Truly enjoyed the essay "The Tea Table’s Tale: Authenticity and Colonial Williamsburg’s Early Furniture Reproduction Program," which is published by Charles Alan Watkins in the current issue of the journal West 86, which I admire. It tells the fascinated story of how an initiative taken in 1936 by the North-Carolina-based furniture manufacturer to reproduced furniture shown at the Williamsburg Galleries, stimulated the foundation of the Willimasburg Craftsmen Inc, a company that licensed manufacturers to create reproduction of furniture and objects owned by the non-for-profit Colonial Williamsburg. These were sold out of selected department stores and shops that were established in the historic area. It is also the story of establishing the concept of authenticity, and ultimately defined the American taste for the Colonial style. The essay is very well written with some surprising references for such issues as the concept of authenticity in the context of tourism, and more. Love the image of Ford Motor Company's advertisement in Fortune magazine during the 1930s which shows the Lincoln on the background of Colonial Williamsburg.
Fortune magazine caught the sales activity at the July 1936 introduction of the Williamsburg Galleries at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.
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