SAPFM is a national society for people whose work runs through American period furniture — the people who build it, the people who study it, the people who keep it intact. We've been at this for more than twenty-five years, in twenty-two chapters, two publications, and one annual Conference. If that's near your work, you've found the right room.
Makers. Most members are at a bench somewhere. Reproduction work, original pieces in period idioms, the table a client has been waiting six years for. Some members work entirely by hand; some run a CNC alongside a tail vise. SAPFM cares about what comes off the bench — the joinery, the proportion, the surface, the way the piece holds a room.
Researchers and scholars. Museum curators, decorative-arts historians, graduate students, independent researchers. American Period Furniture publishes original work each year. The Conference programs museum-collection visits that aren't otherwise open. Chapter study trips bring members into private holdings that don't usually receive visitors. Members include the people who write the books and the people who read them carefully.
Conservators and preservationists. The questions that drive a maker to study a period chair are the same questions that drive a conservator to keep one standing. Members trade technique on consolidation, finish matching, reglue strategies, and the inevitable judgment calls about how far to intervene. A working session at a Conference might cover spline repairs on a Pembroke and Phase A documentation in the same afternoon.
Most members hold more than one of these at once. The curator who builds for the shop on Saturdays. The maker who is finishing a manuscript. The conservator running a chapter.
We don't appraise antiques. SAPFM is an educational society. We can't tell you what your grandmother's secretary is worth or whether the signature underneath it is real. For appraisals, the Appraisers Association of America lists certified specialists by region, and most regional auction houses offer free informal valuations.
We don't identify pieces from photographs. The visual attribution of period furniture is what the journals and the books exist for. A photograph and a paragraph won't get a firm answer; that kind of work needs the piece in front of the historian.
We don't share member contacts with the public. The membership directory is for members. If you're looking to commission a piece, the chapter contact for your region can point you toward active makers nearby — though SAPFM doesn't broker the introduction or vouch for terms.
Twenty-two chapters. Regional groups meeting through the year, some monthly, some seasonally. Bench demonstrations, study groups, visiting makers, weekend workshops, museum trips. Some chapters host fifty members at a time; others meet around a single workbench in someone's shop. All twenty-two are part of your membership, and visiting members at other chapters' events is welcomed and common.
Two publications. American Period Furniture is the annual journal — original research, project documentation, restoration case studies. Pins & Tales is the quarterly magazine — chapter news, member work, working notes, and the editor's voice across the year. Both go to every member.
One Conference. The national gathering each year pulls members from every chapter into one room for four days. Member presentations, bench demonstrations, museum visits, the Cartouche Award presentation. The 2026 Mid-Year Conference meets at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking in Manchester, with optional tours bracketing the weekend — the Yale Furniture Study on the Friday and a day in Providence on the Monday.
One year of membership covers the publications, the chapters, the Conference, and the rest of the room.
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