Images(3)

Chest of Drawers

Date1810-1820

OriginAmerica, Kentucky, Hancock County

MediumCherry, mahogany, holly (by eye), basswood

DimensionsOH: 40 1/2"; OW: 41 1/2";OD: 19 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2016-134

DescriptionAppearance: Chest of drawers with top overhanging on front and sides; edge of top inlaid with two lightwood strings; four graduated drawers; each drawer has a scratch bead around the perimeter of the drawer front and a lightwood string outlining the drawer front as well as two brass oval drawer pulls and a small oval brass escutcheon; lightwood vine with petals at base only and one leaf at the top inlaid into the front edges of the case sides; triple dash and dot lightwood inlaid into walnut around base of front and sides; slightly flaring bracket feet.

Construction: Front, medial and back top rails are half-blind dovetailed into the upper edge of the case sides. The rails are screwed from the underside to the top. The bottom is half-blind dovetailed to the case sides.

Drawer blades are set in dados in the case sides; drawer supports rest in dados in the case sides and are tenoned into the backs of the drawer blades.

The front edges of the sides are covered with cherry strips inlaid with a holly vine.

The back is comprised of two horizontal basswood tongue and groove joined boards nailed into rabbets in the case sides. The lower board rests on a lath strip (not original) that is nailed with modern nails to the back edge of the bottom.

Mahogany boards (2”x ¾”) are nailed to the underside of the bottom around the front, sides, and back (8” returns in the back). The front and side edges of these boards are inlaid with a lightwood (probably holly) dot & dash pattern. The cross-grained cherry foot brackets are each supported by one vertical glue block, which extends from the underside of the frame to the floor (flush with the bottom of the bracket feet), and 2 horizontal glue blocks.
The foot brackets are each nailed with one nail to the underside of the mahogany boards as are the triangular rear facing feet. The front feet are miter joined, the rear feet are butt joined.

The drawers are of dovetail construction with bottoms chamfered to fit into dados in the front and sides. (Due to excessive wear, runners have been added to the under edges of the sides where needed.) Drawer fronts are scratch beaded around edges. Drawer sides and bottoms are basswood. Vertical blocks are glued to the case sides in the back corners as drawer stops.
Label TextThis chest of drawers descended in the Adams, Duncan, and Sterrett families of Hawesville, (now Hancock County) Kentucky. The dot and dash inlay found around the base of the chest was used by a handful of cabinetshops in central Kentucky including Frankfort where David Adams was born. (It was also a motif known in Baltimore, Maryland work.) This chest does not appear to be from any of these known groups, but it could represent the work of a craftsman knowledgeable about the work of these central Kentucky shops who moved north and west to the area of Hawesville (formerly Breckinridge, now Hancock, County), where the Sterrett family and later Adams family settled. While its exact Kentucky origins are unknown, this chest with its dot and dash and vine inlays represents an elegant piece of furniture produced in a burgeoning frontier region during the early National period.
ProvenanceProbable line of descent: John (1779-1831) and Sarah DeHaven Sterrett (1781-1843) or John (1769-1825) and Nancy Agnes Culbertson Adams (1778-1843) to children David (1800-1894) and Eliza Sterrett Adams (1813-1895) to daughter (Margaret) Rebecca Adams Duncan (1849-1920) to daughter Mary Jane (Maime) Duncan Allen (1873-1952) to daughter Margaret Rebekah Allen Brown (1907-1999) to Rebekah Allen Brown Maloney to daughter Margaret Duncan Brown Maloney who consigned it to Jeffrey Evans Auction in 2016.