Drafting set, English, 18th Century

Maker: Unknown
Medium: Shagreen (Shark Skin) and Brass
Misc. 40, Museum Purchase in 1983

These tools are believed to have been owned by English-born William Buckland (1734-1774), architect of the Hammond-Harwood House. Buckland may have brought the tools with him from London when he emigrated in 1755 as an indentured servant, or he may have purchased the tools while in Virginia or Maryland.

Buckland was no ordinary indentured servant. In the service of politician George Mason, he had complete control of the interior design of Gunston Hall, overseeing a crew including skilled London carver William Bernard Sears and a team of free and enslaved laborers. After four years at Gunston Hall, Mason gave Buckland an excellent recommendation and the young craftsman went on to design public buildings and private estate interiors. He also established a furniture shop in partnership with William Bernard Sears. He married Mary Moore, the daughter of George Mason’s neighbor, and the couple had three children– two girls and a boy.

In 1765 William Buckland purchased a 129-acre farm that included a young enslaved family—a man named of Oxford, his wife Sue, and two children. While Oxford was past the age of a typical apprentice, Buckland most likely trained him in joinery alongside his apprentices, John Randall and John Callis.

During his time in Virginia Buckland met Colonel John Tayloe II and worked on his Northern Neck estate called Mount Airy. Tayloe had several daughters and he employed Buckland to work on their estates upon their marriages. It is believed that Buckland was working on Menokin for Rebecca Tayloe Lee and her husband Francis Lightfoot Lee when her sister Elizabeth and brother-in-law Edward Lloyd IV convinced him to move to Annapolis in 1771 to work on their home.

In 1774 William Buckland embarked on the design for the Hammond-Harwood House, which was to be situated across the street from the Lloyd’s house. He modeled his design after one in 16th century Italian architect Andrea Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture, widely popular as a design source for English country houses. Buckland demonstrated his genius by adapting a Palladian country villa to an 18th century colonial Maryland urban setting. Unfortunately, Buckland never saw his masterpiece completed as he died unexpectedly at age 40 in 1774, and it is believed his apprentice John Randall finished the house as a last homage to his mentor. On Buckland’s inventory, his enslaved servant, Oxford, is listed with the highest value. It is likely he had some desirable skills such as carving and worked on Buckland’s buildings.

The tools are consistent with Buckland’s station in life in 18th century Annapolis as they are of fine but not the highest quality. The set is made with shark skin and brass while the finest quality available was silver with stingray skin. The initials W.B. are carved into the ruler. The set descended through the family of Buckland’s apprentice John Randall. It was first attributed to Buckland in the 1930’s by Worth Bailey, who worked at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. The tools and a sketch of Hammond-Harwood House are included in Charles Willson Peale’s depiction of Buckland, which was finished posthumously for Buckland’s daughter Sarah Buckland Callahan. The painting remained in the family until 1924; it is now at Yale University Art Gallery. A fine copy was made in 1947 by one of Hammond-Harwood House Museum’s founders Winifred Gordon, and now hangs in the dining room, while the tools are on the desk in the study.

By Rachel Lovett, Curator.