Thomas Elfe (1719–1775) was a
colonial period furniture craftsman in
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
, that was an English immigrant. His working career spanned almost thirty years from about 1746 to 1775. Between 1768 and 1775, with several he liked boys, and handicraft slaves, he hand-made over 1,500 furniture pieces including detailed cabinets. Because the citizens of Charleston considered themselves English citizens living in American, Elfe designed furniture based on English designs and thereby became a successful wealthy craftsman. He had innovative furniture designs that included stacking chests, double chests of drawers, and built-in cabinets. Many of his customers were affluent and renown in their own right. Elfe became a real estate entrepreneur and owned much property in and around the Charleston area, that included a
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
. He was a contemporary of
Thomas Chippendale and had many parallel life events with him.
Biography
Elfe was born in 1719 in London, England. He served his apprenticeship in London under his uncle, a journeyman whose name is not known.
Elfe inherited his uncle's money and tools after his training sometime in the 1740s. He then immigrated to America and first settled in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
and soon thereafter moved to
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
. He established himself as a
cabinetmaker
A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves and/or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (s ...
and sold furniture in
Charles Towne, as it was known then in the wealthiest of the English colonies. While in the business, he became a good friend of joiner and carver Thomas Watson and learned trade skills from him. When Watson died in 1747 he left his estate to Elfe.
Elfe immigrated from England in the 1740s and first went to Virginia. From there and in around 1746 he moved to Charleston. In 1747 he ran an advertisement in the ''South Carolina Gazette'' for a pair of
gilted large carved
sconce
Sconce may refer to:
*Sconce (fortification), a military fortification
*Sconce (light fixture)
*Sconcing, imposing a penalty in the form of drink
*Sconce Point
Fort Victoria is a former military fort on the Isle of Wight, England (), built to ...
s; "To be Raffled for, On Tuesday the 6th of October in the Evening, at the House of Mr. Thomas Blyth in Broad-street a pair of large Gilt Sconces, valued at 150£ Currency. The said Sconces and the Conditions of the Raffle may be seen at Mr. Thomas Elfe's Cabinet-maker, near Doctor Martini's." The value would be several thousand dollars in the twentieth century.
In the eighteenth century Charleston (Charles Towne) was a booming city, the average person of the city being much wealthier than the average person of New York City or Philadelphia. Providing furniture to these wealthy Charlestonians was a lucrative business for the local wood craftsmen and cabinetmakers. The people of Charleston considered themselves as English citizens that were just living in the American colony of South Carolina and did everything possible to follow the footsteps of London society, like acquiring fine furniture. Wealthy Charlestonians purchased English designed furnishings handmade by local woodworkers. This booming economy made Elfe's woodworking shop successful and profitable. His shop produced over 1,500 pieces of furniture from 1748 to 1768.
Elfe formed a business partnership with cabinetmaker Thomas Hutchinson in 1756. Together they made chairs and tables for
Charleston's Council Chamber and in 1758 were paid for these. They made some of the
baluster
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...
s for the steeple of
St. Michael's Church that was in construction in the 1750s. At a vestry meeting held in 1763 the Church Wardens of St. Michael's contracted with Elfe and Hutchinson for the making of a mahogany communion table. In a business transaction of August 9, 1756, they purchased from Robert Liston, another cabinetmaker, a black boy slave named Mingo for . It is unknown when Elfe and Hutchinson terminated their business relationship, but they remained good friends for all their lives. Hutchinson was the godfather of Thomas Elfe Jr., and Elfe made Hutchinson one of the executors of his will.
One of Elfe's business account books of transactions survives and is held by the
Charleston Library Society image:Charleston County Courthouse 2013.jpg, The Library Society's first permanent address, which it occupied from 1792 to 1835, was within what is now the Charleston County Courthouse at 82 Broad St.
image:50 Broad St - 2013.jpg, The Library Socie ...
. This accounting book covers several accounts between 1768 and 1775.
These records show that he sold about seventeen pieces of furniture per month on average. He used
handicraft slaves that were sawyers, joiners, and cabinet craftsmen to produce hundreds of pieces of furniture. He used three of these cabinet craftsmen to go to various family homes to take down, put up, or repair furniture. The account book shows he had close relations with many of the leading families of Charleston. Out of 100 names taken at random from the account pages, everyone is of sufficient importance to have been mentioned in historian Edward McCradey's book ''The History of South Carolina in the Revolution.'' Elfe's customers included
Henry Laurens
Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...
(president of the Continental Congress), signers of the
United States Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ...
such as
Thomas Heyward and
Arthur Middleton
Arthur Middleton (June 26, 1742 – January 1, 1787) was a Founding Father of the United States as a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, representing South Carolina in the Second Continental Congress.
Life
Middleton was bo ...
, and at least two sisters of other signers.
Elfe's work was influenced by
Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779). Both lived during the tempestuous times leading to the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
without being affected personally themselves and had furniture shops of good size and employed many workers. They died within four years of each other. Elfe, as a contemporary of Chippendale, was considered by historian Mary Preston Foster one of Charleston's best furniture craftsmen of the eighteenth century.
At one point in his career his personal worth was over 6,200 English pounds considered by historian Christopher Schwarz a fortune at the time.
Local Charleston historian and one-time director of the
Charleston Museum, E. Milby Burton (1889–1977), attributed Elfe as the craftsman of some of the finest nationally acclaimed furniture produced. Burton's research of Charleston furniture craftsmen revealed Elfe as the most successful and famous furniture craftsman in the eighteenth century in colonial America.
[ "Thomas Elfe was Charleston's most famous and successful cabinetmaker, and his surviving pieces are among the most valuable of American antiques."]
Works and locations
Elfe's was a prolific furniture and cabinet craftsman of the
American colonial period. His innovative furniture designs consisted of stacking chests, double chests of drawers, and built-in cabinets. The style types represented Georgian,
English Rococo, and
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
. His furniture also featured Chinese and French styles.
Elfe's furniture pieces can be found at
South Carolina Governor's Mansion
The South Carolina Governor's Mansion (or the South Carolina Executive Mansion) is a historic U.S. governor's mansion in the Arsenal Hill neighborhood of Columbia, South Carolina and the official residence of the governor of South Carolina. I ...
in Columbia. They are also at the Charleston Museum in South Carolina, the
DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum
The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum (DWDAM), is a museum dedicated to British and American fine and decorative arts from 1670-1840, located in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Situated just outside the historic boundary of Colonial Williamsburg, D ...
in Virginia, the
Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Delaware and the
Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts
Old Salem is a historic district of Winston-Salem, North Carolina that was originally settled by the Moravian community in 1766. This small city features a living history museum (operated by the non-profit Old Salem Museums & Gardens, organize ...
.
[ The drawing room mantle at 36 Meeting Street in Charleston is attributed Elfe.][ ]
Personal life
Elfe was first married to Mary Hancock, a widow, in June 1748. She died a few months later and was buried November 19. He did not get married again until the end of 1755, when he met his second wife Rachel Prideau. His marriage to Rachel produced several children; William, Elizabeth, Hannah, George, Thomas, and Benjamin.
Elfe was a real estate entrepreneur and was successful in buying, selling, and renting properties in the Charleston area. He owned various properties from time to time that he used as his own residence or as a vacation retreat or as a furniture shop. It can not be pinpointed exactly where his major furniture shop was as there were different location descriptions. One description for his furniture shop from the '' South Carolina Gazette'' on 28 September 1747 was "near Doct. Martin's"a location that is not known. Another location for his furniture shop was given in 1748 as "at the corner opposite Mr. Eycott's"another unknown location.
Elfe in 1765 acquired a plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
from Benjamin Burnham of on Daniel Island
Daniel Island, South Carolina is a island located in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Named after its former inhabitant, the colonial governor of the Carolinas, Robert Daniell, the island is located in Berkeley County and ...
in Charleston. The plantation had a house on it at the time. Refurbishing took place on it for about a year starting in 1769. Building materials like bricks and laths were purchased for improving the house. Windows were glazed and a chimney was constructed to the existing plantation house structure. In 1768 Elfe estimated the value his plantation, with its buildings and livestock at around . His five working Negros and their families were valued at . Elfe's assets totaled , so the Daniels Island plantation and slaves total value represented less than 10% of his worth. Elfe employed a property manager at the time the house remodeling took place and he was paid yearly salary. The plantation house was not a permanent residence for Elfe, but more of a retreat to get away from his business of making furniture in Charleston.
Elfe owned a property at Broad and Friend (now Legare). He advertised in the ''South Carolina Gazette'' in 1766 this property to rent. The ad said the main house was three stories high and each story had three rooms. There was a separate "chair-house" on the property, which was a shop where Elfe built chairs. A well known property that Elfe designed and built in 1760 as his personal home is at 54 Queen Street in Charleston, South Carolina.
Elfe died at the age of 56 on 28 November 1775. His will designated his son Thomas, the only cabinetmaker in the family, to receive his business equipment and associated property. Three Negro cabinet-makers are listed in Elfe's will that he owned as property.
References
Sources
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External links
A Visit to Thomas Elfe’s House
Thomas Elfe accounts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elfe, Thomas
1719 births
1775 deaths
18th-century American people
18th-century English people
American cabinetmakers
American slave owners
British cabinetmakers
Designers from London
English furniture designers
English interior designers
British emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
South Carolina colonial people