SHAKER DESIGN Out of this World [SOLD]

SHAKER DESIGN Out of this World

Jean M. Burks, Editor

Yale University Press, New Haven

Hardback with slipcover, first edition 2008.  245 pages, illustrated

Published for the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York and the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont

This catalog was published in conjunction with the exhibition “Shaker Design: Out of this World” from March 13 through June 15, 2008.

Reaching an apogee of 6,000 members in the years just before the Civil War, the Shaker movement was the most extensive, enduring, and successful utopian society ever established in America.  Leaving Manchester, England, in 1774 to avoid persecution the Shakers crossed the Atlantic and during the next 50 years established 19 villages from Maine to Kentucky.

The Shakers were guided by the principles of utility, honesty, and order in both their work and worship, and this belief system influenced the physical expression of the goods they produced for use at home and for sale outside their communities. 

This book presents a wide array of extraordinary fine examples of Shaker furniture, household objects, textiles, religious drawings, and items made to sell to the “world’s people” (non-Shakers).  The book’s expert contributors discuss Shaker design in relation to the furniture they constructed, the products they sold, their gift drawings and spirituality, and their rejection of American Fancy design.  The book also considers the powerful inspiration Shaker design has provided for diverse modern and contemporary designers, including George Nakashima, Roy McMakin, Thomas Moser, and Scandinavian furniture makers.