Chest-on-Chest Maker: Unknown

1780–1800

American Decorative Arts

By appointment, Hume Furniture Study

Similar in form to furniture from neighboring Rhode Island, this chest-on-chest from North Stonington, Connecticut, is distinguished by its striped tiger-maple grain, lower stance, and central carved shell or "sunburst," echoed in the drop on the base molding in the lower case. The careful choice of wood on the drawer fronts leads the eye up the chest by alternating the direction of the grain.

Medium

Highly figured soft maple; eastern white pine and butternut; some framing elements, soft maple

Dimensions

91 3/8 × 42 5/8 × 20 9/16 in. (232.1 × 108.2 × 52.2 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.2212

Geography

Made in North Stonington, Connecticut

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
According to tradition, the chest was owned by the Bentley family of North Stonington, Conn. It descended in the family to Mrs. John W. Pearson, Hartford, Conn. Mrs. Pearson sold it in 1929 to dealer Charles Woolsey Lyon, New York, who sold it later that year to Francis P. Garvan, New York. 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), 89, 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), 38, 179–80, no. 84, pl. 8
  • Patricia E. Kane, "American Furniture in the Yale University Art Gallery," Antiques 117, no. 5 (June 1980), 1319, pl. V
  • James P. Walsh, Connecticut Industry and the Revolution, 29 (Hartford, Conn.: American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of Connecticut, 1978), 32
  • 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), 104–5, fig. 87
  • John T. Kirk, "The Distinctive Character of Connecticut Furniture," Antiques 92 (October 1967), 524, fig. 1
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

chests-on-chests, utilitarian objects

Inscriptions

"Appleton" is written on the outside of the right side of the carved drawer in the upper case; "AWR" appears on the inside of the bottom of the same drawer. "Appleton" also appears in pencil on the outside of the back of the middle wide drawer in the upper case. "Back" is written in pencil on the outside of the back of the second drawer from the bottom in the lower case. "H'Y Bentley" is written in graphite twice on the backboards of the upper case. There are many shop marks and numbers throught each case. Labels from the 1967 "Connecticut Furniture" exhibition are pasted to the inside of the bottom of the lowest drawer in the upper case and to the top drawer in the lower case.

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