Collections Database

Description:
Board chest with drawer(s) (missing) in pine with oak cleats and blue paint, attributed to the workshop of Aaron Cook (1614-1690). The sides are set into rabbets in the front and back and secured with nails driven through the front and back. The single-board top is attached to the back with snipe-bill hinges. Narrow oak cleats decorated with molding are nailed to the lid. The front is adorned with two horizontal bands of ogee-and-bead moldings and the sides are decorated with two vertical bands of this same molding--a decorative element that ties this chest to a large group of frame-and-panel chests associated with the shop tradition started by Aaron Cook (1614-1690). Until recently, this chest retained remnants of lower extensions of the side boards, one of which retains it original T-shaped runner to support a side-hung drawer, indicating that this chest was fitted with one and perhaps two drawers. Additionally, a small rectangular hole at the center front of the floor board is evidence of an internal lock mechanism in which a long, narrow slat, held by brackets attached to the inner face of the chest was inserted through the opening into a channel on the inside face of the drawer and received in a square notch cut in the inside face of the lower drawer. Accessible only by the lock-and-key-equipped chest, the slat secured the lower drawers without the added expense of metal locks.
Comparison of tree rings visible in the end grain of the chest's side boards with a dendrochronology database of NE yellow pine indicates that the lumber used to make this chest was felled in 1699 or thereafter.

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2003.16

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.