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The Shakers are an offshoot of the Religious Society of Friends (or "Quakers") that originated in the city of Manchester in England the early 18th century. Strict believers in celibacy, they maintained their numbers through conversion and adoption. Once boasting thousands of adherents, today the only remaining Shakers are a handful of people living in Maine. One of the major skills of the Shakers was building. Shakers were known for an exquisite style of furniture that was plain, durable, and functional. By the middle of the 20th century, as the Shaker communities themselves were disappearing, some American collectors whose visual tastes were formed by the stark aspects of the modernist movement, found themselves drawn to the spare artifacts of Shaker culture. (more...)
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