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Surviving in pristine condition and exhibiting the rare two-drawer form, this Hadley Chest is an example of one of the most celebrated groups of early American furniture. Richly carved and brightly painted, such chests would have been vibrant additions to an early eighteenth-century home, but few retain their original paint seen on th example offered here.

Since the writings of Henry Wood Erving in 1883, Hadley chests have been extensively acclaimed, examined and reinterpreted and their histories and workmanship continue to provide an abundance of evidence to scholarly investigations. Defined by the use of tulip and vine template, Hadley forms were made along the Connecticut River Valley, from Suffield and Enfield to Northfield, then all part of Hampshire County, Massachusetts from the late seventeenth century through the first few decades of the eighteenth.

Named after an example found in Hadley, Massachusetts, the center of production of the type illustruted by the chest offered here appears to have been the Hadley-Hadfield-Deerfield area. According to the latest estimates approximately 250 examples survive today, making the Hadley forms the largest group of American joined furniture. Like most Hadley chests, this example was made for a young woman prior to marriage and thus the chest's initials, LM, refer to her maiden name.