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拍品专文
Regionally expressive, superbly designed and expertly crafted, this high chest of drawers is a masterpiece of Essex County, Massachusetts cabinetmaking. As discussed by Kemble Widmer II and Judy Anderson, the chest exhibits a particular blend of Boston and Salem practices, as well as significant variations that strongly suggest a Marblehead origin. Most indicative of Marblehead work are the carved ball-and-claw feet that bear a distinctive bulbous "sack" at the top of the rear talon. Very similar features are seen on furniture signed by Marblehead cabinetmakers, Benjamin Tyler Reed (1741-1792) and Nathan Bowen (1752-1837), and point to a localized tradition practiced by several of the town's woodworkers. Similarly, the shaping of the skirt, with vertical instead of angled notches and lacking protruding rosettes, is a variation on Salem designs that appears to have been favored in Marblehead. Finally, the construction of the bonnet is an unusual combination of Boston and Salem methods-a "hanging box" suspended under the pediment as well as a horizontal board placed between the upper case sides for additional stability-that is also seen on a related chest attributed to Marblehead (Kemble Widmer II and Judy Anderson, "Furniture from Marblehead, Massachusetts," The Magazine Antiques (May 2003), pp. 97, 100-104, pl. II).
Other characteristics are more directly borrowed from either Boston or Salem. The corkscrew finials, applied strips covering the exposed dovetails of the drawer dividers, drawer bottoms placed with the grain running from front to back are all devices favored in Boston whereas the knee returns, with a flattened inner edge and diminutive volute, are virtually identical to those on a high chest attributed to the Salem cabinetmaker, Elijah Sanderson (1752-1825) (Widmer and Anderson, pp. 100-102, pl. VII).
According to family tradition and supported by the label of a nineteenth-century owner, the high chest descended in the Kittredge family of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The handwritten label bears the name Sarah Kittredge Hunt and undoubtedly refers to Sarah Kittredge Galloupe (b. 1849), who married the Hon. Ellis W. Morton (d. 1874) in 1866 and secondly, F.F. Hunt of New York in 1892 "Representative Men of Massachusetts, 1890-1900 (Everett, MA, 1898), pp. 320-321). Family legend states that the chest was first owned by Sarah's great-great-grandfather, Solomon Kittredge (1736-1792), a blacksmith who was born in Billerica, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, married Tabitha Ingalls (1735-1794) in 1755, removed to Amherst, New Hampshire in 1766 and died in nearby Mt. Vernon. It is also possible that the chest entered the Kittredge family through the marriage of Solomon's son, Dr. Ingalls Kittredge (1769-1856) to Sarah Conant (1770-1833), whose family lived in Beverly and would have been more likely to have purchased furniture made in Essex County. A direct descendant of Roger Conant (1592-1679), the founder of Salem, Sarah was the daughter of Jonathan (b. 1737) and Mercy (Lovett). Her parents lived on the Roger Conant homestead in Beverly and later sold part of the property to the Kittredges (See Mabel Thorndike Hodges Kittredge, The Kittredge Family in America (Rutland, Vermont, 1936), pp. 26, 56, 103; Frederick Odell Conant, A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family in England and America (Portland, Maine, 1887), p. 226). The handwritten label states that the chest had belonged to "Morton" and was then owned by his mother. This may refer to Galloupe Morton (b. 1868), Sarah Kittredge Hunt's son by her first marriage, as it later descended directly in the Morton family during the twentieth century.
Other characteristics are more directly borrowed from either Boston or Salem. The corkscrew finials, applied strips covering the exposed dovetails of the drawer dividers, drawer bottoms placed with the grain running from front to back are all devices favored in Boston whereas the knee returns, with a flattened inner edge and diminutive volute, are virtually identical to those on a high chest attributed to the Salem cabinetmaker, Elijah Sanderson (1752-1825) (Widmer and Anderson, pp. 100-102, pl. VII).
According to family tradition and supported by the label of a nineteenth-century owner, the high chest descended in the Kittredge family of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The handwritten label bears the name Sarah Kittredge Hunt and undoubtedly refers to Sarah Kittredge Galloupe (b. 1849), who married the Hon. Ellis W. Morton (d. 1874) in 1866 and secondly, F.F. Hunt of New York in 1892 "Representative Men of Massachusetts, 1890-1900 (Everett, MA, 1898), pp. 320-321). Family legend states that the chest was first owned by Sarah's great-great-grandfather, Solomon Kittredge (1736-1792), a blacksmith who was born in Billerica, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, married Tabitha Ingalls (1735-1794) in 1755, removed to Amherst, New Hampshire in 1766 and died in nearby Mt. Vernon. It is also possible that the chest entered the Kittredge family through the marriage of Solomon's son, Dr. Ingalls Kittredge (1769-1856) to Sarah Conant (1770-1833), whose family lived in Beverly and would have been more likely to have purchased furniture made in Essex County. A direct descendant of Roger Conant (1592-1679), the founder of Salem, Sarah was the daughter of Jonathan (b. 1737) and Mercy (Lovett). Her parents lived on the Roger Conant homestead in Beverly and later sold part of the property to the Kittredges (See Mabel Thorndike Hodges Kittredge, The Kittredge Family in America (Rutland, Vermont, 1936), pp. 26, 56, 103; Frederick Odell Conant, A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family in England and America (Portland, Maine, 1887), p. 226). The handwritten label states that the chest had belonged to "Morton" and was then owned by his mother. This may refer to Galloupe Morton (b. 1868), Sarah Kittredge Hunt's son by her first marriage, as it later descended directly in the Morton family during the twentieth century.