Tours of Nightingale-Brown House, Providence
Jane Hennedy
Guided Tours at
The Nightingale-Brown House
357 Benefit Street, Providence, RI
The John Nicholas Brown Center at Brown University is dedicated to
advancing scholarship in the various fields of American civilization. In
this spirit, we offer tours of the 1792 Nightingale-Brown House, a
National Historic Landmark. The property has undergone an extensive
rehabilitation to preserve this outstanding example of early national
architecture. A Townsend-Goddard secretary was auctioned in 1989 to make
this rehabilitation possible. From 1814 to 1985, five generations of the
Brown family lived in the house, each leaving behind evidence of their
cultural interests. The interiors are preserved much as the family left
their ancestral home, with collections of family portraits, antiques, and
scenic wallpaper. A reproduction of the Townsend-Goddard secretary is on
display.
The formal rooms of the Nightingale-Brown House are available for guided
tours on a limited basis. Public tours led by volunteer tour guides are
offered on Friday afternoons from 1:00 - 4:00 and do not require a
reservation for small groups. Tours are approximately 30 minutes long.
Fees for public tours are $3 for adults and $2 for students and seniors.
The house is not open on Friday holidays, and during certain special
events. Contact the Center ahead of time for the schedule.
In addition, group tours may be scheduled in advance. Group tours may
comprise up to 45 visitors, or an open house may be given for numbers
exceeding 45. Group tour fees for up to 45 persons are $2 per person
during weekday business hours, or beginning at $100 in the evenings or on
weekends. For further information, please contact the Site Manager at
(401) 272-0357, or e-mail Jane_H...@Brown.edu.
Smorgass Bored
Ronnie wrote: The WORD is " Seretaire"
HUH ?
Doug W.
~>*) Big Fish EAT Little Fish (*<~
Gillam Kerley
Ronnie McKinley wrote:
>
> In rec.antiques Jane Hennedy wrote:
>
> > A Townsend-Goddard secretary was auctioned in 1989 to make
> >this rehabilitation possible.
>
> >display.
> >
>
>
> The word is "serétaire" ..... "An Escritoire"
>
So, Ronnie, when did French become the official language of the British
Isles? I must have missed something.
On this side of the pond, we call it a secretary. So says my Merkin
Heritage Dictionary.
GK
Ronnie McKinley
In rec.antiques Jane Hennedy wrote:
> A Townsend-Goddard secretary was auctioned in 1989 to make
>this rehabilitation possible.
> A reproduction of the Townsend-Goddard secretary is on
>display.
>
Stuffed and mounted no doubt.
The word is "serétaire" ..... "An Escritoire"
Ronnie
mcki...@netcomuk.co.uk
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~mckinley/index.htm
==============================================
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
==============================================
Ronnie McKinley
In rec.antiques Gillam Kerley wrote:
>Ronnie McKinley wrote:
>>
>> In rec.antiques Jane Hennedy wrote:
>>
>> > A Townsend-Goddard secretary was auctioned in 1989 to make
>> >this rehabilitation possible.
>>
>> > A reproduction of the Townsend-Goddard secretary is on
>> >display.
>> >
>>
>> Stuffed and mounted no doubt.
>>
>> The word is "serétaire" ..... "An Escritoire"
>>
>
>So, Ronnie, when did French become the official language of the British
>Isles? I must have missed something.
>
French ain't the official language of the British Isles but it doesn't stop
us using historical correct "non-English" words in the antique furniture
trade. Many non-English words are used, Bonheurs-Du-Jour, Bureaux,
Chiffonier, Vitrine, Armoire, Prie-dieu, Etageres, Cedenzas, to name but
only a small selection, as well as the word serétaire. I have mountains of
books on antique furniture, mostly British and European granted, tons upon
tons of auction furniture catalogues but none of these nor the furniture
trade that I know of would ever use the term secretary, even the humble
dictionary (QED) doesn't use the word "secretary" to apply to a piece of
antiques furniture. To use the term secretary this side would ensure you
being ripped-off as a novice :)
The term secretaire is a kind of catch-all word for writing furniture other
than out-and-out bureaux, davenport, bonheurs-du-jour, pedestal desks and
other specific items. It is used for fall-front pieces, often described in
their original papers, as scrutoires (or escritoires) and for later pieces
of a writing nature. The late 18th century saw something of a flowering of
secretaire-drawer bookcases and some of the finest cabinet makers worked on
this form. But perhaps "secretary" is a new appellation that should be
added to the furniture world and be included in the dictionary to means a
"type" of American Heritage furniture. Well we have taken to the word
"Grandfather" so why not "secretary" .... :)
Gerald Clough
Ronnie McKinley wrote:
>
Sorry, Ronnie. Crass as it may seem over there, "secretary" is in
common usage here, including in my venerable copy of "Furniture
Treasury" by Wallace Nutting, MacMillan Publishing Co. 1928, for the
particular piece of furniture we're talking about.
It also occurs to be that as I recall your appreciation of a couple of
periods of merkin styles you would probably appreciate this book, 5,000
photos of mostly American furniture from the early 1600's forward.
> I have mountains of
> books on antique furniture, mostly British and European granted, tons upon
> tons of auction furniture catalogues but none of these nor the furniture
> trade that I know of would ever use the term secretary, even the humble
> dictionary (QED) doesn't use the word "secretary" to apply to a piece of
> antiques furniture. To use the term secretary this side would ensure you
> being ripped-off as a novice :)
>
>
> Ronnie
> mcki...@netcomuk.co.uk
> http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~mckinley/index.htm
--
Gerald Clough clo...@texas.net
"Nothing has any value unless you know you can give it up."
Smorgass Bored
Ronnie,
Oh, THAT 'seretaire'......
a smarter, <g>
Ronnie McKinley
In rec.antiques Gerald Clough wrote:
>Sorry, Ronnie. Crass as it may seem over there, "secretary" is in
>common usage here, including in my venerable copy of "Furniture
>Treasury" by Wallace Nutting, MacMillan Publishing Co. 1928, for the
>particular piece of furniture we're talking about.
>
>It also occurs to be that as I recall your appreciation of a couple of
>periods of merkin styles you would probably appreciate this book, 5,000
>photos of mostly American furniture from the early 1600's forward.
>
Yes Gerald I probably would appreciate that book. Ok wind-up over in case
I'm flooded with email :) John Goddard (or the Townsend-Goddard style) is
not a style of furniture I can warm to, the blocking, shell decoration,
applied panelled doors and O-Gee bracket feet that seem to protrude way
outside of the line more like a small cab leg in fact, I find all a bit
severe, and I'm aware that this is knocking the great "American Style" of
the period. Not a popular style (in it's day) in England nor amongst
English (or British Isles, there's more than just English over here)
cabinet makers, collectable to-day granted, but that still doesn't change
the fact that it's a "strange" style, at least to my eyes, a mixture of
unrelated styles with Chippendale overtones, and the shelling does become
somewhat over the top, almost Gothic. The combination of a, knee-hole desk
(or chest if you like) with a bookcase top, or a "slanted" fall-front
bureau with a bookcase top, still appears to _me_ as a "Bureau-Bookcase"
rather than a true secretaire or escritoire. But then, that is why perhaps,
it's called a "secretary." and not a secretaire. ;) My American furniture
appreciation would still be with the Federal Period Style, but then my
English preference would be Sheraton, Shearer and Hepplewhite rather than
Chippendale. I really do wish there was more discussion (meant very
sincerely) in this ng on American furniture, it's a pity one has to jump on
a spammer in order to get something out of it, but I thank you and Gillam
for coming in on it, and maybe there will be a few more follow-ons .......
lets hope :)
Ronnie
mcki...@netcomuk.co.uk
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~mckinley/index.htm
Gerald Clough
Ronnie McKinley wrote:
> Ok wind-up over in case
> I'm flooded with email :) John Goddard (or the Townsend-Goddard style) is
> not a style of furniture I can warm to, the blocking, shell decoration,
> applied panelled doors and O-Gee bracket feet that seem to protrude way
> outside of the line more like a small cab leg in fact, I find all a bit
> severe, and I'm aware that this is knocking the great "American Style" of
> the period. Not a popular style (in it's day) in England nor amongst
> English (or British Isles, there's more than just English over here)
> cabinet makers, collectable to-day granted, but that still doesn't change
> the fact that it's a "strange" style, at least to my eyes, a mixture of
> unrelated styles with Chippendale overtones, and the shelling does become
> somewhat over the top, almost Gothic.
*snip for length*
Out of interest in your comments, I looked up some Goddard and
Townsend. Goddard I do find strange and gothic. I get the odd feeling
that it's about to come alive and come clumping along across the room.
Townsend I haven't many examples of but neither appeals much.
As you like Sheraton School and Hepplewhite, would you have any comment
on the way Sheraton impresses me as foreshadowing art deco in a way that
Hepplewhite does not?
As to your distinction between secretaires and other nomenclature,
subjectively when someone says "secretary" (or secretaire) I think of
something that is used as a writing place more transiently, that is as a
convenience, than a piece that includes the function of a desk. I think
the term secretary/secretaire implies a piece that performs a
secretarial role, an aide, rather than a working desk, if you see what I
mean.
>
> Ronnie
> mcki...@netcomuk.co.uk
> http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~mckinley/index.htm
> ==============================================
> Cast a cold eye
> On life, on death.
> Horseman, pass by!
> ==============================================
--
Ronnie McKinley
In rec.antiques Gerald Clough wrote:
>
I think they are much the same, considering their close working as well as
inter-breed family relationships.
>
>As you like Sheraton School and Hepplewhite, would you have any comment
>on the way Sheraton impresses me as foreshadowing art deco in a way that
>Hepplewhite does not?
Well Sherton at the start by the way of his "Drawing Book" used many of the
same motifs as Hepplewhite as well as the "daddy" of them all, Adam, even
Chippendale carried out work for and in the style of Robert Adam. But I
suppose if you consider that Sheraton was associated with squareness,
tapering square legs, cylinders, tambours and kidney-shaped furniture,
although Hepplewhite was also into squareness as well as bow-fronts and of
course oval backs, then perhaps this is where you see the "future events"
in the way of the Art Deco style. The Art Deco beginning (and remember as
early as 1905) was a reaction against the curvilinearity and
insubstantiality of much Art Nouveau, with a taste for more solid
rectilinear shapes, and a distaste for the macaroni aspects of Art Nouveau
ornament but important "a revival of interest in the 18th century" along
with influences from the avant-garde was indeed the hallmarks of Art Deco
...... IMO of course. Modernism as well, where do we draw the line between
them, but generally post-modernism was, albeit, a crude form of
neo-classicism with strong Art Deco overtones.
>As to your distinction between secretaires and other nomenclature,
>subjectively when someone says "secretary" (or secretaire) I think of
>something that is used as a writing place more transiently, that is as a
>convenience, than a piece that includes the function of a desk. I think
>the term secretary/secretaire implies a piece that performs a
>secretarial role, an aide, rather than a working desk, if you see what I
>mean.
>>
Well have a look at the jpgs at the URLs and re-think that, also I can show
you something like a secretaire-a-cylindre or a straight workhorse like a
secretaire desk, but yes .. not like a Wooton or a partners desk, if
that's what you mean. ;)