SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, 1760-1790

Among the most fully developed block-front chest-on-chests to survive from the North Shore of Massachusetts, this chest on chest is closely related to a number of known examples made in Salem. The dramatic, three-dimensional carved scallop-shell drop centered on the skirt, the blocking characterized by sharp corners, and the small pinwheels that flank the central finial plinth all suggest a Salem origin. These details, as well as the design of the knee brackets, are in keeping with an imposing desk and bookcase in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attributed to the workshop of Salem cabinetmaker Nathaniel Gould (see Morrison Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1985) no. 181). A desk and bookcase attributed to the Salem cabinetmaker Henry Rust also shares the bold scallop shell carving and this knee bracket design (see Charles Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1989) no. 28. Two bombé chests with similar shells and feet are also attributed to Salem cabinetmakers (see Gilbert Vincent, "The Bombe Furniture of Boston," in Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century (Boston, 1974) figs. 136 and 137).