Object Number 1959.0066 B- D

Object Name

Frame

Category

Frames

Credit Line/Donor

Museum purchase

Creator (Role)

John Doggett (Frame maker)
1780-1857
John Doggett owned and operated a frame shop and looking-glass factory in Roxbury, Massachusetts between 1802 and 1809. He was a carver, gilder, cabinet, and looking-glass maker, and was one of the most successful and skilled of his kind in Roxbury. While learning his trade, he learned how to do gilding and was the first to practice it in town. Mrs. Saunders and Miss Beach patronized Doggett's shop. His meticulous ledgers show multiple entries for "Miss Saunders and Miss Beach." Gilt frames with a white glass mat and a chain-link border decoration are typical of his shop. Including the name of the student embroiderer and the Academy in elegant gilt letters on the frame is also typical. The school operated for more than thirty years and a large number of needlework examples survive, most of them with a Doggett frame. Many of the Academy students were from prominent families of New Hampshire and Maine. Doggett's daybook records many transaction with the Willard family clockmakers.

Place of Origin

Massachusetts, United States, North America

Mark or Signature or Inscription or Label

1. Label; glass mat border, bottom; "Wrought by Mary S. Crafts at Mrs Saunders & Miss. Beach's Academy Dorchester." (gilt, script letters)
2. Label; Side of frame; "59.66 c" (red paint)
3. Inscription; on backboard; "Mary Sibyl Crafts/ Born in Princeton, Mass./ Jan. 5, 1788.".

Materials

Wood; Glass; Paint; Gilding

Techniques

Painted, Carved

Dimensions (inches)

21.875 (H) , 17.875 (W) , 1.5 (D)

Dimensions (centimeters)

55.563 (H) , 45.403 (W) , 3.81 (D)

Measurement Notes

Measurements are of the frame. Measurements of the glass: 19.250" L x 15.250" W

Object Description

Text available soon.

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Book] Swan, Susan Burrows. 1977 Plain & Fancy: American Women and Their Needlework, 1700-1850.
• Published: p. 179, fig. 100
[Book] Swan, Susan Burrows. 1995 Plain and Fancy: American Women and their Needlework, 1650-1850.
• Published: p. 190, fig. 107
[Article] Ring, Betty. 08//1976 Mrs. Saunders' and Miss Beach's Academy, Dorchester. Antiques. 302-312.
• Published: p. 310, fig. 5; information on Mary S. Crafts family
[Book] Ring, Betty. 1993 Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850. I.
• Information on Mrs. Saunders and Miss Beach
[Article] Swan, Mabel Munson. 03//1929 The Man Who Made Simon Willard's Clock Cases. Antiques. 15 (3): 196-200.
• Information on John Doggett's shop