THE IMPORTANT OGDEN FAMILY VERY FINE AND RARE WILLIAM AND MARY 'LINE AND BERRY' INLAID WALNUT CHEST OF DRAWERS, CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CIRCA 1720 |

the top inlaid SO along the front edge; feet replaced.

Pook & Pook, Inc. Downingtown, Pennsylvania. February 20, 1999;
H.L. Chalfant Antiques, West Chester, Pennsylvania, February 1999;
Vogel Collection no. 653.

In overall fine condition. Wear commensurate with age and use. Refinished. On the inside of the bottom board of the back, there are visible incised marks showing the inlay used on the drawers. Age cracks to the feet, which appear to be original. The top consists of two boards, with a visible split between the front and rear board due to shrinkage of each board. A similar, vertical split is visible to the proper left side of the case. The hardware, while consistent with the period, is replaced. Secondary wood: Poplar, white pine and cherry or maple.
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.

Elaborately ornamented with fanciful line and berry inlays, this chest of drawers is a rare example of the rural craftsmanship of Chester County, Pennsylvania. In form, it derives from the design of English precedents and closely follows chests of drawers produced in the Philadelphia region, including one in a private collection made of walnut signed by William Beale Jr. (active circa 1694-1711) of Philadelphia (See Jack Lindsey, Worldly Goods: The Arts of Early Pennsylvania, 1680-1758 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1999), p. 97, 142, fig. 147, no. 26).  The distinctive inlay patterns of tulips, arches, and circles are characteristic of furniture made in Chester County by the English, Welsh and Dutch Quakers who had settled there. Chester County cabinetmakers favored walnut as a primary wood since it lent itself to the compass-scored inlays. As seen on this chest, these makers often practiced their whimsical designs by scoring them into shop lumber and therefore leaving traces on the interior faces of drawers, case sides or backboards. The initials “SO” inlaid along the front edge of the top likely refers to Sarah Ogden (b. 1691), a member of the prominent Ogden family of Chester County. She was the daughter of David Ogden (1655-1705), a Quaker who emigrated from England with William Penn and settled in Chester County on land purchased from William Penn in 1682 (See Thomas Holmes Map of the Province of Pennsylvania, with names of original purchasers from William Penn, 1681; Charles Ogden, The Quaker Ogdens in America: David Ogden of Ye Goode Ship “Welcome” and His Descendants (Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott Co., 1898)). David and his wife, Martha Houlston, married on January 12, 1686, and had 9 children. Sarah was their third child and she later married Evan Howell (died 1734) in Whiteland, Chester County. This chest may have been part of her dowry and perhaps corresponds to the “Walnut Case of Drawers a Walnut Chest” valued at 4-5-5 pounds in Evan Howell’s estate inventory taken at his death in 1734.

A closely related five-drawer walnut chest of drawers with the initials, “MO”, has a history of descent in the Ogden family of Chester County and may have been originally owned by Sarah’s sister, Martha (born 1689). With initials and inlays likely by the same maker, that chest is currently in the collection of the Gloucester County Historical Society in Woodbury, New Jersey (acc. no. 1916.41). It was given to the Historical Society by Sibyl Tatum Jones, who purchased it at auction from the estate of Laura Pauline Pancoast (born 1859). The chest appears illustrated in The Quaker Ogdens in America David Ogden of Ye Goode Ship “Welcome” And His Descendants, 1682-1897 by Charles Burr, as owned by Mary S. Pancoast (born 1821) of Philadelphia, who was an Ogden descendant and Laura’s aunt (see Ogden, pp. 27-28). The caption for the illustrated chest further states that Mary Pancoast inherited the chest through direct family lines from David Ogden through his son, Stephen (1705-1760).