I'd read everything about
that style I could find. Boston, Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston, New
York—they all left their regional signature on period furniture.
I feasted on that stuff, and that love of history all expressed itself
on the drawing table and out in the workshop."
In his current work, boldly incised inlay and marquetry float crisp,
neoclassical motifs on shimmering New England hardwoods. Original designs
exhibit the kind of intuitively clean lines and elegant proportions that
can come only from much study, care, and well-earned confidence.
"The latest influence that I want to integrate into my work is the
pre-World War I European style," he says. "It was the last expression
of old Europe and it is really classic stuff. Even though a lot of it
came to America, it is still relatively undiscovered."
Peter's virtuosity and scholarship attracted the offer of a teaching
position in furnituremaking from a major university recently. In some
ways, it was tempting.
"Sometimes I feel like a Pakistani gunsmith in the Khyber Pass,"
Peter says with a wistful grin, gazing out the dusty window of his shop
at the sweep of the ridge behind his house. "I'm covered with dust,
doing everything by hand. You try to be reflective enough to be creative,
and productive enough to make a living."
But Peter also knows that that mix of isolation, personal expression,
and sensitivity to the marketplace is what created the regional styles
he so admires. Amid the dust and the hills and the scent of drying wood,
he is forging his own.
Abruptly, he suggests going for a ride. We climb into his station wagon.
Peter's wife and business manager, Marcie, and their two young daughters
come too. As we wind up steep grades past picturesque, 18th-century farmsteads,
Peter narrates the history of this little valley. At the ridgetop, the
view is panoramic: all New England seems beneath us. "This never
has been an easy place to make a living," Peter says quietly, pointing
out overgrown farms and old foundation sites. "But this is my New
England up here; this is the place I've taken my stand. I'm going to stay
“There is a resonance to handmade
stuff—where one person has stayed with the piece from beginning to
end— that is unmistakable. I've based a 20-year career on that point
of faith.” — Peter Maynard
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