Wallace Nutting and the Invention of Old America (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art) [Hardcover]

Mr. Thomas Andrew Denenberg (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art | Publication Date: March 11, 2003

For devotees of American decorative arts, Wallace Nutting (1861-1941) needs little introduction. A Congregational minister turned author, photographer and wildly successful entrepreneur, Nutting was the principal authority on early American furniture for much of the 20th century and played an important role in the development of a colonial-revival aesthetic and ideology. He collected, reproduced and marketed colonial artefacts, and the goods and experiences he offered his middle-class customers promoted his idealised notion of a time and place that he called "Old America". This is an illustrated study of Nutting's life and work. Thomas Andrew Denenberg describes Nutting's interrelated endeavours, from his varied writings (including "Furniture of the Pilgrim Century" and the monumental three-volume "Furniture Treasury") to his photography (both amateur and professional), chain of restored museum houses, renowned collection of 17th-century furniture, reproduction colonial furniture business, and advertising programme. By charting Nutting's activities, Denenberg creates a picture of an influential cultural critic who deftly combined myth and materialism, contributing significantly to both the growth of consumerism and the development of an anti-modern worldview in the 20th-century United States.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This deeply informed and lavishly illustrated landmark book is essential reading for every curator, collector, and interested student of American antiques." Wendell Garrett, editor-at-large, The Magazine Antiques

From the Publisher

This important and entertaining book is published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and shown there from June 3 to October 19, 2003. Published in association with the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (March 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300096836
• ISBN-13: 978-0300096835
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,234,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Colonial invention and re-invention, May 8, 2004

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wallace Nutting and the Invention of Old America (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art) (Hardcover)

Though I didn't see the show for which this book serves as a kind of catalogue, my enjoyment of it isn't limited to that. I don't know much about the Colonial revival in American culture, and this book is a splendid introduction to the ways in which our present-day culture have been modelled and molded by a series of cultural enterpreneurs like Nutting, for history is invidious and in the post-modern condition we can no longer distinguish between what is "real" and what is the simulacrum. Nutting saw clearly how through mass production he could disseminate his own vision of what colonial New England history was like, in ways that would reinforce his own prejudices towards nationalism, etc., while gibing with his genuinely moving and democratic feelings towards beauty akin to the Arts and Crafts movement of the UK and the USA of a slightly earlier date. Thomas Denenberg has all the facts and figures at his fingertips--he's a wonderful companion and never allows the readers to lose sight of the overall picture amid the myriad pleasues of Nutting minutiae. I'll have to find out more about American historiography, especially if it's this deliciously presented.