image of object
Photo: Courtesy Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 79.023
Click the image to enlarge

Box

Object number

RIF2435

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

2 × 10 × 4 in. (5.08 × 25.4 × 10.16 cm)

Date

1835–45

Current location

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Geography

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

Medium

Pine

Marks

None

Inscriptions

"Frederick Denison," inscribed, on underside of lid; "Indian / Translation / Judson," painted, on front

Style

Empire

Provenance

First Baptist Church (founded 1835), Westerly, Rhode Island; Reverend Frederic Denison (1819–1901), Westerly. Westerly Public Library; sold to Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, 1979

Associated names

First Baptist Church, Westerly, Rhode Island
Reverend Frederic Denison
Westerly Public Library and Wilcox Park

Notes

Frederick Denison was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Westerly and Adoniram Judson was a Baptist missionary who worked in Burma. The box is painted to resemble mahogany with yellow freehand decoration.

Bibliography

Christopher P. Monkhouse, "American Furniture Recently Acquired by the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design," Antiques 118, no. 1 (July 1980): 130, pl. IV, ill.
Nina Fletcher Little, Neat and Tidy: Boxes and Their Contents Used in Early American Households (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1980), 188-191, ill.
Christopher P. Monkhouse and Thomas S. Michie, American Furniture in Pendleton House (Providence: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1986), 73, no. 19, ill.