The unusually tall proportions of this cupboard relate to those found in a group of late Rococo and Neoclassical walnut desks and bookcases made in Norfolk, Virginia. However, the exuberant and somewhat naive Neoclassical frieze ornament overlaid on what is basically a conservative eighteenth-century form suggests a rural origin. Similar inset paneled doors and frieze ornament have been found in pieces made in Rockingham County in the Shenandoah Valley. An unusual feature of the piece is that it does not separate at midsection but, rather, is  constructed entirely in one piece.

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.