PROBABLY HEMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK, 1750-1770

With its inventive use of three drawers in the base, this kast is an important survival of the form and illustrates the mingling of English and Dutch cultures on New York's Long Island. Here, the traditional Dutch form of a kast has been modified to also serve as a chest-of-drawers. The diamond plaques on the base and shaping of the feet suggest that this kast may be part of a small group, one of which descended in the Onderdonk family of Hempstead, Long Island. See Peter M. Kenny, Frances Gruber Safford and Gilbert T. Vincent, American Kasten (New York, 1991), p. 63.