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 …
Shearer Loyalism and Heritage
from The Magazine ANTIQUES, April/May 2010 | Figs. 1, 1a. Desk-and-bookcase made by John Shearer (active c. 1798–at least 1818), Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), 1801–1806. Inscribed “Down with the Cropper of Ireland” and “Cropper is Repenting and his Master is Angry” in the top drawer of the case. Walnut, cherry, mulberry, yellow pine, and oak; height 8 feet 10 …
Shearer Energy
Fig. 1. The chest of drawers by John Shearer (active c. 1798–at least 1818) that earned Linda Quynn Ross the nickname “Miss Shearer Energy” is now in the living room of her house, Carter Hill, in Winchester, Virginia. On top is a late eighteenth-century box from Frederick County, Virginia. The table at the left is by Shearer, the one on …