SCENE AROUND: Bidwell House Museum

It’s a season of celebration at the Bidwell House in Monterey, Mass., a 1750 Georgian saltbox that has been welcoming visitors since opening as a museum twenty years ago. Tucked away at the end of a dirt road on a bucolic, 196-acre site replete with heirloom gardens and original stone walls, the elegant Colonial manse boasts fine examples of Early American household goods, from pottery to pewter to furniture.

“A visit to the Bidwell House is special because it is set up as a home, not a museum,” says executive director Barbara Palmer. “It’s a wonderful escape to the eighteenth century.”

For collectors of early American decorative arts, a trip to the Bidwell House is an opportunity to see eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century furnishings in an authentic Colonial setting. The Bidwell House is furnished with items similar to those listed on the 1784 death inventory of the home’s original owner, the Reverend Adonijah Bidwell.

Bidwell owned an impressive forty-eight chairs, and a wide assortment of Colonial-era seating is a highlight of the collection. There are Shaker chairs with woven seats; slat-back, splat-back, and ladder-back chairs; armchairs and side chairs. A magnificent comb-back Windsor, crafted in Pennsylvania circa 1770-1795, sits before the hearth in the keeping room, allowing it to be seen from all angles.

Visitors can peruse excellent examples of imported Delft china, pewter bowls and platters, and redware plates and jugs of the period. A mid-eighteenth-century Queen Anne-style maple high chest shows a cleverly hidden drawer, crafted to hide Revolutionary documents from prying British officials. Textiles, including several fine samplers and a variety of whole-cloth glazed wool quilts, are also part of the museum’s holdings.

The Bidwell House is open through October 11, when there will be a historic talk and walk on the grounds as well as a season-closing reception. [SEPTEMBER 2010]