LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT, 1760-1790

This chest-on-chest is an important addition to a small group of furniture associated with eastern Litchfield County. These pieces are characterized by the unusual construction technique of diagonal corner braces to the underside of the case, which extend from the inner corner of each leg toward the center of the base. A number of shops in eastern Litchfield County employed this technique, with variation in the width and length of the braces. The present example employs a technique seen in other Litchfield County case pieces in which the front braces are placed at a 45 degree angle, and the rear braces placed at a 30 degree angle. Another interesting feature seen on furniture with cross-brace base construction is the presence of drawer runners tenoned through the backboards, which can be seen in the present example.

Two examples from this group are currently on view at the Litchfield County Historical Society: A desk that descended in the Woodruff family and a chest in the collection of the Hartford Steam Boiler Company that descended in the Stiles family. (Edward S. Cooke, Jr., To Please Any Taste: Litchfield County Furniture and Furniture Makers, 1730-1850 (Litchfield Historical Society, 2008), p. 42, fig. 12).