Chest over three drawers
ca. 1810 - 30
This chest represents early Shaker furniture. The early date is indicated by the thickness of the paint, its hue of yellow, and the embossed tin shield-shaped lock; decoration that would not have been used by 1840. Also by 1840, the paint would have been thinner.
The drawer configuration--a shallow drawer and then two of equal depth--is not "of the world," a Shaker term describing the non-Shaker community. In the non-Shaker world, drawers would have decreased in size by steady increments. The flat space of the chest, the thin drawer, and then two of equal size establishes a non-conventional rhythm in furniture design of this time. In a break from that convention, Shaker drawers were designed to suit what went in them.
Pine, painted or stained in the early hue of Shaker yellow, varnished
39 3/8 x 38 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. (100.0 x 98.1 x 46.0 cm)
American Furniture Fund, Decorative Arts Acquisition Fund, and the Margaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund in honor of John T. Kirk
99.49
Photo: Paul Macapia
