Images(4)

Blanket chest

Date1800-1805

Artist/Maker Johannes Spitler

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Shenandoah County

MediumYellow pine, chestnut, brass, iron, and paint

DimensionsOH: 27 1/2"; OW: 48 1/2"; OD: 21 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1990.2000.1

DescriptionChest with 2-Drawers & painted decoration. The case is joined with dovetails secured with pegs at the top and the bottom board is pegged underside of the sides, front and back; the base molding is pegged to the front and sides. A till having a hinged lid that pivots on tenons which are extensions of the back edge of the lid and are set into holes in the front and the back boards of the chest and is mounted on the left side of the interior. The one-piece lid has beveled moldings attached with pegs that are square in section and are driven into round holes. The lid is attached to the back board with two wrought iron hinges having inverted triangle terminals and screws. The bracket base with cavetto base molding and feet are cut from a single board. The back feet are irregular in shape.

The drawer openings were cut out of the board that forms the front of the case, leaving the drawer divider and the two narrow sections flanking the drawers. The bottom of the drawer divider is secured with a peg to a medial brace that extends to the backboard. This joint combined with shrinkage across the front board caused the divider split at the top from the chest front (now supported with a modern glue block). Side drawer guides are set against the sides of the case. The proper right guide appears to be glued; the proper left guide has no method of attachment and is loose. The center drawer guide is pegged to the backboard as well as the drawer divider.

The sides of the drawer are half blind-dovetailed at the front and dovetailed at the rear. The grain on the 2-board bottom runs from front to back and the butt-joined boards are pegged to the sides, front, and back of the drawer. Front pegs do not extend through the drawer front.

The chest has a red-brown undercoat. Most of the painted decoration on the lid is lost, there is a loss to the upper left corner of the right drawer front, the front half of the lid of the till is missing, the original grab lock and pintle are missing, and three original bail handles and four original backplates are missing. In 1991, missing brasses were replaced and a later brass escutcheon was removed.

Label TextFurniture painter Johannes Spitler worked in the Shenandoah Valley’s Massanutten area during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, where isolation facilitated the preservation of distinctive northern European cultural traditions. Using colors that were originally brilliant and saturated, he painted chests, clock cases, and other furniture forms made by local joiners with symbol-laden ornament that clearly reflected his Swiss- and German-American heritage. The stylized birds, hearts, vines, crescent moons, and compass-drawn flowers seen here signify a range of themes, including abundance, faith, love, fecundity, and spiritual growth. For instance, the flowers and vines bespeak the cycles of nature important to an agrarian society as well as the flowering and growth of the human spirit.
InscribedNo
MarkingsNo
ProvenancePossibly Mary Rosenberger Spitler (b. 1786), wife of Abraham Spitler, Jr. (1788-1865), Page County, Va.; probably to son, Col. Mann Spitler (1825-1889), Page County, Va.; to his daughter, Alice Bell Spitler Shenk (b. 1867), Lynchburg, Va.; to her daughter, Ellen Shenk Clark (1904-1990), Roanoke, Va.; to her son, Richard Clark, Roanoke, Va.; J. Roderick Moore, Ferrum, Va.

Exhibition(s)