Lot Essay
The high chest with turned legs represents the quintessential form of the William and Mary style. This example, with a pulvinated freeze concealing a drawer and burl maple veneers with walnut herringbone surrounds, represents the height of fashion in late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Boston. Often made en suite with a dressing table, the veneered William and Mary high chest marked a clear departure from the heavy, joined furniture in the Mannerist taste with horizontal proportions and all-over carved and and or applied decoration. The taste for furniture with a vertical emphasis as well as for more integrated interiors with matching components was largely instigated by the designers and ebenistes responsible for the extensive re-modeling of Versailles under the patronage of the court of Louis XIV. This French Baroque style was introduced to England in the 1680s and further popularized by the French designer Daniel Marot, who arrived in London in 1688 with the new monarchs, William and Mary (Robert F. Trent, "The Early Baroque in Colonial America," in Gerald W. R. Ward, ed., American Furniture with Related Decorative Arts 1660-1830 (New York, 1991), pp. 63, 65).
Immigrant craftsmen arriving in America in the 1690s brought with them the knowledge of the dovetailed-board construction and veneered decoration of the William and Mary style. The earliest reference in Boston to an example of William and Mary furniture is a "Chest of Drawers & frame" listed in the 1690 inventory of Thomas Scudder and could refer either to an English- or American-made object. The English trained cabinetmaker John Brocas (d. 1740) is thought to have disseminated the style in Boston upon his arrival in 1695 (Benno M. Forman, "Urban Aspects of Massachusetts Furniture in the Late 17th Century," Country Cabinetwork and Simple City Furniture (Winterthur Museum, 1970), p.18).
This high chest is one of five veneered examples that display similar cornice moldings, pulvinated freizes, drawer arrangement, mid-moldings and cup-and-trumpet turned legs. The remaining four are as follows: One in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, also illustrated here; one at Winterthur accession no. 66.1306; one illustrated in Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. 3, P3196, p. 695; one sold Sotheby's New York, 27-30 November and 1 December 1979, lot 1674. The classically-inspired cornice and pulvinated moldings derive from English prototypes and would have been part of the working knowledge of immigrant cabinetmakers. In addition, a similar example with three short drawers instead of two in the top case and possibly from New York, is in the collection of Yale University Art Gallery (see Gerald W.R. Ward, American Case Furniture (New Haven, 1988), cat. 122, pp.237-239). Another example with the standard drawer configuration but lacking the pulvinated drawer is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Boston, 1965), cat. 51). While the leg turnings vary from chest to chest, those on the Sack chest appear to be identical to those on the chest offered here.
Immigrant craftsmen arriving in America in the 1690s brought with them the knowledge of the dovetailed-board construction and veneered decoration of the William and Mary style. The earliest reference in Boston to an example of William and Mary furniture is a "Chest of Drawers & frame" listed in the 1690 inventory of Thomas Scudder and could refer either to an English- or American-made object. The English trained cabinetmaker John Brocas (d. 1740) is thought to have disseminated the style in Boston upon his arrival in 1695 (Benno M. Forman, "Urban Aspects of Massachusetts Furniture in the Late 17th Century," Country Cabinetwork and Simple City Furniture (Winterthur Museum, 1970), p.18).
This high chest is one of five veneered examples that display similar cornice moldings, pulvinated freizes, drawer arrangement, mid-moldings and cup-and-trumpet turned legs. The remaining four are as follows: One in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, also illustrated here; one at Winterthur accession no. 66.1306; one illustrated in Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. 3, P3196, p. 695; one sold Sotheby's New York, 27-30 November and 1 December 1979, lot 1674. The classically-inspired cornice and pulvinated moldings derive from English prototypes and would have been part of the working knowledge of immigrant cabinetmakers. In addition, a similar example with three short drawers instead of two in the top case and possibly from New York, is in the collection of Yale University Art Gallery (see Gerald W.R. Ward, American Case Furniture (New Haven, 1988), cat. 122, pp.237-239). Another example with the standard drawer configuration but lacking the pulvinated drawer is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Boston, 1965), cat. 51). While the leg turnings vary from chest to chest, those on the Sack chest appear to be identical to those on the chest offered here.