High Chest of Drawers

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • High Chest of Drawers
Datec. 1750–1782
Possible placeWethersfield, Connecticut, United States
Possible placeHartford, Connecticut, United States
Possible placeGlastonbury, Connecticut, United States
MediumCherry; eastern white pine and southern yellow pine
Dimensions83 1/2 × 39 7/8 × 20 in. (212.1 × 101.3 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.28.1
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Maple Bedroom
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Period sources document a remarkably brisk transfer of design between urban and rural America. By the 1730s, within a decade of the Late Baroque’s earliest appearance in Boston, household inventories in Wethersfield, Connecticut, list furniture forms revealing the style’s introduction there. The design of both the Bayou Bend high chest and a related tea table in the collection (see B.69.349) were clearly inspired by the Boston-Salem aesthetic. By the 1750s, when Wethersfield cabinetmakers began producing high chests with “crown tops,” the enclosed bonnet that is uniquely American, the style’s integration was complete.

Technical notes: Cherry; eastern white pine (some drawer bottoms, moldings, bonnet, backboards), southern yellow pine (some drawer bottoms). The high chest is constructed in a conventional manner. Below the top sequence of drawers is a full dustboard; the remainder of the drawers are separated by dividers.

Related examples: Antiques 71 (May 1957), p. 410; Kirk 1970, p. 27, no. 14; Antiques and The Arts Weekly, May 29, 1987, p. 42; Ward 1988, pp. 275–76, no. 144.

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, 1988.


ProvenanceBy tradition, owned by Dr. Ezekiel Porter (1705–1775), Wethersfield, Connecticut, or his son-in-law and daughter, Colonel Thomas Belden (1732–1782) and Abigail Belden [1]; […] ; [Ginsburg & Levy, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1928; given to MFAH, by 1966.

[1] The high chest cannot be identified in either Dr. Ezekiel Porter’s inventory or that of his son-in-law, Colonel Thomas Belden, and may have entered the family through another member.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[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
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1760–1800
Mahogany; mahogany, Atlantic white cedar, cedar, southern yellow pine, and yellow-poplar
B.69.75
Tall Clock
Edward Spalding
c. 1765–1785
Mahogany; chestnut, white oak, black cherry, eastern white pine, southern yellow pine, and cherry
B.59.83
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
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1730–1760
Paint, gesso, gold leaf, eastern white pine, soft maple, brass; eastern white pine
B.69.348
Chest with Drawers
c. 1670–1710
White oak; southern yellow pine and red oak
B.69.356
Chest of Drawers
c. 1775–1795
Black cherry; eastern white pine
B.69.26
Sofa
c. 1750–1801
Mahogany; red oak, yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, white oak, and eastern white pine
B.59.73
scan from file photograph
c. 1760–1800
Black walnut; red gum, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, and eastern white pine
B.69.527
scan from file photograph
c. 1730–1775
Soft maple, black walnut, and inlay; eastern white pine
B.69.221
scan from file photograph
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany; southern yellow pine, eastern white pine, and yellow-poplar; marble
B.69.67
Desk
c. 1700–1730
Black walnut, undetermined burl veneer, and eastern white pine; eastern white pine, black walnut, yellow-poplar, cherry, Cuban oyster wood (Gymnanthes lucida), and chestnut
B.69.42