Date: Fri 09-Apr-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: SARAH

Quick Words:

LongIsland

Full Text:

Made On Long Island

with 3 cuts

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. -- Society for the preservation of Long Island

Antiquities will open a gallery exhibition, "Made on Long Island: Recent

Discoveries in the Decorative Arts," on April 10. It will explore some of the

important discoveries made by Dean Failey and published in SPLIA's new edition

of Long Island Is My Nation, The Decorative Arts & Craftsmen, 1640-1830.

Examples of furniture, silver, textiles and other items from makers throughout

Long Island will be on view. Artisans from Southold, East Hampton,

Southampton, Smithtown, Woodbury/Huntington, Oyster Bay, North Hempstead and

Kings County are all represented in this exhibition.

Among the highlights is a desk by Thomas Cooper. It is rare to find furniture

signed by the maker, and this example is especially interesting as it is also

dated: Thomas Helme Esquire, August 1770. Mr Failey was able to link Thomas

Cooper with his brother Caleb Cooper, a carpenter-joiner of Southampton. The

desk was made for Thomas Helme (1728-1818) of Miller Place, Brookhaven, who as

a prominent member of the community held several public offices including

Secretary of the Committee of Safety during the Revolutionary War. Cooper's

headstone in Miller Place reads Thomas Cooper, Carpenter of Southampton.

Another interesting highlight is a needlepoint picture made by Nancy S.

Burnham, a young girl attending Mrs Lyman Beecher's School in East Hampton.

Mrs Beecher, the wife of East Hampton minister Lyman Beecher, and her sister

Mary ran a small private girls' boarding and day school in the Beechers' house

on Main Street during the first decade of the Nineteenth Century, where the

girls learned sewing and needlework.

The exhibition will run through December 5 at The Gallery, Society for the

Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, Main Street & Shore Road, Cold Spring

harbor. Hours are April, 11-4 pm, Saturday and Sunday; and May-October, 11-4

pm, Tuesday-Sunday.

"Recent Discoveries in Long Island Decorative Arts: A Gallery Talk by Dan

Failey," will be Sunday, April 18, at 3 pm. Admission is limited to 20 guests,

reservations are required 516/692-4664.

SPLIA has announced the publication of the long-awaited second edition of Long

Island Is My Nation. Out of print for fifteen years, this book has become the

standard reference in the field of Long Island furniture and decorative arts.

In the 23 years that have passed since the original publication, new and

significant discoveries have been made that add to, and in many cases confirm,

the original study by Dan F. Failey, now of Christie's American Decorative

Arts Department.

The book, 352 pages, 378 black and white illustrations, hard-bound, is

available through SPLIA for $60 a copy, plus shipping and handling.