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Photo: Courtesy Stanley Weiss Collection, Providence, R.I.
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Chest of drawers

Object number

RIF5842

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

32 3/4 × 36 1/2 × 20 1/2 in. (83.2 × 92.7 × 52.1 cm)

Date

1780–1800

Current location

Stanley Weiss Collection

Geography

Made in Rhode Island, Possibly made in Providence, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany (primary); yellow poplar (back boards); pine (drawer sides and backs, glue blocks on feet, rear feet brackets, and bottom board); chestnut (drawer bottoms)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

Possibly "J. S. B,," in graphite, on the interior and exterior of back boards; "1," within loop, in graphite, on interior of back board of top drawer; "2 X," in graphite, on interior of back board, second drawer; "X 3," in graphite, on interior of back board of third drawer; "4 X," in graphite, on interior of back board of bottom drawer

Provenance

The Stanley Weiss Collection, Providence, Rhode Island, 2010

Construction

The oblong, single-board top has a serpentine front, molded front and side edges, and a square rear edge, which overhangs slightly. Beneath the top is a one-piece beaded cove molding. The cock-beaded top rail, bottom rail, and drawer dividers are joined to the single-board case sides with half-blind dovetail joints. The solid, serpentine, graduated drawer fronts meet their flat-topped, full-height drawer sides in dovetail joints, having finely cut, narrow-necked pins, with half-pins above and below. The multiple-board drawer bottoms are perpendicular to the fronts. The back consists of two horizontal boards nailed with brads to a batten under the top, and into rabbets in the side and bottom boards. The single-board case bottom is dovetailed to the case sides and flush with the bottom of the base molding. The front feet consist of carved vertical blocks attached directly to the case bottom and flanked by carved horizontal blocks, the whole faced by mitered ogee bracket faces. The rear feet are constructed in a similar manner, but for the back faces, which are simple serpentine, square edge brackets set into grooves in the back of the side-facing brackets. Multiple screws reinforce foot brackets and glue blocks. Notes compiled by T. B. Lloyd from photographs supplied by the Stanley Weiss Collection.

Bibliography

"Reserve Inventory," http://www.tildenthurber.com/stanleyweiss/pages/items10/sw01014r.html (accessed August 27, 2010), sw01014.
Stanley Weiss and Brock Jobe, Fine American Antiques in the Stanley Weiss Collection (Providence, R.I.: Stanley Weiss Collection, 2019), 14, sw01014, ill.