Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society
Highland NY 12528
Highland NY 12528
Monday, October 3 at 7 pm
Gustav Pedersen
18th Century Furniture Styles
Gustav Pedersen
18th Century Furniture Styles
Presenting in October will be Gustav Pedersen of Saugerties, a maker of fine furniture. He will speak on “18th Century Furniture Styles” at the Society’s program on Monday, October 3 at 7 pm at the Vineyard Commons Theater in Highland. Focusing on Empire, Shaker, and Arts and Crafts styles, he’ll talk about “what’s happening in the world that causes certain pieces of furniture to be as they are.”
Pedersen’s presentation follows a very different look at society in September, when author Eleanor (Ellie) Charwat’s spoke on “Bootlegging in the Hudson Valley,” a lively tale of the prohibition era. Intended to reduce crime and hold families together, prohibition, was an experiment that failed. Organized crime families held the spotlight in Charwat’s presentation.
Furniture as Social Barometer
How do you read society through furniture? Previewing his upcoming program, Pedersen gave an example: Arts and crafts furniture, he said, was a reaction to the industrial revolution. Tables and chairs and beds had been handmade forever until the machine age. Suddenly furniture could be made cheaper, faster, and more uniformly in factories. One outcome was that many skilled woodworkers lost their livelihoods. A feel for the wood and its natural elements was no longer a job requirement. Knowing how to run a machine was the new skill and it took fewer people to do it.
At the same time, there were still customers with an eye for wood artistry and an appreciation of the small differences between pieces that were caused by the wood itself, the tools used, and probably the mood of the craftsperson. The Arts and Crafts movement championed all these things.
Pedersen, who teaches a course on furniture through the ages starting with Greek and Roman times, spent years as a designer of large scale computer systems. It made him proud to see screens he had written on hundreds of computers. But it bothered him that after a couple of years, what he’d created would all be gone, replaced by something entirely new. “It made me sad,” he said.
On the advice of several friends, he turned his wood-working hobby into a career. It took a few years as a “helper” to other cabinet makers, but he eventually went into business for himself. These days his studio is a stop on the Saugerties Artists Tour.
Pedersen’s presentation follows a very different look at society in September, when author Eleanor (Ellie) Charwat’s spoke on “Bootlegging in the Hudson Valley,” a lively tale of the prohibition era. Intended to reduce crime and hold families together, prohibition, was an experiment that failed. Organized crime families held the spotlight in Charwat’s presentation.
Furniture as Social Barometer
How do you read society through furniture? Previewing his upcoming program, Pedersen gave an example: Arts and crafts furniture, he said, was a reaction to the industrial revolution. Tables and chairs and beds had been handmade forever until the machine age. Suddenly furniture could be made cheaper, faster, and more uniformly in factories. One outcome was that many skilled woodworkers lost their livelihoods. A feel for the wood and its natural elements was no longer a job requirement. Knowing how to run a machine was the new skill and it took fewer people to do it.
At the same time, there were still customers with an eye for wood artistry and an appreciation of the small differences between pieces that were caused by the wood itself, the tools used, and probably the mood of the craftsperson. The Arts and Crafts movement championed all these things.
Pedersen, who teaches a course on furniture through the ages starting with Greek and Roman times, spent years as a designer of large scale computer systems. It made him proud to see screens he had written on hundreds of computers. But it bothered him that after a couple of years, what he’d created would all be gone, replaced by something entirely new. “It made me sad,” he said.
On the advice of several friends, he turned his wood-working hobby into a career. It took a few years as a “helper” to other cabinet makers, but he eventually went into business for himself. These days his studio is a stop on the Saugerties Artists Tour.
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