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Dimensions: height 32 1/4 in. by width 43 1/2 in. by depth 22 3/4 in. 82.5cm by 110.5cm by 58cm
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Notes: Chests with reverse-serpentine "swelled" facades were popular in America from the 1760s to the end of the century, particularly in Massachusetts, Philadelphia and Connecticut. This superb example exhibits a visually dynamic design: the overhanging top and base molding conform to the bold undulating rhythm of the blocked serpentine front, which is further enhanced by pilasters carved with a serpentine motif and vertical rows of brasses. The case is supported by robust ogee-bracket feet with inner brackets following the contour of the blocking.
Alice and Thomas Kugelman, the Connecticut furniture scholars, examined this chest in November of 2003, and noted that its idiosyncratic qualities make for an interesting exercise in attribution. The large overhang of the top, a rare feature in oxbows, and the rural base molding, suggest it stems from a shop located in a smaller town in the central part of the Connecticut River Valley. The drawer construction, cosmetic top rail, blind dovetail in the front feet, and backbrace dovetailed to the rear feet follow construction techniques found in that area, although here the top rail is attached with one central screw and the shape of the arched backbrace with its long extension is distinctive. The unusual decoration on the pilasters appears to be an abstraction of the vine-carved pilasters found on Springfield, Massachusetts case furniture. The ogee bracket feet are of the standard Massachusetts type and Chippendale in style, but the late feature of the scribe molding of the drawers, rather than the bead molding found on Chippendale pieces, suggests this piece probably dates to circa 1800. A second chest from this shop, also made of heavy stock with the same idiosyncratic construction, is offered as Lot 1258 in this sale.
The top on a sliding dovetail, as seen on this chest, is a Massachusetts trait, while dovetailed backboards are usually only found in the Massachusetts part of the valley. This distinguishing characteristic relates this example to two groups of Connecticut River Valley furniture from Massachusetts. Furniture from one of the groups is unpublished. The other group is associated with the work of Reuben Beman, Jr. and Bates How (b. 1776) of New Marlborough, Massachusetts, represented by a chest-on-chest signed by Beman at Winterthur Museum and a chest of drawers signed and dated by How at Yale University (see Nancy Richards and Nancy Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur, 1997, no. 195, p. 401, and Gerald Ward, American Case Furniture, 1988, no. 63, p. 143).
