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Lot Essay
This chest-of-drawers is attributed to Thomas Needham (1780-1858) of Salem on the basis of its interior construction and the bold sweep of its serpentine facade. Fitted with a full dustboard between its second and third drawers, this chest exhibits a feature common to Philadelphia-area furniture but rare in New England furniture. Such dustboards are found occasionally in Boston and Salem work and, due to the influence of the latter and also in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (see Jobe, ed., Portsmouth Furniture, Boston, 1993, p.107). A serpentine chest-of-drawers labelled by Needham shares this feature as well as the shaping of the serpentine facade. Also, both chests bear similar dimensions and are fitted with drawers that are not graduated (see a chest formerly in the collection of Dwight Blaney, Sold in these Rooms, 23 June 1993, lot 168).
Thomas Needham, the son of a cabinetmaker by the same name, was baptized in Salem in 1780. By 1811, he assumed the shop of fellow tradesman Joseph McComb on Charter Street where he worked into the 1820s, when he opened a furniture warehouse on Essex Street. His portrait hangs at the Essex Institute in Salem. The comparable chest discussed above bears Needham's Charter Street label and, with its similarities to this chest offered here, provides an approximate date of execution. For other examples of his work see Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Era, New York, 1966, cat. 282, p.316; Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses, New Haven, 1992, cat. 90, p.188.
Thomas Needham, the son of a cabinetmaker by the same name, was baptized in Salem in 1780. By 1811, he assumed the shop of fellow tradesman Joseph McComb on Charter Street where he worked into the 1820s, when he opened a furniture warehouse on Essex Street. His portrait hangs at the Essex Institute in Salem. The comparable chest discussed above bears Needham's Charter Street label and, with its similarities to this chest offered here, provides an approximate date of execution. For other examples of his work see Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Era, New York, 1966, cat. 282, p.316; Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses, New Haven, 1992, cat. 90, p.188.