From the first arrival of German settlers until the end of the 18th century when the chest of drawers came into favor, the lift-top chest was the most important piece of case furniture in Pennsylvania-German homes. Used for the storage of clothes and other personal items and for sitting, these chests were colorfully painted and decorated and often inscribed with the owner's name and the date of presentation

This chest is in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, no. 78.739. For a related chest, now in the collection of the Historical Society of York County, see Fabian, p. 194, fig. 214