The Early Baroque high chest, a form of furniture introduced in that period, was intended for use in the bedroom. Pro­duced by sophisticated craftsmen known as cabinetmakers, the form represented the acme of case furniture, both in terms of expense and complexity of manufac­ture. The design is architectural and re­lates to room interior details of the period. The case and drawers were put together with dovetails and the surface was usually veneered with a figured wood.

The Bayou Bend example has several distinctive features. The composition is crowned with a bold molded cornice and a pulvinated frieze, an architectural detail associated with the Ionic order. The surface is richly veneered with burled wal­nut, not only on the facade but also on the sides, and in an unusual detail the drawer divides and surrounds are also ve­neered, all features that point to an item of unusual luxury.

Technical notes: Black walnut and burled walnut veneer (right front leg, moldings and caps at top of legs), soft maple (stretchers), aspen (remaining legs, feet), eastern white pine (interior framing, drawer components), hemlock (horizontal brace across back on in­terior upper case, an addition), birch (back of left front stretcher, probably a replacement).

The upper section of the case shows evidence that it was enlarged vertically with a dove­tailed extension, apparently concurrent with the date of the rest of the piece, suggesting that the pulvinated frieze, which conceals a drawer, may have been a detail added to the original design. Brasses are replaced. The drawer construction is dovetailed, the bottom board let into the front and nailed to the sides.

Related examples: Winterthur (acc. no. 66.1306) is very similar but differs in detail, such as in the design of the turned legs. That example is inscribed “JM 1720,” which was thought by Benno Forman to be either James Maverick or John Mattocks, both Boston cabi­netmakers. MMA (Yarmon 1952, p. 40) also varies in the turned elements; MFA, Boston (Randall 1965, no. 51); Yale (Ward 1988, p. 237, no. 122) has a similar pulvinated frieze but may be from New York; Historic Deerfield, a japanned example (Fales 1976, p. 204, no. 420); Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Hansen, Grosse Pointe, Michigan (Hansen 1948).

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.