Fantastic Mr. Shearer
A man with a mission, the elusive late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Virginia cabinetmaker John Shearer often professed his British loyalties in carving and inlay. Even when he did not, his furniture displays an idiosyncratic style that has long intrigued scholars and collectors-and made Shearer the subject of two articles in our April-May 2010 issue, written in anticipation of the exhibition of his work that recently opened at the DAR Museum in Washington, D. C. Entitled “A True North Britain”: The Furniture of John Shearer 1790-1820, the show is guest curated by independent scholar Elizabeth A. Davison, who also wrote the related book to be published next year. It remains on view in Washington until February 26, 2011, and will subsequently be shown at Colonial Williamsburg. “A True North Britain”: The Furniture of John Shearer 1790-1820 · DAR Museum, Washington · to Febraury 26, 2011 · www.dar.org/museum
