For antiques dealer and collector David Duggin, sugar chests and pottery jugs, carved corner chairs and canopy beds have personalities as vivid as those of people. "When I meet a piece I really like and then buy it, I become attached to it and I miss it if it's gone," he says about the 18th- and 19th- century furnishings in his spare, but not austere, house in Woodbury, Tenn.



"I've lived here in Woodbury my whole life," he says, "and I've always known exactly what I wanted to do-buy, sell, and collect American furniture, Southern examples in particular." Duggin keeps things he loves, but also loves what he sells in the by-appointment-only antiques business he maintains in town. "Southern furniture is my hobby and my business."



For some born-and-bred Southerners, like Duggin, the Civil War is still not so distant. "So much Southern furniture was lost after the Civil War. Houses were destroyed, prominent families ruined," Duggin says.



As a college student, Duggin received visits between classes from "pickers," local dealers who knew his tastes. "I kept careful records of what I bought and had to sell for tuition, so I was able to buy back those pieces." A circa 1820 sugar chest looks gorgeous against mustard-colored walls and decorated with antique pottery.



"Southern furniture forms tend to be more interesting than Northern-made furniture." Yet, pieces in Duggin's 1818 house are decidedly Northern.



When choosing locally made pottery, Duggin says, "I go for form and beautiful glaze." Because styles endured from the 1840s to the 1920s, it is difficult to determine dates.



"I become very attached to things," he says, "and so many of my furnishings are New England. I buy what I love." The Tennessee pottery rabbit atop a mantel is one of only a few animal forms Duggin has ever found.



In his master bedroom, Duggin sleeps in a Sheraton tester bed, circa 1820, that keeps covered with a vintage wool coverlet. "I chose to leave the bare frame showing," says Duggin. "The bed is more masculine this way." A child size chest of drawers functions as a bedside table.



Tucked in a nook by the staircase is a Kentucky sugar desk, a rare piece that features a writing surface separate from the sugar safe. "It's scalloped apron is quite a wonderful detail."




Photography by Gridley & Graves

Text By David Masello