Description:
Bow-front chest of drawers made by Jacob Carter (1796-1886). Carter was born in Leominster, Massachusetts. At age 14 in 1810 he apprenticed to Athol cabinetmaker Alden Spooner (1784-1877). In 1816 he married Arethusa Young (1796-1852) and a year later moved to Belchertown, Massachusetts, where he established a shop with Moses Young, Arethusa's brother. Together, the two men made and sold furniture in the Spooner style. In 1863, Carter moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. Carter's master, Spooner, made furniture patterned after urban designs current on the coastal seaports north of Boston. He drew substantially from Thomas Sheraton's designs, and used a combination of native and imported materials in contrasting patterns to bring a lively, refined taste to the homes of his well-to-do patrons in rural Massachusetts. The case's two top boards, separated by a gap, and the bottom board, are dovetailed to the sides. The top and the upper portions of the legs, which are cut to fit over the corners of the case, are secured with screws driven through the inside of the case. The back is composed of five vertically-oriented boards: two narrow side boards and a narrow central board are nailed to the back of the sub-top and bottom. Grooves in the edges of these boards contain two wide boards that are secured with a single nail driven through their centers to the sub-top (later wire nails secure them at the bottom). This design was meant to accommodate contraction/expansion of the boards in response to changes in atmospheric moisture, allowing the boards to move without splitting and opening gaps in the back. Two facing strips of wood are glued to the front edges of the case sides; the drawer dividers are fitted into mortises in the sides and are notched to fit around these strips. The drawer supports are nailed to drawer guides, which are nailed to the sides. Blocks are glued to the back ends of the drawer supports and the backboard to act as drawer stops. The skirts are glued to the bottom and reinforced with glue blocks and screws driven through the glue blocks and the legs. The drawers are not graduated. Beading is applied to the drawers’ front edges. The drawer fronts, featuring original stamped brass pulls and escutcheons, are composed of three horizontal laminates; they and the drawer backs are dovetailed to the sides. The chamfered drawer bottoms are fitted into grooves in the sides and front; multiple wedge-shaped glue blocks reinforce these joints. Only the top three drawers are fitted with locks. The proper right side panel nad the proper right drawer front are cherry. The glue blocks and the backboards are white pine. The side panels are hard (or sugar) maple, and the center panels are probably birch.

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