HATFIELD-WILLIAMSBURG AREA, MASSACHUSETTS, CIRCA 1800

Displaying an array of curvilinear shaping, this chest-on-stand is an exuberant survival of eighteenth-century Connecticut River Valley furniture. While the fluted quarter columns signal its maker's awareness of urban-made case pieces, the scalloped-top, repeating cyma ornament and short cabriole legs are regional expressions found on furniture from central Massachusetts, along the upper Connecticut River. In particular, the repetitive cyma motif relates to several pieces with Hatfield histories and a chest in a private collection found in Williamsburg, suggesting possible origins for the chest offered here (see Dean A. Fales, The Furniture of Historic Deerfield (New York, 1976), pp. 148-149, 219, cats. 314, 444, 445; see also, Michael K. Brown, "Scalloped-top furniture of the Connecticut River valley," The Magazine Antiques (May 1980), pp. 1092-1099 and David L. Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses (New Haven, 1992), pp. 114-116, cat. 38).