Pine Hutch for Shelburne Museum
This pine hutch is known as the Webb Dresser. “Dresser” is the British term for what we would commonly call a hutch. The original piece—an 18th-century New England example—was once owned by Electra Havermeyer Webb, founder of the Shelburne Museum, and stood in her Shelburne, Vermont home known as The Brick House.
After her death, the original dresser was given to her friend Henry DuPont and is now part of the collection at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. I was commissioned by the Shelburne Museum to build a faithful reproduction so they could have an example on display at the museum.
All of the molding details are cut by hand, and all surfaces are hand planed. These processes give the piece a richness and authenticity that cannot be replicated by machine work. This is a substantial piece and may not fit in many homes, but the design can be adapted to suit different spaces.