Moravian artisans in North Carolina have a long tradition of upholstered furniture, and many nineteenth-century examples reflect German and Scandinavian influences. (18) The chair was made about 1815 by the turner and cabinetmaker Karsten Petersen (1776-1857), who was born in Schleswig-Holstein and lived in other areas of Denmark and Germany before coming to Salem in 1806 on his way to the Moravian mission communities in Georgia. He returned to Salem in 1813 and began working as a turner and cabinetmaker. The sophistication of this chair, with its curved saber legs and scrolled crest rail, brings to mind an 1816 diary entry by a teacher in the Salem Boys' School, who wrote: "after dinner I went to Petersen and bought 2 elegant chairs for our house, which Br. Stotz was very willing to pay for--They cost $5.00." (19) The sofa is also attributed to Petersen's shop, but was probably made at least a decade later. A portrait of the Salem hatmaker Isaac Boner and his wife painted about 1835 illustrates the use of a similar sofa in their Salem house.

Petersen's shop was still in operation in the mid-nineteenth century when Wachovia artisans, facing increasing competition from outside the community, began to challenge the authority of the church in managing the trades. The congregation council of 1849 noted, "because of the increase in manufacturing in the country a considerable number of articles could thus be supplied more cheaply than the individual craftsman could produce them; therefore many items are now produced in factories which formerly could be found only in specialized trade." (20) Although some notable local and shop distinctions did prevail, as the nineteenth century progressed certain furniture forms produced by the North Carolina Moravians,  increasingly resembled vernacular furniture produced throughout the southern backcountry and indeed elsewhere in the United States. While this homogenization could be in reaction to increasing competition from outside Wachovia, it could just as easily be due to the acculturation of the Moravian artisans and their customers.

1. Journal of William Loughton Smith, 1790-1791, ed. Albert Matthews (University Press, Cambridge, 1917), p. 72.
2. "The Index of Early Southern Artists and Artisans," ongoing database, MESDA Research Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As MESDA continues to comb through the Moravian records, we continue to identify additional artisans in several trades including those associated with woodworking of various kinds.
3. As two parts of Old Salem Museums and Gardens, the collections of the Historic Town of Salem (Old Salem) and of MESDA are distinct from one another but overlap in many ways.
4. For an in-depth discussion of Moravians and their history, see Penelope Niven and Cornelia Wright, Old Salem: The Official Guidebook (Old Salem Museums and Gardens, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 2004), pp. 8-25.
5. The Moravians attempted a settlement in Georgia in 1735 but abandoned the effort in 1740.
6. Wachovia is the latinized form of Der Wachau, the name of Count Zinzendorf's ancestral estate in Austria; the name Bethabara comes from the Hebrew meaning house of passage, reflecting the fact that Bethabara was meant to be a temporary settlement until the site of the central congregation town could be chosen. Bethania, located three miles north of Bethabara, was established as a farming community for Moravian and non-Moravian families who wished to live more independently, with less church control than residents of Bethabara and Salem.
7. The Reverend Johann Jacob Friis to Brother Gottlob Konigsdorfer, May 1754, reprinted in Records of the Moravians in North Carolina (North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh, 1922-1969), vol. 2, p. 531. Friis was the pastor to the men who were building Bethabara. Konigsdorfer was German and had recently been in Bethabara after accompanying settlers to America; he was at the Moravian offices in London at the time the letter was written.
8. Ibid.
9. Among the first fifteen Moravians to be sent to North Carolina were a pastor (who was also skilled at cooking and gardening), a business manager, a doctor, a shoemaker (who was also "skilled in many things"), a millwright and carpenter, a farmer, a tailor (described as "skillful in many things and willing in all"), and several others who each had a variety of skills including woodcutting, gardening, baking, turning, and coopering. See ibid., vol. 1, pp. 73-74.
10. The term joiner is frequently used instead of cabinetmaker in Moravian documents.
11. Gemein Haus Inventory, 1776, Moravian Archives, Winston-Salem (translation entitled "Salem 1776: Some lists of Furnishings Belonging to the Congregation Diacony," Lot 62, Property Files, MESDA Research Center). The Gemein Haus was a communal building that housed the minister and his family, meeting rooms for the church leadership, sleeping chambers for visitors, and a Saal (or hall) used as a chapel. In Salem the chapel in the Gemein Haus was used as the main worship space until a separate church was constructed in 1800.
12. Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, vol. 2, p. 729.
13. Several of these characteristics are commonly associated with German American furniture made elsewhere in the southern backcountry as well.
14. Johannes Krause file, MESDA Research Center.
15. Undated price list, MESDA acc. 2241, Wachovia Historical Society, Winston-Salem. Continuing research by the author and a colleague suggests that the price list probably dates to the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The Wachovia Historical Society has long been administered by Old Salem Museums and Gardens.
16. Gemein Haus Inventory, 1791, Moravian Archives (translation entitled "Salem 1791: Some lists of Furnishings Belonging to the Congregation Diacony," Lot 62, Property Files).
17. "GD" stands for Gemein Diacony, the financial organization of the Moravian congregation that was also responsible for church-owned businesses.
18. For more on this subject, see Johanna Brown, "Such Luxuries as Sofas: An Introduction to North Carolina Moravian Upholstered Furniture," Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, vol. 27, no. 2 (Winter 2001), pp. 1-50.
19. "Peter Wolle Diaries," trans. Peter S. and Irene P. Seadle, pp. 172-173, photocopy of typescript, MESDA Library. An account book kept by Karsten Petersen provides evidence that the average cost for a chair from the mid-1820s to the mid-1840s was between thirty and seventy-five cents (Petersen account book, c. 1824-c. 1844, Shober Papers, MESDA Library).
20. Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, vol. 10, ed. Kenneth G. Hamilton, p. 5400.