West-Indian Antique Furniture of The Lesser Antilles: 1740-1940 by Philip Sturm

This work is intended to give the reader an Insight into the furniture of the Lesser Antilles, and its place in the changing politics and history of these Caribbean islands. The inspiration for this book came initially from the collection formed by the author's mother, Dorothy Sturm, in Trinidad, during the years between 1939 and 1981. As Philip Sturm became increasingly involved with the responsibilities of caring for the family collection as well as being a keen collector himself, he discovered there were no books on the subject. He was obliged to rely on his own general knowledge, local information, an art and history background and many hours spent in the libraries and archives of Trinidad, Barbados, St. Kitts, and the Virgin Islands. Even this produced very little information, the only references coming from advertisements of furniture on packets arriving in the harbours, or from house auction sales. Accordingly, he resolved to draw upon his own experience and conduct his own detailed and leng

Reader Reviews
Review by Toni Forsyth 10/24/09 Phillip Sturm's compilation of photographic images is an exciting find. It clearly stands as a colorful, historical record of a place and time both past and present that is too often overlooked. I dare say that the conventional contemporary contemplation of the islands of the Caribbean is more typically limited to an exuberance of appreciation for their white sand beaches, Bob Marley and reggae music -- distinctive treasures in themselves true enough but, relatively speaking, only the most recent symbols of what the West Indies represent. In Sturm's West Indian Antique Furniture of the Lesser Antilles: 1740-1940, we can see how the peoples and cultures of the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, China and India separately, distinctly, individually yet simultaneously blend into a mulatto/mestizo pastiche that exists nowhere else in the world. European styles and woods that were originally brought by masted sailing ships to the islands were gently modified over the years as they became more expressive of the native flora and fauna as reflected through the artistry and master craftsmanship of African slaves and their freed descendants. Georgian sensibilities yielded to tropical passion and functionality in elaborate carvings on four-poster beds while chair seats and backs made of woven cane allowed for a cooling flow of air in the hot, humid climate. I've been told how my grandfather, born in Nassau in the last quarter of the 19th century but having moved to Jamaica as a young man eager to establish himself, at the end of the day would sit on his front verandah in his plantation chair with first one leg then the other draped over its extended arm so that someone from the household staff could more easily remove each of his riding boots. And lest this image conjure up scenes of unrelenting oppression, it was a world without the soul-destroying racism that so pervaded the lives African descendants in the United States. All of these images played out in myriad parlors, dining rooms, sitting rooms, bedrooms and verandahs against the backdrop of dark, warm, mahogany, cedar and mango wood colonial furnishings serenely ensconced in the presence of white, lighter than air curtains gently billowing in the cool evening breeze.

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