Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

From: David H. Conradsen, Useful Beauty: Early American Decorative Arts from St. Louis Collections (US: St. Louis Art Museum, 1999), 64 Click the image to enlarge	Dressing table
	Object number RIF1652
	Maker Maker, formerly attributed to John Goddard, American, 1723–1785 Maker, formerly attributed to Edmund Townsend, American, 1736/7–1811 Maker Unknown
	Dimensions 29 1/2 � 36 � 21 1/8 in. (74.93 � 91.44 � 53.658 cm)
	Date 1760–80
	Current location Unknown
	Geography Made in Newport, Rhode Island (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Mahogany (primary); chestnut (drawer divider backing, some drawer sides, glue blocks for the top, drawer supports, a vertical block for the legs, the block behind the shell); pine (some drawer bottoms); yellow poplar (case back, some drawer sides)
	Inscriptions "bought at the sale of Mrs. O H Perry/ Parade 185-/ by Mrs. Castoff." in chalk on a drawer bottom; "X" in graphite on the exterior of the drawer backs
	Provenance George Washington Rogers (1787–1832) and his wife Anna Maria Perry (1797–1856), Brooklyn, New York; by descent to her brother's widow, Mrs. Oliver Hazard Perry (n�e Elizabeth Champlin Mason, 1791–1858), Newport, Rhode Island; sold by her estate to Elizabeth M. Friend Castoff (1808-1877), Newport. Northeast Auctions, Hampton, New Hampshire, March 20–21, 1993, lot 537; sold to Wayne Pratt and Company, Marlboro, Massachusetts. Christie's, New York, January 16, 1998, lot 425; sold to Alan Miller, Quakertown, Pennsylvania; sold to Dr. and Mrs. George Schoedinger III, St. Louis, Missouri; consigned to Christie's, January 18, 2008, lot 489
	Associated names George Washington Rogers Oliver Hazard Perry Mrs. Elizabeth M. Castoff Wayne Pratt, Inc. Alan Miller Christie's George and Lesley Schoedinger Christie's Northeast Auctions Elizabeth Mason Champlin Perry
	Construction CASE. The top is attached to the case sides with blocks glued and nailed with rosehead nails; there is one each along the sides of the case and two at the front, and one at the back; a medial brace is dovetailed into the drawer divider and tenoned into the back. The underside of the top has vertical sawmill marks. The sides and front of the top is ogee molded; the back edge of the top is flat and overhangs the back of the case; moldings are attached to the sides and front of the case below the top. Half-blind dovetails attach the backboard to the case sides with half keys at the top and bottom and eight full dovetails in between. the joint of the top rail, drawer divider and skirt at the front is covered with veneer. Vertical blocks attach the legs to the case sides. Drawer guides for the uppper drawer are nailed to the vertical blocks on the legs. A strip of wood spans the interior back of the case and is tenoned into the back vertical blocks for the legs; the backs of the drawer supports rest on this strip. The brasses are replaced. DRAWERS. The medial drawer supports for the lower drawers are rabetted to the skirt. Half-blind dovetails fasten the drawer fronts to the drawer sides with half keys at the top and bottom; the kerf marks are long and coarse. The drawer bottoms are nailed to a rabbet in the drawer front and to the undersides of the sides and backs. The top edges of the drawer sides are rounded with slight chamfers and are slightly lower than the drawer fronts; the top edges of the drawer backs are flat. Examined by P. E. Kane, Mia Taradash, John Stuart Gordon, and Diane Wright, January 14, 2008.
	Bibliography Christie's, New York, Highly Important American Furniture, Silver, Paintings, Prints, Folk Art, and Decorative Arts, sale cat. (January 16, 1998), 156–57, lot 425, ill. Christie's, New York, Property from the Collection of George and Lesley Schoedinger, sale cat. (January 18, 2008), 26–27, lot 489, ill. David H. Conradsen, Useful Beauty: Early American Decorative Arts from St. Louis Collections, exh. cat. (Saint Louis: Saint Louis Art Museum, 1999), 64–65, no. 25, ill. Northeast Auctions, Hampton, N.H., New Hampshire Auction, sale cat. (March 20–21, 1993), 26, lot 537.