Chest of Drawers Maker: Unknown

1690–1710

American Decorative Arts

By appointment, Hume Furniture Study
Medium

Rear stiles, rails, drawer dividers, drawer sides, applied moldings, red oak; front stiles, three drawer fronts, beveled strips on top and bottom drawer, replaced turned feet, soft maple; top, side and back panels, drawer bottoms, eastern white pine; front of third drawer from top, beech; backs of top and bottom drawer, eastern hemlock; replaced base molding, probably ash

Dimensions

36 3/16 × 39 9/16 × 23 in. (91.9 × 100.5 × 58.4 cm)
other (Case): 37 5/8 × 21 7/8 in. (95.6 × 55.6 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.2214

Geography

Made in Boston, Massachusetts

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
The Garvan files state that the chest of drawers was originally from Ipswich, Mass., according to tradition, but there is no documentation of this tradition. Jacob Margolis, New York; acquired at auction in 1923 by Francis P. Garvan, New York Gift 1930 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Joshua A. Klein, "An Unjustified Mystique: Period Dovetails Up-Close," Mortise and Tenon Magazine (2016), 112, 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), 123, 134–35, no. 56, ill
  • Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, New England Furniture: The Colonial Era (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984), 136–38, fig. 13b
  • Anderson Galleries, New York, Third Sale of Fine Early American Furniture Gathered during the Last Seven Months by Jacob Margolis, Cabinet Maker of New York City, sale cat. (November 16–17, 1923), no. 127
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

chests of drawers

Inscriptions

The modern "115" appears in red on the outside of the back. Three modern printed paper shipping labels are pasted to the back; all are from the American Railway Exrpress Company, Inc., and one is addressed to the Margolis Antique Shop, 1122 Madison Avenue, New York City, and gives an insurance value of $1,000 for the chest of drawers. A pattern of nails on the outside of the back indicates that another label was attached at one time. the insides of the drawers are lines with issues of various newspapers; the top drawer is lined with the Boston Olive Branch, 27 March 1852; the second drawer from the top with the Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, 19 October 1850; the third drawer from the top with an issue of the American Union , from Boston and dating to the 1850s; and the bottom drawer is also lined with the American Union, Boston, issues dating to the 1850s; and the bottom drawer is also lined with the American Union, Boston, issues dating from January and March 1852. There is an old signature on the newspaper in the third drawer from the top which appears to read "J.B. Jewitt," in graphite. "V," incised, pointing inward, on the top edge of each drawer near front corner.

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF

Open in Mirador

View IIIF manifest

The International Image Interoperability Framework, or IIIF, is an open standard for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. Visit iiif.io to learn more

Linked Art

API response for this object

Linked Art is a Community working together to create a shared Model based on Linked Open Data to describe Art.