Lot Essay
With its compass-star and recessed fan-inlay complementing its bonnet top, dynamic drawer configuration, and cabriole legs, this chest exhibits the classic features of mid-eighteenth century cabinetmaking in Boston.
With its restrained linear proportions, rich surfaces, sparse but finely executed ornament, and lively positioning of brasses, this chest is one of a small number of cases made for a select group of affluent Boston families. The cost of creating an inlaid radiating shell as seen in the present form is indicative of the expense that such a piece could incur. One Boston cabinetmaker, Richard Woodward, charged the shop of Nathaniel Holmes 0-18-0 for "Putting in a Shell" and 1 for "Setting 2 Shells," references that are thought to reflect the difficulty involved with laying strips of wood in a radiating pattern (Brock Jobe, "The Boston Furniture Industry: 1720-1740," Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century (Boston, 1972), pp.19-20).
Boston high chests with similarly inlaid shells and string-inlaid drawers include one illustrated in Jobe, fig.17 and another sold on the Premises, The Collection of the Late Jeannette R. Marks, Lexington, Kentucky, June 5 and 6, 1987, lot 91. Two-star inlaid case furniture related to the one offered here include an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art illustrated in Morrison Heckscher, Queen Anne and Chippendale Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (New York, 1985), p.243), and another at Winterthur illustrated in Richards and Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (Winterthur, 1997), p. 484, fig. 222.
With its restrained linear proportions, rich surfaces, sparse but finely executed ornament, and lively positioning of brasses, this chest is one of a small number of cases made for a select group of affluent Boston families. The cost of creating an inlaid radiating shell as seen in the present form is indicative of the expense that such a piece could incur. One Boston cabinetmaker, Richard Woodward, charged the shop of Nathaniel Holmes 0-18-0 for "Putting in a Shell" and 1 for "Setting 2 Shells," references that are thought to reflect the difficulty involved with laying strips of wood in a radiating pattern (Brock Jobe, "The Boston Furniture Industry: 1720-1740," Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century (Boston, 1972), pp.19-20).
Boston high chests with similarly inlaid shells and string-inlaid drawers include one illustrated in Jobe, fig.17 and another sold on the Premises, The Collection of the Late Jeannette R. Marks, Lexington, Kentucky, June 5 and 6, 1987, lot 91. Two-star inlaid case furniture related to the one offered here include an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art illustrated in Morrison Heckscher, Queen Anne and Chippendale Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (New York, 1985), p.243), and another at Winterthur illustrated in Richards and Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (Winterthur, 1997), p. 484, fig. 222.