VERY RARE WILLIAM AND MARY MAPLE FIVE-LEGGED HIGH CHEST OF DRAWERS, PROBABLY MASSACHUSETTS, CIRCA 1710

Stretchers replaced.

Stretchers are replaced. Secondary wood is white pine.
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 five turned legs and one single long drawer in the base, this high chest is the earliest variant of the form made in the Colonies.  Few examples survive and nearly all are in public collections.¹  This example is crafted from poplar and the leg turnings are less academic as those found on pieces made in the Boston area.  It is very plausible that this high chest was crafted in Western Massachusetts. The drawers are all side hung and illustrate the conservative nature of the cabinetmaker who most certainly was also a joiner.

¹ Dean A. Fales, Jr., The Furniture of Historic Deerfield, (New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1976),  p. 205, no. 421; Frances Gruber Safford, Volume I: Early Colonial period: the seventeenth-century and William and Mary styles, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 2007), pp. 306-12, nos. 121 & 122; Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, (New York : Macmillan, 1928), no. 325 (ex. Metropolitan Museum of Art); Russell Hawes Kettell, The Pine Furniture of Early New England, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & company, Inc., 1929), p. 45; Jonathan L. Fairbanks and Elizabeth Bidwell Bates, American Furniture: 1620 to the Present, (New York: R. Marek, 1981), p. 52.