Lot 102
102
A CHIPPENDALE CHERRYWOOD BONNET-TOP DESK-AND-BOOKCASE, The upper section signed "Billious Hill," Woodbury, Connecticut, circa 1773, in two sections: the upper part with upswept molded cornice flanking a flame finial above a pair of arched fielded panelled cupboard doors opening to an interior fitted with pigeonholes centering a pair of document drawers decorated with applied split spindles with flame tops and a tier of four short drawers over candleslides; the lower part with slant lid enclosing an interior elaborately fitted with ogee-arched valance drawers over pigeonholes and two tiers of serpentine-fronted small drawers above a bowed case fitted with three cockbeaded long drawers over a molded base, on ogee bracket feet (the lower section contemporary, but married)--94in. high, 44in. wide, 23 1/2in. deep

Details
A CHIPPENDALE CHERRYWOOD BONNET-TOP DESK-AND-BOOKCASE, The upper section signed "Billious Hill," Woodbury, Connecticut, circa 1773, in two sections: the upper part with upswept molded cornice flanking a flame finial above a pair of arched fielded panelled cupboard doors opening to an interior fitted with pigeonholes centering a pair of document drawers decorated with applied split spindles with flame tops and a tier of four short drawers over candleslides; the lower part with slant lid enclosing an interior elaborately fitted with ogee-arched valance drawers over pigeonholes and two tiers of serpentine-fronted small drawers above a bowed case fitted with three cockbeaded long drawers over a molded base, on ogee bracket feet (the lower section contemporary, but married)--94in. high, 44in. wide, 23 1/2in. deep

Lot Essay

Billious Hill appears in the Woodbury tax lists from 1765 through 1778. His work as a cabinetmaker is recorded in a 1773 entry in the account book of Samuel and Thomas Bull of Woodbury for whom he made a "Cherry Chest with Draws." See Edward S. Cooke, Jr., Fiddlebacks and Crooked-backs Elijah Booth and Other Joiners in Newtown and Woodbury 1750-1820 (Waterbury, Connecticut, 1982), p. 94.

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