The Very Fine and Rare Daniel Willard Queen Anne Carved Cherrywood High Chest of Drawers, Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1783

Appears to retain it's original finish, cast-brass hardware and finials. Label on inside of drawer inscribed This Highboy belonged to Rev. John Willard's Grandmother.

Rhoda (Welles) (1756-1827) and Daniel Willard (1753-1817) of Wethersfield;
To their son, Asaph Willard (1786-1880) of Hartford, who married Sophronia Welles (1792-1870);
To their son Rev. John Willard (1826-1913), of Hartford and later Chicago, who married Catherine Steele (1833-1921);
To their son, William Gleason Willard (1865-1951) of Chicago, who married Edna Carpenter (1869-1963);
To their son, William Dayton Willard (1901-1984), of Chicago and later Crystal Lake, Michigan, who married Laura Keatts (1903-1975);
Bernard G. Plomp, Village Green Antiques, Richland, Michigan;
GKS Bush, Washington, D.C.;
Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, April 16-7, 1994, lot 560.

The Concord Museum, Concord, MA, January 29 – June 5, 2005;
The Connecticut Historical Society Museum, Hartford, CT, June 23 – October 30, 2005, which featured a first-rate assemblage of well-documented examples of Connecticut Valley furniture.

Antiques and the Arts Weekly, April 22, 1994, p. 45 and May 6, 1994, pp. 88-90;
Antiques & Fine Art, 5^th Anniversary issue, January 2005, p. 184;
Kugelman, Thomas P. and Alice K. Kugelman with Robert Lionetti. Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800. Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society Museum, 2005, cat. 27, pp. 72-5;
Maine Antique Digest, June 1994, p. 29A;
The Magazine Antiques (February 1989): 356, GKS Bush advertisement.

Secondary wood is white pine. Proper right upper corner of second drawer from bottom of upper case with a 2 3/4 by 1 1/2 re-glued chip. Appears to retain its original surface. Proper right side of upper case crack running along the height of the case.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

With its magnificent proportions and elegant design, this high chest epitomizes the mature Wethersfield style of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, in which form rules over carved ornament. It survives in a remarkable state of preservation, retaining an old surface and its original side finials and most of its original brasses.

A handwritten label attached to a drawer bottom of the upper case recounts: “This highboy belonged to Rev. John Willard’s grandmother.” This probably refers to Rhoda Welles (1756-1827), a sixth generation descendant of the colonial governor Thomas Welles (1596-1660), who married Daniel Willard (1753-1817) of Wethersfield on April 24, 1783. He was a prosperous farmer in Newington parish and deacon of the church. This high chest was probably ordered soon after their marriage to stand in their house on Willard Avenue in Newington, which was built by Daniel’s great uncle, Josiah Welles (1691-1751), in 1732.  It is likely the “case of drawers” valued at $3 in the inventory taken after Daniel’s death in 1817.  It remained the property of his descendants for four generations until it was sold out of the family in 1988.

This eponymous high chest is illustrated by Thomas P. Kugelman, and Alice K. Kugelman with Robert Lionetti in Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800, published by the Connecticut Historical Society Museum in Hartford in 2005. They include it in the “Willard Group,” which is so named for this high chest, and describe the furniture in this group as the “ultimate expression of mature Wethersfield production” with “sweeping curves and arches as well as unparalleled grace and proportion” that “set this group apart” from other Wethersfield groups. Ten bonnet-top high chests, two flat-top high chests, one high chest base, and three dressing tables constitute the group, which was made by an unidentified shop operating in Wethersfield during the 1780s. This critical mass of virtually identical high chests indicates this shop was large with several well-trained apprentices and/or journeymen.  

Kugelman et al identify the following significant index features for the case pieces from this shop: pieces constructed of cherry with birch, eastern white pine and tulip poplar secondary woods; exceptionally well-proportioned cases with steep broken-arch bonnets; cornice moldings that wrap into the bonnet cavity about 6”; closed backs of the bonnet cavity with a slightly arched backboard that conforms to the curve of the bonnet arch, with no roof over the cavity; a center plinth that rises between the two cutout circles almost to the top of the bonnet opening that is shaped at its midsection and carved with a pinwheel, sunburst, or fylfot; no side plinths; simple pinecone-shaped finials, turned in one piece with a spool-shaped base, and mounted at the front corners and on the central plinth; upper and lower case drawers embellished with simple carved shells having approximately twenty convex rays or with a four-lobed fylfot; brasses on the upper case long drawers that are aligned vertically with the small drawers, or may be inset, the carved drawers with small mushroom pulls; dressing tables with a rail above the top drawer; front and side aprons with cyma curves, the sides with a raised center arch, the front with pendant half circles at the center that extend below the horizontal plane of the apron; ogee shaped knee returns that are applied to the underside of the apron and canted on the inside; and long slender cabriole legs ending in pad feet with well defined truncated cones supporting the pads that are chamfered around the bottom edge.

Four bonnet-top high chests and two flat-top high chests from the larger Willard group relate most closely to this high chest (see Kugelman, Kugelman, and Lionetti, note 3, p. 75). A bonnet-top example at Colonial Williamsburg is nearly identical to this high chest with the exception of the placement of its escutcheons and brasses.  Another bonnet-top high chest at the Alexander King House in Suffield has “TB” painted in white on the upper case backboard as well as the incised initials “BDM” (see ibid, cat. 27e, p. 75). Several of its features – a central plinth that is 1” taller and ½” wider, rounded rather than ogee-shaped knee returns, and pad feet with a wider supporting pad – suggest it was made by a Wethersfield-trained craftsman working outside the main Willard group shop. Candidates for this maker with the initials “TB” include Timothy Boardman (1727-1792) of Middletown and Thomas Bulkley (1758-1797) of Farmington. A related flat top chest with five long drawers and no shell in the upper case was probably first owned by Mary Welles (1753-1825) and Epaphras Stoddard (1748-1792) of Wethersfield, who married on November 25, 1773.