![]() ![]() If Mordecai Collins was not responsible for the corner cupboard illustrated in Fig. The purpose of this article is to present new findings related to the Swisegood school of cabinetmaking that provide a fuller, more accurate history of one of Piedmont North Carolina’s largest and most important furniture groups. In fact, evidence suggests that previously unidentified cabinetmakers were also working within the school. Although MESDA’s initial determination that Mordecai Collins, John Swisegood, Jonathan Long, and Jesse Clodfelter were the primary makers of these pieces is still accurate, their story is much more complex than previously known. Because the three signed Collins pieces are so unlike the earlier cupboard, they necessitated a re-evaluation of the Swisegood school of cabinetmaking.įurthermore, documentary evidence sheds new light on the group’s history. Surprisingly all three are much more akin to John Swisegood’s neoclassical work than to the earlier corner cupboard originally attributed to Collins ( Fig. In the forty plus years since the Swisegood exhibition and catalog, three examples of signed Mordecai Collins furniture have surfaced (to be discussed later and illustrated in Fig.
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