“Conformable to that of the Waters”: The search for the origins of an early Kentucky furniture group
Daniel Kurt Ackermann
Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem Museum and Gardens, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Fig. 1a. Chest of drawers, workshop of Gerrard Calvert (c. 1771–1840), Mason County, Kentucky, 1795–1800. Cherry, dark- and lightwood inlay, poplar; height 42 3/8, width 41 ¾, depth 21 3/8 inches.
Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem Museum and Gardens, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The French invented a word,
terroir, for describing how the unique qualities of a place affect the flavor of foods. Terroir is what makes wines, cheeses, and other foods made in a particular place distinguishable from those grown and made elsewhere. This same concept can also be applied to objects and extended beyond the environment and climate to include cultural, social, and economic factors.