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.