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Photo: Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery, Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, 1930.2313
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Chest on frame

Object number

RIF1178

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

56 13/16 × 37 5/8 × 19 1/2 in. (144.304 × 95.568 × 49.53 cm)

Date

1740–60

Current location

Yale University Art Gallery

Geography

Made in Newport, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Soft maple (primary); chestnut (secondary)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

None

Provenance

Philip Flayderman, Boston, Massachusetts; consigned by his estate to American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, Inc., New York, January 2–4, 1930, lot 415; sold to Francis P. Garvan (1875–1937), New York; given to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1930

Associated names

Anderson Galleries
Philip Flayderman
Francis P. Garvan

Construction

The upper case is of dovetailed board construction; the two horizontal butted backboards are nailed to a rabbet in the top, sides, and bottom. There are three glue blocks behind the bottom front rail of the upper case and two behind the top rail, and the top drawers are supported by a strip across the back into which their medial runner is housed. In each drawer, the sides are dovetailed to the front and back, and the bottom is nailed to a rabbet in the front and to the undersides of the sides and back and runs on applied running strips (with the exception of the top two drawers, which are without running strips). The underside of the bottom of the top two drawers has a groove at center for a tab or spring lock, and these drawers vary by 2 to 3 cm in depth. The upper case rests on the frame, with battens or cleats nailed to the underside of the bottom fitting within the frame and the applied molding at the front and side overlapping the frame. The frame consists of four dovetailed boards, with the dovetails exposed on the front and back. The four legs are detachable and are housed in rabbets cut in these boards. They extend about half the height of the frame and are glued and blocked to the corners. Source: Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University, (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery), 256.

Bibliography

Anderson Galleries and American Art Association, New York, Colonial Furniture, Silver, and Decorations: The Collection of the Late Philip Flayderman, sale cat. (January 2–4, 1930), lot 415, ill.
Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1988), 255–256, no. 133, ill.