Medium

Stiles, rails, front and side panels, drawer fronts, sides, and runners, cleats, till, white oak; top, back panels, bottom of chest, drawer bottoms and backs, southern yellow pine; applied spindles and moldings, possibly maple; applied triangular corners, possibly cedar

Dimensions

40 × 47 5/8 × 21 3/8 in. (101.6 × 121 × 54.3 cm)

Credit Line

Donor Unknown

Accession Number

1800.4

Culture
Period

17th century

Classification
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

Provenance

This chest was acquired by Yale at an unknown date sometime before 1883; it was assigned the accession number 1800.4 to indicate its early presence at the university rather than a specific year. Notes made by George Dudley Seymour (1859-1945) in 1930 and first brought to light by Arthur W. Leibundguth give the following early history for the chest: "The Sunflower Connecticut chest presented to the Yale School of the Fine Arts in 'ages past' to be used in still life painting by Frank Wayland Fellowes [1833-1900], of New Haven, an amateur painter and sometime a student at the Art School under Professor Weir who, having no idea of the value of the chest had the front cut off and hinged so that the chest might be used as a "property" receptacle without disturbing the objects set on top of the lid for practice in still life painting. I first saw the chest so mutilated and marvelled at the unconscious act of vandalism when I first came to New Haven in 1883. I had then been indoctrinated in the cult of 17th cent. N.E. oak peices [sic] by Dr. Lyon of Hartford. The redemption of the chest was too delicate a subject to take up with Prof. Weir but I tried to interest his successor Sargent Kendall in it but failed. Then I endeavored to interest Dean Meeks but failed until under the promptings of Prof. Theodore Sizer he consented to have the chest put in order after I had engaged Mr. Henry Wood Erving to personally super-intend its restoration by Anton Mitlovitz [sic]. Thus at length and after some forty odd years of effort the chest was trucked up to Hartford two or three years ago and put in order. During this process a dealer came in & saw Anton working on it and supposing that it was Anton's own job offered him $6000 cash for it. Then Yale woke up. Long before it was sent up to Hartford, it had been relegated to an attic room in the Art School and was a sorry object." After restoration, the chest was placed in the care of the Art Gallery. Gift 1800 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 6, fig. 4
  • Susan Schoelwer, "Connecticut Sunflower Furniture: A Familiar Form Reconsidered," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 40, no. 2 (Spring 1989), 24, 30–31, fig. 4, 7, 12
  • 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), 81, 90–93, 382, 457, no. 26, ill.
  • Arthur W. Leibundguth, "An Extreme Example of Artistic License," Connecticut Antiquarian 28 (December 1976), 12
Object copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

chests with drawers, utilitarian objects

Technical metadata and APIs

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