The Providence furniture making trade, 1772-1834, as seen in the account books of Job Danforth and William, Samuel and Daniel Proud
Date
1975
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Post-Revolutionary Providence, Rhode Island, succeeded Newport as the commercial center of southern New England. Two of the furniture shops supplying the needs of the growing city were those of Job Danforth (1745-1838), a cabinetmaker, and William Proud (1724-1779) snd his sons Samuel (died 1835) and Daniel (died 1833), chairmakers and turners. Account books for both shops survive. Danforth's "boock no. 2," his first volume being missing, spans the years 1788 to 18.18. The Prouds* book includes the years 1772 to 1834. These business records show that on occasion the two shops did business with each other and frequently provided furnishings and services for the same customers. In addition, the account books provide a view into two small furniture-making shops, their organization, economy, products, scope of business, customers and even glimpses of the proprietors and their social lives. ☐ Danforth was sole master of his shop, and Samuel and Daniel Proud were partners after their father’s death in 1779. Both shops were small and in addition to the proprietors employed only an occasional journeyman and took only one or two apprentices. ☐ Danforth's account hook indicates that his average annual income was $220.72 over the thirty-year working period from 1788 to 1818. During the sixty-two year period from 1772 to 1834, the Prouds' average annual income was only $161.80. The two volumes probably do not show the full, or "true," income of either shop. Not taken into account here is the "living" value of many of the goods and services exchanged for the furniture makers' products and services. Because of a perennial shortage of specie, credit and barter were a wray of life and business to early craftsmen. Balanced books and dayto- day solvency were not major issues in accepted business practices of the times. ☐ Sales of fifty-eight variations of cabinetwork and chairs accounted for between sixty and eighty-five percent, of Danforth's annual recorded income during his most productive decade from 1795 to 1805* "While general cabinetwork was Danforth*s specialty, the Prouds concentrated on making thirty varieties of chairs between 1772 and 1833. ☐ The craftsmen who made furniture also were willing to repair cabinetwork and chairs. Danforth derived between one and five percent of his annual income from mending furniture. Between fifteen and twenty-five percent of the Prouds1 income came from repairs and the rushing and caning of chair seats. An additional five to fifteen percent of the Prouds’ income came from sales of their turned products. ☐ Both Danforth and the Prouds performed many other kinds of services for customers and sold merchandise not related to the furniture business in order to accommodate their customers and to earn a living. In addition, both Danforth and the Prouds rented out shop space, garden plots, rooms and sheds in order to extend their earnings. ☐ In short, the account books of these furniture makers provide insight into the workings of two small furniture-making shops of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and reveal something of the personalities of the craftsmen who owned them and the nature of the society in which they operated.