Images(5)

Auction catalog image. Not for publication

Blanket Chest

Date1844

Maker Thomas L. C. Hailey

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Chatham County

MediumYellow pine, tulip poplar, iron, and paint

DimensionsOH: 20 3/4"; OW: 38"; OD: 16 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Sara and Fred Hoyt Furniture Fund

Object number2011.2000.1

DescriptionRectangular chest with hinged lid with molded edge; integral base molding and straight bracket feet and front scalloped skirt; interior has till on proper left side (no lid); front, sides, and top of chest painted with a dark (green?) ground, front painted with a central urn of flowers, the initials "M.J.P" and trailing vines up the feet and corners.
Label TextChests were the most common furniture form for the storage of textiles, clothing, and personal objects from the 17th through the mid 19th century. While some chests were quite plain and utilitarian, others like this example were highly decorated and personalized. The initials of the original owner, Mary Jane Pearson of Orange County, North Carolina, were painted on the front of this chest along with an elegant urn of flowers and trailing vines. Mary Jane would have been twenty-four years old when the chest was made in 1844. It descended in her family until 2011.

The painted motifs link this piece to a group of chests attributed to an unknown decorator in Chatham County, North Carolina (near Raleigh). Variations in the construction of these chests indicate that while one hand painted them, multiple joiners constructed them. Thomas Hailey, probably the maker but not the decorator of Mary Jane Pearson’s chest, signed his name twice on the backboard. Census records reveal that a farmer by that name lived in nearby Wake County in 1840. Many rural furniture makers were also farmers and produced furniture in the agricultural off-season.

Originally this chest would have been much brighter and blue. The black-looking background paint is actually a dark blue that has been obscured by an oil varnish that has darkened over time.
Inscribed"Thomas L.C. Hailey 1844/1844" inscribed in pencil on backboards along with "T" and "Haley" (sp?). Initials "M. J. P." painted on front board.
ProvenanceMary Jane Pearson (b. 1820), daughter of William Pearson (1789-1862) and Nancy Trice Pearson (b. 1798) of Orange County, NC, married Malbourne Addison Angier (b. 1820) on Feb. 10, 1853, in Orange County (now Durham), NC. Malbourne Angier was one of Durham's first merchants, owning a store there by 1850. By 1880 his was one of the most successful stores in the city. Malbourne and Mary Jane Pearson Angier lived in the Hayti section of Durham and had four children: William Jackson Angier, Sarah Pearson Angier Duke (wife of Benjamin Newton Duke and namesake of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens), Jonathan Cicero Angier, and Mary Gilmore Angier Stokes. Marlbourne and Mary Jane Pearson Angier had portraits painted by Norval H. Busey during the second half of the 19th century (see lot 205 in Leland Little auction, June 18, 2011.) The blanket chest descended from Mary Jane Pearson Angier to her daughter Mary Gilmore Angier Stokes (1861-1939) wife of Alvis Hatchett Stokes (1844-1899) of Durham, NC; to her daughter Lucie Stokes O'Brien (1892-1963) wife of Thomas J. O'Brien Sr. (b. 1895) of Raleigh, NC; to her daughter Lucie Stokes O'Brien Milner (1921-2009) wife of John Milner (1922-2008) of Raleigh, NC.