The Shelburne Museum

Interested in spending a day or so looking at a bunch of humbling woodworking and artwork? A trip to The Shelburne Museum would be worth your while then ... I big recently went to see a Ansel Adams show and found that that was just a small part of how I spent my time there ... I had been a long time ago when the kids were small (15 years maybe ??) but had forgotten the depth of their collection ... I do remember the Dentzel carousel though ... probably the best carved and painted carousel youll find anywhere ... They have extensive documentation of the ongoing restoration and conservation on Facebook and there is more info there ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
the artistic color choices and details are really good ...
In person, they sort of seem almost alive ..
and they are housed in a beautifully detailed round barn at the entrance to the museum ..
with beautiful framing
and a wonderful quilt exhibition on the lower level of the barn ..
Two other displays of interest to me were regarding painters who lived and worked for years in the Manchester, Dorset, Pawlet area, Ogden Pleissner and Jay Connachoice ... They both had a whole building dedicated to their work and Pleissners actual studio (below) was assembled there on site
on to the tools
and metal stuff
and the working blacksmith shop which Kits counts as perhaps one of the things that sparked Sams interest in blacksmithing and metalworkThen there is an excellent collection of carved decoys in original paint, with info on the makers as well as at least a half dozen sneak boxes and market guns displayed in a house moved to the museum from its original location in North Dorset.
Then theres The Ticonderoga, a 220 foot long steam powered ferry that was moved from the lake across a mile of frozen cornfields to its present location ... It has recently been re-restored and is a gleaming example of curved and angled ships carpentry ...
I didnt have time for the Electra Havermeyer Webb mansion which houses Electra Webbs high Federal furniture and other objects from her New York City apartment ... Been there, done that ... Its beautiful ...
There is much more to see than I have covered here .. check it out if you are in the area ... Youll be glad you did ...

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