MESDA Acquires Baltimore Sideboard From Stanley Weiss Collection

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) is the recipient of an exceptional inlaid sideboard made in Baltimore, Md., between 1800 and 1815. A gift of Beth and Stanley Weiss from the Stanley Weiss Collection, it fills an important gap in MESDA’s collection of Neoclassical furniture.

In the early Nineteenth Century, Baltimore’s craftspeople produced some of the most sophisticated inlaid Neoclassical furniture in Federal America,” says Lea Lane, curator of the MESDA Collection. “Sideboards in particular provided a vast canvas for the city’s artisans to show off.”

The sideboard has a long history in American decorative arts scholarship. Discovered and once owned by antiquarian and dealer Joseph Kindig Jr (1898-1971), it was featured in the groundbreaking exhibit and catalog Baltimore Furniture 1760-1810 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. This 1947 exhibit was the first exhibit of Baltimore furniture, and among the first exhibits to highlight Southern furniture, in an American Art Museum.

At MESDA, this sideboard will join the museum’s collection of Neoclassical furniture from across the south. “We are exceptionally grateful to Stanley and Beth for sharing this premier example with our visitors and the many researchers, scholars and students who work with our collection,” says Daniel Ackermann, chief curator

This sideboard is now on-view in the New to the Collection gallery in the lobby of the Frank L. Horton Museum Center. Admission is included with all Old Salem and MESDA tickets.

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts is at 924 South Main Street. For information, www.mesda.org or 336-721-7360.