WETHERSFIELD AREA, CONNECTICUT, 1690-1720

The two-drawer "sunflower" chest has long been hailed as one of early America's most distinctive forms. Along with chests with one drawer, cupboards and boxes, "sunflower" furniture has been the subject of scholarly interest since the field's beginnings in the late nineteenth century. Incorrectly named after the central motifs, which are now thought to be marigolds or mere floral abstractions, many were found in the vicinity of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Later research uncovered several ties linking these forms to the Wethersfield woodworker, Peter Blin (c.1640-1725), the most convincing of which is the Rowlandson family cupboard in the Lancaster Public Library, Lancaster, Massachusetts. This cupboard can be documented to have been made in the town in 1677 or 1678 and Blin, a joiner and turner capable of both constructing the case and providing the applied ornament, stands as the most likely maker working in the town at this time. More recent scholarship has explored the group's possible French influences and the likelihood that they were made in several competing shops (see Susan Prendergast Schoelwer, "Connecticut Sunflower Furniture: A Familiar Form Reconsidered," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (Spring 1989), pp. 21-37).

About three hundred years old, this chest, like most surviving examples, had experienced sufficient wear to the lid and applied ornament to necessitate restoration. This has been done in an authentic manner and its surface restored with a sympathetic finish.