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Photo: Courtesy private collection
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Chest of drawers

Object number

RIF5620

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

41 3/4 × 42 × 23 1/4 in. (106.05 × 106.68 × 59.06 cm)

Date

1780–1800

Current location

Private Collection

Geography

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

Medium

Mahogany (primary); mahogany (blocks on front and back feet); pine (skirt, case back, case bottom, drawer bottoms, drawer dividers, glue blocks, and brackets of rear feet); chestnut (drawer sides and drawer backs)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

"2," in graphite, on underside of second drawer divider from top; "3," in graphite, on underside of third drawer divider from top; "PROPERTY OF / WILLIAM S. EATON / INV. NO. NOV., 1911" [within a border], printed in red on paper label, on inside surface of drawer side; "WILLIAM S. EATON," impressed on metal plaque, screwed to inside surface of skirt

Provenance

William S. Eaton, 1911. Private collection, 1986

Associated names

William S. Eaton

Construction

The single-board bowed-front top has an edge molded on the front and sides and square at the back, where the dovetail joint which joins it to the case sides is visible. The back consists of two boards nailed into rabbets in the case sides with brads. The case contains five bow-fronted, graduated drawers with cock-beaded molding. Their fronts join their drawer sides in dovetail joints, having finely cut pins with half-pins above and below. The drawer sides have square tops which are flush with the drawer fronts. The two-board drawer bottoms are chamfered at the sides, where they fit into grooves in the drawer sides and are reinforced by horizontal rectangular glue blocks. Runners are applied with brads, and the bottoms are nailed into the drawer backs with brads. The joint between the drawer bottoms and drawer fronts is reinforced by multiple small rectangular glue blocks. The two-board case bottom is joined to the case in part by multiple horizontal rectangular glueblocks behind the scalloped front skirt, and by large chamfered glue blocks behind the scalloped side skirts. The front French feet have conformingly shaped glue blocks. The rear French feet have conformingly shaped blocks butted to simple bracket feet at the rear, nailed with brads into the case bottom. Examined by P. E. Kane and W. S. Braznell, August 21, 2012; notes compiled by T. B. Lloyd.