Hanger press

Date1765-1780

MediumBlack walnut and yellow pine.

DimensionsOH: 83"; OW: 51 1/2"; OD: 20 1/4".

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1968-750

DescriptionAppearance: Upper portion with central six-panel door flanked by fluted pilasters and additional banks of panels; paneled sides; coved cornice; door conceals open central compartment with brass L-hooks and small brass knobs (some missing) of 18th-century date. Lower portion with three drawers over two drawers, each with projecting thumbnail molding; original pulls were oval rosettes with bails; paneled sides; tall straight bracket feet with deep pendant lobes.

Construction: The press is a single unit. Its upper portion consists of front and side assemblies and a door, each formed from a series of raised panels set within the grooved edges of pinned mortised-and-tenoned frames. The side assemblies are set into rabbets in the front assembly and are secured with nails driven from the front. Two butt-joined boards are nailed to the top of the case at the front and sides. Each of the four shelves inside the upper portion is set between four ledger strips, two above each shelf and two below, that are nailed to the front and back of the press. Wooden door stops are nailed inside the cupboard at the top and bottom of the opening. The corner stiles of the upper portion extend down through the lower portion to within six inches of the floor.

The lower portion of the case has side assemblies like those described above. The drawers are set within a mortised-and-tenoned framework of wide stiles and rails. The side assemblies are attached to the front as in the upper portion. Every drawer is provided with two supports and a central kicker, each tenoned into the backboards and half-lapped to the front. There is no bottom board in the lower portion. The corner stiles of the lower portion extend down to the floor, and the bracket feet are nailed directly to them.

The three-part cornice, waist molding, base molding, pilasters, and pilaster capitals and bases are all face-nailed to carcass. Horizontal half-lapped backboards are nailed into rabbets in the sides of the case. The top three drawers and the lower right drawer are dovetailed at the corners and have beveled bottoms that are set into grooves at the front and sides and flush-nailed at the rear. There is no evidence of glue blocks. The lower left drawer is flush-nailed at the corners with wrought T-head nails and sprigs. The bottom assembly matches that in the other drawers. Similar wear patterns and wood quality suggest that the nailed drawer is first-period work.

Materials: All front and side exterior components of are black walnut; all remaining components are of yellow pine.

Label TextThe interiors of most late colonial clothespresses were fitted with full-width shelves designed for storing folded garments, but some had long cupboard-like sections with hooks or pegs on which clothing could be hung. This form was in use in England by 1600, but was rare in the colonies except on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, where it was sometimes called a "hangar" press in the eighteenth century. In most Eastern Shore hanger presses, clothing was suspended from a wooden peg rail, although the example illustrated here substitutes a symmetrical arrangement of cast-brass L-hooks and knobs. Additional storage for folded textiles and small objects was available in the cavities to the right and left of the hanging section.

The CWF clothespress is similar to several others from the Eastern Shore in that its central door is flanked by a pair of fluted pilasters. On other examples, the cornice and waist molding break forward around the pilasters, showing an awareness of accepted architectural correctness. While the maker of the CWF press followed that practice at the waist molding, he chose to cap off the pilasters with idiosyncratic half-round "capitals" for which no prototypes are known. More typical of Eastern Shore work was the addition of extra flutes to the corners of each pilaster, a detail rarely encountered elsewhere. Similarities aside, this clothespress differs from most of its Eastern Shore counterparts through its execution in black walnut instead of painted yellow pine. More costly walnut was seldom used for the large joined case furniture made on the Eastern Shore, and its presence here must have resulted in a substantial difference in price for the original owner.

Like most eighteenth-century furniture from the rural and somewhat isolated Eastern Shore peninsula, this clothespress was the product of a finish carpenter rather than a cabinetmaker. Despite its rectilinear form and substantial size, the carcass is not dovetailed. Instead, the paneled front section is nailed to the front edges of the sides, much in the way that a coffin or a packing case might be assembled. The only dovetails present in the case are those in four of the five drawers, which were built in the standard way. However, the large drawer at the lower left corner, although original to the press and made of the same stock as the other drawers, is nailed together like a box, clearly revealing that the talented and creative maker of this press was first and foremost a carpenter.

InscribedNone.
MarkingsNumerous illegible marks and simple drawings, including faces, have been made on the sides of the drawers with a nail or other metal implement.
ProvenanceBy tradition, the press belonged to John Upshur of Northampton Co., Va., in the mid-nineteenth century. It descended to his grandson, Judge Henry L. Upshur (d. ca. 1927) of Elkington, near Eastville in the same county. The press was purchased at the sale of Elkington's contents in 1927 by collector Dr. James Doughty of Onancock in adjacent Accomack Co. Antiques dealer Frank Dickinson of Hampton, Va., purchased the press at Doughty's estate sale in 1968 and sold it to CWF later the same year.