THE SANFORD FAMILY QUEEN ANNE CARVED AND FIGURED CHERRYWOOD AND SYCAMORE DRESSING TABLE, CONNECTICUT, POSSIBLY NEWTOWN, CIRCA 1770

By family tradition, descended in the Sanford family of Redding and Redding Ridge, Connecticut as follows:
Aaron Sanford Sr. (1757-1849)
to his son, Aaron Jr. (1786-1872)
to their son, Daniel (d. 1903)
to his son, Daniel (b. 1859)
to their son, Daniel Jr. (b. 1902).

Hardware replaced, white pine and poplar secondary woods, proper left small drawer lacking top bead to drawer, with 2 in. patch to drawer lip / bead on proper left corner of central fan carved drawer, top has been detached and resecured.
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 present dressing table has a history of descent in the Sanford family of Redding and Redding Ridge, Connecticut and was possibly originally owned by Aaron Sanford Sr. (1757-1849), an officer in the Revolution and founder of the First Methodist Meeting House in New England at his home in Redding, which is today a historic landmark. Aaron Sr. and Lydia Hawley (1753-1847) may have received this chest as a wedding gift after they married in 1780 or purchased it after their marriage, possibly from relatives of Aaron Sanford who worked as cabinetmakers in Milford, Connecticut and Southampton, Long Island. Another possible candidate for maker of the chest is Ebenezer Booth IV (1743-1789) of Newtown, who married into a branch of the Sanford family when he took Olive Sanford as a bride on November 20, 1766.   

Aaron Sanford Sr. founded the First Methodist Meeting House in New England after his religious conversion to Methodism in circa 1787.  Family tradition records the moment Aaron Sr. found Methodism as “on one occasion he drove his team of horses to Bridgeport … and on his return came upon a crowd of people listening to an itinerant preacher, Jesse Lee, standing under a tree. Aaron pulled his team closer so that he could hear. He listened intently and then whipping his horse to a gallop, he drove home, over the rocky roads, jumped from his wagon, burst into his kitchen with the words, 'Mariah! Mariah! I have found the religion I have been looking for!' He constructed a partition in his long kitchen … enlarging it to a meeting room, and there the early Methodists continued to meet Sunday evening after Sunday evening.” Two other stories were told about this highly religious man. One, when the sun sank below the horizon on Saturday evening, and marking the start of the Sabbath, he was in the midst of shaving and left half his face unshaved until Sunday night because he did not believe in working on the Lord's Day. Two, that he retired at age 48 to prepare to meet his God but lived on to a ripe old age while his children managed the farm.