Passing of an Era

You are reading the forum of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers — people who build and study American period furniture.

Membership brings the whole forum, the annual journal and quarterly magazine, the members’ gallery and workbench, and chapters across the country. About membership

jacon4

jacon4

Well-known member
Last week, Brunk in Asheville NC sold the Thomas A Gray collection of antiques, most of which were previously owned by Frank L Horton, founding father of MESDA. It all started in 1949 at  Colonial Williamsburg Va when Joeseph Downs, then the curator of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, remarked in his address to an antique forum that "little of artistic merit was made south of Baltimore....." BAM

In addition to offending the hell out of southerners, that remark did alot of good as well. Horton led the crusade to prove Downs wrong, opening MESDA in 1965. The rest as they say, is history. Gray is an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune who shared Horton's vision and had the resources to make it happen.

http://mesda.org/collections/mesda_furniture_sprite.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

If this discussion was useful, there are twenty years of them here. Join SAPFM to take part — the forum, the journal, the magazine and the members’ gallery come with membership.

Back
Top