New exhibit explores state's furniture heritage
Sep. 23—RALEIGH — new exhibit at the N.C. Museum of History explores the history of the furniture industry in North Carolina — not just its economic impact but also its impact on lives and communities — and, not surprisingly, there are plenty of local connections.
The exhibit, "Furniture: Crafting a North Carolina Legacy," opened last weekend and will remain on display through the end of March 2024.
"Although furniture plays a major role in our lives ... most of us spend very little time thinking about our furniture," said Michael Ausbon, the museum's curator of decorative arts, who curated the exhibit.
"This exhibit tells the very human story of furniture manufacturing in North Carolina.
"We are very excited to welcome you into that story."
High Point, of course — "The Furniture Capital of the World" — has been writing the story for generations, so it stands to reason that the city would be represented in the exhibit in some capacity.
One High Point piece featured in the exhibit is the so-called "seat belt chair," manufactured by The Phillips Collection.
The chair was actually inspired by seat belt straps.
"The designer (Thai designer Nuttapong Charoenkitivarakorn) was playing around with seat belt scraps, and he wove them around a metal frame and found out he could make a chair doing that," Ausbon said.
A seat belt chair famously was featured in the 2012 movie "The Hunger Games" and they can be found in the homes of a number of well-known athletes, according to The Phillips Collection's website.
Another piece that's sure to turn some heads is a Queen Anne chair from Woodmark Originals, a High Point company founded by Mary Webb Wood and her husband, Elliott Wood.
The elegant armchair features a blue crewel "tree of life" pattern.
"It's a historic pattern that was produced centuries ago," Ausbon said.
"Woodmark was known for their fine quality chairs — a lot of times they were patterned after historical chairs.
Mary and Elliott, but especially Mary, wanted to recreate this tree of life pattern, and she actually had to go to India to have the fabric made.
People had stopped making it because it was so expensive and handmade."
The chair features Mary's initials, MWW, woven into the fabric right behind the seat, a signature of the company's limited run of the tree of life chairs, Ausbon added.
Mary is also featured on an exhibit panel honoring women pioneers in the furniture industry.
So are High Point's Myrtle Hayworth Barthmaier, the president of four interrelated companies, including Alma Desk and Myrtle Desk; and Kay Lambeth, the former president of Erwin-Lambeth in Thomasville.
Exhibit visitors will also be impressed with a couple of pieces — a corner cabinet and a side table — by Thomasville native Tilden J. "TJ" Stone, a master furniture-maker whose work often featured such design elements as intricate carvings and hidden compartments.
"His stuff is just freaking amazing," Ausbon said.
Ausbon hopes the Museum of History's exhibit will give visitors a new appreciation of the home furnishings industry.
"I really want people to understand that furniture is not just an economic story, but a human story as well," he said.
"One of the things that made ... (the furniture industry) so successful in High Point was the community involvement and the people in the community.
"They started the businesses and got the supporting businesses.
"They wanted the industry to be there, and they wanted to support it. If it wasn't for the local support, it wouldn't be there."
jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579
