Matthew Kahle & Artisans of Historic Rockbridge

What do you know about “Old George?” As an iconic emblem of the university, Old George is one of the most recognizable pieces of campus history. But how much do you know about its creator, Matthew Kahle, a skilled cabinet maker, and the vibrant community of Rockbridge County artisans whose handiwork filled the homes and public buildings of the community? Join the IHMG and Jeffrey S. Evans as we discuss the life and career of Matthew Kahle and his best-known creation, Old George.

Speaker: Jeffrey S. Evans, President, Senior Auctioneer, and Department Head, Shenandoah Valley of Virginia Scholar, Independent Curator

Jeffrey Evans’ expertise in early American glass and 18th and 19th-century Shenandoah Valley furniture and decorative arts is recognized throughout Virginia and across the United States. Jeffrey currently serves on the MESDA Advisory Board.

About the Speaker 

Jeffrey S. Evans (VAR 555) is the former president and senior auctioneer of Green Valley Auctions, Inc. (1979-2008) and the head of Green Valley’s specialty/catalogued auction division (1995-2008). While a senior in high school Jeffrey became sole owner of Green Valley Auctions (founded in 1967 by his parents Leighton and Kathryn Evans). Effective January 1, 2009, after thirty years of ownership, Jeff and wife/co-owner Beverley Evans withdrew their catalogued auction division from Green Valley Auctions and launched their new company, Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, Inc. Jeff Evans’ expertise in early American glass and 18th and 19th century Shenandoah Valley furniture and decorative arts is recognized throughout Virginia and across the United States. Jeff currently serves on the MESDA Advisory Board. He was a member of the Board of Directors at the Museum of American Glass in WV from 2006 to 2016, and for more than fifteen years Jeff served on the board at the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society where he was also the head of the Shenandoah Valley Folk Art & Heritage Center’s Museum Committee.

Jeff has lectured widely and conducted classes on antiques including American glass and Shenandoah Valley pottery, and in 2004, his extensive knowledge of Valley pottery was showcased when Jeff served as guest curator and co-authored the accompanying catalogue for the exhibit, “A Great Deal of Stone & Earthen Ware” (The Rockingham County, Virginia School of Folk Pottery).

As a guest speaker at the 2009 MESDA furniture seminar, Jeff lectured on Shenandoah Valley of Virginia Seating Forms of the late 18th to early 20th centuries, a subject he has been documenting and researching since the early 1970s. Jeff served as guest curator for the related exhibit at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA, titled “Come In and Have a Seat: Vernacular Chairs of the Shenandoah Valley.” On display from December 19, 2009, through June 20, 2010, the exhibit also yielded the exceptional Evans-authored exhibit catalogue/reference volume of the same name, the first catalogue ever published in conjunction with an MSV-organized changing exhibition.

In 2012, Jeff and his wife Beverley served as co-curators for an exhibition at the Virginia Quilt Museum titled, “Counterpanes and White Work of the Shenandoah Valley” (on display from February 1 through May 12, 2012). The Evanses contributed several textiles from their personal collection and Jeff authored the accompanying catalogue complete with an authoritative essay on the subject. Since August 2010 Jeff has been partnered with Kurt C. Russ on The Virginia Safe Project, a multi-year research project focused on Shenandoah Valley punched-tin-paneled furniture, aka pie safes. Their findings culminated in an exhibition at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley called Safes of the Valley (on display from May 11, 2014 through March 29, 2015) and a companion publication that will be released in spring 2017. Jeff is currently researching and producing a treatise “Artisans of New Market, Virginia, 1780-1930.”