Images(6)

Windsor cradle

Date1800-1820

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Petersburg or Richmond

MediumTulip poplar, hickory, yellow pine, and oak.

DimensionsOH. 37"; OW. 21"; OD. 44."

Credit LineGift of E. Charles and Cynthia Beyer in memory of Carrie Cole Lane Geddy

Object number1995-2

DescriptionAppearance: The cradle consists of a low box with outward slanting sides to which Windsor bowed-back chair like hoops with vertical spindles are attached at the head and foot. Side rails, with spindles running into the side boards, are in turn attached to the hoops. A detachable hoop attaches to the side rails to facilitate forming frame for a textile hood between it and the hoop at the head of the cradle. Rounded legs at the head and foot are attached to curved rockers, which are stabilized with a round stretcher that connects them.

Construction: The side, head, and foot boards are open dovetailed together. The hoops at the head and foot are round-tenoned into this assembly, and the side rails are lapped to the hoops and secured with nails or screws. The vertical spindles in the side, head, and foot assemblies are round-tenoned in place and the removable central hoop is similarly joined to the side rails. A detachable bottom board rests on a pair of thin braces flush-mounted to the underside of the side rails and nailed to the legs. The legs are screwed or nailed to the inner face of the side boards and screwed to the rockers at the bottom. The stretcher is round-tenoned to the rockers.

Materials: Tulip poplar head board, foot board, side boards, side rails, and bottom braces; hickory spindles and hoops; yellow pine bottom board; oak rockers.
Label TextAfter 1800, many Windsor chair makers in Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, augmented their income by making and selling other painted, spindle-fashioned furniture forms. An 1817 advertisement by the Petersburg firm of Matthews & Brown, "CHAIR MAKERS, SIGN-PAINTERS & TURNERS," illustrates the range of wares available. In addition to chairs and settees, Graves Matthews and Alexander Brown made Windsor "Bedsteads, Cradles, Gigg-Seats, Writing Chairs, and every other article in their line." One of the few surviving examples of these other Windsor wares is this yellow pine and tulip poplar cradle. Remarkably well preserved, it is strongly reminiscent of Richmond and Petersburg Windsor chairs such as CWF accession 1981-143. The height, scale, and curvature of the bows at each end of the cradle closely follow the arrangement on the chair back, as do the size, spacing, angle, and number of the spindles.

The cradle descended in the Cole family of Williamsburg. It probably was first owned by Jesse Cole and his wife, Catharine B. Travis, who married in 1813. The couple lived in the still-standing Taliaferro-Cole House on Duke of Gloucester Street, a property Cole acquired in 1804 and expaned to its present size about 1815. That a Williamsburg resident would send to Richmond or Petersburg for new furniture illustrates how the departure of the state government in 1780 ended the former capital's role as a major cabinetmaking center. Most artisans left as Williamsburg's population and economy dwindled. By the early nineteenth century, townspeople in need of specialized furniture forms had little choice but to seek outside sources. Although Windsor chairs and related goods could be imported from New York, Philadelphia, or one of the few Windsor makers in Norfolk, they were readily available in Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia's primary centers of Windsor production. Both were easily reached from Williamsburg via the James River.

Cradles of all kinds frequently survive in good condition because they get comparatively little use. Unlike standing cribs, cradles have curved rockers that make the form useful in quieting a restless infant. A cradle is often rocked with one foot, leaving the caregiver's hands free to perform other tasks. Once an infant begins to pull up into sitting position at a few months of age, however, the cradle is easily overturned and so it is usually relegated to the attic in anticipation of the next birth.

The open wooden structure of a Windsor cradle was conceived as an inexpensive frame for the textiles associated with infant bedding. On the present example, a detachable hoop at the center was designed to be slipped through a casing at the front of a curtain assembly that enclosed the head of the bed. According to The Workwoman's Guide (1838), "curtains" or "crib covers" were typically made of white textiles like dimity or twilled muslin and were sometimes lined with glazed blue calico. They were designed to "guard the infant from the sun, or from draughts of air, while asleep, and to give an air of comfort and cleanliness."

InscribedNone
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceAccording to family tradition, the cradle was first owned by Williamsburg residents Jesse Cole (d. 1845) and Catharine B. Travis Cole, who were married in 1813 and lived in the Taliaferro-Cole House. It likely descended to their son, Robert Francis Travis Cole 1818-1887) and his wife, Elizabeth Labby (1820-1885); to their son, Henry Denison Cole 1856-1939) and his wife, Caroline Dudley Lane (d. 1950); to their neice, Carrie Cole Lane (1899-1987) and her husband, Vernon Meredith Geddy, Sr.). The cradle remained at the Taliaferro-Cole House unitl 1966, when Carrie Cole Lane Geddy gave it to E. Charles Beyer, one of the donors.

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