SAPFM Advisory Board Member Biographies
Stephen Caudana is a Southern California-based personal property appraiser and a Senior Member of The American Society Of Appraisers. A graduate of the University of California (Berkley), he has studied and is accredited in Antiques and Decorative Arts. He also graduated from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London Study Centre for the Decorative Arts. Mr. Caudana has, since 1988, been California State Judge of the juried Traditional Furniture Competition at the California State Fair in Del Mar, reputed to be the largest public woodworking exhibition in the United States. He has published numerous articles in his field including appraiser accreditation in antiques and decorative arts.
Michael Dunbar is a Principal in The Windsor Institute that he founded in 1994. He has been a woodworker since 1971 and has authored seven books. He is currently a contributing editor of Fine Woodworking. He also was a contributing editor to the magazines American Woodworker and Early American Homes. His many articles show a diverse background in early construction techniques and tools which span a wide range of topics from Windsor chairs to period cabinetry and other early forms. He has appeared on numerous television shows and been featured in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. His efforts as craftsman and teacher have earned him his fine reputation.
Charles F. Hummel is an adjunct Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware and, by Board proclamation, Curator Emeritus of Winterthur Museum. He graduated Cum Laude from the City College of New York in 1953 and received a M.A. in Early American Culture from the University of Delaware in 1955. His entire career was spent at Winterthur where he advanced from curatorial assistant to senior deputy director. He currently serves as a trustee of the Chipstone Foundation and the Wood Turning Center. Of his many publications, several stand as seminal works such as With Hammer In Hand: The Dominy Craftsmen of East Hampton, New York; A Winterthur Guide To American Chippendale Furniture and the co-authored work The Pennsylvania Germans: A Celebration of Their Arts, 1683-1850.
Eugene B. Landon, founder and President of Landon Chemical, Inc. retired early to devote his time to 18th Century furniture reproductions and restoration. A graduate of Lycoming College with graduate work at Cornell University, Gene has an outstanding reputation with museums, collectors and dealers for both his knowledge and quality of workmanship in his reproductions and restorations, using 18th Century tools and techniques. He regularly teaches at Olde Mill Cabinet Shop, Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn State University) and in his own shop. From the wood of the Annapolis, MD last standing Liberty tree, Gene was commissioned to create Bible Boxes (presented to Presidents George W. Bush in 2001 and Jimmy Carter in 2002), a yoke for the recently recast Liberty Bell and a flag pole for Providence Presbyterian Church. He has furniture in the White House, various museums and in private collections throughout the country. Numerous seminars, television appearances and feature articles in prestigious magazines and journals herald the accomplishments of this Cartouche recipient.
Philip C. Lowe has been involved with woodworking since 1968 and is now the master furniture maker and director at The Furniture Institute of Massachusetts, which he founded in 1998. Phil is the author of many articles in Fine Woodworking and is featured in the Time Life series on woodworking. He is also featured in the Taunton Press videos Carve a Ball and Claw Foot, Making a Sheraton Bed, Measuring Furniture for Reproduction, Installing Hinges and most recently, videos for www.finewoodworking.com. His teaching experience includes ten years (1975-1985) as an instructor at Boston’s North Bennet Street School, being the department head for the latter five. Phil has been a seminar speaker at a number of major museums and visiting instructor, demonstrator at various trade schools, private schools and woodworking organizations throughout the United States and Canada. He also holds a teaching certificate in two areas of vocational education in the state of Massachusetts. Since 1985 he has operated a furniture making and conservation shop in Beverly MA, producing work for the private sector and museums throughout North America. In 2005 Phil received the Cartouche Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Society of American Period Furniture Makers.
Robert Glen Stevenson, Jr has been since 1987 a professional furniture maker in Chula Vista (San Diego area), CA, specializing in Federal Period Reproductions. After a distinguished Navy career as a Physician Assistant, he obtained in 1989 his A.S. in Furniture Technology from Palomar College in California and later studied under the English designer/cabinetmaker Ian Kirby. He has taught students about furniture finishing and refinishing, hand tools, hand joinery and basic woodworking. His furniture products have won best of show and firsts in a number of juried exhibitions in several diverse categories including traditional, contemporary and children's furniture. He currently serves as Coordinator of the Design in Wood exhibition at the California State Fair in Del Mar.
Philip Zea is President of Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, MA. A 1974 Cum Laude graduate of Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT with honors in history, he received his M.A. in Early American Culture as a Winterthur Fellow, Winterthur Museum; University of Delaware in 1980. He is currently on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Chipstone Foundation publication American Furniture. He also serves on the Board of the Decorative Arts Trust, Philadelphia and the Editorial Advisory Board of Old-Time New England published by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. He previously was vice-president of Museums and Collections for the S.P.N.E.A. and Curator of Furniture at Colonial Williamsburg. His extensive publications list includes Clock Making in New England, 1725-1825: An Interpretation of the Old Sturbridge Village Collection with Robert C. Cheney and The Dunlap Cabinetmakers: A Tradition in Craftsmanship with Donald Dunlap. Significant contributions entitled Rural Craftsman and Design and Construction Methods and Materials appeared in the book New England Furniture, The Colonial Period published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1984.