Rhode Island’s predilection for bold outlines and minimal surface treatment is epitomized by this high chest of drawers. The earliest examples were fashioned with slipper or pad feet and flat tops, while later ones introduce options such as pad or ball-and-claw feet, carving on the legs, quarter columns on the pedimented upper case, and a formulaic drawer arrangement. In many respects these chests are most closely related to Early Baroque examples, their legs being separate components, the case dovetailed together, the midmolding attached to the upper case, the drawer configuration, and the retention of medial braces.

Related examples: Signed high chests include one by John Townsend (Ward 1988, pp. 265–68, no. 140) and another by Benjamin Baker (d. 1822) (Moses 1984, p. 194). Examples in public collections include Hipkiss 1941, pp. 56–57, no. 32; Downs 1952, no. 191; Rodriguez Roque 1984, pp. 26–28, no. 12; Moses 1984, pp. 180–81, 184; Heckscher 1985, pp. 247–48, no. 161; Antiques 131 (May 1987), p. 980; Ward 1988, pp. 268–72, nos. 141, 142; Conger 1991, pp. 106–7, no. 25.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., 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.