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Lot Essay
Displaying a steeply arched scrolled pediment with flaring base and an array of carved ornament, this high chest is a particularly exuberant illustration of the famed 'Colchester style' of late eighteenth-century Connecticut. It survives with an old, thin nineteenth-century finish, showcasing the intricacy and variety of the decorative details, and is further distinguished by the identification of its probable first owner, Hannah Pomeroy (1752-1814) of Hebron, Connecticut.
As discussed by Thomas Kugelman, Alice Kugelman and Robert Lionetti, the Pomeroy family high chest is closely related to a flat-top high chest with steps that also has a known history in Hebron, Connecticut. While the two appear dissimilar, the example offered here essentially follows the same basic format but with the substitution of a bonnet top for steps and the addition of a multitude of carved embellishments, both of which dramatically alter the overall appearance. Like the flat-top example, this high chest has the same exposed top rail beneath the upper structure and accordingly, the three drawers in the top tier are of uniform height (rather than having the outer drawers of shorter heights or with downswept shaping). With their shared origins in Hebron, located just six miles north of Colchester, and similar interpretations of Colchester practices discussed below, it is likely that these two forms along with a second flat-top example were made in the same shop. The flat-top chest bears a signature on a drawer side of Samuel Brown, likely an apprentice and possibly the man of the same name born in Hebron in 1748 (Thomas P. Kugelman and Alice K. Kugelman with Robert Lionetti, Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800 (Hanover, New Hampshire, 2005), pp. 264-267, cats. 120, 120b, 120c.
The maker of Pomeroy high chest followed decorative and construction practices seen in both the 'Lord' and 'Calvin Willey' groups, two of the four main Colchester style groups delineated by the Kugelmans and Lionetti. Many features seen here are typical of both groups, such as the steep curvature of the pediment, saddle shaping to the top of the backboards behind the pediment, and the severe undercut to the hocked ankles. Where the two groups differ, the Pomeroy chest illustrates the carving of the Lord group, but with significant construction features from the Willey group. As seen in the Lord group, the rosettes have fylfots carved in the round rather than incised, fans (or shells) that vary from top to bottom and with incised midribs in the rays, punched borders and horizontal flutes in the rail below, and carving on the knees. Also like the Lord group, the drawers dividers have exposed dovetails instead of being covered with a facing strip, as seen in the Willey group. However, in the hidden areas, the maker of the Pomeroy chest chose nailed construction over more complex joinery: backboards nailed into rabbets (rather than sliding in grooves) and nailed drawer runners (rather than using sliding dovetails), two techniques seen on the Willey group and flat-top chest discussed above. See Kugelman, Kugelman and Lionetti, pp. 201-205.
Connecting the high chest’s known late nineteenth-century owner with the name 'Pomeroy,' which is incised on the side of the upper fan-carved drawer, historian William Lamson Warren determined that the logical first owner was Hannah Pomeroy (1751-1814) of Hebron (William Lamson Warren, 'The Pomeroy High Chest of Drawers: An Exercise in Attribution,' The Connecticut Antiquarian, vol. 32 (June 1980), pp. 5-6). The Kugelmans’ and Lionetti’s later scholarship tying this chest to Hebron substantiates Warren’s argument. She was the daughter of a prominent minister, Benjamin Pomeroy (1704-1784) and Abigail Wheelock (1717-1803), whose brother was the President of Dartmouth College. In September 1780, Benjamin and Hannah’s future husband, Rev. David McClure (1748-1820), attended commencement ceremonies at Dartmouth then travelled back to Hebron together where McClure resided a few days. It is likely that it was at this time that he met Hannah and, with plans for an imminent marriage, this high chest was commissioned soon after. On December 10, 1780 the couple married in Hebron and eleven days later, the couple left for Northampton, Massachusetts where McClure resided. In September 1785, McClure records in his diary that he 'Sent some articles of furniture to Portsmouth to go to Connecticut by water' while he, Hannah and two of their children (the third, Abigail, who later inherited the chest was already with relatives in Hebron) travelled via Boston and Providence to Hebron. They remained in Hebron only a few months before settling in East (later South) Windsor where McClure had accepted an invitation to be the minister of the First Congregational Church (David McClure and Franklin B. Dexter, Diary of David McClure, Doctor of Divinity 1748-1820 (New York, 1899), pp. 166, 169, 171). It is possible that the high chest was made in these last few months of 1785 as the couple anticipated furnishing a new home in East Windsor.
Since the early nineteenth century, the high chest appears to have descended directly through the Tudor and Starr families to the Lampson family until the 1970s. In about 1965, William Lamson Warren saw the chest in the Hartford home of 'Mrs. Edward Rutledge Lampson' (Warren, p. 5). This may refer to Mary Seabury Starr (1870-1925), the McClures’ great great granddaughter, who married a man of the same name, but as she had died well before 1965, it had probably descended to the next generation (for more on the Tudor and Starr family descendants, see McClure and Dexter, pp. 198-201). The chest then sold to a private Hartford collection, where it remained until acquired by Nathan Liverant & Son in 1995.
As discussed by Thomas Kugelman, Alice Kugelman and Robert Lionetti, the Pomeroy family high chest is closely related to a flat-top high chest with steps that also has a known history in Hebron, Connecticut. While the two appear dissimilar, the example offered here essentially follows the same basic format but with the substitution of a bonnet top for steps and the addition of a multitude of carved embellishments, both of which dramatically alter the overall appearance. Like the flat-top example, this high chest has the same exposed top rail beneath the upper structure and accordingly, the three drawers in the top tier are of uniform height (rather than having the outer drawers of shorter heights or with downswept shaping). With their shared origins in Hebron, located just six miles north of Colchester, and similar interpretations of Colchester practices discussed below, it is likely that these two forms along with a second flat-top example were made in the same shop. The flat-top chest bears a signature on a drawer side of Samuel Brown, likely an apprentice and possibly the man of the same name born in Hebron in 1748 (Thomas P. Kugelman and Alice K. Kugelman with Robert Lionetti, Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800 (Hanover, New Hampshire, 2005), pp. 264-267, cats. 120, 120b, 120c.
The maker of Pomeroy high chest followed decorative and construction practices seen in both the 'Lord' and 'Calvin Willey' groups, two of the four main Colchester style groups delineated by the Kugelmans and Lionetti. Many features seen here are typical of both groups, such as the steep curvature of the pediment, saddle shaping to the top of the backboards behind the pediment, and the severe undercut to the hocked ankles. Where the two groups differ, the Pomeroy chest illustrates the carving of the Lord group, but with significant construction features from the Willey group. As seen in the Lord group, the rosettes have fylfots carved in the round rather than incised, fans (or shells) that vary from top to bottom and with incised midribs in the rays, punched borders and horizontal flutes in the rail below, and carving on the knees. Also like the Lord group, the drawers dividers have exposed dovetails instead of being covered with a facing strip, as seen in the Willey group. However, in the hidden areas, the maker of the Pomeroy chest chose nailed construction over more complex joinery: backboards nailed into rabbets (rather than sliding in grooves) and nailed drawer runners (rather than using sliding dovetails), two techniques seen on the Willey group and flat-top chest discussed above. See Kugelman, Kugelman and Lionetti, pp. 201-205.
Connecting the high chest’s known late nineteenth-century owner with the name 'Pomeroy,' which is incised on the side of the upper fan-carved drawer, historian William Lamson Warren determined that the logical first owner was Hannah Pomeroy (1751-1814) of Hebron (William Lamson Warren, 'The Pomeroy High Chest of Drawers: An Exercise in Attribution,' The Connecticut Antiquarian, vol. 32 (June 1980), pp. 5-6). The Kugelmans’ and Lionetti’s later scholarship tying this chest to Hebron substantiates Warren’s argument. She was the daughter of a prominent minister, Benjamin Pomeroy (1704-1784) and Abigail Wheelock (1717-1803), whose brother was the President of Dartmouth College. In September 1780, Benjamin and Hannah’s future husband, Rev. David McClure (1748-1820), attended commencement ceremonies at Dartmouth then travelled back to Hebron together where McClure resided a few days. It is likely that it was at this time that he met Hannah and, with plans for an imminent marriage, this high chest was commissioned soon after. On December 10, 1780 the couple married in Hebron and eleven days later, the couple left for Northampton, Massachusetts where McClure resided. In September 1785, McClure records in his diary that he 'Sent some articles of furniture to Portsmouth to go to Connecticut by water' while he, Hannah and two of their children (the third, Abigail, who later inherited the chest was already with relatives in Hebron) travelled via Boston and Providence to Hebron. They remained in Hebron only a few months before settling in East (later South) Windsor where McClure had accepted an invitation to be the minister of the First Congregational Church (David McClure and Franklin B. Dexter, Diary of David McClure, Doctor of Divinity 1748-1820 (New York, 1899), pp. 166, 169, 171). It is possible that the high chest was made in these last few months of 1785 as the couple anticipated furnishing a new home in East Windsor.
Since the early nineteenth century, the high chest appears to have descended directly through the Tudor and Starr families to the Lampson family until the 1970s. In about 1965, William Lamson Warren saw the chest in the Hartford home of 'Mrs. Edward Rutledge Lampson' (Warren, p. 5). This may refer to Mary Seabury Starr (1870-1925), the McClures’ great great granddaughter, who married a man of the same name, but as she had died well before 1965, it had probably descended to the next generation (for more on the Tudor and Starr family descendants, see McClure and Dexter, pp. 198-201). The chest then sold to a private Hartford collection, where it remained until acquired by Nathan Liverant & Son in 1995.