Chest of Drawers

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Chest of Drawers
Datec. 1745–1800
Made inMassachusetts, United States
MediumMahogany; eastern white pine
Dimensions29 3/4 × 35 1/4 × 21 7/8 in. (75.6 × 89.5 × 55.6 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.39
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Drawing Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The American block-front chest was probably inspired by English dressing glasses and desk interiors. Produced from New Hampshire to Virginia, it is most closely identified with Boston and Newport. A desk and bookcase signed and dated by the Boston cabinetmakers Job Coit, Sr. (1692–1742), and Jr. (1717–1745), in 1738 implies both its geographic and chronological origins. Blocked facades were also employed on dressing glasses, bureau tables, dressing tables, chests-on-chests, and high chests. In Boston, two distinct contours developed. Flat-blocking, the more common, occurs on a complete range of forms (see B.69.358, B.69.357). More unusual and aesthetically satisfying is the bowed contour on the Bayou Bend chest, evidently reserved for smaller case furniture. In addition to the undulating movement of its facade, this example is distinguished by its baluster-shaped feet and deep, overhanging top. 

Technical notes: Mahogany; eastern white pine. The brackets extend through cutouts in the rear feet. The drawer surrounds are beaded. Typical of Massachusetts construction are the vertical strips attached to the front sides and the dividers extending through the sides below the two top drawers. The top of the drawers’ sides and back are beaded. A large, rectangular-shaped dovetail secures the base molding to the secondary board behind it. The chest appears to retain its original brasses. Chalk letters, apparently A and M, are inscribed in a number of places.

Related examples: A block-front bureau table illustrated in Antiques 101 (May 1972), p. 744, shares the same bombé feet as the museum’s chest, as does a chest-on-chest in Antiques 139 (January 1991), p. 20. Perhaps all three were made en suite for a single patron. See also Downs 1952, no. 169; Whitehill, Jobe, and Fairbanks 1974, p. IX; Jobe and Kaye 1984, pp. 138–46, nos. 14, 15; Heckscher 1985, pp. 215–16, no. 138; Monkhouse and Michie 1986, pp. 62–63, nos. 9, 10; Ward 1988, pp. 141–42, no. 62; Venable 1989, pp. 56–57, no. 27; Baron 1995, p. 171; Wood 1996, pp. 13–16, no. 7A.

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.


ProvenanceElizabeth Foster Vergoose and Thomas Fleet; by descent to Mrs. Bassett; by decent to Mary Eliot; Estate of Mary Eliot; [Rudolph P. Pauly, Boston, 1927]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg; given to MFAH, 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed in a number of places: A and M [chalk]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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High Chest of Drawers
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany; chestnut, southern yellow pine, eastern white pine, and yellow-poplar
B.69.89
Chest of Drawers
c. 1780–1800
Mahogany; eastern white pine
B.69.32
Chest of Drawers
c. 1760–1800
Mahogany; eastern white pine
B.76.161
Chest of Drawers
Nathaniel Gould
c. 1760–1800
Mahogany; eastern white pine
B.69.136
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1730–1760
Paint, gesso, gold leaf, eastern white pine, soft maple, brass; eastern white pine
B.69.348
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1750–1782
Cherry; eastern white pine and southern yellow pine
B.28.1
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1750–1780
Black-mangrove; black cherry, Atlantic white cedar, black walnut, yelow-poplar, and eastern white pine
B.69.64
scan from file photograph
c. 1730–1775
Soft maple, black walnut, and inlay; eastern white pine
B.69.221
Chest of Drawers
c. 1775–1795
Black cherry; eastern white pine
B.69.26
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1760–1800
Mahogany; mahogany, Atlantic white cedar, cedar, southern yellow pine, and yellow-poplar
B.69.75
Chest of Drawers
Joseph Barry
c. 1815
Mahogany, tulip poplar, and white pine
B.2020.2
Chest-on-Chest
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany; eastern white pine
B.69.357