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Maker(s):Unknown
Culture:American
Title:Hadley Chest
Date Made:late 17th-early 18th century
Type:Furniture
Materials:white oak, white pine with red paint
Place Made:United States; Massachusetts; Hadley
Accession Number:  AC 1962.24
Credit Line:Gift of Kenneth O. Shrewsbury (Class of 1914) and Anassa Sterrett Shrewsbury
Museum Collection:  Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
1962-24.jpg

Label Text:
This lidded chest represents a type of carved trunk that artisans working throughout the Connecticut River Valley produced in some quantity for prosperous clients in the early colonial era. A profusion of exuberant natural (and sometimes religious) motifs, shallowly carved or incised across the front and both ends distinguishes its style. The dynamic contrast between red and black tones on the Mead’s chest further animates its surface, while the initials “S. F.” in the front center panel likely refer to the individual, possibly a new bride, for whom the chest was made.

Dismissed throughout the nineteenth century as embarrassingly unsophisticated, such examples of untu tored, or “folk,” art and craft gained esteem in the early twentieth century for their seemingly directness of expression and abstract decoration.

RRG, 2011

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1962.24

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.

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