But there is a small, colonial furniture manufacturing firm tucked away in Portland, Pennsylvania, a village near the Delaware Water Gap, that today employs 28 talented artisans and their apprentices who continue to be firmly committed to a 133-year-old tradition of manufacturing some of the finest hand-crafted Windsor furniture reproductions that can be purchased in America today.

The owners and craftsmen at Frederick Duckloe, Barbara Duckloe Townsend, a Vassar graduate, and Frederick B., a graduate of Franklin & Marshall and Harvard Business School, who represent the third and fourth generations of the family, say they will continue their longtime tradition of hand-crafted quality into future generations.

Recently, the team of fine furniture makers proudly recalled the history of the family company, which was started just a few years prior to the Civil War. With the exception of the passage of more than a century of time, their account of the past could very well be the company's continuing story.

The Duckloe company began in 1859 when master craftsman, Frederick Duckloe, fashioned by his hands, the spokes, rims hubs, frame and the entire carcass of his first passenger carriage.

He spent many productive years filling the demands of his carriage customers, but he also experimented with the making of Windsor Chairs from available sketches and drawings of the great English masters. Plain and fancy Windsors soon replaced his carriage sales, and many of the models he made during the last part of the 19th century now are sought after as original antiques by today's serious collectors.

By the early 1900's, the rare skills of this master were employed in the restoration of many foreign Windsor Chairs and Settees, and his time was freely given to training an only son, W.J. Duckloe- who made his mark by making in solid woods many fine reproduction pieces including fine hand-turned high poster beds, bureaus, chests, tables and a great variety of choice pieces that required sharply-cut dovetails or mortises with wood pegs for added strength.

But in the 1930's, he too found the Windsor chair to be irresistible. With razor sharp hand-turning tools and a lathe powered by a foot treadle instead of electricity, W.J. Duckloe made his early chair models. His hands pushed the deep-shaped chisels to scoop the great horn seats and sanded every part of a finished chair. Each and every tapered spindle was formed by spoke shave and block plane from tough grained hickory. The handmade Windsors were signed with chisel marks and perfect in every detail.

So limited were the making of Windsors in this manner that a 'good week' would produce a half dozen great comb backs.

By the 1950s, each of the original staff had his own apprentice helpers so that increasing demands, plus additional patterns in a variety of wood species, could be made.

Private and commercial customers would often submit special drawings of a favorite chair or settee for exact duplication. This new demand on the skill and tools of a small shop would often place orders a half year behind in delivery.

The artisans were proud of their efforts. The Frederick Duckloe Staff was reluctant to submit to power tools for any increased production. A full decade was necessary to introduce a power lathe, plus power sanders to ease the burden of hand labor.

When Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, was in its formulative years, Frederick Duckloe offered to donate the furnishings for the now renowned "Medal of Honor" Room. This project of special merit led to the complete making of settees of great lengths for the Washington Chapel.

Mystic Seaport at Mystic, Connecticut, approved a reproduction of their Lord Buckingham Windsor and permitted both the Duckloe and Mystic Seaport Label to be applied to each copy.

Windsor Chairs in many patterns from the small shop can be now seen in colleges, libraries, law offices, and restaurants in the United States and many foreign countries.

In 1976, Frederick Duckloe was asked to reproduce in faithful detail, two of the most-prized original Windsors from the collection of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Bicentennial.

One of the original "Chief Justice" Comb Back Arm Chairs from the Chief Justice Chambers at Independence Hall was carefully moved to the Portland, Pennsylvania shop for scaling details - with the first handmade sample being submitted for approval after thirty days for careful preparation. All of the original wood species were duplicated in this historic reproduction: straight grained ash for the graceful comb back that also required a full carved ear scroll; selected hickory which was tested for tensile strength in each of the nine spindles; a fine-grain tulip poplar in full two-inch wide planks was necessary to carve the deep saddle seat with great center horn, and hard white Pennsylvania maple for each of the bold turnings. (the "Chief Justice" Arm Chair is featured in the AMERICAN HERITAGE Collection.)

Equally important from Independence National Park is the "Bishop White" Settee copied exactly from one of two models in the entrance foyer of Bishop William White's residence. Again, all the original woods were duplicated in detail with each model bearing its serial number and the hallmark of Independence Hall. (Duckloe's "Chief Justice" Chairs and "Bishop White" Settees are still being made.)

The "First Boston" Arm and Side Chairs were first reproduced in 1981 under a commission by The First Boston Corporation. This world wide investment banking and brokerage firm lent Duckloe Brothers the eighteenth-century model of the original arm chair in order that the our craftsmen could duplicate in solid ash wood its handsome and historic contours and details. We subsequently developed a matching side char, and now offer both versions to collectors.

In 1988 SPNEA - The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities commissioned Frederick Duckloe & Bros., to be the exclusive makers of all Windsor chair reproductions for their museum. Duckloe Brothers now offer two distinctive New England Comb Back Windsors faithfully copied from the original. Both models are branded and serial numbered for the discriminating collector.