Furniture Masters

Meet the NH Furniture Masters Founders

The NH Furniture Masters celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2025. We are thrilled to kick-off this anniversary celebration with a special exhibition dedicated to our founders, on display at our Gallery in downtown Concord, NH through March 28.

About the Exhibition:
30 years ago, six furniture makers joined together to form the NH Furniture Masters Association and pioneered a new way to share their craft with the world. 

They built a community that has endured for decades and profoundly influenced the growth and evolution of the studio furniture movement.  This “Founders Exhibition” showcases the work of those original six members and begins a year of exhibitions and events that culminates with the group’s autumn show at the Currier Museum of Art. 


Meet the Founders of the NH Furniture Masters

david lamb headshot
David Lamb

David Lamb:
My life is steeped in the Shaker traditions of excellent craftsmanship. Raised at Canterbury Shaker Village, I have been in the furniture making trade since 1972 when my apprenticeship began with European master Alejandro de la Cruz. This traditional training in the fundamentals and foundation of good design, exquisite craftsmanship and strong business/client relationships was followed by formal schooling at Boston University’s Program in Artisanry. Under the guidance and instruction of Jere Osgood and Alphonse Matia, the opportunities of self-expression and experimentation were incorporated into my earlier training and multiplied the design possibilities that is still, after all these years, being discovered!

I design and build furniture on commission in my shop in Canterbury, proximate to Shaker Village. I have won numerous design awards and my work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Traditional Home Magazine, the New York Times, NH Home Magazine and many other publications as well and been a featured topic on several television programs. My work has been published in major trade journals and have contributed to several books on Shaker furniture.

david lamb handmade hop table furniture master custom
“Hopkinton Serving Table” by David Lamb
Photo: Bill Truslow
custom handmade side table
“The Curly Temple” by David Lamb
Photo: Bill Truslow

terry moore headshot
Terry Moore

Terry Moore:
Terry Moore Is one of the founding members and former chairman of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters association, he is founder and former president of the Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers, and a long time Juried Member of The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.

 Moore moved to New Hampshire from his native Wales in 1974 and two years later in 1976 started his own business. He is a self-taught craftsman who began his woodworking careering by building kitchen cabinets in Newport, New Hampshire. Thirty years later, he is recognized by his peers and his patrons as a master of proportions, design, and workmanship.

Moore was born into a family of eight children and after high school like his father and grandfather before him began working in a coal mine. After work hours, he would pursue his musical interests—guitar and vocals in local bands.

In 1973, he traveled to London to see a rock opera called Lonesome stone. It had an international cast of Americans and Europeans. Moore joined the cast shortly afterwards as a musician and played a variety of instruments such as bass, lead guitar, keyboards, and vocals. He even had a small acting part. The show toured Europe successfully for a year and a half, including a three-month stint at the well-known rock venue, The Rainbow Theater in London.

Promoters brought the show and its cast to the United States, where its reception was a different tune, so to speak. The show went bankrupt in Kansas City, Missouri after a three-month tour. Moore was, at that time, married to an American member of the cast. The couple made short-term plans to spend Christmas with her family in Newport, New Hampshire, and he’s been in New Hampshire ever since.

Moore points to three very different influences to his work: early Korean furniture design, the French Art Deco movement, and Edward Barnsley, a 20th century English craftsman who reinterpreted Georgian period furniture. Moore describes his work as a distillation of these influences. Korean design is responsible for the balance and symmetry in Moore’s design. Barnsley inspires refinement, restraint, and a very high level of craftsmanship. French Art Deco is echoed in his use of highly figured veneer and high polished finishes.

Moore’s studio is located in Wilmot, where he designs and builds furniture to commission. These one-of-a-kind creations are built with a combination of hardwood and highly patterned exotic wood veneers. And the design of these pieces evolves and changes as he builds them. “It’s like writing music,” he says, returning to his other art form, inspiration comes as you are working.” 

“Luna Nero” by Terry Moore
Photo: Bill Truslow
Carlton House Desk
“Carlton House Desk” by Terry Moore
Photo: Bill Truslow

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Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas:
Since 1979, William Thomas has been creating one-of-a-kind furniture pieces in a variety of period styles.  His work ranges from strict reproductions of historic pieces to new designs in the manner of the period masters.  From New England Queen Anne to Baltimore Sheraton, his work encompasses the best of eighteenth-century design.

A graduate of the North Bennet Street School in Boston, Mr. Thomas has focused his skills on creating furniture of the highest quality to meet the demands of discerning patrons of the arts.  Each piece is entirely hand built and shows the master’s touch in every detail.  Working personally with his clients, his goal is to fulfill their needs and provide furniture of a beauty that far exceeds their expectations.

As one of the six founding members of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association, Mr. Thomas has helped to bring the furniture created by the members of this organization to the attention of the nation, and indeed the world.  His work has been featured in the eleven exhibitions and auctions that the Association has held, including the tenth anniversary retrospective exhibition held at the Currier Museum in Manchester, NH in 1995. He served as NHFMA’s chairman for three years.

Chess Side Gaming Table Bill Thomas
Chess Side Gaming Table by Bill Thomas
Walnut Pier Table Bill Thomas
Walnut Pier Table Bill Thomas

Jere Osgood

Jere Osgood:
Jere Osgood was a leading studio furni­ture maker and noted teacher of furni­ture and wood­work­ing. Born and Raised in Staten Island, NY, he studied archi­tec­ture at the Univer­sity of Illi­nois but left after two years to pursue furni­ture design and fabri­ca­tion. Enrolling in the School of Amer­i­can Crafts­man program at Rochester Institute of Tech­nol­ogy, Jere studied with Tage Frid. In the sixties, Jere Osgood estab­lished his studio in New Milford, Connecti­cut where he made work, devel­oped a tech­nique for tapered, bent lami­na­tions and wrote several arti­cles about the process for Fine Wood­work­ing. In 1975, he began teach­ing in the Program in Arti­sanry at Boston Univer­sity, where he worked with Dan Jackson and Alphonse Mattia. The program, which even­tu­ally closed in 1985, was broadly influ­en­tial on the Amer­i­can studio furniture movement.

He is included in Speak­ing of Furni­ture: Conver­sa­tions with 14 Amer­i­can Masters by Bebe Pritam Johnson and Warren Eames Johnson, with essays by Edward S. Cooke, Jr. and Roger Holmes. The Artist Book Foun­da­tion, New York, London, Hong Kong, 2013.

Jere Osgood contin­ued to make work from his studio in Wilton, New Hamp­shire until the end. He was an active member of the New Hamp­shire Furni­ture Masters Asso­ci­a­tion and the Furniture Society.

Jere passed away peace­fully on October 10, 2023 in Peter­bor­ough, NH.

Ebony Desk by Jere Osgood
"Wilson Chair" by Jere Osgood
“Wilson Chair” by Jere Osgood

Brian Braskie and Lenore Howe, Canterbury, New Hampshire
Braskie and Howe, recognized as America’s finest Shaker chairmakers, drew worldwide buyers to their North Woods Chair Shop. After meeting the Shaker Eldresses in 1980, they became students of Shaker design. They won National awards and were included in the directory of Early American Life magazine’s 200 best traditional craftsmen for eight years running. In 1996, they helped found the prestigious New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association.  

We are gardeners now; but thanks to countless supporters, we were furniture makers for 42 years. We made products that traveled around the world and numbered in the thousands. As two founding members of NH Furniture Masters, we marvel at current work by members who have taken NHFMA beyond anything we might have imagined.  We are honored to be remembered as seed-starters and pleased to be included in the celebration of NHFMA’s 30th year.