Evans Family Register

The writing style and decorative elements of this family record relate the work to that of the Virginia Record Book Artist, an unknown family register decorator working in Frederick County, Virginia and Berkeley County West Virginia. Works by this artist date between 1800 and 1821, despite that this register is clearly inscribed as having been done in Rhode Island in 1814. While it is possible this work was done by a copy artist working in Rhode Island, the implication that the artist was the Justice of the Peace, Duty Winsor, may add important new information to the growing body of work attributed or related to that of the Virginia Record Book Artist in addition to its proof of the dissemination of vernacular design traditions from one area of the eastern United States to another.

For a similar family record by the Virginia Record Book Artist, see Christie's New York, 17 June 1997, lot 358; as well as Weekley, Carolyn "Decorated Family Record Books from the Valley of Virginia" Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts (The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 1981).