  About the Artwork
  
  
  Born into a free black family in Virginia, Thomas Day learned the cabinetmaker’s trade as his father’s apprentice. He pursued most of his career in Milton, North Carolina, where he rose to prominence as a furniture craftsman, running one of the largest and most successful establishments in the state. His clients included wealthy families throughout the region in such states as South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. This handsome mahogany sofa was made for a client in Yanceyville, a small city near Milton, and the Brooks family kept it for five generations. With its severe classical lines, “s”-scroll arms, and absence of applied ornamentation, the sofa exemplifies the restrained elegance of the American Restoration Style that marked a return to the austere neoclassicism of the earlier Federalist era. Day’s impeccable interpretation incorporates elements featured in John Hall’s manual A Cabinet Makers’ Assistant (1840), which is credited with popularizing the style.
 
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
  
  
  Title
  Sofa
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. 1840
  
  Artist
  Thomas Day
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  ca. 1801 - 1861
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Wood and black horsehair
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 36 1/4 × 87 1/2 × 29 1/2 inches (92.1 × 222.3 × 74.9 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Furniture
  
  
  Department
  African American Art
  
  
  Credit
  Museum purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2006.149
  
  
  Copyright
  This work is in the public domain.
