MASTERS OF FURNITURE
Master craftsmen (& one woman) with a common goal.

GROWING UP WITH TRADITION

Master craftsman David Lamb lives and works where he grew up, at Canterbury's Shaker Village. Thoughtful and articulate, his exquisite furniture is bought by famous people and shown in museums. The youthful looking furniture maker has made pieces for actor Harrison Ford and tennis star Ivan Lendl.

David's shop is roomy with a comfortable dusty and ramshackle feel. It's more like a turn-of-the-century factory than one craftsman's workspace. You don't see much work-in-process just bits and pieces along with clamps, templates and stacks of wood. David builds mostly on commission. One place to see his work is Manchester's Currier Museum of Art.

A demi-lune (half circle) table by David is on exhibit at the Currier. Deceivingly simple it has an elliptical top and four elegantly tapered legs. It is a study in perfect proportion and superb detailing, from the green schist top to the tiny edges of rounded serpentine (stone). David's style is often a personal "reinterpretation" of traditional designs with materials as common as birch or birdseye maple and as rare as 30 year old Cuban mahogany.

Apprenticed at fourteen to European cabinetmaker Alejandro de la Cruz, David reflects that he "bought the whole lifestyle" watching de la Cruz work at the Shaker Village. Later Lamb studied in Boston University's Program in Artisanry. When de la Cruz retired David bought his house and shop and began his own life as a master craftsman. Lamb is one of a small group of furniture masters who are preserving and promoting the centuries old tradition of furniture excellence in New England.

AN NEW LEGACY

During the 18th and 19th century New England produced some of the country's finest 'bespoken' (custom) furniture. Legendary makers Samuel Dunlap, Langley Boardman and Judkins & Senter all worked in New Hampshire. However, with the arrival New England's textile boom, fine cabinet making all but disappeared except for the occasional solitary craftsman. It remains that way to this day.

In 1996, a loose collection of gifted furniture makers came together in New Hampshire to improve the visibility of their work. Christened the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association, their work spans all styles. Their goal was revive the state's furniture legacy and begin a new tradition of excellence.

Not long after they reinstated another guild-like tradition, the support of "patrons". Patrons financially sponsor the creation of special "bespoken" pieces. Each piece is executed by a master maker and placed in NHFM's annual exhibition tour and auction. It's all very Renaissance like. Participants have included Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as Governor John Sununu and his wife Nancy. The latter have been very active supporters.

THE ART IN FURNITURE

Outgoing and talkative, Jo Stone is currently the only woman among the 26 members of NHFMA. She is a full time Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire. Joe teaches furniture and sculpture from her classroom in an anonymous UNH brick building which she describes as "a great space". Brimming with institutional green and student projects it's a contrast to Jo's personal workspace in her garage. That shop is compact, freshly sheet rocked and full of industrial grade equipment. For inspiration, one wall is covered with a collection of bugs, pea pods, rocks, flowers, feathers, hardware, shells, pine cones, sea urchins, and animal bones she's collected.

Jo's work represents a different place in the map of NHFMA styles. A buoyant blend of intellectual and hands-on, Jo has a background and degrees in both graphic art and three dimensional design. Her work often combines sculpture, graphics and joinery. One, named "Offering Cabinets", is a series of tall, drawer filled columns of quarter sawn white oak and butternut wood topped by a gentle bowls. They are graceful fun yet are produced with the same kind of intensity and focus as Lamb's inspired classics.

Because of teaching demands, her output probably wouldn't match other members of NHFMA. On the other hand, having a "day job" allows her the special freedom to experiment with increasingly abstract ideas.

A MASTERS' MASTER

Jere Osgood's home and shop has a definite 1960's attitude. Sporting a large porthole and stained shingles, it sits just off a wandering country road in Wilton, NH. His shop is densely packed with materials and equipment. Below huge glass windows a drafting table overflows with sketches. Jere is the dean of New Hampshire furniture makers and one of America's great craft teachers.

Tall and slim, Jere has a slightly bemused look and a reserved, sly wit. Mention NHFMA and he pronounces it as "nuff-ma" which, he explains, is "the sound a furniture maker coughing". Like Jo Stone, Jere's style is hard to categorize and he insists it has little precedent. He wryly notes "I don't borrow dead furniture makers' body parts." His elegant Bubinga wood tables are highly sought after. "I build 'em and they just disappear." he observes.

One of Jere's signature pieces, a shell desk, has an elegantly curved top that open to reveal elaborately useful interiors. Its laminated pieces are a fine furniture technique he pioneered. Here again, Jere uses African Bubinga along with figured cherry and white ash. One desk is on exhibit at the Currier Museum.

His work has become a standard against which others are measured. He taught at the American School for Craftsmen and the Program in Artisanry at Boston University where David Lamb was his student. Jere credits his upbringing for setting him on a craftsman's path. "My family, father and uncles, all built stuff. If you needed something, you built it." he remembers.

NATIONAL ATTENTION

NHFMA has purposefully kept itself small. It membership now includes craftsmen from outside New Hampshire. With the guild and the patron program, NHFMA attracted national attention to the excellence of it's master craftsmen each of whom is making a unique contribution toward a "new golden age of furniture making". Collectively they appear to be well on their way to their goal.

For more information on NHFMA, the craftsmen involved and the fall schedule for their exhibits and auction,
visit their website at www.furnituremasters.org.