Lot Essay
John Lyon Gardiner's surviving account and daybooks, now in the Long Island Collections of the East Hampton Free Library, record a great deal of activity in the 1790's and early 1800's concerning the refurbishing of the Gardiner's Island house (see the introductory essay). Gardiner not only patronized local craftsmen such as Nathaniel Dominy V, who made at least twenty-one furniture items for him, and Elias Pelletreau, the Southampton silversmith, but he sent to New York, Boston and London for other furnishings.