The Search for Thomas Dennis among the Artisans of Exeter

Marhamchurch Antiques Presents Discovering Dennis, an exhibition and sale of late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century regional oak furniture produced by artisans working in and around Exeter, Devon and by the colonial New England workshop of an immigrant English joiner.

These objects fuse Continental designs with motifs and construction methods local to Devon: three-dimensionally modeled foliage, vibrant polychromy, grotesque masks and strapwork based upon the ornament prints of Flemish designers, and an enigmatic moulding that appears as reliably as a signature. Each chest and cupboard reflects the movements of artisans and their ideas over a period of more than a century and across an ocean. On many of the pieces can be seen distinctive design and construction methods carried by Thomas Dennis from Devon to Ipswich, Massachusetts. Viewed together, these objects document the English origins of the best known seventeenth-century American woodworking artisan.