Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
1963.11 |
Object Name |
Cradle |
Date |
c1880 |
Features |
Wooden rocking cradle. Four vertical posts at the corners, each with spool turnings, topped with finials, descend to two bowed rockers. Vertical rails between posts with same spool turnings. Three slats make up the bed of the cradle. |
Object Story |
This cradle was made by Gibbard Furniture and has decorative spool turnings. Spool turnings were easily made on a lathe, and cradles of this type were very popular in the area. Use of spool turnings indicates that the design was influenced by the Elizabethan Revival movement. Another local furniture maker, Green and Son, also made spool turned cradles (see 2003.12.01), but theirs are much heavier in design than the Gibbard pieces. Gibbard Furniture was a company founded by John Gibbard who was born in 1813. Around adulthood he became an apprentice to his Father, who was a carpenter and millwright. In 1836 John Gibbard moved to Napanee where he at one point worked for John Benson installing doors and windows for Benson's store. In 1860 he leased a mill from William Bartels where he made furniture as well as doors, coffins, and more. His business grew throughout his life and managed to overcome the significant challenge of two separate fires. John Gibbard passed away in 1908. Gibbard Furniture remained in the his family until 1940 when it was purchased by Jack McPherson a former Gibbard sale's manager. It remained in the McPherson family until 2009 when the factory was shut down. |
People |
Gibbard, John Benson, John Bartels, William |
Subjects |
1880's Furniture Childhood & youth Children's furniture Cradles |
Search Terms |
Gibbard's Furniture Gibbard Gibbard Furniture Gibbards |