PROBABLY BERGEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY, DATED 1737

Surviving in remarkable condition and dated 1737, this chip-carved spoon rack is similar in form and ornament to examples dated throughout the eighteenth century from areas of Dutch settlement in New Jersey and New York. It is most closely related to those from Bergen County in New Jersey and almost certainly hailed from this region. The five-lobed architectural crest, uppermost elongated heart-shaped motif, saw-tooth borders, racks fronted by repeating diamond motifs and scalloped base are all features seen on a rack dated 1704 in the collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum and similar embellishments adorn a 1737 dated example at Yale University Art Gallery (see Robert F. Trent and Jayne F. Stokes, catalogue entry, American Furniture with Related Decorative Arts 1660-1830: The Milwaukee Art Museum and the Layton Art Collection (New York, 1991), pp. 89-90, cat. 32; for the example at Yale, see Keno Auctions, 18 January 2011, lot 132). Like the rack in the present lot, most are made of poplar and, where evidence exists, were originally painted a green-blue color. Survivals show considerable consistency in layout and vocabulary of ornament, yet no two are exactly alike. These attributes illustrate that they are traditional forms, each specially commissioned, and speak to their associations with marriage and courtship. For other related examples, see Roderic H. Blackburn and Ruth Piwonka, Remembrance of Patria: Dutch Arts and Culture in Colonial America, 1609-1776 (Albany, 1988), pp. 159-161, nos. 162-166; Wallace Nutting, "Carved Spoon Racks," The Magazine Antiques (June 1925), pp. 312-314; website of the Bergen County Historical Society, available at bergencountyhistory.org.