PROBABLY PHILADELPHIA, 1710-1740

While typically called "spice boxes" during the period, inventories suggest that locking cabinets such as this early example were used for storing small valuables and keepsakes rather than specifically herbs and spices. The form was particularly popular in Pennsylvania, and a range of examples survive. Among them, this example is unusual for its double plank doors and the arrangement of its interior drawers. A related, plank-door spice box in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society has a similar arrangement, with two rows of three short drawers with one long drawer across the bottom (see Griffith, The Pennsylvania Spice Box (West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1986), cat. no. 5). The tear-drop brass drawer pulls on the present example are also in keeping with this related example. These pulls appear to be original to the chest, as do the turned, flattened ball feet, and as such are rare survivals.