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Lot Essay
Surviving in extraordinary condition and enlivened by a dramatic scalloped skirt, this high chest well deserves the accolades of “perfection in design” and “one of the greatest high chests in the Wethersfield style” as coined by Thomas P. Kugelman, Alice K. Kugelman and Robert Lionetti (Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800 (Hanover, New Hampshire, 2005), p. 121, 122). In addition to the bold shaping to the skirt, the swan’s neck pediment and delicate cabriole legs provide curvilinear shaping that complements and elevates the rectangular form. The chest has descended in the family for which it was made and until recently, remained within twenty miles of its place of production. Perhaps due to its continuous family ownership, the high chest has survived well over two hundred years with minimal alteration. Two old breaks to the legs are reinforced with wire and rosehead nails, suggesting that these repairs were done early in its life and by an amateur woodworker. The surface is original, as are the chip-carved pinecone finials and brasses.
Displaying similar construction and design, this high chest and a dressing table comprise “the Wilcox Group,” so-named by the Kugelmans and Lionetti after this chest’s family history. These authors argue that these forms relate closely to “the Willard Group” of Wethersfield and with histories in nearby Middletown, were made there by a cabinetmaker who had trained in Wethersfield. Details that distinguish the Wilcox group include chip-carved pinecone finials with no side plinths, a central diamond-shaped plinth, “signature front apron with arches of equal height flanked by a single spur,” knee returns that are canted in back and feet with “truncated” conical pads. Two high chests, a bonnet-top example at Colonial Williamsburg (acc. no. 1991.62) and a privately owned flat-top chest, display the same apron pattern but varying in other decorative details appear to have been made by a competing shop in the same area (Kugelman, Kugelman and Lionetti, op. cit., pp. 121-125, cats. 51, 52). For a close parallel from the Willard group, see Sotheby’s, New York, 25-26 January 2013, lot 331.
The high chest is further distinguished by its uninterrupted history in the Wilcox family. The first owners were probably Joseph Wilcox (1746-1832) and his wife Miriam Bacon (1760-1825). They married in Middletown, Connecticut in 1785 and this high chest may very well have been made upon this occasion. Coincidentally, a dressing table that may have been owned by Joseph’s sister, Sarah Wilcox (1760-1842), and seemingly part of the Wilcox Group, will be offered at Christie’s, The Peter and Barbara Goodman Collection, 20 January 2022, lot 153. Though the two forms display slightly different skirt profiles, together, they closely approximate this Middletown shop’s rendition of a high chest and matching dressing table suite.
Displaying similar construction and design, this high chest and a dressing table comprise “the Wilcox Group,” so-named by the Kugelmans and Lionetti after this chest’s family history. These authors argue that these forms relate closely to “the Willard Group” of Wethersfield and with histories in nearby Middletown, were made there by a cabinetmaker who had trained in Wethersfield. Details that distinguish the Wilcox group include chip-carved pinecone finials with no side plinths, a central diamond-shaped plinth, “signature front apron with arches of equal height flanked by a single spur,” knee returns that are canted in back and feet with “truncated” conical pads. Two high chests, a bonnet-top example at Colonial Williamsburg (acc. no. 1991.62) and a privately owned flat-top chest, display the same apron pattern but varying in other decorative details appear to have been made by a competing shop in the same area (Kugelman, Kugelman and Lionetti, op. cit., pp. 121-125, cats. 51, 52). For a close parallel from the Willard group, see Sotheby’s, New York, 25-26 January 2013, lot 331.
The high chest is further distinguished by its uninterrupted history in the Wilcox family. The first owners were probably Joseph Wilcox (1746-1832) and his wife Miriam Bacon (1760-1825). They married in Middletown, Connecticut in 1785 and this high chest may very well have been made upon this occasion. Coincidentally, a dressing table that may have been owned by Joseph’s sister, Sarah Wilcox (1760-1842), and seemingly part of the Wilcox Group, will be offered at Christie’s, The Peter and Barbara Goodman Collection, 20 January 2022, lot 153. Though the two forms display slightly different skirt profiles, together, they closely approximate this Middletown shop’s rendition of a high chest and matching dressing table suite.