{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"114"},"copyright":{"label":"Copyright","value":"The American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain."},"thesconceptsTechnique":{"label":"Technique","value":"http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster20048"},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"Eva and Morris Feld Folk Art Acquisition Fund"},"endDate":{"label":"End Date","value":"1780"},"labelText":{"label":"Label Text","value":""},"sortNumber":{"label":"Sort Number","value":"1981    12    1"},"invno":{"label":"Accession number","value":"1981.12.1"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":""},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Paint on maple and pine"},"geographyPlaceregion":{"label":"Place/Region","value":""},"media":{"label":"Media","value":{"mediaURL":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/1242/full","mediaDepartment":"Object Photographs","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"1242"}},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"Secretary Bookcase"},"geographyCity":{"value":""},"textEntriesWebsitedisplaytext":{"value":["FURNITURE","Painted furniture","Tall secretary with slant-front desk and four graduated drawers. Bookcase-top with closed paneled doors and flat top with projected molding cornice; on bracket feet. Overall \"tortoiseshell\" pattern painted decoration. Slant-front desk with painted decoration of central tree flanked by two tri-leaf motifs on ground.","The Queen Anne style had passed from fashion in urban centers by the time this secretary bookcase was made, but vernacular furniture made in rural areas retained elements of the style late into the eighteenth century. This secretary is painted with a tortoiseshell-like patterning overall, in shades of brown, black, red, and ocher. The desk front is further embellished with a branching tree design emerging from a mound of earth, a common motif associated with furniture, decoration, and textiles of the Connecticut River Valley. Painting in imitation of tortoiseshell was a popular ground for japanned ornamentation of exotic birds, flowers, figures, and animals and was favored as a surface treatment on furniture made in Boston and, later, New York. The arduous lacquering process that characterizes true japanning was adapted by rural artisans, who also interpreted in paint the figural elements that would have been applied as raised and gilded gesso. Instructions for this type of imitative painting were available through various published artists\u2019 manuals, such as the well-known A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing (1688), by John Stalker and George Parker. This important resource included a chapter that taught methods of imitative painting, titled \u201cTo Imitate and Counterfeit Tortoise-shell and Marble.\"Stacy C. Hollander, \"Secretary Bookcase,\" in American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 296.","This rural expression of the Queen Anne style was probably made after the period had already passed. The bracket feet relate to rural examples of the 1760-1800 period and the region can best be determined by the primary and secondary woods used. This has yet to be established. Flat-top secretaries were primarily made by rural craftsmen unable to construct the more complex broken-pediment or bonnet tops most frequently associated with this style of furniture."]},"bibliography":{"label":"Bibliography","value":""},"collections":{"label":"Collections","value":"Three Dimensional Works"},"geography":{"label":"Geography","value":""},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"152278"},"geographyState":{"value":""},"thesconceptsMaterials":{"label":"Materials","value":"http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster20048"},"geographyCountry":{"value":"United States"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"people":{"label":"Artist / Maker","value":{"displayOrder":"1","personRole":"Artist","personID":"103","content":"Artist unidentified"}},"classifications":{"label":"Classification(s)","value":"Furniture/Furnishings"},"textEntries":{"label":"Text Entries","value":["FURNITURE","Painted furniture","Tall secretary with slant-front desk and four graduated drawers. Bookcase-top with closed paneled doors and flat top with projected molding cornice; on bracket feet. Overall \"tortoiseshell\" pattern painted decoration. Slant-front desk with painted decoration of central tree flanked by two tri-leaf motifs on ground.","The Queen Anne style had passed from fashion in urban centers by the time this secretary bookcase was made, but vernacular furniture made in rural areas retained elements of the style late into the eighteenth century. This secretary is painted with a tortoiseshell-like patterning overall, in shades of brown, black, red, and ocher. The desk front is further embellished with a branching tree design emerging from a mound of earth, a common motif associated with furniture, decoration, and textiles of the Connecticut River Valley. Painting in imitation of tortoiseshell was a popular ground for japanned ornamentation of exotic birds, flowers, figures, and animals and was favored as a surface treatment on furniture made in Boston and, later, New York. The arduous lacquering process that characterizes true japanning was adapted by rural artisans, who also interpreted in paint the figural elements that would have been applied as raised and gilded gesso. Instructions for this type of imitative painting were available through various published artists\u2019 manuals, such as the well-known A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing (1688), by John Stalker and George Parker. This important resource included a chapter that taught methods of imitative painting, titled \u201cTo Imitate and Counterfeit Tortoise-shell and Marble.\"Stacy C. Hollander, \"Secretary Bookcase,\" in American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 296.","This rural expression of the Queen Anne style was probably made after the period had already passed. The bracket feet relate to rural examples of the 1760-1800 period and the region can best be determined by the primary and secondary woods used. This has yet to be established. Flat-top secretaries were primarily made by rural craftsmen unable to construct the more complex broken-pediment or bonnet tops most frequently associated with this style of furniture."]},"beginDate":{"label":"Begin Date","value":"1760"},"thesconcepts":{"label":"Terms","value":"http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster20048"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"1760\u20131780"},"exhibitions":{"label":"Exhibitions","value":[{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Wednesday, February 24, 1982 - Sunday, September 19, 1982","exhibitionEndISODate":"1982-09-19","exhibitionID":"14","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1982-02-24","exhibitionBeginDate":"1982","exhibitionTitle":"Folk Art Masterpieces","exhibitionEndDate":"1982"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Thursday, April 13, 1989 - Sunday, July 16, 1989","exhibitionEndISODate":"1989-07-16","exhibitionID":"7","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1989-04-13","exhibitionBeginDate":"1989","exhibitionTitle":"Expressions of A New Spirit","exhibitionEndDate":"1989"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"1983-1988","exhibitionEndISODate":"1988","exhibitionID":"292","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1983","exhibitionBeginDate":"1983","exhibitionTitle":"American Folk Art: Expressions of a New Spirit","exhibitionEndDate":"1988"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"1993\u20132001","exhibitionEndISODate":"2001-10","exhibitionID":"64","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1993-10-05","exhibitionBeginDate":"1993","exhibitionTitle":"America's Heritage","exhibitionEndDate":"2001"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Saturday, April 4, 1992 - Sunday, September 6, 1992","exhibitionEndISODate":"1992-09-06","exhibitionID":"406","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1992-04-04","exhibitionBeginDate":"1992","exhibitionTitle":"The Art of Embellishment","exhibitionEndDate":"1992"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - Sunday, March 26, 2006","exhibitionEndISODate":"2006-03-26","exhibitionID":"136","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2005-09-20","exhibitionBeginDate":"2005","exhibitionTitle":"Surface Attraction","exhibitionEndDate":"2006"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Saturday, July 18, 2015 - Sunday, September 27, 2015","exhibitionEndISODate":"2015-09-27","exhibitionID":"169","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2015-07-18","exhibitionBeginDate":"2015","exhibitionTitle":"Folk Art and American Modernism","exhibitionEndDate":"2015"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Thursday, July 11, 2002 - Sunday, January 5, 2003","exhibitionEndISODate":"2003-01-26","exhibitionID":"73","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2002-07-11","exhibitionBeginDate":"2002","exhibitionTitle":"American Anthem","exhibitionEndDate":"2003"}]},"thesconceptsObjecttype":{"label":"Object Type","value":"http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster20048"},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"67 3/4 × 37 × 16 3/4\""}}]}