Important Americana: Furniture, Folk Art, Silver, Chinese Export Art and Prints
Important Americana: Furniture, Folk Art, Silver, Chinese Export Art and Prints
Property from the Dorothy Griffith Spain family
The Neale-Humphrey-French Pilgrim Century Chest With Drawer, Attributed to John Savell (1642-1687), Braintree, Massachusetts, Circa 1670
Auction Closed
January 20, 04:11 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Oak, chestnut, white cedar, and wrought iron.
Retains original surface, top, drawer and knobs.
Height 30 in. by Width 55 in. by Depth 20 1/2 in.
Lacking portion of till and the front of the chest has been cut and two doors made from the original panels
This chest was gifted to the current owner by the Morristown Public Library librarian, Anna (Davenport) French. Anna's husband, Charles French, has one ancestor, Henry Neale, who lived in Braintree during the time that John Savell was an active joiner. The following is the chest's probable line of decent through ten subsequent generations.
Henry Thomas Neale, (b. March 29, 1617, Leek (Leik), England, d. October 16, 1688, Braintree, Massachusetts) and 2nd wife Hannah Pray (b. March 14, 1634, Kittery, Maine, d. October 6, 1688, Braintree, Massachusetts).
To their daughter, Mary Neale (1664-1724) m. Captain Jospeh Neale (1660-1737);
To their daughter, Mary Neale (1689-1766) m. Jonas Humphrey V (1684-1761);
To their son, John Humphrey (1710-1782) m. Mary Penny (1720-1763);
To their daughter, Eunice Humphrey (1752-1830) m. Samuel Brimhall II (1748-1812);
To their daughter, Hannah Brimhall (1782-1851) m. Asa French, Jr. (1777-1851);
To their son, Captain Freeman French (1805-1894) m. Hannah Davis Bellows (1806-1884);
To their son, Charles David French (1842-1912) m. Susan Eckstein Schober (1844-1920);
To their son, Charles Frederick French (1876-1920) m. Anna Morton Davenport (1882-1968);
Anna gifted the chest to Dorothy Griffith Spain (1896-1987);
Thus by descent to the current owner.
Based upon its carving and joinery, this chest can be firmly attributed to the Savell shop (see Peter Follansbee's and John D. Alexander's article "Seventeenth-Century Joinery from Braintree, Massachusetts: The Savell Shop Tradition," American Furniture 1996, ed. Luke Beckerdite, (Milwaukee, WI: Chipstone foundation 1996), pp. 81-104). The carving details in the upper corners of the front panels and the horizontal "bar" flanking the central drawer medallion associate this chest to the work of the joiner, John Savell (1642-1687). This chest is particularly noteworthy in that it appears to retain its original red wash, top and oversized "mushroom" drawer pulls.