Art: Shaker Art

The odor of fresh-baked bread lured Dr. Edward Deming Andrews into a Shaker colony at Hancock, Mass. There & then (1920) he began collecting Shaker art. Last week, in two big rooms in the Berkshire Museum at Pittsfield, Mass, his collection, the most complete in the U. S., was put on view.

"All beauty that has not a foundation in use, soon grows distasteful, and needs continual replacement with something else." This maxim would sound serviceable to most modern designers of functional furniture. It was devised by devout, unlettered members of the communistic religious sect who called themselves Shakers. Kindled by the...

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