Denker, musing on the issue of sustainability as it pertains to furniture.

The furniture industry is one of the largest consumers of wood. While it is the one industry that provides the most value to the raw material, furniture making also produces significant transportation emissions, uses a substantial amount of energy, and creates a lot of packaging waste. Today, however, I would like to consider the basic issue of sustainability. If we can understand this issue we might also find some ways to deal with these other factors.

I started thinking about sustainability in a serious blogging sort of way after hearing a short piece on NPR about the forest ecology studies being carried out today using NASA photographs of earth and NASA-funded multidisciplinary collaborations (NPR’s “Krulwich on Science” for November 12, 2008). Ecology professor Nalini Nadkarni of The Evergreen State College in Washington state used these NASA photographs to estimate the number of trees on earth. She took her study a step further by figuring out how many trees there are per person. Divide the estimated number of trees (more than 400 billion) by the estimated number of humans (more than six billion) and you find out that there are about 61 trees per person. That seems like a lot, especially when you consider that trees process carbon dioxide by the pound, each tree taking in 1½ pounds of it in order to grow a pound of wood. From that same amount of carbon dioxide, trees breathe out a pound of oxygen, which is exactly what the average person breathes in every day.

Thus, in the oxygen category, 61 trees per person looks a lot like sustainability has been reached. There should be plenty of oxygen to go around. But that’s only one way we use trees. Think about all the wood that goes into a wood stove in a single season. And what about the amount of paper we churn through on a regular basis from memos to newspaper? Or the lumber used to build homes? The list of tree-based products made by Professor Nadkarni’s students included chopsticks, kites, egg cartons, buttons, pencils, blocks, barrels, books, and, of course, furniture, among thousands of other things.

Fortunately, wood is not the same kind of resource as oil. When oil is used, it is gone. When wood is used, more trees can be planted to fill in for those that have been harvested. This is what makes trees a renewable resource. Good forestry practices, which are widespread in the United States, ensure that there will always be trees for our many needs and wants. Our forests are currently in a sustainable condition. In fact, there are more trees growing today in the US than there were forty years ago. This is the result of good forestry practices. If you buy furniture made of US-grown lumber you can be reasonably sure of having bought into a sustainable product. But if you buy furniture made of lumber grown, harvested, and processed elsewhere the certainty begins to diminish.

How can you be sure you are allowing for the sustainability of forests in your furniture buying habits?

1. Buy used furniture or furniture made from recycled wood. These are the most basic and effective ways to practice sustainability – recycling. They might also be the cheapest.

2. Buy furniture made with wood that has been certified by a third party. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC, http://www.fsc.org/) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI, www.sfiprogram.org), for example, are third-party certifiers with high standards that continually monitor performance.

3. Buy furniture made of US-grown hardwoods. Generally speaking, you will be buying into good forestry practices and may also be employing American labor in the bargain, although American hardwoods are routinely shipped to southeast Asia for making furniture. If the furniture you buy was actually made in the US, you may also be buying a product that has reduced the environmental impact of long-distance transportation. (See information below from the Hardwood Manufacturers Association)

Despite the seeming simplicity of the three practices above, the opportunities to keep track of forest sustainability during the purchase of furniture is not particularly easy. Fortunately there are several organizations that will help guide you through the confusion. For more information on the environmental impact of furniture purchases, visit the websites of these organizations, which recognize members who have adopted their standards:

The American Home Furnishings Alliance has a program called Sustainable by Design (http://sustainablebydesign.us/), which certifies AHFA members who make a corporate commitment to continual environmental improvement. In 1999, AHFA developed an environmental management system that is designed to take furniture manufacturers beyond environmental compliance to true environmental stewardship. A visit to the website of Sustainable by Design will help any consumer understand the importance of using sustainability practices as a guideline for buying furniture.

The Sustainable Furnishings Council (www.sustainablefurnishings.org) has established rigorous standards for its members, who are home furnishings manufacturers. Members are concerned about rainforest degradation, social justice, and supporting local economies. A visit to the SFC’s website will give the furnishings consumer some hard questions to consider when buying furniture.

The Hardwood Manufacturers Association website (www.hardwoodinfo.com) includes information on sustainability and good forestry practices, as well as the use of American hardwoods in a variety of home products, including flooring, cabinets, woodwork, and furniture. Explore this website for information on identifying and caring for hardwood furniture.
Even a cursory look at these several websites will convince you that this is an enormously complicated topic. One little blog entry cannot hope to cover all the permutations of sustainability’s arguments and practices, but we will be happy to hear from you if you have something to say about these topics and especially if you have discovered ways to have your furniture and forests, too.

High Point's Big Bureau

2008-11-05T09:29:00.006-05:00

The giant chest of drawers is a familiar landmark at North Hamilton and Westwood in today’s High Point, NC, but it has changed appearance and location in its long history.

The first chest was built in 1926 as a home for the city’s Chamber of Commerce. It was located in Tate Park at the corner of Church and North Main Streets. The bureau was a straightforward chest of drawers, twenty feet high, with lovely floral decoration on the drawer fronts and a large “mirror” mounted above bearing the legend “HIGH POINT / INDUSTRIAL CITY / BUREAU OF INFORMATION.” Sadly, we did not locate color images of this chest to see just how lively it would have looked with its floral décor.

At several times in its early history, this simple chest was repainted. During the first repainting small decorative flourishes replaced the larger floral ornaments. The next treatment was utterly plain with no extra decorative embellishments, save a simple gold line around the drawers. The mirror, however, remained above the chest promising tourists that they could obtain “information” from the “bureau” as before. During World War II the façade was inscribed with the names of 2800 young High Pointers serving in the armed forces.

In 1951 the bureau was sold to the Jaycees and moved to its present location. By that time it was already plain, without ornament, and apparently stayed that way until its relatively recent make-over. Its “mirror” carried a new message: “WORLD’S LARGEST BUREAU / HIGH POINT, N.C. / NORTH CAROLINA.”

In the mid 1990s, Sidney Arthur Lenger undertook a radical renovation of the chest which had lingered long in its plain state. Although based on the shell-carved block front chests made in the 1700s by the famed Rhode Island Goddard and Townsend cabinetmaking families, the actual model used by the designers was provided by Harden Furniture. Lenger added socks to one drawer in homage to the city’s hosiery industry. The newly renovated bureau, finished by 1999, is twice as tall as the old bureau, yet it retains the original room inside with beautiful carved woodwork made up of all the hardwoods used in furniture manufacturing in the city. It has, however, lost its informative “mirror.”

Illustrations that accompany this post:
A view of the original “Bureau of Information” used as a backdrop for the YWCA Girl Reserves, ca. 1930. Note the first decorative treatment.

A linen postcard showing the second decorative treatment of the Bureau, ca. 1940. There was a long period of time when the chest had no decoration.

The Bureau as it appears today in a drive-by.

Stop by the High Point Museum Store and see all the souvenirs that feature High Point’s big bureau.

KENNEDY ROCKER

2008-10-29T10:41:00.006-04:00

President John F. Kennedy suffered most of his adult life from a back injury he received while serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II. While a U.S. Senator, Kennedy encountered a common rocking chair in the office of his personal physician, Dr. Janet Travell. The rocker helped his back problem, and he ordered one in 1955 for his personal use from the makers, P and P Chair Company of Asheboro, North Carolina.

The design was developed in the late 1920s by W. C. Page, Sr., co-founder of the P and P Chair Company. His secret was to bend the back posts to rise away from the seat, which allows the sitter to lean back comfortably. In addition, the arm rests are lower than similar rockers, allowing the sitter’s arm to relax naturally at the sides of the body. Finally, the cane seat and back, which are woven by hand, give firm, yet flexible support.

Kennedy always had one of these comfortable rockers at hand. Once he became President in 1961, he bought several more to use throughout the White House in his personal quarters and presidential offices, at Camp David (the official presidential retreat near Gettysburg), and at his home in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The rockers were also shipped, at the request of the White House, to the Presidential Suites of several hotels that the President frequented.

Kennedy’s public use of the rocker encouraged many Americans to order their own, and workers at the P and P Chair Company were kept busy for many years filling the orders, turning out as many as 250 each day. North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford (1961-65) sent one to each of the governors of the fifty states. The company still makes and sells this rocking chair. You can learn more at: www.authentickennedyrocker.com

Illustrations:

1. The Kennedy Rocker made by P and P Chair Company, Asheboro, NC

2. Kennedy using one of his many White House rockers, taken by Robert Knudsen, March 19, 1962. Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, Boston

3. The P and P Chair Company workshop, Asheboro, NC, as it stands today, little changed from the days when they supplied JFK with rocking chairs.

Addendum to the High Point Market post

2008-10-29T09:47:00.001-04:00

We had a noisy furniture focus session last night on the High Point Market. Some audience members complained that they could not get access to High Point University’s landmark 2007 economic impact study of the home furnishings industry in the Triad. I have enclosed some links below that should help our blog visitors find the study and/or get the lighter video analysis. This was an important study of the economic impact of the furniture business including all of the many auxiliary industries that support and are supported by the home furnishings industry – a snapshot of the interrelationship between related industries and the local community.

Economic impact study:
www.highpointchamber.org/regional/images/HPUStudy.pdf

Video files that describe and analyze the economic impact study:
http://www.highpointmarket.org/IndustryInsights_MarketLivePlayer.aspx?var1=23
http://www.highpointmarket.org/IndustryInsights_MarketLivePlayer.aspx?var1=25

High Point Market

2008-10-24T09:57:00.007-04:00

Today it’s simply called “The Market” by High Pointers and industry insiders, but everyone knows they mean the twice-yearly home furnishings trade show that is held in downtown High Point for one week each April and October. Life in town changes dramatically when 85,000 buyers and sellers from 110 countries come to town for one week each season to view the wares of 2,000 exhibitors arranged in 12 million square feet of showroom space spread over 188 buildings.

This is Fall Market week in High Point. Our streets are jammed with traffic. Our hotels are so full that many Market visitors stay in private homes. Even our citizens give up their vacation time in order to “work the Market” as traffic controllers, security personnel, bus and jitney drivers, information specialists, showroom greeters, caterers, and a myriad of other essential functions.

There are many home furnishings markets around the world including Milan, Cologne, China, Singapore, Paris, and many more. So why does everyone want to come to High Point? A quick look at the High Point Market’s history might help us understand. The High Point Market will count 2009 as its centennial year, so High Pointers must have been doing something right to catch and keep such an important global trade show.

The first glimmers of market activity took place in the early 1900s. In 1905, D. Ralph Parker, a High Point furniture salesman, announced the formation of the High Point Furniture Exposition Company. His organization converted the second floor of an office building to 2,000 square feet of showroom space. In 1906, a rival – Furniture Manufacturers’ Exposition Company – opened its own showroom in High Point. In 1909, the rival companies combined to promote the city’s first formal furniture markets in the spring and summer, but attendance was moderate and the idea went to the back burner.

In 1913, High Point manufacturers formed the Southern Furniture Exposition Company (SFEC) and staged another market, this time in 30,000 square feet of showroom space spread over eight buildings. The effort proved to be reasonably successful, but World War I curtailed further markets.

Following the war, the SFEC built its own space in High Point, a ten-story building on Main Street. That building remains in High Point and has been used more or less continuously since then, except for a few years during World War II when the federal government took the space for offices that had to be decentralized from Washington. Regular markets were held in January and July during the years between the wars.

In 1950, the Southern Furniture Exposition Building (SFEB) began its many post-war expansions. First, the facility was almost doubled in size, but that only accommodated the many companies that wanted to show in this southern market. Additional expansions over the years have created a mammoth labyrinth today that is called the International Home Furnishings Center (or IHFC) and encloses 3.5 million square feet of showroom space spread over fourteen floors in six interconnected buildings.

Many new exhibition spaces and showrooms were built in High Point during the 1950s and 1960s. The Furniture Factories’ Marketing Association, created in 1955, decided to hold four markets a year in High Point because of the growing numbers of buyers who visited the city between the regular markets in January and July. However by 1982, the furniture market had adopted its current April and October timing. All those years of January markets, however, encouraged furniture buyers from the north to dream of the warm southern breezes and delicious southern hospitality available in High Point when they wanted to stock their stores.

The clamor for showroom space in High Point has never waned. In 2001, a non-profit corporation formed by the city and funded with government money, took over the promotion, coordination, and operation of the many market buildings as a way to unify their individual efforts and accommodate the growing numbers of visitors. The High Point Market Authority now boasts a centralized registration system that helps buyers plan their Market activities ahead of their visits. You can see the enormity of the operation simply by cruising around the Authority’s website: www.highpointmarket.org

Stepping off the shuttle bus onto Commerce Street in High Point today is a way of simultaneously living on the cutting edge of home fashion while also partaking of the long history of southern hospitality that has distinguished this market from its beginning. The feeling is intoxicating, both for the buyers and their hosts.

Illustrations:
Brochure advertising “The Southern Market” circa 1975. Although furniture has often been characterized as a man’s business (and this brochure would certainly confirm that generalization), about half of furniture buyers today are women.

Postcard with a view of the Southern Furniture Exposition Building on Main and Commerce Streets, High Point, circa 1925, when it was new. This façade is still visible today despite the many expansions of the building over the past eighty years.

Salesmen wait for buyers in Marsh Furniture Company’s showroom during a High Point Market about 1930. Notice that kitchen cabinets (see previous blog on Marsh) are lined up against the wall, while kitchen tables and chairs fill the display floor.

Marsh Kitchen Cabinet

2008-10-14T14:37:00.003-04:00

Growing up in the 1950s Keith Fisher watched his mother, Ethyl, bake bread for the family in the kitchen of their mill house in Mt. Holly, NC. She did so using a space-saving, Marsh kitchen cabinet. The wear on the drawer fronts attests to years of baking service. When the family moved to Charlotte in 1961, the Marsh cabinet was replaced with a larger and more modern kitchen. Though outdated, the cabinet continued to hold sentimental value for the family. Ethyl held on to the cabinet until her death in 1992, when it passed on to her son. Although the paint is worn and flaking, the cabinet is in good original condition, with all of its working pieces. We can still see the original painted ornament on the doors.
Most collectors think that all kitchen cabinets were made in Indiana, since they are usually called “Hoosier cabinets.” But these specialized cabinets were made throughout the United States, and today’s entry on the Furniture Heritage blog came from right here in High Point, North Carolina.
Kitchen cabinets offered a convenient and stylish way for homemakers to organize their tools and foodstuffs for cooking. They were especially handy for making biscuits and bread because a sifter holding 10-30 pounds of flour (depending on the model purchased) was usually built into the space behind one of the cabinet’s upper doors. Pots and pans could be stored in the bottom section of the cabinet, which usually included a rack for a cutting board. A metal bread box was contained in the middle drawer. These cabinets were often sold with accessories such as canisters, spice jars, mixing bowls, a measuring cup and so forth. For a little extra money the homemaker could have a small electric clock installed. The pull-out countertop is made of iron with a porcelain-enamel surface. Marsh bought these tops readymade from Ingram-Richardson Manufacturing Company of Frankfort, Indiana.
Marsh Furniture is the last of the original High Point furniture companies still operating at the same location, where Centennial meets the railroad tracks at South Main Street. Although Marsh first made a variety of free-standing occasional furniture forms, such as chiffoniers and hall racks, as well as kitchen cabinets, the company shifted to built-in kitchen cabinetry as its mainstay product line at the time of the great expansion of suburban housing developments following World War II. Today, their kitchen cabinets are shipped throughout the United States, primarily east of the Mississippi River.
The cabinet is currently at our conservator’s studio while the Museum raises money for paint stabilization. To help preserve this piece for future generations, please consider donating to the High Point Museum’s Collections Funds. You can read more about the museum on our website: www.highpointmuseum.org

Notes on the illustrations: The cabinet is the one recently acquired by the High Point Museum from the Fisher family. It was made by Marsh Furniture Company about 1950. The Marsh name plate is on the Fisher family kitchen cabinet. The Old Salem Maple cabinets were designed by Marsh Furniture and advertised in the November 1954 issue of Furniture South.

Frank Lloyd Wright for Heritage-Henredon

2008-10-09T15:18:00.005-04:00

In the mid 1950s Heritage Henredon Furniture Industries, High Point & Morganton NC engaged Frank Lloyd Wright to develop a line of furniture for a High Point company. This might have been the first time that a free-lance designer with an international reputation was engaged by a High Point company. High Point’s furniture manufacturers had long employed designers, both in-house and free-lance, to help create new product, but none had reached out to the recognized design leaders to lend creativity and prestige to their products in quite the same way.

Wright was in his early eighties, but hardly retired from designing. At the time he had design studios in Wisconsin and Arizona, and he was working on a number of projects. His concept for the Heritage line was simple, yet elegant, emphasizing geometry and the surface appearance of its Honduras mahogany with only minimal ornament.

The line was introduced in September 1955 at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, where Wright explained that the forms were “mathematically correct,” designed for the human figure, and functionally adaptable for easy living. However, the line was expensive and despite a widespread media campaign by Young & Rubicam, a well-known public relations firm based in New York City, little was actually produced. Examples from this line are sought after by today’s collectors of mid-century modern furniture.

Heritage was founded in High Point by Elliott Wood in 1932. Henredon was founded in Morganton in 1945 by three men, and the company’s name is derived from their names: Henry Wilson, Ralph Edwards, and Don Van Noppen. Wood was an investor in Henredon. Good design has long been the hallmark of both firms. The companies were united through a cross-licensing agreement in 1948. Together they developed the relationship with Wright to produce his furniture designs. Today Heritage (as Drexel Heritage) and Henredon are owned by Furniture Brands International.

Visit our website for more information on the Furniture Heritage Project and the exhibition that opens in May 2009

http://www.highpointmuseum.org/

Gainsborough Chair by Tomlinson

2008-09-29T10:16:00.004-04:00

Tomlinson’s Gainsborough Chair, 1942-1966

The bold form of this chair showcases the abilities of Tomlinson’s workers to fashion the frame and fix its upholstery. The Gainsborough chair was introduced by Tomlinson in its 1942 product catalogue as part of its Mount Vernon collection. Later, the company emphasized that its form was a shape favored by the English portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough. The design was discontinued in 1966.

The sales literature for the chair highlighted its value as a portrait chair: “equally at home in the living room, hall, bedroom, dining room…the chair in which any woman looks her loveliest.” The high fan-shaped back and its gently curving shape were said to frame the sitter’s best angle, while the abbreviated arms made the chair suitable for use in pairs flanking a home’s fireplace, in a bow window, or as the husband-and-wife chairs at their dining table. Tomlinson promoted the Gainsborough chair in High Point by lending or donating examples to many community events.

The Museum has examples in three sizes of the Gainsborough chair – small, regular, and huge. These will be showcased together in our upcoming furniture exhibition.

We are hoping to find two more regular size Gainsborough chairs to use for educational purposes. If you or someone you know can donate one or two, our visitors will be able to experience a true High Point original in striking new ways. One should be in good usable condition, but the other can be in need of re-upholstering.