Wallace Nutting (American, 1861–1941)
1920–1930
H. 55-1/2", W. 54", D. 23-1/4"
Oak, inlaid woods
Courtesy of Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) has recently acquired a significant piece of Wallace Nutting furniture--the Sudbury Cupboard of 1920–1930. This cupboard is a faithful reproduction of a seventeenth-century cupboard Nutting purchased from the Parmenter family in Sudbury, Mass. (see p. 144). From the number that survive, it seems likely that no more than a dozen such cupboards were made. The piece is labeled and in excellent condition with its original finish.
Wallace Nutting was an important early furniture scholar and antiquarian and a key figure in the Colonial Revival. A retired minister, he founded a thriving business in 1905 producing and selling nostalgic hand-tinted photographs depicting "colonial" domestic scenes. After this success, he opened a workshop in 1917 that made finely crafted reproduction furniture. According to SPNEA Curator Nancy Carlisle, "The Sudbury Cupboard is probably one of the two most important seventeenth-century case forms Nutting made."
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