This is one of a small group of polychrome trunks decorated with festoons, semi-circular feathers, swags and pinwheel motifs enclosed in geometric surrounds. Decorated by a single shop in central Massachusetts, the trunks are consistently painted with red and yellow details on a black, red or blue-green gound as on this example. This trunk is larger than most others which are generally of table-top size.
For nearly identical examples see Christie's, January 24, 1987, lot 225; Sotheby's, June 23-24, 1993, lots 234, 238, 239; Little, Neat and Tidy (New York, 1980), fig. 29; Harlow, 'Decorated New England Furniture,' The Magazine Antiques (October 1979): 860-870, pls. III,IV.