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Traditional Spanish New Mexican furniture can best be characterized as simple, having straight lines and good, honest proportions, all of which give these pieces a particular type of dignity. As is true of other handmade objects in a given society, furniture made in New Mexico mirrored the lives of New Mexicans in the 18th and 19th centuries-isolation and a rugged existence. The earliest furniture was made for churches and a few rich families. Even well into the 19th century, the average home was devoid of pieces considered common today: chairs, tables and beds. The author regards the traditional period in Spanish New Mexican furniture to begin about 1776 and extend until almost 1900. The pieces in this book illustrate the important contributions made by the Spanish in the 18th and 19th centuries to this form of the decorative arts.
About the author
Alan C. Vedder, because of his interest in architectural and artistic fields and despite only general formal education in those areas, had a fascination for New Mexican culture. These interests were expanded and intensified when he began working with E. Boyd in the newly-established Spanish Colonial Department of the Museum of New Mexico. He worked closely with her for almost twenty years and together they explored, empirically, the Spanish cultural background of New Mexico. Mr. Vedder specialized in conservation of New Mexican Spanish Colonial objects, having conserved a famous bulto at El Santuario de Chimayo and the altar screens at Rosario Chapel in Santa Fe and at Santa Cruz Church in Española. He acted as a consultant to various museums including the American Museum in Britain at Bath, England, for which he collected, designed and installed their permanent exhibit of New Mexican rooms. Dedicated to all aspects of New Mexico's Spanish Colonial culture, Mr. Vedder's primary goal was to further the appreciation of traditional New Mexican furniture.
