American Schoolgirl Art is the subtitle to Betsy Krieg Salm’s treatise about the subject – a true work of love for the material.  I have heard from several of you stitchers out there who have been reading the book cover to cover and who are in love with the book.  That is wonderful – I know that those who love embroidery to this level, understand the workmanship in other areas of the decorative arts and can be equally enthralled with it.  In this case, the art is intimately wound with our own.  Through this book , we learn about the academy’s which read as a who’s who in sampler instruction as well.

One of the things I found so interesting in the first chapter of the book is the origins of this work in women’s academies as it also spoke to the origin of our own art’s instruction.  Students would progress through a few pieces of wood to work on – including sewing boxes made locally or expensive imported boxes and for some, pieces made by big city cabinet makers such as Thomas or John Seymour.   In fact, the trend for painting on furniture in New England female institutions can be traced directly to this famous father and son cabinetmaking team.

Betsy has been able to locate wonderful advertisements, lithographs of store interiors and drawing instruction handbooks which show in detail how the pieces and supplies were purchased by academy students.  She well defines the differences between other decoratively adorned wood pieces such as transfer ware, tunbridge ware and English Women’s Painted Furniture.  An important set of descriptions as the relative value is extreme – a piece of American work by a schoolgirl commands five-figures often.  I have been at antique shows and have seen a few of the rare examples and while the pieces were exquisite – so was the price tag!

One of the most facinating chapters is the second which discusses the process of creating this type of work.  While Betsy discusses the order of work, she backs it up with passage after passage exerpted from period English and American texts to show why she works the pieces as she does.   The detail presented is comendable – not only scientific analysis of the pigments on multiple antiques, but actual hand drawn patterns from archives with notations ‘For the side of the work box’ showing that these were used for a particular piece.  You must know that I have ‘geeked out’ for hours over the materials and technique descriptions in this chapter.  And that doesn’t even mention the pages on interiors for the sewing boxes and sewing tables

Chapter 3, Motifs in Women’s Painted Furniture, is a visual delight as Betsy shows close up views of antique pieces and compares the motifs to contemporary samplers worked in the same regions.  Chapter 4 deals with Women’s Education and outlines the various known academies where this work was painted with exquisite detail on the inner working so the school as well as biographies of some of the teachers of this work.  Because so many of the pieces are signed in ink with a date and name, Betsy has been able to collect information on the girls themselves and detail them out in Chapter 5.  In at least one instance, the needlework and table by a girl is shown.  I wonder if the existence of all this information in one place will inspire those among us who collect info on samplers to find more of the examples of schoolgirl work by the same girls – furthering the knowledge base.  If any of you find or know of a sampler that seems to be by one of these girls – contact Betsy right away!

Chapter 6 goes into the social changes that brought about the downfall of this art and details some of Betsy’s struggle to bring the art form back -showing many of her interpretations of antiques.  But I have to admit that my second favorite chapter is actually an appendix – Appendix D.  It details in words and pictures the professional treatment of Elizabeth Perkins’ Table.  When do we EVER get to see this type of thing!?  I find the art and reasoning behind how conservators work with pieces to be fascinating and enlightening.  I am so happy that this section did not get edited out.  That said, the editing was done very well – a perfect balance of color photography, excerpts to back up statements, historical information as well as technical.  I certainly hope that when I write the jacket book with my colleagues, we do half as good a job as was done here.

For those of you who are interested in the contents of the book – they are laid out below.  If you are interested in purchasing a copy and seeing some of the sewing accessories that Betsy has provided to me to sell – you can find them all on the same webpage.

Contents:

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Women’s Painted Furniture, 1790-1830

Chapter 2:  The Process of Creating Women’s Painted Furniture

Chapter 3:  Motifs in Women’s Painted Furniture

Chapter 4: Women’s Education

Chapter 5: American Schoolgirl Art Pupils and Their Painted Pieces

Chapter 6: Conclusion: “Ancients” and “Moderns”

Appendixes

Appendix A:  Art Instruction books of the Federal Period

Appendix B:  The Rules of Litchfield Academy, 1825

Appendix C:  A Chronicle of Sir Andreas B. Engstrom’s Advertisements Offering Lessons

Appendix D: Professional Treatment of Elizabeth Perkin’s Table

Appendix E: Recipe for Finishing a Young Lady

Appendix F:  Suppliers of Materials Used to Create Historical Replications

Appendix G:  Historical Societies and Museums with Collections

Appendix H:  Research Institutions Providing Archival Material

Appendix I:  Further Reading