FAMOUS Furniture Cabinetmaker - WILKES, Carter, Griffin Families
I found this information about Micajah Wilkes about 2-3 years ago.
There was a recent book "A Southern Mystery Solved" written by Thomas R. J. Newbern and James Melchor which identifies an Anonymous Unknown Roanoke River Basin Cabinetmaker as MICAJAH WILKES (previously known as the "WH" cabinetmaker.) (Link below) The found examples of his furniture with inlays are incredible and similiar to the old traditional Williamsburg/Jamestown furniture. There have been quite a few writings about this Anonymous/Unknown cabinetmaker in preveious American Decorative and Furniture Journals of which I have tried to obtain copies of all that I have found. The first thing I found was that one of his wine cellarettes sold at auction a few years ago for $168,000 (it was a very small piece), it is said they are rare, also examples of china cabinets, book cabinets, desks, tables. Research since has shown that there evidently are originals at the Winterthur Museum, the Chrysler or Norfolk Museum and a few others, at MESDA and at least at the Hope Plantation in eastern NC. I have talked to the Winterthur curator and I am hoping to hear back from her soon.
Some say that the style of Micajah Wilkes furniture was English/German so maybe that is a clue to the Wilkes ancestry.
Thank you Mr. Newbern and Mr. Melchor. You can purchase their book at:
http://books.google.com/books/about/WH_Cabinetmaker.html?id=NiRbQwAACAAJhttp://books.google.com/books/about/WH_Cabinetmaker.html?id=NiRbQwAACAAJ
If you share this information with anyone please attribute Mr. Newborn and Mr. Melchor and my name Martha "Ann" Wilkes Allan as the finder of this and please ask them to do the same and so forth. You can also share my address below.
Perhaps by getting this info out to relatives, they will come forward with more Wilkes and related family information.
Martha "Ann" Wilkes Allan
4193 Seven Lakes West
Seven Lakes, NC 27376
E-mail: [email protected]
If you have any questions, let me know.
Ann