The shallow blocking and bold fans of this high chest-of-drawers are distinctive and link it stylistically to a small group of surviving furniture from the Connecticut River Valley. It is further embellished by stylized tulips that ornament the gracefully turned cabriole legs.
Other pieces from this group include a birch high chest-of drawers that descended in the Chandler Family of Petersham, Massachusetts (Sotheby's New York, The Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little Collection, January 29, 1994, lot 428 and illustrated in both Nina Fletcher Little, Little by Little (New York, 1984), p. 200, fig. 264 and Elisabeth D. Garrett, "Living with Antiques: Pumpkin House in New England," The Magazine Antiques (March, 1981), pl. XIII; a related cherrywood chest-of-drawers that descended in the Sheldon family of Deerfield (William N. Hosley, Jr., et al. The Great River, Art and Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820 (Hartford, 1985), p. 223, no. 104); a maple slant-front desk from the Upper Connecticut River Valley described as a "best" example of the form by Albert Sack (Fine Points of Furniture: Early American (New York, 1950), p. 145 and Sotheby's New York, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland, January 19, 2002, lot 347). There is evidence that this interpretation of the form spread beyond the Upper Connecticut River Valley. A cherrywood chest-on-chest that descended in the Trumbull family of Norwich, Connecticut is illustrated in Myers and Mayhew, New London County Furniture, 1640-1840 (Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, 1974), cat. no. 48.