Red, Green and Yellow Paint Decorated Miniature Dressing Bureau, attributed to Hanson B. Youngs (w. 1858-1878), Conesville, Schoharie County, New York, circa 1875

Inscribed pencil, underside of bottom drawer: HANSON B. YUNGS; inside top full drawer: Mr. [?] Hanson B. Youngs; underside of top full drawer: ink box identification stamp; back Mr. Hanson B. Youngs

Howard and Jean Lipman, Wilton, Connecticut
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, "The Howard and Jean Lipman Collection of Important American Folk Art & Painted Furniture," November 14, 1981

"Small Folk: A Celebration of Childhood in America," American Folk Art Museum and New-York Historical Society, 1980-81
"Folk Art Revealed," New York, American Folk Art Museum, November 16, 2004-August 23, 2009

Brant, Sandra and Elissa Cullman. Small Folk: A Celebration of Childhood in America, New York: E.P. Dutton in association with American Folk Art Museum, 1980, p. 162
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 117, fig. 81

Left scroll with old break. Otherwise, it appears to be in very good condtion.
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.

The Revenue Act of 1865 mandated that cigars be packaged in boxes, which were not recycled.¹ As the popularity of cigar smoking continued to grow through the last quarter of the nineteenth century, box factories proliferated to meet demand. From 1868 to 1960, a box identification was required on all cigar boxes. The identification mark changed in style only about four times during nearly one hundred years. According to the impressed mark found on this piece, it was made from boxes dated between 1872 and 1880.²The unforeseen by-product of the discarded boxes was a wealth of wood, freely available to be used for a variety of handcrafts. The best known of these wood projects was tramp art, which is characterized by graduated layers of cigar-box wood whose edges are chip-carved in triangular notches.

This doll-size dresser is fashioned from cigar boxes but is not tramp art because it does not display the characteristic layered and edge-notched construction.3 In addition to cigar-box wood, the dresser uses cigar-box cardboard to form the backs of the two small upper drawers. Although it is diminutive in size, the dresser features a vanity mirror over two small drawers on top of a two-drawer bureau and clearly draws its inspiration from full-scale furniture of the late Victorian period in which it was made. It combines a variety of decorative paint techniques: plain paint, imaginative painted woodgraining, and stenciling of two prancing horses. The attention to detail is evident in the applied rope trim, S scrolls, and the mirror framed by a happy series of colorful circular cutouts, giving it a flowerlike appearance.

Variants of the name "Hanson B. Youngs" are penciled in three places and probably indicate the maker of this clever miniature dresser. Hanson B. Y[o]ungs was the only son of Parley (1824-1901) and Margaret Richmond Y[o]ungs (dates unknown), of Conesville, Schoharie County, New York. Hanson died at about twenty years of age, and according to genealogical notes he was "a cripple, but extremely ingenious;—made a sewing machine almost wholly of wood, that sewed."⁴ His father also worked with his hands, following various occupations as shoemaker, harness maker, and farmer. The Y[o]ungs family was descended from Jurian Jung, who was born in 1727 in Germany and died in 1799, in Kingston, New York.5 -S.C.H.

¹ Clifford A. Wallach and Michael Cornish, Tramp Art: One Notch at a Time (New York: Wallach-Irons Publishing, 1998), p. 35.
² Dr. Tony Hyman, National Cigar Museum, Shell Beach, Calif., e-mail to the author, July 14, 2000 (AFAM files). I am indebted to Dr. Hyman for the information regarding the dating of cigar boxes.
³ For a complete discussion of tramp art, see Wallach and Cornish, Tramp Art, and Helaine Fendelman and Jonathan Taylor, Tramp Art: A Folk Art Phenomenon (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1999).
⁴ J.A. Young Jurian Young and His Descendants (Chilhowee, Mo.: n.p., 1886), cited in (accessed June 2000).
⁵ Nancy McNicol, e-mail to the author, July 2, 2000 (AFAM files). Hanson Y[o]ungs was McNicol's first cousin three times removed. The progenitor of the American line is cited variously as Jurian and Jerg Hans Jung or Young.