The University of North Carolina Press
320 pp., 8 x 11, 20 color and 243 b&w illus., 4 maps, appends., notes, bibl., index
Richard Hampton Jenrette Series in Architecture and the Decorative Arts
Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color
Thomas Day (1801-61), a free man of color from Milton, North Carolina, became the most successful cabinetmaker in North Carolina--white or black--during a time when most blacks were enslaved and free blacks were restricted in their movements and activities. His surviving furniture and architectural woodwork still represent the best of nineteenth-century craftsmanship and aesthetics.
In this lavishly illustrated book, Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll show how Day plotted a carefully charted course for success in antebellum southern society. Beginning in the 1820s, he produced fine furniture for leading white citizens and in the 1840s and '50s diversified his offerings to produce newel posts, stair brackets, and distinctive mantels for many of the same clients. As demand for his services increased, the technological improvements Day incorporated into his shop contributed to the complexity of his designs.
Day's style, characterized by undulating shapes, fluid lines, and spiraling forms, melded his own unique motifs with popular design forms, resulting in a distinctive interpretation readily identified to his shop. The photographs in the book document furniture in public and private collections and architectural woodwork from private homes not previously associated with Day. The book provides information on more than 160 pieces of furniture and architectural woodwork that Day produced for 80 structures between 1835 and 1861.
Through in-depth analysis and generous illustrations, including over 240 photographs (20 in full color) and architectural photography by Tim Buchman, Marshall and Leimenstoll provide a comprehensive perspective on and a new understanding of the powerful sense of aesthetics and design that mark Day's legacy.
"Exhaustively researched . . . with . . . gorgeous full-color photographs of more than 160 pieces of furniture and architectural woodwork that Day produced between 1835 and 1861."
--Raleigh News & Observer
"Give[s] hints of the artisan's hidden inner life. [Day] came across as subservient in his newspaper ads, promising that commissions 'will be thankfully received and punctually attended to.' But he sent his children to an abolitionist boarding school in Massachusetts and wrote them that he longed to leave 'the Oppressive South.'"
--The New York Times
"Marshall and Leimenstoll have researched Day's remarkable life and work thoroughly, identifying a great quantity of his known and attributed furniture and interior woodwork, finding myriad published sources for his design elements, and examining a wide range of documents to trace his career and describe his world. Their research, along with the wealth of images of Day's unique furniture and interiors, constitutes a book of major, lasting value."
--Catherine Bishir, author of North Carolina Architecture
"This book, featuring the story and workmanship of Thomas Day, a free man of color in slaveholding North Carolina, is a fascinating addition to the corpus of literature concerning the anomalies and complexities of life in the Old South. A slaveholder as well as a skilled craftsman, Thomas Day occupied an unusual and privileged position. These fine illustrations of his craftsmanship help to explain why."
--Daniel C. Littlefield, University of South Carolina
"Thomas Day's creative genius, his skill in the design and fabrication of furniture and decorative woodwork, and the scope of his business establishes him as a major founder of the North Carolina furniture industry."
--John H. Haley, Associate Professor of History Emeritus, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Cloth: $40.00
© 2010 The University of North Carolina Press
116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
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