The Very Rare Case-Phelps Diminutive Queen Anne High Chest of Drawers, Joshua Case (1723-1779), Simsbury, Connecticut, circa 1765

Josiah Case, m. Esther Higley, Simsbury, Connecticut;

Their son, Josiah Case, Jr. (1753-after 1820), m. Ruth Pettibone Phelps (1743- ?), Simsbury, Connecticut;

Ruth Case’s relative, Timothy Phelps, Jr. (1748-1827) m. Ruth Palmer Wilson (1756-1827);

Their daughter, Sally Phelps (1799-1863) m. Cyrus Howe (1795-1880);

Their oldest daughter, Flavia A. Howe (1838-1910) m. Edward Thrall (1838-1910), Windsor, Connecticut;

Their daughter, Leliaone Thrall (1877-1957) m. George Jared Merwin (1869-1951) Windsor, Connecticut;

Their daughter, Dorothy F. Merwin (1904-1996) m. Hubbell Russell Brown (1900-1991), Windsor, Connecticut;

Their son, Edward Brown (1934- ) m. Elizabeth Bowman (1933-?) in 1952.

Nadeau's Auction Gallery, East Windsor, Connecticut, April 6, 2013, lot 300;

Donald Heller, Manchester Antiques Show, New Hampshire, 2013.

Thomas P. Kugelman and Alice K. Kugelman with Robert Lionetti, Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and his Contemporaries, 1750-1800, (Hartford : Connecticut Historical Society Museum: Distributed by University Press of New England, 2005), p. 34, no. 16;

Donald Heller advertisement, Antiques and the Arts Weekly, Manchester Antiques Show, 2013;

Leslie and Peter Warwick, Love At First Sight: Discovering Stories About Folk Art & Antiques Collected by Two Generations & Three Families, (New Jersey: 2022), pp. 150-1, Fig. 289a-b.

In the Antiques and the Arts Weekly in the summer of 2013, we saw that Don Heller was bringing a Connecticut high chest of drawers from the Connecticut River Valley to a Manchester Antiques Show. It was small with elegant long legs and had a double cyma curved skirt, indicating it was most likely from the Connecticut River Valley.

We called Don and he said he was visiting some people in Pennsylvania and he would bring the high chest of drawers along for us to see. We inspected it outside in the sunlight and we discovered a signature, a town, and a date inside of the front of the bottom drawer of the upper case is written vertically in cursive on four lines in the center: Case / Josiah Case / Simsbury / AD 176?. It was not written in a hard-to-reach place which shows it was written after the high chest of drawers was assembled. Therefore, it was signed by the owner.

The high chest appears as if it was made by William Manley (1703-1787), who trained in Boston and moved to Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1730 and then moved to Wintonbury (now known as Bloomfield). Joshua Case was living in Simsbury which is only six miles away from Wintonbury, the western part of West Windsor, Connecticut about 1745. Kugelman noted that this high chest was not made by William Manley as there are numerous differences in construction but it was of the Manley School. While Windsor is next to Simsbury, the two towns are separated by a mountain, making travel between the towns difficult.

We looked for cabinetmakers working in Simsbury during the 1760 and discovered Joshua Case (1723-1779). In Kugelmans’ notes that Joshua Case was a cabinetmaker but no furniture made by him is known. Bill Hosley informed us he found documentation that Joshua Case made two tables in 1760 during his research for the Great River exhibition but no one had found any furniture made by him. When Manley moved in 1745 to Wintonbury, Joshua Case was a 22-year-old cabinetmaker and was too old to be an apprentice. He would have been influenced by Manley’s popular style but would have learned different construction techniques from a different cabinetmaker.

We made an amazing discovery that Joshua Case and Josiah Case were first cousins! Joshua Case was the son of Joshua Case Sr. (1698-1764) and Ann Robe (1699-1773). Josiah Case was the son of Capt. James Case (1693-1759) and Esther Fithian (1701-1769). Joshua Case Sr. and Capt. James Case were brothers. It is very likely that Josiah Case would have purchased his high chest of drawers from Joshua Case, as they were first cousins and lived in Simsbury in the 1760s.

We found another name on the inside of the backboard that looks like it was printed later in large black letters Naomi Phelps / Howe / 177-. While we were unable to find anyone named Naomi Phelps Howe we did find a Sally Phelps Howe. There was a Naomi Phelps in the 1810 and 1820 Censuses of Windsor, Connecticut but we could not find that she married a Howe.

Nadeau's Auction Gallery said it descended in the Phelps-Brown family. However, the last owner in the Brown family told Kugelman that it was owned by Sally Phelps (1799-1863) who was the daughter of Timothy Phelps Jr. (1748-1827). Now we knew the first owner was Josiah Case, since he signed the drawer, not Sally Phelps, and we were able to trace the high chest of drawers back an additional 50 years.

After working through genealogy records, we believe the provenance of the high chest is:

1.) Josiah Case (1718-1789) signed the high chest. He married Esther Higley and lived in Simsbury, Connecticut.

2.) It was inherited by their son, Josiah Case, Jr. (1753-after 1820), who married Ruth Pettibone Phelps (1743- ?). and they lived in Simsbury. In the 1790s they moved a remote area, Phelps, New York.

(The last owners of the chest thought that Sally Phelps next owned the high chest but she wasn’t born yet when Josiah Jr. and Ruth Case had moved. However, since the chest of drawers was made before Sally was born, we believe that Timothy Phelps Jr., Sally’s father, owned it first and then it was inherited by Sally.)

3.) It was given or sold to Ruth Case’s relative, Timothy Phelps, Jr. (1748-1827) who in 1785, married Ruth Palmer Wilson (1756-1827).

4.) It was inherited by Timothy and Ruth Phelps’s daughter, Sally Phelps (1799-1863) who in 1830 married Cyrus Howe (1795-1880). They had six children and four children died young, leaving only Flavia and Maria Howe. In Connecticut River Valley Furniture, Kugelman states that the owner of the high chest was Sally Phelps (1799-1863) of Windsor. Her great-grandmother was the daughter of Timothy and Ruth Phelps. But Kugelman wrote that he thought the first owners were Mary Palmer and Phineas Wilson, the parents of Timothy Phelps’s wife, Ruth Wilson Phelps. However, he did not see the signature of the actual first owner, “Josiah Case”.

5.) It was inherited by Cyrus and Sally Howe’s oldest daughter, Flavia A. Howe (1838-1910) who married Edward Thrall (1838-1910) and they lived in Windsor. Flavia was known for her “magnetic personality” and as a “spiritualistic healer”.

6.) It was inherited by Edward and Flavia Thrall’s daughter, Leliaone Thrall (1877-1957) who married George Jared Merwin (1869-1951) in Windsor. George grew tobacco, was a paper manufacturer, and a funeral director.

7.) It was inherited by George and Leliaone Merwin’s daughter, Dorothy F. Merwin (1904-1996) who married Hubbell Russell Brown (1900-1991). Dorothy’s mother, Leliaone, lived with the Browns in Windsor.

8) Lastly, the high chest was inherited by Hubbell and Dorothy Brown’s son, Edward Brown (1934- ) who married Elizabeth Bowman (1933-?) in 1952. Edward and Elizabeth Brown sold the high chest at Nadeau’s.