Desk and bookcase, Nathan Lombard, ca. 1805. Courtesy of Winterthur Museum.For Immediate Release

Sutton, MA — On Tuesday, April 8th at 7:00pm, Vaillancourt Folk Art welcomes the Senior Curator of Decorative Arts at Old Sturbridge Village, Christie Jackson, in celebrating the life and furniture of Nathan Lombard who resided in Sutton in the early 1800s.

Delightfully designed and intricately inlayed, the furniture of Nathan Lombard stands out among the rich traditions of cabinetmaking found in rural Massachusetts in the early 1800s. Nathan’s furniture has a vitality and charm that easily captures the eye even today, with inlays of charismatic eagles, elaborate vines, and floral motifs and unusual features like reverse concave quarter-columns emboldened with inlay. As a boy raised in Brimfield, married in Sturbridge, and situated in Sutton, Nathan’s story is a very local one.

The lecture at Vaillancourt Folk Art is in conjunction with the exhibit, Delightfully Designed—The Furniture and Life of Nathan Lombard, which is on display at Old Sturbridge Village through May 4th, 2014. The exhibit represents the largest assemble of Lombard’s furniture since they left his workshop. New discoveries – including family narratives, early daguerreotypes of the Lombard family, and personal family artifacts – help bring the Lombard family to life. Hand in hand with celebrating his furniture, OSV looks forward to celebrating Nathan Lombard the cabinetmaker, father, and community member, and revealing the true person behind these extraordinary objects.

The lecture will begin at 7:00pm at the Vaillancourt Folk Art studios at 9 Main Street in Sutton, MA and is free to attend.