- Chest with Drawer
Closed: 27 5/8 × 17 1/2 × 34 in. (70.2 × 44.5 × 86.4 cm)
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This chest is part of a group of relatively late Mannerist examples that feature double-paneled ends and cleated hinged tops. The applied moldings on the front panels define a variety of angular geometric shapes: octagons, squares, and cruciforms. Elongated spindles with multiple ringed turnings in the upper section also are typical.
Technical notes: Materials of oak and pine (secondary wood) not analyzed microscopically. The side-hung drawer is made with two dovetails, and the grain of the drawer bottom is parallel to the front. The bottom is nailed all around. The drawer sides are half-lapped to the backboard and nailed. The backboard is a beveled panel above the drawer. The stylized Tudor roses of the rail and the two flanking front panels have been laid out with a compass. The roses and wavy grain-painted ornament on the stiles and rails appear to be contemporaneous with the chest. The grain-painted ornament on the sides and the central panel of the front are nineteenth-century embellishments.
Related examples: MFA, Boston (Randall 1965, no. 12); Wadsworth (Nutting 1962, no. 45); Forman 1970, fig. 6, is an earlier example. The six-sided panels here relate to the design seen on a group of North Shore toilet tables (see B.70.24).
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.
Provenance[Katrina Kipper, Queen Anne Cottage, Accord, Massachusetts]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg,1926; given to MFAH, 1969.
Exhibition History
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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