Thomas Affleck

(b Aberdeen, 1740; d Philadelphia, PA, 5 March 1795).

American cabinetmaker of Scottish birth. He trained as a cabinetmaker in London. In 1763 John Penn, Governor of Pennsylvania, invited Affleck to Philadelphia, where the latter opened a shop on Second Street in the Society Hill area. He made stylish mahogany furniture (sold 1788; e.g. Philadelphia, PA, Cliveden Mus.; armchair, Winterthur, DE, Mus. & Gdns) for the governor's mansion at Lansdowne, PA, and for many of the most prominent families in the city, including the Mifflins, the Whartons and the Chew family at Cliveden.

A Quaker and Loyalist, Affleck refused to participate in the Revolution (1775-83), and he was banished for several months to Virginia in 1777. By the end of the war, however, he was the most prosperous cabinetmaker in the city. His Loyalist sympathies seem to have been forgiven because he was given a number of important commissions, including furniture, for the Pennsylvania Hospital, Congress Hall and the first Supreme Court Chamber in the City Hall, all in Philadelphia.

The large body of surviving furniture attributed to Affleck, which includes wall-brackets, chairs (New York, Met.), grand chest-on-chests and elaborately carved tallboys or high chests-of-drawers, confirms his reputation as the leading cabinetmaker in Philadelphia in the 18th century. Much of his furniture was derived from designs in his personal copy of Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director by Thomas Chippendale. He also made furniture in the Neo-classical style. After his death, his son Lewis G. Affleck carried on the business for a short time until he went bankrupt. (Source: OSCAR P. FITZGERALD, "Thomas Affleck.," The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (Oxford University Press) Accessed March 26, 2004) http://www.groveart.com