Original Colors: Red and green on yellow or grey walls.
Erastus Gates' stencils were cut from leather, with beveled edges to assure a crisp edge. He was a contemporary of Moses Eaton though 15 years his junior. There is no doubt that he was influenced by Eaton. Moses Eaton's work is found nearby and in at least one instance, in Cavendish, Vermont, in the same house. (Four of the stencils offered in the Gates' collection are Eaton's, being the same as Gates', but previously offered in the Moses Eaton and Moses Eaton Jr. New England Collection Catalogue.) Gates was also influenced by New York stencilers. The area in which he lived and worked was near the Military Road which lead across Vermont to Crown Point, New York. Stencils were openly shared as was the practice of the day. Numbered among his patterns are some stencils from Columbus, New York, seen in the Stencil House at the Shelburne Museum. Gates' name is known to us through the research of Janet Waring who wrote of the John Coolidge House, "It was called 'the finest house in the country' when its walls were first stencilled in bright colors and the halls patterned with the spread eagle. Four members of the family tell us it was Erastus Gates who did the stencilling when he was a 'very young man,' and that he also 'painted other walls.'"
Early American Stencils on Walls and Furniture by Janet Waring, Dover Publishers
Capt. John Coolidge was President Calvin Coolidge's great, great grandfather. You can learn more by visiting the Historic Vermont website.
