Bama Planter

Here is the portrait of Polly Hamlin Beals wife of Ezra Beals.  She was born 4 October 1785. She lived in Norfolk, Massachusetts.  Her portrait measures 25 x 30 and is somewhat cracked and crazed with varnish. The auction house pointed this out to me before I placed a bid, but that was an aspect of the portrait that appealed to me.  The portrait has also been strip lined ( see the new canvas around the perimeter) due to age. This was sold by a Massachusetts auction house, and she is very New England.  I thought she was holding her bible, but it is a little box with her name on it and the name of the portrait artist which I have yet to decipher.  I am also looking on Find A Grave for her tombstone or burial location for herself or her husband ( so I can post her portrait there ) but so far no luck.    According to the ancestry site, she should have many descendants today.  GoneToAlabama@aol.com

Every Halloween I think about my Massachusetts witch chair. Wallace Nutting called these mushroom chairs because of the arms. My ancestor Joseph Towne of Salem, Massachusetts lost two sisters-- Rebecca Towne Nurse and Mary Towne Easty-- to the Salem witchcraft hysteria of 1692.  His sister Sarah Towne Cloye escaped hanging when the trials were ended.  This style of chair was popular from about 1680 to 1710 so it is considered to be Pilgrim Century. The left top seems polished from 300+ years of use. The right side top has felt more wear and is almost flat. My silhouette/portrait collection has grown a bit. This was that ugly bright green pie safe shown in one of my earlier posts.  I knew mahogany was waiting underneath somewhere.  I did leave some of the white and a touch of green on the tin.  My poor camera skills can't make a room thirty feet long look anything but cramped. I'm using pews for couches. No one sits in there but my