A very fine and rare Chippendale grain-painted poplar valuables tall chest, Eastern Pennsylvania circa 1790

Collection of Samuel D. Riddle, Delaware County, Pennsylvania

Samuel T. Freeman & Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Samuel T. Freeman & Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Samuel D. Riddle Collection, May 1-10, 1951, lot 441

Grain paint over blue; proper right front foot facing with a 1/4 inch patch; proper right front side foot facing with a 1/2 inch patch
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.

Although generally referred to as a spice box, miniature high chests of drawers like this one are more aptly termed valuables cabinets since inventory references indicate they typically stored prized household items such as jewelry or silver. One example listed in the 1750 estate inventory of Jacob Hibberd of Chester County contained gold and silver sleeve buttons, silver and brass shoe buckles, a pincushion with a silver chain, silver scissors and a thimble, eight silver teaspoons and a pair of silver sugar tongs (Margaret Schiffer, Furniture and Its Makers of Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1978, p. 266). The form was more popular in Pennsylvania than in any of the other American colonies and produced there throughout the eighteenth century.

This example is remarkable for retaining its early grain painting over an apparently original blue paint. Despite its small scale, it follows the design and construction of its full-size Pennsylvania counterparts. Similar grain painting appears on a chest with drawers at Yale University associated with an unknown decorator working near the Berks-Montgomery County line of Pennsylvania (see Monroe Fabian, The Pennsylvania-German Decorated Chest, New York, no. 115, p. 145). That chest also features ogee bracket feet and brackets similar to those on the present chest. Another miniature chest of drawers also with rope-twist-carved quarter columns but lacking painted decoration is in the collection of the Chipstone Foundation and illustrated in Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone, Madison, 1984, no. 35, pp. 78-9.