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Image

American, Boston Massachusetts

Chest of drawers, ca. 1770-1790

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

American

Title

Chest of drawers

Year

ca. 1770-1790

Medium

Mahogany; white pine

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • mahogany,
  • white pine

Dimensions

83.8 x 100.3 x 58.4 cm (33 x 39 1/2 x 23 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Numbers inscribed in pencil on backs of drawers.

Place

Boston; Massachusetts

Type

  • Decorative Arts,
  • Furniture

Credit

Gift of Helen Byram

Object Number

1999.69.1

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Recent Acquisitions

February 18 - April 16, 2000

For nearly a century, the Museum's renowned collection of American furniture has included pieces with "blocked" and "swelled" drawer fronts, a specialty of Boston-area and Newport cabinetmakers; but until the presentation of this gift, the Museum had no example of a serpentine design. It was popular in Boston and Salem just after the Revolutionary War, when this mahogany chest of drawers was made for a member of the Byram family of Massachusetts. The donor is a RISD alumna in whose family it descended. Because American furniture is a particularly strong area of the Museum's holdings, it is unusual for a gap to be filled at the same level of quality as the furniture already in the Pendleton and Radeke collections (now on display on level 5 in the Main Gallery).

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Chest of drawers with the accession number of 1999.69.1. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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