Bullock, Briscoe Partner to Showcase Unique Texas Furniture Exhibit

MAY 23, 2013 (AUSTIN, TX) - The Bullock Museum and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History will present a special exhibition, Texas Furniture From The Ima Hogg Winedale Collection, beginning July 13, 2013, in the Bullock Museum’s Albert and Ethel Herzstein Hall. It will offer a rare opportunity for visitors to see pieces from the most significant collection of 19th-century Texas furniture in existence.

Approximately 40 pieces of furniture, as well as other highlights from the Winedale collection, will be on display. Winedale is a historic farmstead near Round Top, Texas that was purchased in the 1960s by Houston philanthropist Miss Ima Hogg. Hogg was a collector of American furniture and a long-time supporter of historic preservation. The exhibition will be the first time the furniture has traveled from Winedale, now a division of the Briscoe Center, since Hogg placed it there.

Before the rise of imported factory-made furniture in the 1880s, most Texans bought home furnishings from their local cabinetmaker. The artifacts on display speak to the craftsmanship of Texas' immigrant European and native-born cabinetmakers, but they also reflect competing ideas about style, comfort and gentility and about what it meant to be a Texan during the 19th century.

The exhibit is guest-curated by Lonn Taylor, an authority on the architecture, furniture and decorative arts of Texas and the American Southwest. Taylor has served as historian for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and is the former director of Winedale, from which most of the furniture in this exhibition originates.

In choosing pieces for Texas Furniture, Taylor said he looked not only for those objects with aesthetically outstanding features, but furniture with certain characteristics, such as those that are painted or that contain certain forms.

"We looked at furniture not only as an aesthetic object, but as an artifact that would tell you something about the lives and values of the people who made them," Taylor said. "We also wanted pieces that would challenge people's assumptions about Texas furniture."

The exhibition will demonstrate representative cabinetmaking on the Texas frontier and will provide a glimpse of what it meant to be a 19th-century Texan.

Characteristic pieces crafted by Southern-Anglo and African-American cabinetmakers will be displayed along with those made by German immigrant furniture makers.

"It's another gateway to Texas' past," Taylor said.

Videos of modern cabinetmakers using traditional tools will help tell the story of furniture making in Texas. Children especially will enjoy the chance to craft their own clothes wardrobe or solve puzzles based on the different types of joints used in woodworking.

Texas Furniture From The Ima Hogg Winedale Collection is an exhibit not to be missed, especially by those with an interest in Texas pioneer history and appreciation for skilled craftsmanship in the Lone Star state.

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​​The Bullock Texas State History Museum, a division of the State Preservation Board and an accredited institution of the American Alliance of Museums, creates experiences that educate, engage, and encourage a deeper understanding of Texas. With dynamic, award-winning exhibitions that illuminate Texas history, people, and culture, educational programming for all ages, and an IMAX® theater with a screen the size of Texas, the Museum collaborates with more than 700 museums, libraries, archives, organizations, and individuals across the world to bring the Story of Texas to life. For more information, visit www.TheStoryofTexas.com or call (866)369-7108.