Chest-on-Chest

Maker: (cabinet) Stephen Badlam (American, 1751–1815)
Carver: John Skillin (American, 1745–1800)
Carver: Simeon Skillin, Jr. (American, 1756–1806)

1791

American Decorative Arts

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

Following the Revolution, some citizens sought domestic objects that would express in the most elaborate ways America's pride in having achieved independence. Shipping magnate Elias Hasket Derby (1739–1799), a prominent citizen of Salem, Massachusetts, could well afford to do so. In commissioning this massive piece from Stephen Badlam, a war veteran from a town south of Boston, Derby took the unusual step of engaging leading Boston sculptors to carve figures for the pediment of the case. Rising to the challenge set by their patron, John Skillin and his brother Simeon created a scheme of three females in fashionable Neoclassical dress and distinctive accessories imbued with allegorical meaning. The figure on the left, holding an olive wreath and a palm frond, personifies Peace. On the right is Plenty, clasping a cornucopia. The central figure wears the gilt-sun brooch and laurel wreath associated with Virtue, while the Phrygian cap on a liberty pole is an attribute of Liberty. Through this combination of attributes, she represents America. Family tradition has it that Derby and his wife, Elizabeth Crowninshield Derby, gave this piece as a wedding present to their daughter Anstis, who married Benjamin Pickman, Jr., of Salem in 1789.

Medium

Mahogany; front of drawer in architrave, mahogany; other drawer fronts, mahogany veneer on chestnut; eastern white pine; bottom dustboard in lower case, red pine

Dimensions

101 1/8 × 51 1/2 × 23 3/4 in. (256.9 × 130.8 × 60.3 cm)
Upper case: 42 13/16 × 19 3/4 in. (108.7 × 50.2 cm)
Lower case: 46 × 23 3/4 in. (116.8 × 60.3 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.2003

Geography

Made in Dorchester Lower Mills, Massachusetts

Made in Boston, Massachusetts

Culture

American

Period

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
Commissioned by Elias Hasket Derby (1739–1799), Salem, Mass., given to his daughter, Anstis Pickman (Mrs. Benjamin Pickman, Jr., née Anstis Derby, 1769–1836), Salem, Mass.;[see note 1];by descent to her daughter, Martha Walcott (Mrs. Samuel Baker Walcott, née Martha Pickman, 1802 –1885), Salem, Mass., then Hopkinton, N.H.[see note 2]; by descent to her daughter, Elizabeth Packard (Mrs. Alpheus S. Packard, née Elizabeth Derby Wolcott, 1824 –1929), Andover, Mass. [see also note 2]; by descent to her daughter, Martha Walcott Packard (1868–1956), Andover, Mass. [see also note 2]; by 1919; sold to Charles Woolsey Lyon (1872 –1945), New York, in 1919; sold to Francis Patrick Garvan (1875–1937), New York, in 1919; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930


Note 1: According to a family tradition, this chest-on-chest was presented by Elias Hasket Derby and his wife, Elizabeth Crowninshield Derby as a wedding present to their daughter Anstis Derby who married Benjamin Pickman, Jr. in 1789. The discrepancy between the date of marriage and the date of 1791 on the bill for the complete chest is usually explained by the theory that the chest was ordered as a wedding present but not completed and delivered until nearly two years later. Elias Hasket Derby's will (docket 7571, Essex County Probate Records, Essex County Courthouse, Salem, Mass.) makes mention of a bequest to Anstis and adds: "And I do in addition to the foregoing give and confirm unto my said daughter Anstis all and what I gave her at the time of her marriage.


Note 2: An undated letter from Martha Walcott Packard to Francis P. Garvan gives the following family tradition: "This is the history as it has come to me from my mother: Elias Hasket Derby of Salem (my great-great-grandfather) had the chest made for his daughter Anstiss, when she married Benjamin Pickman, also of Salem, in 1789. It then belonged to their daughter, Martha, who married Samuel Baker Walcott in 1829. My mother inherited it and handed it on to me.


Bibliography
  • American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2023), 90–91, no. 34, ill.
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 110–11, no. 53, ill.
  • Dean T. Lahikainen, Samuel McIntire: Carving an American Style, 1st, exh. cat. (Salem, Mass.: Peabody Essex Museum, 2007), 61, References on p. 14, 52, and 60; detail of central figure, p. 87, fig. 3-78; detail of PL figure, p. 161, fig. 4-137., fig. 3-17
  • Wayne Craven, American Art: History and Culture (Boston: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1994), 165, fig. 12.3
  • Elise K. Kenney, ed., Handbook of the Collections: Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 92, 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), 14, 36–37, 163, 171–77, no. 82, pl. 7
  • John S. Bowan, American Furniture (New York: Exeter, 1985), 80
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  • Charles F. Montgomery and Patricia E. Kane, eds., American Art: 1750–1800 Towards Independence, exh. cat. (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976), n.p., [included in catalogue but not in exhibition], fig. 70
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  • Helena Hayward, ed., World Furniture: An Illustrated History (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1965), 195, fig. 726
  • Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1957), n.p., pl. XXI
  • Larry Freeman, Federal-Empire, 3 (Watkins Glen, N.Y.: Century House Americana, 1956), 2, 8
  • Mabel M. Swan, "General Stephen Bedlam: Cabinet and Looking-Glass Maker," Antiques 65 (May 1954), 380, ill.
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  • Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, 1st ed., 3 vols. (Framingham, Mass.: Old American Company Publishers, 1928–33), no. 324, ill.
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  • Felice Davis, "American Furniture: The Second or Revolutionary Period in American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum," Antiquarian 5 (September 1925), 12, ill.
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  • Fiske Kimball, "Some Carved Figures by Samuel McIntire," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 18 (August 1923), 195, ill.
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

Inscriptions

Paper shipping labels pasted to the top of both the upper and the lower case read: "For Elias Hasket Derby / Esqr Salem / Keep this side up / & preserve it / from the Sun from wet & from bruises. / It is of Consequence enough / to merit great attention." Because the handwriting on these labels bears a close resemblance to that of Stephen Badlam on other documents, it is believed that these labels were applied when the object was shipped by boat from Badlam's shop in Dorchester Lower Mills to Derby's wharf in Salem.

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