The Slower Road

As a blog wrap-up of the just-concluded symposium … a few photos of various interiors over the weekend.

First, since the wheelwrights were mixing paint during our “museum” time on Saturday afternoon, a few still-life images from inside their shop, all related to the paint project:

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Next, the parlor of Colonial Williamsburg’s newly reconstructed Charlton’s Coffee House. This lovely building is near the entrance to the Capitol, and many of Williamsburg’s leaders and politicians gathered here to drink coffee or chocolate, to play cards or dice, and to discuss politics, news, and the hated Stamp Act. I was the only one on my “tour” of the building on snowy Saturday afternoon, and my tour guide asked if I wanted the “decorative arts tour” or the “whole nine yards.” In retrospect, I suppose I should’ve asked what the whole nine yards entailed … but it was fun, although completely unexpected. We started in the parlor with a first-person history lesson, went through a back hallway, and ended up in the coffee-house portion of the building. I was offered a seat at one of the tables and a taste of either coffee or drinking chocolate (I chose the chocolate, of course, which was delicious). Also at my table were two very chatty eighteenth-century characters … one a politician and the other full of questions and funny stories. I highly recommend this interactive (and educational) building tour.

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And, finally, a few views of the trade fair at the symposium. If you weren’t able to join us this year, here’s a tiny bit of what you missed:

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one of the several trade-fair booths offering antiques, books, and beautiful old prints

one-of-a-kind handmade hats

for those who didn’t want to venture out into Saturday afternoon’s snowstorm, Beth Schaffer offered an impromptu talk on wickerwork

Yesterday was our final day of this second CAA/CWF International Carriage Symposium. There were three fascinating lectures in the morning, and then a free afternoon before the evening’s banquet.

One of the lectures dealt with freight and stage wagons in southern California. The photos were amazing, and the descriptions of the ventures, including one hair-raising account of a galloping, sliding run up one side of a mountain pass and down the other, left everyone in awe. I was particularly intrigued, as my great-grandfather moved to the same area under discussion sometime around 1900 and some of my relatives may have seen the actual images pictured in these photos.

In the afternoon, I ventured out into the snowstorm and witnessed more people (mostly William & Mary students, I think) out walking in the village. I was surprised there wasn’t more snowball-throwing and snowman-building, but perhaps that will take place today, now that the snow has stopped falling and the wind died down. As I write this, the sun is coming up on Sunday morning, the snow is glistening just a bit, and it promises to be a beautiful day.

Some photos from Saturday …

the wheelwright’s apprentice mixing paint: equal parts pigment, chalk, and linseed oil

the journeyman wheelwright (Paul, on the left) and the shop’s apprentice (Andy, on the right) working in the shop on a snowy day; Paul is finishing the wheel that received its tire on Wednesday, and Andy continues to mix paint

a Williamsburg doorway with snow piled up on the front steps

a snowy tree over the sidewalk on Duke of Gloucester street

the Capitol in the snow

Be sure to read the full report on the symposium in the March issue of The Carriage Journal, and to join us here in 2012.