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Lot Essay
This impressive chest is among the most elaborate to have survived from Philadelphia's early cabinet shops. Fashioned from figured maple and retaining an early reddish finish and original feet and brasses, this chest is exemplary of the best that early 18th century cabinetmakers produced.
The construction techniques used in fashioning this chest are in part responsible for its present state of preservation. The top is affixed to a sub-top with screws, and four windows in the subtop allowed the application of glueblocks as well. In addition, a tightly spaced row of glueblocks connects to the rear overhang of the top to the back of the chest. The drawer construction remains very tight, and the dense maple drawer fronts helped insure the survival of the brasses. Full dust boards separate the drawers. The turned feet have been trimmed slightly and castors added at a later date, but do not appear ever to have been loose from the case. The round mortises of the feet extend through a heavy block glued to the case bottom, as well as through the bottom of the case itself. The distinctive scalloped molding is affixed with pins to the bottom of the case.
A closely related walnut chest on chest survives in the collection of Wright's Ferry Mansion in Columbia, Pennsylvania (figure 1). This double case shares with the present chest a virtually identical scalloped skirt molding, as well as the distinctive foot shape. The chest offered here is distinguished by fluted and canted corners, which are not present on the Wright's Ferry chest. Generally associated with designs of the Queen Anne period, this is perhaps the earliest known appearance of these details in a Philadelphia case piece.
Little is known of the cabinet shops from this early period in Philadelphia. The relatively prosperous city of Philadelphia supported numerous joiners and cabinetmakers, most of whom remain obscure and without specific works attributed to them. Among those with known works is the Quaker John Head, whose body of work is only now emerging from obscurity. Head fashioned a William and Mary high chest and dressing table for the wealthy Quaker Casper Wistar around the time of his marriage in 1726. Head's account book, which survives in the collection of the American Philosophical Society, records this commission and the family history confirms the attribution. For more information of John Head, see Steifel, "Philadelphia Cabinetmaking and Commerce, 1718-1753: The Account Book of John Head, Joiner" APS Library Bulletin (Winter 2001).
While the present chest could have been made by any one of the Philadelphia cabinetmakers working during the first decades of the 18th century, there is some evidence that John Head may have fashioned it. Construction details of the documented high chest and dressing table conform to at least one of a group of four known slant front desks that also have scalloped lower front moldings (see Lindsey, Worldly Goods (Philadelphia, 1998) fig.186). This desk in turn has parallels with the present chest. The present chest also bears chalk construction marks that are similar to those of the Wistar high chest and dressing table. Among the dozens of chests recorded in Head's daybook are several that specifically mention the use of maple, including Mary Davis's 1724 purchase of "a maple Chest of drawers and Table, 14-0-0", Philip John's 1724 purchase of "a Mapel Chest of Drawers sold to his wife," and a "Mapel Chest of Drawers" sold to William Calender in 1737.
This chest stands as among the most elaborate and best-preserved examples to have survived from early 18th century Philadelphia.
The construction techniques used in fashioning this chest are in part responsible for its present state of preservation. The top is affixed to a sub-top with screws, and four windows in the subtop allowed the application of glueblocks as well. In addition, a tightly spaced row of glueblocks connects to the rear overhang of the top to the back of the chest. The drawer construction remains very tight, and the dense maple drawer fronts helped insure the survival of the brasses. Full dust boards separate the drawers. The turned feet have been trimmed slightly and castors added at a later date, but do not appear ever to have been loose from the case. The round mortises of the feet extend through a heavy block glued to the case bottom, as well as through the bottom of the case itself. The distinctive scalloped molding is affixed with pins to the bottom of the case.
A closely related walnut chest on chest survives in the collection of Wright's Ferry Mansion in Columbia, Pennsylvania (figure 1). This double case shares with the present chest a virtually identical scalloped skirt molding, as well as the distinctive foot shape. The chest offered here is distinguished by fluted and canted corners, which are not present on the Wright's Ferry chest. Generally associated with designs of the Queen Anne period, this is perhaps the earliest known appearance of these details in a Philadelphia case piece.
Little is known of the cabinet shops from this early period in Philadelphia. The relatively prosperous city of Philadelphia supported numerous joiners and cabinetmakers, most of whom remain obscure and without specific works attributed to them. Among those with known works is the Quaker John Head, whose body of work is only now emerging from obscurity. Head fashioned a William and Mary high chest and dressing table for the wealthy Quaker Casper Wistar around the time of his marriage in 1726. Head's account book, which survives in the collection of the American Philosophical Society, records this commission and the family history confirms the attribution. For more information of John Head, see Steifel, "Philadelphia Cabinetmaking and Commerce, 1718-1753: The Account Book of John Head, Joiner" APS Library Bulletin (Winter 2001).
While the present chest could have been made by any one of the Philadelphia cabinetmakers working during the first decades of the 18th century, there is some evidence that John Head may have fashioned it. Construction details of the documented high chest and dressing table conform to at least one of a group of four known slant front desks that also have scalloped lower front moldings (see Lindsey, Worldly Goods (Philadelphia, 1998) fig.186). This desk in turn has parallels with the present chest. The present chest also bears chalk construction marks that are similar to those of the Wistar high chest and dressing table. Among the dozens of chests recorded in Head's daybook are several that specifically mention the use of maple, including Mary Davis's 1724 purchase of "a maple Chest of drawers and Table, 14-0-0", Philip John's 1724 purchase of "a Mapel Chest of Drawers sold to his wife," and a "Mapel Chest of Drawers" sold to William Calender in 1737.
This chest stands as among the most elaborate and best-preserved examples to have survived from early 18th century Philadelphia.