trip report, Chester Co. museum
bill tindall
>I recently returned from a "furniture inspiration" trip north. In this note I will report on the Chester Co. PA Historical Soc. Museum in West Chester, PA. It is noteworthy for its collection of Tall Clocks and Spice Boxes and 4 period rooms of Chester County, PA furniture.
West Chester is noteworthy for an abundance of outstanding places to eat.
When I asked locally about the museum I could not find anyone who was familiar with its contents, so I thought others might like to know about it. The museum has several period rooms, and two larger rooms with other furniture. One can get up close and personal with the pieces and study them at one's leisure. A library is also associated with the musuem and I was told it had furniture books, but it closed before I could investigate.
The entry has a tall "Philidelphia" walnut chest of drawers and a PA Dutch tall chest. I intend to build a chest similar to the PA Dutch piece so it was of interest to study moldings and construction which are different than anything I am familiar with.
The large open room must have a dozen or more tall clocks. In the period rooms are a large number of spice boxes (now referred to as "valuables boxes") of various styles and sizes. Many of these boxes are featured in the famous but out of print spice box book by Griffith. It was enjoyable to see them in person. As a fan of bun feet it was of great interest studying the examples in these rooms.
There was a second richly ornamented line and berry chest of drawrers but it still did not equal the similar but more magnificant piece at Winterthur (but I got to study this piece in great detail). Griffith (of Spice Box book fame) did a thesis on line and berry ornamentation and it is in the Winterthur library. It was my good luck that a piece she studied is this Winterthur chest I hope to approximately reproduce.
I find the shaker furniture a bit too stark and the formal period furniture too formal for my life style. The PA Dutch furniture in this museum fit in between these extremes and I think it would fit well in modern homes and life styles.
While this museum does not begin to have the diversity of furniture found at Winterthur, the informal accessability of the museum makes it useful, if something of interest is located there.
PS The museum also has a featured exhibit on keeping time and a large photograph display.
