The 2026 Annual Conference ran Friday, October 2 – Monday, October 5 in Manchester, Connecticut, hosted by Bob Van Dyke and the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. It brought 80 registrants and their guests. This is the final program.
The presenters:
- Steve Latta — furniture maker, educator, and longtime Fine Woodworking contributor, known for Federal inlay
- Bill Pavlak — Master Cabinetmaker at Colonial Williamsburg
- Steve Brown — longtime Cabinet & Furniture Making instructor at the North Bennet Street School
- Martin O'Brien — Winston-Salem, NC cabinetmaker and conservator, with extensive work on the MESDA collection
- Joan Parcher — historic hardware expert, identifying, restoring, and even casting brass hardware for period furniture
- Alyce Perry Englund — Decorative Arts Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a leading authority on American japanned furniture
- Bob Behnke — Technical Service Manager at Franklin Adhesives, makers of Titebond
The Cartouche Award dinner Friday evening, at the historic Webb-Deane-Stevens House & Barn in Wethersfield, honored 2026 recipient Tim Killen.
Two optional bus trips bracketed the weekend: a Friday tour of the Yale Furniture Study and Yale University Art Gallery (limited to 60), and a full Monday in Providence with the Stanley Weiss Collection and the John Brown House (limited to 50). Both filled.
Schedule of Events
FridayOctober 2
The conference opened Friday evening at the historic Webb Deane Stevens House & Barn in Wethersfield, Connecticut, about an eight-minute drive from the school, with happy hour, a buffet dinner, a welcome, and a presentation by the 2026 Cartouche Award recipient, Tim Killen.
An optional daytime tour to the Yale Furniture Study ran on Friday; see Optional Activities below.
SaturdayOctober 3
Saturday was a full day of presentations and rotations at the school, beginning with a welcome and an overview of the weekend.
Steve Brown — Making the Most of a Museum Furniture Measuring Trip
Steve Brown opened Saturday with an hour on the all-important details for gathering everything you need to reproduce a period piece. He demonstrated hands-on techniques for accurately tracing cabriole legs, period moldings, pediments, and other carvings, and emphasized the use of checklists — how many times have you gotten home from measuring a piece only to realize you forgot to record its height? Perhaps most important of all was museum etiquette: you are imposing on a busy curator's time, so conduct yourself in a way that ensures you are invited back.
Through the middle of the day, three rotating presentations ran as small-group sessions with Steve Latta, Bill Pavlak, and Martin O'Brien.
Steve Latta — Table Construction: A Surgical Approach
Steve Latta brought many years of cabinetmaking and teaching experience to the conference. For Steve, it's all about efficiency in joinery and technique.
Bill Pavlak — Adjustable Writing Tables of the 18th Century
Bill Pavlak, Master Cabinetmaker at Colonial Williamsburg, dove into the unique construction problems found in 18th-century adjustable writing tables. The complexity of the joinery required to accommodate the moving parts of these tables offers challenges that Bill demonstrated with hand tools.
Martin O'Brien — Conservation Techniques from the MESDA Collection
Martin O'Brien, a Winston-Salem, NC cabinetmaker and conservator, has worked extensively on conserving the MESDA furniture collection and demonstrated several of the unique conservation techniques he has developed over the years.
Joan Parcher — Identifying, Restoring, and Casting Period Hardware
To break up the afternoon (and give the three rotation presenters a chance to catch their breath), historic hardware expert Joan Parcher presented a look into her world of identifying, restoring, repairing, and sometimes even casting brass hardware for period furniture.
The day closed with an informal happy hour at the school. Dinner was on your own, with an optional group dinner at Trattoria Tuscana, a nearby Italian restaurant; see Optional Activities below.
SundayOctober 4
Alyce Perry Englund — Beasts and Angels: American Japanned Furniture
New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Decorative Arts Curator Alyce Perry Englund started the day. Alyce is one of the leading authorities on American japanned furniture.
Bob Behnke — The Finer Points of Glue
Bob Behnke, Technical Service Manager for Franklin Adhesives — the maker of Titebond — got into the finer points of glue: the properties of different adhesives, how they work, what causes them to fail, and whatever questions the room brought.
A pizza buffet lunch followed before the final session.
Steve Latta — Building a Federal-Style Card Table
Steve Latta closed the conference with a presentation on the intricacies and pitfalls of building a Federal-style card table.
The conference officially ended after Steve's presentation.
MondayOctober 5
Monday's optional program was a full-day bus trip to Providence, Rhode Island; see Optional Activities below.
Optional Activities
FridayOctober 2
Yale Furniture Study & Yale University Art Gallery
The bus trip visited the Yale Furniture Study — now in its new home in West Haven, a world away from the old basement study on York Street. Participants split into two groups and spent half the day at the Furniture Study, led by Furniture Study Manager Eric Litke and the Yale curatorial staff, and the other half downtown at the Yale University Art Gallery, whose American wing holds a remarkable collection of period furniture.
SaturdayOctober 3
Group dinner at Trattoria Tuscana
An informal group dinner at a popular Italian restaurant less than two miles from the school. It reached capacity.
MondayOctober 5
Providence, Rhode Island — Stanley Weiss Collection & John Brown House
The group left Manchester by bus for the Stanley Weiss Collection in North Providence — 10,000 square feet of some of the best American furniture anywhere, in the spirit of the old Yale Furniture Study — and the John Brown House in historic Providence. One half saw the Weiss Collection in the morning and the John Brown House in the afternoon, and the other half did the reverse, so everyone saw both. More on the Weiss Collection at stanleyweiss.com.
For guestsGuest Program
Friday Cartouche Award Banquet (guest seat)
A seat for a guest at the Friday-evening banquet. A registrant's own seat was included in registration.
A museum weekend in Hartford
This ran alongside the Saturday and Sunday sessions, with three destinations, all about ten minutes' drive from the school. The price covered admission to all three; lunch each day was on your own.
Saturday, October 3
- Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford — a curator-led tour of the museum's 18th-century French porcelain, then time on your own in one of the Northeast's great art museums: European Baroque, ancient bronzes, French and American Impressionism, the Hudson River School, and a fine collection of early American furniture and decorative arts.
- Webb Deane Stevens Houses, Historic Wethersfield — a docent-led tour in one of Connecticut's oldest towns, where Washington planned the Yorktown campaign. Two special exhibitions were up: American Girlhood, fifty needlework pieces from 1750 to the 1850s on women's education and identity, and Remember the Ladies, portraits of women of the American Revolution.
Sunday, October 4
- The Mark Twain House, Hartford — a living-history tour of Twain's home (about 70 minutes), with an actor in the role of a Clemens household member leading an immersive, slice-of-life visit.
Prices
Registration closed September 26. Non-member registration included a one-year SAPFM Individual membership, so the difference between the two rates was simply the price of joining. Tours, the group dinner and Guest Program activities were optional.
| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Member - full conference (Fri-Sun) Friday banquet, Saturday and Sunday sessions. October 2-4. |
$385 |
| Saturday only Saturday sessions and lunch, October 3. Open to members and non-members alike. |
$100 |
| Non-member - full conference (Fri-Sun) Friday banquet, Saturday and Sunday sessions, October 2-4, plus a one-year SAPFM Individual membership. |
$460 |
| Yale Furniture Study & Yale University Art Gallery Friday, October 2 · limited to 60 |
$90 |
| Group dinner at Trattoria Tuscana; drinks extra Saturday, October 3 |
$42 |
| Providence, Rhode Island — Stanley Weiss Collection & John Brown House Monday, October 5 · limited to 50 |
$75 |
| Friday Cartouche Award Banquet (guest seat) Guest Program |
$85 per guest |
| A museum weekend in Hartford Guest Program |
$65 per guest |