Description:
Block-front bureau table composed of a central recessed cabinet with an arched panel door and cove molded cornice; flanked with pilasters between two stacks of four drawers with blocked facades below a molded rectangular top with indented corners; and supported on four bracket feet. Block-front bureau tables are normally associated with the Boston area. In this instance, both the rural patron and craftsman were familiar with the genteel connotations and construction of the form, which includes a central safe or “prospect” below. This bureau table is a very significant illustration of this urban form made in the Connecticut Valley of western Massachusetts, probably the Springfield area, by a craftsman who trained in the vine-carved pilaster tradition attributed to Eliakim Smith (1735-1775) of Hadley, Mass. Several objects from this second-generation shop, which designed case furniture with Boston proportions and distinctive vine-carved pilasters, are known, many with histories in the Springfield area. For example, the Longmeadow Historical Society has a vine-carved desk-and-bookcase owned by Rev. Richard Salter Storrs of Longmeadow.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+97.042 |
