The calendar was an essential part of the play;
ticking off the days until Congress HAD to make a decision about independance.
This piece is probably far fancier than what would have existed for Congress,
but since it's so important to the drama, I felt that it needed to be "framed"
The piece is made of solid oak, and measures 13 1/2" x 18"









The colonial pipe racks were interesting...The clay pipes start out quite long and are communal pipes. Every new user breaks the end of the stem off and smokes the pipes and then hangs it on the rack. Excavations have found hundreds of VERY short pipes in trash heaps from that era. Some of the gentleman in the show had too much fun smoking every night. I can only hazard a guess as to what they might have been smoking....

The piece is made of solid oak, and measures 6" x 21" (holds 3 pipes)







I'm very proud of the work on this show. Pictured below is the tally board from the set. I built three different mock-ups of this before I committed it to oak (made entirely from scrap pieces too!) Since the real tally board that the Continental Congress used in Carpenter's Hall did not survive, we only have the mention of a mechanical tally in a letter that one of the men sent to a friend. What I came up with was a combination of the style of that period and what would have been built by a carpenter in a hurry. (which I certainly was!)

This is a close-up of the headpiece for the tally board. I basically took photos of the desk in my parlor, made a scale drawing of the headpiece, and copied it in oak for the board. I didn't actually carve the moulding at the top...I hand cut a piece of oak to match the curve, routed it and then glued it to the headpiece. The vertical pattern in the center was made by multiple trips over the table saw with the blade set very shallow.




Some other views



















The tally board, pipe rack and calendar now reside in my house

Built in 1740, the Johnathan Ellsworth House is the perfect location for all of these pieces.