BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1740-1760

With its gilt shells and fluted pilasters complementing the bonnet top, dynamic drawer configuration and graceful cabriole legs, this chest exhibits the classic features of mid-eighteenth century cabinetmaking in Boston. This high chest is one of a small group of surviving high chests to exhibit painted gilt shells instead of carved or inlaid shells. This group includes a walnut-veneered high chest sold at Christie's New York, October 5, 2000, lot 75; a high chest, owned by Mrs. Harry Horton Benkard and exhibited in the Girl Scout Loan Exhibition of 1929, cat. no. 568; a high chest illustrated in Israel Sack, American Furniture from the Israel Sack Collection, volume 7, pp. 1718-1719, P4848; and a high chest with related shell treatment is illustrated in Wallace Nutting, American Furniture Treasury (New York, 1928), no. 380. The use of solid walnut for the case and drawers further distinguishes this example from other surviving Boston examples. A high chest of drawers in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which is signed and dated 1739 by Ebenezer Hartshern of Charlestown, demonstrates virtually identical fluting along the case sides and is illustrated in Richard H. Randall, American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Boston, 1965), cat. no. 54.