Description:
Six-board chest marked in punchwork with “IM 1694” and scratched “MIM.” Board chests served as flexible, multi-purpose storage for household goods ranging from raw grain and unprocessed wool to finished textiles in the homes of rich and poor alike. Whereas initialed joined chests often belonged to women, initialed board chests with histories of ownership in the Connecticut River Valley, such as this example, seem to have been owned by men. An almost identical chest inscribed "IS/1699" was found in the Sheldon House attic in Deerfield; "IS" may be John Sheldon (1658-1733) who built the "Old Indian House" in 1698. In the 1940s, Susan B. Hawks (1883-1946) of Deerfield sold this 1699 chest to Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little, which is now on view at Cogswell's Grant, a Historic New England museum house. Hawks suggested in an 1941 "American Collector" article that the "IS" chest was made by John Hawks (1643-1721), a carpenter-joiner who lived in Deerfield from 1680 to around 1704 when his wife and daughter were killed in the 1704 raid. This chest may have been made for a member of the Mattoon or Munn families in Deerfield. The maker constructed the chest by butting and nailing the front and back boards to the sides and butting and nailing all four sides to the bottom. He worked the decoration ("IM / 1694" and front tripartite facade) with two punches of different shapes and sizes, repeatedly placing and striking the punches within scribed guide-lines (tiny perforations in the wood in a very even pattern), much as a leatherworker stamped designs onto leather. His design derives from the stepped, inverted V-shaped feet from other board chests made in the Connecticut River Valley. The front facade has three geometric shapes: two triple-lined squares with double-loop corners, one with "16" and the other with "94" in the center, flanking a similarly-formed center square overlayed with the same shape at an angle forming a diamond with "IM" in the center; each end front is notched and has a half-lobed or lunette vertical border. The lid with its molded edge projects over the front and ends. The chest, which does not have rabbited joints, is fastened with large rosehead nails; the bottom is nailed through the front sides and back into edges (no mortise grooves); the original lock and hinges are lost and there are no cleats on the lid. The V-shaped geometric cutouts on each end form the feet. The proper right rear of the top and the proper right front foot are white pine.
Label Text:
Six-board chests are characterized by the front, back, two sides, and bottom boards nailed together, with a hinged lid. They were used for all-purpose storage within the home. The extra expense of punched decoration on this example suggests that it occupied a prominent place in the best parlor or chamber. Based on evidence where initials on their exteriors have been identified, the original owners of six-board chests were often men. A chest nearly identical to this example, with the initials IS and dated 1699, was owned by John Sheldon (1658-ca. 1733) of Deerfield (now in the collection of Historic New England).
The punched decoration on the front of this chest was created with small stamping dies (similar to those used to decorate leather) of two different shapes: a star and a rectangle formed from four rows of dots with four dots per row. The maker struck the die with a hammer, pressing the shape into the wood, repositioning and hitting the die repeatedly to create the design.
Original owner: A member of the Munn or Mattoon families of Deerfield may have owned this example.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+84.003 |
