This chest of drawers belongs to a group of mahogany and black cherry examples previously assigned to Middletown and Norwich, Connecticut, although the contour of its bracket feet, articulated gadrooning, and shell carving—all features of Newport design—are unknown in that locale, and the use of mahogany is atypical. The application of vertical drawer strips on either side of the facade is a technique associated with Massachusetts furniture. As the chest is based on a Newport formula and is not related to neighboring New London County furniture, a revised attribution seems credible. 

Technical notes: Mahogany; eastern white pine (foot blocks, bottom, backboard, drawer bottoms, sides, and backs). Drawer runners and stops are replacements. The drawers are cut out of the solid with the exception of the top drawer where the shells are applied. The drawer surrounds are beaded. Facing strips, typical of Massachusetts case furniture, cover the front sides. There is a sub top and attached to it is a thin mahogany panel set in-between the front and side cornice. In all likelihood, originally there was a molded top.

Related examples: Antiquarian 15 (October 1930), p. 3; Antiques 47 (June 1945), p. 305; Downs 1952, no. 170; Ginsburg 1974, p. 1107; Sack 1969–92, vol. 4, p. 977, P3753. 

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.