Rare painted maple and pine Shaker oval box with pincushion Enfield, Grafton County, New Hampshire, circa 1836

Estimate

2,500 - 3,500 USD

Sold

bidding is closed

Description

SHAKER OVAL BOX WITH PINCUSHION
Paint on maple and pine with copper tacks and worsted top
2 3/16 by 3 11/16 by 2 1/2 in. oval (including cushion)
C. 1846

Inscribed underside of lid, ink: This Box/was given to / Anna E Hovey./by the Shakers/ in/Enfield N.H./1846./ While on a Visit with / My Mother.

Provenance

Willis Henry Auctions at Mount Lebanon Shaker Museum, Old Chatham, New York, "Shaker Auction," August, 1986, lot 158
David A. Schorsch, Greenwich, Connecticut

Exhibited

"Folk Art Revealed," New York, American Folk Art Museum, November 16, 2004-August 23, 2009

Literature

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 312, fig. 274

Catalogue Note

Creating a variation of the familiar oval box, a Shaker artisan affixed a pincushion to the lid. The diminutive sewing box anticipates by at least a quarter-century the large-scale production in Shaker communities of sewing boxes, pincushions, and related items, which were intended for sale to the public. The inscription demonstrates the practice among the Believers of using small, meticulous examples of Shaker woodenware as gifts. -G.C.W.