Lot Essay
The attention that this visually enchanting chest-of-drawers demands is due to the combination of rich multi-dimensional veneers and the lively motion of the skirt and legs. An example that has no known equal, this chest is an embodiment of characteristics associated with high style Federal furniture made in Vermont in that it displays a fashionable neoclassical vocabulary with wildly patterned sugar maple arranged in a contrasting manner with mahogany veneers.
Furniture from the lower Champlain Valley of Vermont shows strong stylistic influences from Massachusetts, coastal New Hampshire and New York. Documentation supports this regional medley with records of craftsmen who traveled among the above states and translated their visual experiences into individual expressions such as this extraordinary example.
Western Vermont served as the melting pot for the mixing of ideas and forms brought by both craftsmen and objects from different stylistic centers. The deep undulating skirt of this chest-of-drawers relates to furniture from upstate New York. The central drop in the skirt, the frieze of flame-birch, and the mahogany banding is inspired from the drop-panel chests of New Hampshire, particularly Portsmouth. The spurs, evident at the midpoint of the feet, are features seen on documented objects from Springfield, Massachusetts. Other similarities to furniture produced in this area are also linked to western Vermont, reinforcing stylistic transfers between the regions (see Gail N. Colglazier, Springfield Furniture, 1700-1850, (Springfield, MA, 1990), fig. 10). For a recent scholarly discussion on Vermont furniture, see the upcoming article by Kenneth Joel Zogry, Curator of the Bennington Museum, in Antiques, (August, 1993).
For furniture with related combinations and motifs, see "Collector's Notes," Antiques, (June, 1972), 1058; Christie's, October, 21, 1989, Lot 390; William Hosley, "Vermont Furniture, 1790-1830," Old Time New England, vol. 72, (Boston, 1987); William Hosley, "My Top Ten Hits," Art and Antiques, (October, 1991), pp. 76-81; Maine Antiques Digest, (October, 1983), p. 2D. A similar Vermont chest with an identical skirt and foot pattern is owned in a private collection.
Furniture from the lower Champlain Valley of Vermont shows strong stylistic influences from Massachusetts, coastal New Hampshire and New York. Documentation supports this regional medley with records of craftsmen who traveled among the above states and translated their visual experiences into individual expressions such as this extraordinary example.
Western Vermont served as the melting pot for the mixing of ideas and forms brought by both craftsmen and objects from different stylistic centers. The deep undulating skirt of this chest-of-drawers relates to furniture from upstate New York. The central drop in the skirt, the frieze of flame-birch, and the mahogany banding is inspired from the drop-panel chests of New Hampshire, particularly Portsmouth. The spurs, evident at the midpoint of the feet, are features seen on documented objects from Springfield, Massachusetts. Other similarities to furniture produced in this area are also linked to western Vermont, reinforcing stylistic transfers between the regions (see Gail N. Colglazier, Springfield Furniture, 1700-1850, (Springfield, MA, 1990), fig. 10). For a recent scholarly discussion on Vermont furniture, see the upcoming article by Kenneth Joel Zogry, Curator of the Bennington Museum, in Antiques, (August, 1993).
For furniture with related combinations and motifs, see "Collector's Notes," Antiques, (June, 1972), 1058; Christie's, October, 21, 1989, Lot 390; William Hosley, "Vermont Furniture, 1790-1830," Old Time New England, vol. 72, (Boston, 1987); William Hosley, "My Top Ten Hits," Art and Antiques, (October, 1991), pp. 76-81; Maine Antiques Digest, (October, 1983), p. 2D. A similar Vermont chest with an identical skirt and foot pattern is owned in a private collection.