Cupboard Maker: Unknown

ca. 1740

American Decorative Arts

On view, 1st floor, American Decorative Arts before 1900

The shape of this cupboard is similar to seventeenth-century examples. The squiggly black lines painted on the tiger maple create a lively surface, similar to the prevailing taste for veneered furniture. This cupboard was probably made for Sarah Rowell (1722–unknown), who lived in rural Salisbury, Massachusetts.

Medium

Front of case, drawer front and sides, balusters, soft maple; sides of case, bottom of drawer, eastern hemlock; drawer back, backboards, shelf, other secondary wood, eastern white pine

Dimensions

52 9/16 × 36 15/16 × 19 in. (133.5 × 93.9 × 48.2 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.2189

Geography

Made in New Hampshire, Probably made in Hampton

Culture

American

Period

17th–18th century

Classification

Furniture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
According to a tradition recorded in the 1920s, this cupboard was redecorated as a dower chest for Sarah Rowell, who married Benjamin Moulton (b. 1721) in 1742. The Rowell family was located in Hampton, Hampton Falls, and South Hampton, New Hampshire, and the surrounding area from the seventeenth century. Sarah Rowell born in 1722 in nearby Salisbury, Massachusetts, the daughter of Job and Bethiah (Brown) Rowell. The cupboard descended in the family to a Miss Smith of Exeter, NH, who sold it to Mr. Charles W. Arnold, a leather manufacturer of Haverhill, MA. After placing the cupboard on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for several years, Arnold sold the cupboard in 1929 to Francis P. Garvan, New York, through Henry Hammond Taylor, Bridgeport, Cconnecticut. Gift in 1930 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 88, ill
  • Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1988), 48, 375, 382, 387–89, no. 199, pl. 18
  • John T. Kirk, American Furniture and the British Tradition to 1830 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 201, fig. 589
  • Marshall B. Davidson, The Bantam Illustrated Guide to Early American Furniture (New York: Bantam Books, 1980), 8, fig. 7
  • Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (Suffolk, England: Antique Collector's Club Ltd., 1979), 513, 515, fig. 4:228
  • Dean A. Fales, Jr., American Painted Furniture, 1660–1880, eds. Robert Bishop and Cyril I. Nelson (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1972), 45, fig. 56
  • John T. Kirk, Early American Furniture: How to Recognize, Evaluate, and Care for the Most Beautiful Pieces: High Style, Country, Primitive and Rustic (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970), 88–91, fig. 77
  • Nina Fletcher Little, "Country Furniture: A Symposium," Antiques 3, no. 93 (March 1968), 348, fig. 3
  • Esther S. Fraser, "Pioneer Furniture from Hampton, New Hampshire," Antiques 4, no. 17 (April 1930), 313, fig. 2
  • Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, 1st ed., 3 vols. (Framingham, Mass.: Old American Company Publishers, 1928–33), n.p., no. 472
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Inscriptions

"Sarah / Rowell" is written in black paint on the top of the cupboard, and "SR" is painted in black in the center of the drawer front. Sawmill marks appear on the underside of the drawer bottom.

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