Lot Essay
Employing a graceful curve within its structural members, the bombe chest form was the technological masterpiece of the most accomplished cabinetmakers of late eighteenth century Boston and Salem. The high level of skill required to construct the form parlayed into greater expense for the consumer. As such, the patronage of bombe chest-of-drawers, desk-and-bookcases, chest-on-chests and dressing mirrors was the exclusive perogative of the elite. Compared to the contemporaneous options of block-front, serpentine and reverse-serpentine facades, bombe furniture was made in far fewer quantities and only about sixty examples survive today. Those that have survived with family histories indicate the prestige of their first owners. Crossing political boundaries, bombe furniture was owned by wealthy Loyalists and Patriots such as Governor Thomas Hutchinson, Sir William Pepperell, Josiah Quincy and Elias Hasket Derby (Gilbert T. Vincent, "The Bombe Furniture of Boston," Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, Brock Jobe, ed. (Boston, 1972), p. 196).
Made soon after their English prototypes, American bombe caseforms indicate that the colonial elite were able to keep abreast of the latest fashions. In his seminal article, "The Bombe Furniture of Boston," Gilbert T. Vincent concludes that the bombe form was introduced to America by the importation of English examples, most notably a bombe chest-on-chest with glass doors made about 1740 and brought to Boston by Charles Apthorp (1698-1758). The bombe section of this object bears strong aesthetic and structural similarities to the earliest dated American bombe example, a desk-and-bookcase signed by Benjamin Frothingham and dated 1753 (Vincent, figs. 97, 102, pp. 142, 151).
This chest is one of about seven similar examples with cusped cornered tops and closely related pendant drops, knee returns and ogee bracket feet. While these features are hardly unique, the group is further linked by the unusual construction of the base rails. Most base rails on bombe forms are hidden by the applied base molding. On this group, however, the molding is lower, leaving the base rail exposed and, joining with flattened sections below the curves on the case sides, allowed for the use of straightforward dovetails (Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, New England Furniture: The Colonial Era (Boston, 1984), pp. 152-153). The chest offered here, as well as at least two of the others, displays a practical solution to the problem of housing straight drawers in a curvilinear case. While the drawer facades follow the curvilinear line, the interior of the case sides, or at least the front sections, are straight and align with drawer sides. The two other methods employed by cabinetmakers of the era were to make drawers with either straight sides and facades or curved sides and facades that conformed to the bombe shape of the case. The former method entailed a visual discrepancy between the drawers and the case, while the latter required more extensive and atypical joinery. Thus, the solution displayed on this chest exhibits a concern for aesthetics as well as time-saving construction. Such a solution is also seen on the work of John Cogswell (1738-1818), one of Boston's leading cabinetmakers of the late eighteenth century (see Nancy E. Richards and Nancy Goyne Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (Winterthur, Delaware, 1997), cat. 209, pp. 446-449; Robert Mussey and Anne Rogers Haley, "John Cogswell and Boston Bombe Furniture: Thirty-Five Years of Revolution in Politics and Design," American Furniture, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (1994), figs. 9, 13, 20, 25).
Differences among the chests in this group indicate that they were probably not made in the same shop, though possibly the work of a school of cabinetmaking linked by common training that evolved over time. Unlike the example offered here, a chest in the collection of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities features a full dustboard between its second and third drawers. Furthermore, within this group, the curve of the bombe shape either begins after the second drawer or, as the chest offered here demonstrates, slightly higher. This group of chests could have been made in either Boston or Salem. Supporting the attribution to Salem, two have Salem family histories and the top of the chest offered here, with a tenoned instead of dovetailed joints with the case sides, features a method unusual in Boston work. However, the drawer construction is in the Boston manner and the family histories may not indicate origin of production as many of Salem's elite ordered their furniture from Boston (See Jobe and Kaye, pp. 152-153). Compiled in Jobe and Kaye, pp. 152-153, the related chests are as follows: A chest discussed by Jobe and Kaye, cat. 18 and in the collection of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities; Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 21 October 1972, lot 60; Israel Sack, Inc. advertisement, Antiques (August 1976), p. 200; Sotheby Parke-Bernet, October 1957, lot 91; formerly in the Garbisch collection and sold at Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 23-25 May 1980, vol. 4, lot 1159; Ginsburg and Levy ad, Antiques (February 1950), p. 101; Winterthur Library, Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, no. 70.3778; two related chests are discussed in Jobe and Kaye, p. 153, fn. 11.
Made soon after their English prototypes, American bombe caseforms indicate that the colonial elite were able to keep abreast of the latest fashions. In his seminal article, "The Bombe Furniture of Boston," Gilbert T. Vincent concludes that the bombe form was introduced to America by the importation of English examples, most notably a bombe chest-on-chest with glass doors made about 1740 and brought to Boston by Charles Apthorp (1698-1758). The bombe section of this object bears strong aesthetic and structural similarities to the earliest dated American bombe example, a desk-and-bookcase signed by Benjamin Frothingham and dated 1753 (Vincent, figs. 97, 102, pp. 142, 151).
This chest is one of about seven similar examples with cusped cornered tops and closely related pendant drops, knee returns and ogee bracket feet. While these features are hardly unique, the group is further linked by the unusual construction of the base rails. Most base rails on bombe forms are hidden by the applied base molding. On this group, however, the molding is lower, leaving the base rail exposed and, joining with flattened sections below the curves on the case sides, allowed for the use of straightforward dovetails (Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, New England Furniture: The Colonial Era (Boston, 1984), pp. 152-153). The chest offered here, as well as at least two of the others, displays a practical solution to the problem of housing straight drawers in a curvilinear case. While the drawer facades follow the curvilinear line, the interior of the case sides, or at least the front sections, are straight and align with drawer sides. The two other methods employed by cabinetmakers of the era were to make drawers with either straight sides and facades or curved sides and facades that conformed to the bombe shape of the case. The former method entailed a visual discrepancy between the drawers and the case, while the latter required more extensive and atypical joinery. Thus, the solution displayed on this chest exhibits a concern for aesthetics as well as time-saving construction. Such a solution is also seen on the work of John Cogswell (1738-1818), one of Boston's leading cabinetmakers of the late eighteenth century (see Nancy E. Richards and Nancy Goyne Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (Winterthur, Delaware, 1997), cat. 209, pp. 446-449; Robert Mussey and Anne Rogers Haley, "John Cogswell and Boston Bombe Furniture: Thirty-Five Years of Revolution in Politics and Design," American Furniture, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (1994), figs. 9, 13, 20, 25).
Differences among the chests in this group indicate that they were probably not made in the same shop, though possibly the work of a school of cabinetmaking linked by common training that evolved over time. Unlike the example offered here, a chest in the collection of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities features a full dustboard between its second and third drawers. Furthermore, within this group, the curve of the bombe shape either begins after the second drawer or, as the chest offered here demonstrates, slightly higher. This group of chests could have been made in either Boston or Salem. Supporting the attribution to Salem, two have Salem family histories and the top of the chest offered here, with a tenoned instead of dovetailed joints with the case sides, features a method unusual in Boston work. However, the drawer construction is in the Boston manner and the family histories may not indicate origin of production as many of Salem's elite ordered their furniture from Boston (See Jobe and Kaye, pp. 152-153). Compiled in Jobe and Kaye, pp. 152-153, the related chests are as follows: A chest discussed by Jobe and Kaye, cat. 18 and in the collection of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities; Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 21 October 1972, lot 60; Israel Sack, Inc. advertisement, Antiques (August 1976), p. 200; Sotheby Parke-Bernet, October 1957, lot 91; formerly in the Garbisch collection and sold at Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 23-25 May 1980, vol. 4, lot 1159; Ginsburg and Levy ad, Antiques (February 1950), p. 101; Winterthur Library, Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, no. 70.3778; two related chests are discussed in Jobe and Kaye, p. 153, fn. 11.