Photo:Courtesy Newport Historical Society, R.I., inv. no. 69.3
Click the image to enlarge
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Chest-on-chest |
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Object numberRIF1077 |
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MakerMaker, attributed to John Townsend, American, 1732/331809 |
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Dimensions83 × 41 × 22 in. (210.82 × 104.14 × 55.88 cm) |
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Date176595 |
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Current locationNewport Historical Society |
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GeographyMade in Newport, Rhode Island(view a map of Rhode Island) |
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MediumMahogany (primary) |
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Inscriptions"D," "E," and perhaps other letters in graphite on the exterior of the drawer backs. |
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ProvenancePeleg Clarke (17131797), Newport, Rhode Island, and Boston; by descent in the Audley Clarke family, Newport, Rhode Island; by descent to Helen Clarke Douglas; bequeathed to Newport Historical Society, Rhode Island, 1969 |
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Associated namesAudley Clarke family of NewportHelen Clarke Douglas Peleg Clarke |
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ConstructionOn the front and sides of the closed serpentine bonnet is a single-piece crown molding centering three rectangular fluted molded plinths, each supporting a fluted and reeded vasiform finial with corkscrew flame. The plinths are fluted on their outside faces. On the edge of each three-quarter-round cutout in the scrollboard below is a single-piece molding pieced into the crown moldings above, just shy of their upper termini. The scrollboard meets the upper case stiles in half-blind dovetail joints. The thumb-molded, book-matched scrollboard plaques are applied. The bottom rail and the drawer dividers of the upper case meet the stiles in half-blind dovetail joints. The drawer fronts are thumb-molded and graduated. The case sides are single boards. The bases and capitals of the stop-fluted quarter columns are separate pieces. The mid-molding is attached with brads to the lower case. The elements of the lower case, including drawer-front and quarter-column details, are similar to those of the upper case. The top rail meets the flanking stiles in blind joints, the drawer dividers and bottom rail in half-blind dovetails. The lower-case sides are single boards. The drawer fronts of both cases meet their arch-topped drawer sides in dovetail joints, having small, finely cut pins, with half-pins above and half-pins with grooves below. The fronts are somewhat proud of the drawer-front tops. The drawer bottoms are parallel to the drawer front, and runners are attached to their undersides. The base molding is fixed with wood-filled fasteners to the bottom board of the lower case. Examined by P.E. Kane and J.N. Johnson, March 26, 2014; notes compiled by T.B. Lloyd |
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BibliographyMichael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984), 168169, fig. 3.92, 3.92a, 3.9.Jack O'Brien, "A New Bedford Masterpiece," Antiques 171, no. 5 (May 2007): 142 [no illustration], 145, footnote 17. Jeffrey P. Greene, American Furniture of the 18th Century: History, Technique, Structure (Newtown, Conn: The Taunton Press, 1996), 69, ill. |