Through the Lenses of a Miniaturist

Bennie Arnold's World

Story by Radhika Madana Mohan
Photos courtesy of the Adirondack Musuem

If Bennie Arnold lived today, he would be almost 117-years-old and, no doubt, still carving his days away. In an article by Beulah Fuller, which appeared in the Watertown Daily Times on Aug. 31, 1963, Arnold's wife, Kathryn Arnold, said, "He'd much rather carve wood than eat." So, equipped with nothing but talent, passion, and determination, Arnold crafted more than 800 miniatures within twenty-five years. And he only stopped when life drained out of him in 1972.

"To have to repeat a copy bores me."

He is Bennie Arnold, a miniaturist wood carver of Castorland's "little sister village" Naumburg in Lewis County. According to Fuller, you would not miss the seven china closets filled with 739 of Arnold's masterpieces when you walked into his home.

Arnold's talent was unveiled when he was just 12 he carved a small 10 inch high wooden chair while he was ill in bed. However, in later years when he was too wrapped up with his work at the Climax Manufacturing Company, Arnold never continued his carving passion, Until a heart attack forced him into retirement in 1944. He was just fifty-three, but this was certainly a blessing in disguise. After encouragement from his doctor and high praise of his boyhood work from his minister, Rev. Frank Hube of Beaver Falls, Arnold returned to his carving ‘lab' to occupy his time.

His designs were one-twelfth scale replicas ranging from carriages, cabinets, butter churns, wagons, hat racks, hay rakes and a birthday cake. But, his favorite was obviously chairs — in his lifetime, he carved 407, and no two were alike. When he met Fuller, he had completed 230 straight chairs and over 180 rockers!

In that same article, Arnold said he enjoyed creating new models. "To have to repeat a copy bores me."  Although Arnold's creations were exact scaled copies of the real object, it captures Arnold's true eye and passion for detail, even though he had no formal training. When he saw something he liked, he would think of his next masterpiece. One such piece was his barber chair, which is a duplicate of the one in Boonville while at Adventure Town in Alexandria Bay; he measured and made a drawing of an English tallyho as well.

Working at a small, old-fashioned square table by a kitchen window, Arnold carefully carved with dentist drills, files, and his one jack knife, Arnold would draw a detailed pattern on cardboard measuring one inch per foot which he takes back to his workbench. He preferred to work with white pine. He could take up to fifteen hours to complete highly fancied chairs, but plain chairs would take him between six to ten hours. With this, he would get to work before a masterpiece was finally born. An interesting factor is the fact that the miniatures also replicate the function of the objects: drawers open, wheels turn, and piano stool rotate.

Arnold takes pride in his fanciest work, which he had carved on May 20, 1963 — a one horse cutter sleigh. This particular work of art was painted glossy black, lined with dark pine green satin upholstery, and had a button padded back. It also was complete with copper wire curlicue braces was its runners of crate band iron. His tiniest piece is a round-back chair, three-eighths of an inch tall — barely as big as the nail of a pinky finger.

Arnold was his own historian. He kept records for each miniature. The date he finished it, the hours he took to complete it, and even the name of the person who owned the original object or place where he saw the object. On Jan. 1, 1956, the Arnolds started their first "home museum," the guest book is filled with signatures from people as far as Alaska, Canada, and Germany to girl scouts troops and Sunday school classes. He never sold his original pieces, but he would make copies to order. His creations were often exhibited at the Lewis County Fair.

After his death, in 1975, Arnold's widow Kathryn donated nearly all of his 800 piece to the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake. And now, Bennie Arnold is revived as of Feb. 9, all through May 17, 2008. Courtesy of the museum, the Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY) is bringing this native of Naumburg's carvings to its galleries in an exhibition, "A World in Miniature: The Carvings of Bennie Arnold." Lynn Ekfelt of Canton curates the exhibition and it shall showcase about 100 miniatures, including larger models of antique vehicles and furniture as well as biographical information about the carver himself.

Arnold was so passionate that, in a quote from Fuller's article, he said, instead of counting sheep in bed, he could count spindles to get. And if that fails, Arnold said, he would plan his next masterpiece. "I get four big kicks out of everything I make.  One is when I find it.  Two is when I copy it.  Three is when I make it.  Four is when I show it." 

What do you know about miniatures?