FINE AND RARE QUEEN ANNE CARVED CHERRYWOOD HIGH CHEST OF DRAWERS, PROBABLY NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT, CIRCA 1760

Northeast Auctions, Manchester, New Hampshire, New Hampshire Auction, August 1-2, 1998, lot 614;

Wayne Pratt, Inc., Woodbury, Connecticut.

This high chest is the product of yet unknown eighteenth century Connecticut cabinetmaker. Six high chests, a dressing table, a tea table and a desk-and-bookcase are known from this shop.¹ The most notable example is in the Barbour collection at the Connecticut Historical Society. The current lot and the Barbour high chest both possess identical fluted pad feet with ruffled cuffs and nearly identical skirt profiles. The Barbour high chest has carved knees with long tendrils and stylized C-scrolls whereas the present lot has knees that relate to pieces made in the Newtown region and as such these high chests have been attributed to the Housatonic River Valley. A high chest at the Museum Fine Arts, Boston has an identical skirt to the Barbour high chest and has carved fans nearly identical to the currently offered lot.

¹ The five other high chest examples include: Connecticut Historical Society, Frederick K. and Margaret R. Barbour's Furniture Collection, (Hartford, CT: Connecticut Historical Society, 1963), pp. 46-7; Skinner, Inc., Bolton, Massachusetts, October 31, 1993, lot 26; Nathan Liverant & Son Antiques advertisement, Magazine Antiques, 163:1 (January 2003), p. 23; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Collecting American Decorative Arts and Sculpture, 1971-1991, (Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, 1991), p. 37, no. 10; and one in a private Vermont collection. A related dressing table sold at Cyr Auction Gallery, Gray, Maine, October 2004. A tea table and desk-and-bookcase are in private Connecticut collections.