SAPFM selects David Lamb for Cartouche Award

The Society of American Period Furniture Makers is giving its 2021 Cartouche Award for lifetime achievement to David Lamb of Canterbury, N.H.

“I’m totally honored by it,” Lamb tells Woodshop News. “It’s a wonderful feeling personally to be recognized on such a wide scale by such a well-respected organization for a lifetime’s worth of work and achievement. You can feel good about what you’re doing, but to be recognized by your peers is the ultimate pat on the back for a job well done.

“I think the people that have won it in the past are all exceptional craftsmen that do highly acclaimed work and to be in that body of makers is really special and I really appreciate it.”

Lamb’s career as a full-time furniture maker began almost 50 years ago when his family moved to Canterbury Shaker Village to run its Shaker museum. At 14, he apprenticed with his neighbor at the Village, Alejandro de la Cruz, a cabinetmaker from Madrid. He attended Boston University’s Program in Artistry, taught by Jere Osgood and Alphonse Mattia, earning a degree in Applied Arts.

Lamb has been a 40-year juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and has served as juror for over a decade. He is a founding member of the Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers and the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association, where he has served as chairman for three terms. He was appointed New Hampshire Artist Laureate by Gov. John Lynch for two terms from 2010-2014. He also was presented traditional furniture making at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1999.

The award is usually presented at the SAPFM’s annual conference in January, but plans have changed due to the pandemic. For more, visit www.sapfm.org.  

This article was originally published in the January 2021 issue.