"Virginia Sectional Furniture: 1800 to 1860" by Hal Stuart (Revised Edition)

Explore nineteenth-century sectional furniture design, construction and use through the detailed field notes and on-the-spot photographs of long-time furniture collector and historian Hal Stuart. For more than a decade, Mr. Stuart studied a unique Virginia furniture form that was divided by families, obscured by vague description, and nearly wiped-out by the American Civil War. His discoveries are derided by many in the antique and decorative arts trades as trivial. Even Antiques Roadshow turned its back on the man and his findings when they brought their show to Richmond, Virginia. Now you can judge for yourself the veracity of the story behind 17 different antebellum Virginia sectional sofas and settees, and their unique connections to American and Virginia history. Below is some of what other people are saying and or writing about his work:

Oscar Fitzgerald, author of American furniture: 1650 to the Present, “Gilbert Rohde and/or Donald Deskey often get credit for inventing the form so I delight in sharing your information with the class.”

Eve Kahn, “Antiques,” New York Times, “He has delved so deeply into the research that he has replicated the reddish finishes on sofas, by mixing red brick dust with lemon juice, linseed oil vinegar, and buttermilk.”

Mark Wenger, Architectural Historian, “You have really opened up a can of worms with this thing. Carry on!!!”

Payne B. Tyler, Sherwood Forest Plantation, “Oddly fascinating.”