Some Devon carvings, some Ipswich carvings

Most of my shop-work during the past week has been preparation for my carving class at Lost Art Press that starts Monday July 8th. Several of my posts lately have been about the 17th-century joiner/carver Thomas Dennis of Ipswich, Massachusetts. (one more of those in the pipeline soon). I cited the research articles that also identified William Searle as one of the Ipswich joiners and the records concerning him in Ottery St. Mary, Devon.

The Devon carved works are without question the source material for the works associated with Thomas Dennis’ shop. The first one of these that I new first-hand is a carved and painted box:

Devon box, Plimoth Patuxet Museums

In 1999, when I first met Victor Chinnery, author of Oak Furniture: the British Tradition, I showed him this box and he pointed out to me how it stems from that Devon body of work. Since then, I’ve seen photos of many related boxes, mostly through Paul Fitzsimmons of Marhamchurch Antiques of many Devon boxes with related patterns.

detail of a Devon box