Description:
Dressing table that is an early example of the late Baroque or Queen Anne style in western Massachusetts furniture. The appearance and construction of the earliest furniture made by cabinetmakers in the Connecticut Valley was influenced by Boston craftsmen in the 1730s. Elite Connecticut River Valley families looked to Boston for high-style furniture, and local cabinetmakers were competing with transplanted urban-trained woodworkers such as William Manley (ca. 1703-1787) who moved from Charlestown, Massachusetts, to Wethersfield, Conneticut, in 1729, and Samuel Means (1700-1757), who moved from Boston to Springfield, Massachusetts, in the 1730s. The table, which was originally painted a dark blue/black, is significant because of its descent in the Childs family of Deerfield, and because of its early age and unique turned feet. The maker fashioned the legs by using a template for chair legs and then added turned feet to increase the leg height. The rectangular, molded edge top extends far the case; over three drawers with drop pulls - two deep side drawers and one center short drawer; over an ogee skirt with an applied beaded edge and turned two pendant drops; over four cabriole legs ending in pad feet on flattened balls.
Label Text:
Persis Sheldon's September 12, 1828, will lists: "toilette table and dress."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+96.061.1 |
