The Chesapeake House:  Architectural Investigation by Colonial Williamsburg

2013:  The Chesapeake House:  Architectural Investigation by Colonial Williamsburg, edited by Cary Carson and Carl Lounsbury. The University of North Carolina Press, Pages 45-46, 280-281, 404.

This remarkably comprehensive study of regional domestic architecture includes references to Wharton Place for its window sash hardware and use of ornament in non-public chambers.

Of the use of ornament, the book states:  “New attitudes of appropriateness and factory production let planters and merchants such as Accomack County’s John Wharton, who would have never considered using figural ornament before the Revolution, to extend it from parlors and dining rooms to fourth- and fifth-best rooms (Fig. 3.19).”

Of the window sash hardware, the book states:  “At Mount Vernon, in 1787, George Washington installed delicate “sash fasteners” on the windows in his two best rooms—the large dining room and the west parlor.  On each window, a small classical knob pivoted an arm mounted on one meeting rail until it engaged with a keeper on the other rail.  The brass latch was locked in place by a tiny spring-loaded catch made of iron (Fig. 12.22A).  Merchant John Wharton installed similar fasteners on all first floor sash when building a well-finished Accomack County plantation house in 1808-9 (Fig. 12.22B).  Such fasteners were fragile…and would have thwarted few energetic burglars.  Their primary purpose was to hold movable upper sash in place.”