Workbench

Description

Workbench with a pine case, butternut top, door frames, and drawer fronts, basswood drawer sides, backs, and door panels, pine drawer bottoms. Back is pine framed with basswood panels. Drawers dovetailed, doors have mortised and tenoned frames (through). Brass butt hinges; brass spring catches on doors with porcelain knobs, three banks of drawers, five drawers/ bank at outside, four drawers in center bank, back of the four with a brass half-mortise lock. All fourteen drawers are flush and have a single face-turned maple knob centered on the front.

Notes

According to Sr. Emma Neale, this bench was used by Gail Borden when he came to Mount Lebanon to experiment with the Shakers vacuum chamber in the processing of evaporated or condensed milk. The bench was known to the Shakers after that time as the Borden bench. Attributed to Brother Benjamin Lyon and/or Charles Weed, according to Rieman and Burks (1993), who note that Brother Benjamin worked with other brothers to make several pieces of furniture, including Charles Weed. Blog post on Borden's work at the Shaker community, and the vacuum pan he purportedly used: https://shakerml.wordpress.com/2017/11/01/2659/