SIGNED BY JOHN KELLEY, PROBABLY JOHN KELLEY (1775-1860), PERINTON, MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK, DATED 1849

Details

THE ELLEN GREEN SMALL VINEGAR "THUMB-PRINT" PAINT-DECORATED PINE DOME-TOP BOX
SIGNED BY JOHN KELLEY, PROBABLY JOHN KELLEY (1775-1860), PERINTON, MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK, DATED 1849
underside inscribed and dated Made by John Kelley and/ Presented to Ellen Green/ in the Year 1849
3 3⁄4 in. high, 7 in. wide, 4 1⁄2 in. deep

Provenance

Probably Ellen (Green) Dow (1837-1860), New York and Chester, Michigan, by gift from the maker
Walters-Benisek Art & Antiques, Northampton, Massachusetts
Jon and Rebecca Zoler, Ridgewood, New Jersey
Sotheby's, New York, 22 January 2005, lot 717

Literature

Peter Goodman, Notebook, no. 1016.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Cara Zimmerman Head of Americana and Outsider Art

CZimmerman@christies.com +1 212 636 2230

Lot Essay

This box was most likely a gift from John Kelley (1775-1860) to his twelve-year old granddaughter, Ellen A. Green (1837-1860). Of Quaker heritage, Kelley was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts and moved to Perinton, Monroe County, New York, where he is listed as a farmer in the 1850 census. His daughter Joanna K. Kelley (1806-1857) married Eri Allen Green (1803-1880) in 1823. Their daughter, Ellen, the recipient of this box, was born in New York but by 1850 was living with her family in Chester, Eaton County, Michigan. There, she married Henry Dow (1837-1864) in 1857 and died just three years later.

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