Hobbs' Reproductions Echo i8th Century 



By Ann Green Photographs by Michael Halminski 



erquimans County cabinetmaker Ben Hobbs pauses while 

 standing on a floor covered with sawdust, and explains that it takes 

 patience to make furniture the old-fashioned way. 



"You can't cross the line," says Hobbs while looking at the 

 back of a student's unfinished Chippendale chair. "A piece is not 

 done until it is right." 



In his classes for aspiring cabinetmakers, Hobbs teaches 

 students how to use hand tools, traditional techniques and designs 

 from the 18th century. 



"There was a big group of furniture makers here in 

 Perquimans County," says Hobbs. "They didn't make backwater 

 furniture here. It was a takeoff on the Chippendale style in 

 England." 



In the classes, students learn how to make fine American 

 reproductions — from Chippendale chairs to pencil post beds. 

 "Chippendale" applies to much of the well-made English furniture 

 of the 18th century. 



"My furniture is definitely English style — neat and plain, but 

 this doesn't mean there is no ornamentation," says Hobbs. "Some 

 pieces have carved feet." 



Hobbs' classes are held in an old building within a complex 

 in rural northeastern North Carolina between Hertford and 

 Edenton. The workshop, which offers the aroma of new wood, is 

 filled with a woodstove and numerous tools, clamps and unfinished 

 pieces of furniture. 



While taking the classes, students stay in fully restored pre- 

 Civil War cottages moved from Gates and Perquimans counties. 

 The 16 buildings — which include his home, the cottages, a 

 smokehouse, milk house, jail and restaurant open for dinner to 

 the public — are furnished in antiques and period pieces made by 

 Hobbs. 



For example, the red-sided Bennetts Creek House was 

 built around 1750 and has modem conveniences. The cottage is 

 decorated early American style with blue wainscoting and a pencil 

 post bed, wing chair, high boy and armoire — all made by Hobbs. 

 The floor is made of the original, wide-plank heart pine boards. 

 The winding stairs lead to a loft bedroom with timbered beams, a 

 twin bed and chest of drawers. 



"The students can go back after class and examine the 

 furniture and compare it to what they are making," he says. "Being 

 around the pieces makes the students appreciate this style of 

 furniture more." 



Over the years, Hobbs has developed a reputation as an 

 expert in early American reproductions. He has conducted 

 workshops at the N.C. Museum of History and for the American 

 Period Furniture Makers. 



"Ben is a true handcrafter," says Patricia Marshall, curator 

 of furnishings and decorative arts at the N.C. Museum of History. 

 "He is making sure the lost art of cabinetmaking survives into the 

 21st century." 



Albemarle Region's Furniture Heritage 



During the 1700s, Perquimans County was one of the most 



prolific rural producers of furniture in eastern North Carolina and 



southeastern Virginia, according to Marshall. 



Thomas White was one of the county's most well-known 



cabinetmakers. 



"Thomas White established himself early on," says 



Marshall. "There was a trade route along the Chowan River that he 



followed." 



White's style of furniture was tasteful and stylish and without 

 the excessive details of French furniture that had a lot of foliage 

 and scrolls, she adds. 



One of White's pieces was a walnut desk that was made for 

 Thomas Newby of Belvidere Plantation in Perquimans County. 



"The desk shows a strong link between the Albemarle and 

 New England region," says Marshall. "Its block and shell interior 

 is similar to 18th-century furniture from Newport, Rhode Island." 



This dominance of trade between New England and North 

 Carolina continued through the American Revolution, according to 

 Ben Hobbs' son, Matthew Hobbs, who wrote a thesis on the trade 

 relationship while he was a fellow at the Winterthur Museum in 

 Delaware. 



Also, many Englanders settled in northeastern North 

 Carolina. 



"Importantly, the bonds between the Quaker communities 

 in Perquimans County, North Carolina, in southside Virginia, in 

 Rhode Island and elsewhere in the colonies provided a conduit 

 for trade and cultural exchange, involving correspondence, 

 intervisitation and even intermarriage," he writes. The religious 

 and mercantile connections between the Albemarle and other 

 regions also contributed to sophistication in furniture production, 

 according to Matthew Hobbs. 



COASTWATCH 13 



