Description:
Queen Anne scallop-top five drawer chest on frame in mahoganized cherry (original finish). The chest has a flat top, with a valanced front and scrolled sides; over applied scallop cornice molding in front and straight molding on the sides; over five graduated drawers, each with two brass bail handles and a brass escutcheon (no key hole); and reeded columns running the length of the chest on the front corners ending in molded, rounded ends. The frame has a molded edge over a scalloped base on the front and sides, and four short cabriole legs ending in pad feet. The chest is important because it illustrates the long-term appeal of Baroque design and the conclusion of the scallop-top theme in the history of furniture design in western Massachusetts. The scallop-top concept, which began in Wethersfield, Connecticut in the 1750s, migrated up the Connecticut River Valley to the Northampton-Hatfield- Deerfield region of western Massachusetts, where other variants in this "style" were made into the first years of the nineteenth century. Although the shaped top, scalloped cornice and base moldings, and cabriole legs hark to an earlier time, the engaged quarter columns and combined used of both cut and wrought nails place its date of manufacture at the end of the eighteenth century. The chest may have been made in the Hatfield-Williamsburg area based on the discovery of a very similar chest (base lost) in a local private collection. The repetitive scalloped molding is similar in feel to the Billings family tea table (55.038), and the Hastings family high chest (94.001) and scallop-top dressing table (62.038), all of which have histories in Hatfield. According to Arthur Liverant who reexamined the chest on 10/25/99, the design reflects a Norwich, Connecticut influence. The proper right pilaster is cherry, and the wood just behind it is white pine.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2008.29 |
