The Important Searls Family Chippendale Highly Inlaid Cherrywood and Mahogany Chest of Drawers, attributed to Nathan Lombard, Sutton, Massachusetts, circa 1800

Underside of top drawer inscribed in graphite Ebenezer Howard of Sturbridge.

Descended in the Searls family, who were in Pomfret, Connecticut by 1846. Hon. Charles Edwin Searls of Thompson and Putnam was born in Pomfret in 1846 and graduated from Yale University before becoming an attorney. He represented Thompson in the General Assembly in 1871 and was elected Secretary of State in 1881. This piece was likely owned by his mother, Carol Matthewson Searls;
Skinner, American Furniture and Decorative Arts, October 24, 1999, sale 1953, lot 124

Skin Deep: Three Masters of American Inlaid Furniture, Milwaukee Art Museum, November 22, 2003 – March 2, 2003

David Hewett, "Skinner's Amereicana Sale Biggest Ever," Maine Antique Digest, December 1999.

Secondary wood is white pine. Hardware replaced.
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An exuberant New England interpretation of the Federal style, this serpentine cherrywood chest of drawers epitomizes the height of workmanship in rural Massachusetts. Few other comparable American chests are known with a shaped form and ambitious inlaid decoration of this exceptional quality.

Similar flamboyant inlaid decoration and construction practice is found in the work of Nathan Lombard (1777-1847), a cabinetmaker working in the Sutton area of Massachusetts. Born in 1777 in Brimfield, this highly skilled and creative craftsman may have apprenticed to a local cabinetmaker before establishing a business in 1798 in Brimfield.¹   He married Delight Allen in Sturbridge in 1802 and they moved to Sutton soon after. As exhibited on a chest of drawers with his signature and the date April 20, 1800, this chest displays a serpentine façade, thick cherry veneer, chevron stringing, drawers with cherry cockbeading, feet combining C-scrolls, spurs and cusps, and a narrow strip of cherry attached to the back edge of the case top.²  Similar strips occur on many examples of Lombard's work, including on a sideboard that sold in these rooms, The Property of Dr. and Mrs. Henry C. Landon III, January 24, 2009, sale 8513, lot 68.³

This chest has the signature of Ebenezer Howard (1781-1854), a cabinetmaker of Sturbridge who appears to have worked with Lombard for a period of time, perhaps as an apprentice or journeyman. Ebenezer was born in Sturbridge in 1781 and married there in 1802. He signed other furniture attributed to Lombard, including a serpentine cherrywood chest in a private collection similar to the one offered here.⁴  A candlestand at Yale University attributed to Lombard bears an inscription "EH 1801" that may also refer to him.⁵

Five serpentine cherrywood chests are closely related to the one signed by Lombard. One belonged to Ezra Allen (1773-1866), his wife's second cousin, and stood in the chamber of his farmhouse in Holland, Massachusetts.⁶ A second example in a private collection with identical feet and lightwood banding is cited by Jobe and Pearce but has never been published. A third one lacking banding and economizing on the chevron stringing sold at auction in 1987.⁷  Two additional chests are fitted with concave columns decorated with inlay and capped with carved leaves like those found on the present chest.⁸ One of the aforementioned examples also exhibits husk and dot inlay, leaves, and an inverted icicle on the concave columns. The multicolored urn and vine motif on the top of this chest is also known on a desk-and-bookcase at Winterthur Museum on a flat-top desk-and-bookcase at the Milwaukee Art Museum, both attributed to Lombard.⁹ This distinctive inlay also appears on the candlestand at Yale mentioned above with the inscription "EH 1801," possibly referring to Ebenezer Howard.

When this chest was sold previously in 1999, it achieved the record price for a piece of Lombard furniture.

¹ Brock Jobe and Clark Pearce, "Sophistication in Rural Massachusetts: the Inlaid Cherry Furniture of Nathan Lombard," American Furniture 1998, p. 165.
² See ibid, fig. 5, p. 168.
³ See ibid, figs. 16 and 20, pp. 174-5.
⁴ The chest was included in the Old Sturbridge Village exhibition, "Convenient and Fashionable": Furniture from Island Massachusetts, 1790-1830, held from May 24-December 31, 2010.
⁵ See Jobe and Pearce, fig. 46, p. 188.
⁶ See ibid, fig. 15, p. 173.
⁷ Christie's, The Collection of the Late Jeannette R. Marks, June 5-6, 1987, lot 593.
⁸ See Jobe and Pearce, fig. 16, p. 174. The plainer chest originally belonged to Simeon and Susanna Clark of Hardwick, Massachusetts is illustrated in William Short, "New Additions to a Group of Federal Furniture," The Magazine Antiques (December 1991): p. 965, pl. 8.
⁹ See Jobe and Pearce, fig. 32, p. 181 and fig. 3, p. 166.