Individual Details
Benjamin FITZRANDOLPH
(30 Jan 1738 - 1792)
Many writers on early American furniture mention Benjamin Randolph. For instance, Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh, in their "Rebels and Gentlemen," (1942; p. 205) say:
"The skill of the Philadelphia cabinetmakers from 1740 to the Revolution surpasses that of any others on the continent save possible the Goddards and Townsends of Newport....the masterpieces in mahogany by James Gillingham and Benjamin Randolph brought high prices in the local market, rendering their creators financially secure and socially important....They took great pride in their work and along with other artisans many of them chose the radical side when the time of political division arrived. Randolph was an active patriot....
"Like their fellow artists the portrait painters, the cabinetmakers assumed no self-consciousness about the special dignity of their profession. All of them from Benjamin Randolph down made coffins, repaired furniture, recaned old chairs and did all sorts of oddjobs....Randolph, whose exquisite pieces formed a fitting background for many of Charles Wilson Peale's portraits of Philadelphia worthies, was also responsible for the sash for the new almshouse."
Thomas Hamilton Ormsbee, in his "Early American Furniture Makers," (1930, Tudor Pub. Co., NY; pp. 46-49) say of Randolph's work:
"....connoisseurs of the Chippendale period of American cabinet making are now agreed that finer chairs were never produced in America. Randolph was a genius in his ability to work in the style of another and yet avoid the copyist's usual crudities and lapses." "There is documentary proof that he did work for Thomas Jefferson. Randolph was, in fact, the maker of the table upon which was drafted the Declaration of Independence."
The same book also reproduces Benjamin Randolph's label:
"Benj. Randolph
Cabinet Maker
at the Golden Eagle on Chestnut Streete
Between third and fourth Streets
Philadelphia
Makes all Sorts of Cabinet & Chairwork
Likewise Carving Gildings &Performed in the Chinese
and Modern Modes." FIELD NAME Page FIELD NAME Page FIELD NAME Page
"The skill of the Philadelphia cabinetmakers from 1740 to the Revolution surpasses that of any others on the continent save possible the Goddards and Townsends of Newport....the masterpieces in mahogany by James Gillingham and Benjamin Randolph brought high prices in the local market, rendering their creators financially secure and socially important....They took great pride in their work and along with other artisans many of them chose the radical side when the time of political division arrived. Randolph was an active patriot....
"Like their fellow artists the portrait painters, the cabinetmakers assumed no self-consciousness about the special dignity of their profession. All of them from Benjamin Randolph down made coffins, repaired furniture, recaned old chairs and did all sorts of oddjobs....Randolph, whose exquisite pieces formed a fitting background for many of Charles Wilson Peale's portraits of Philadelphia worthies, was also responsible for the sash for the new almshouse."
Thomas Hamilton Ormsbee, in his "Early American Furniture Makers," (1930, Tudor Pub. Co., NY; pp. 46-49) say of Randolph's work:
"....connoisseurs of the Chippendale period of American cabinet making are now agreed that finer chairs were never produced in America. Randolph was a genius in his ability to work in the style of another and yet avoid the copyist's usual crudities and lapses." "There is documentary proof that he did work for Thomas Jefferson. Randolph was, in fact, the maker of the table upon which was drafted the Declaration of Independence."
The same book also reproduces Benjamin Randolph's label:
"Benj. Randolph
Cabinet Maker
at the Golden Eagle on Chestnut Streete
Between third and fourth Streets
Philadelphia
Makes all Sorts of Cabinet & Chairwork
Likewise Carving Gildings &Performed in the Chinese
and Modern Modes." FIELD NAME Page FIELD NAME Page FIELD NAME Page
Events
| Birth | 30 Jan 1738 | South River, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States | |||
| Marriage | 18 Feb 1762 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Living | |||
| Death | 1792 | ||||
| Marriage | Living |
Families
| Spouse | Living |
| Spouse | Living |
| Child | Anna FITZRANDOLPH ( - 1835) |
| Child | Living |
| Father | Isaac FITZRANDOLPH (1701 - 1750) |
| Mother | Rebecca SEABROOK (1708 - 1744) |
| Sibling | James RANDOLPH (1730 - 1781) |
| Sibling | Hulda FITZRANDOLPH (1732 - ) |
| Sibling | Daniel FITZRANDOLPH (1733 - 1792) |
| Sibling | Rhoda FITZRANDOLPH (1735 - ) |
| Sibling | Rebecca FITZRANDOLPH (1736 - ) |
| Sibling | Stephen FITZRANDOLPH (1739 - 1763) |
| Sibling | Ruth FITZRANDOLPH (1741 - ) |