Images(3)

Dresser

Date1810-1830

Attributed to Jacob Sanders Shop

Attributed to Jacob Sanders (ca. 1765-ca. 1817)

Attributed to Jacob L. Sanders (1799-1864)

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Montgomery County

MediumYellow pine

DimensionsOH:85"; OW:50"; OD:20 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1936-34

DescriptionAppearance: flat, rectangular top with broad curve molding; straight rectangular sides which extend forward below open section to accommodate closed cupboard; applied band of pierced lunettes with sawtooth lower edge across front and along sides below molding; open top section with three shelves with molded front edge; front of top section faced with scrolled frame with incised line running around inside edge; rectangular top of closed cupboard section extends beyond open cupboard with dovetailed sides at front; molded frame surrounds lower section at side and font; openings have molded edges; small straight band of molding below drawer; pair of large, rectangular doors each with central fielded panel and knob pulls; molded supported on four curved bracket feet; front and side aprons dip down at center; covered with original red stain and blue and white paint.

Construction: The case has one-piece sides that extend to the floor and help support the weight of the dresser. The top board is open dovetailed to the sides. The cornice is flush-nailed in place, as is the decorative fretwork on the frieze. Four vertical backboards that extend to the floor to form rear feet are half-lapped and flush-nailed to the rear edges of the case sides. The bottom board is flush-mounted inside of the case and secured with nails driven through the sides and backboards. The bottom board is also nailed at either end onto a full-depth block flush-mounted and probably nailed to the interior bottom surfaces of the case sides. Nailed to the outside of the case are integral feet and base moldings that are mitered at the front corners.

The stiles, rails, and drawer blades that front the lower part of the dresser are mortised and tenoned together. The blade is ship-lapped behind the central stile. Double pins secure each corner, and the stile is tenoned into a block that runs the full width of the case behind the front foot board. The joined facade is flush-nailed to the front of the case. Decorative moldings are flush-nailed to the facade. Inside of the lower section, behind the traditionally joined paneled doors, the shelf is flush-mounted and secured with nails driven through the backboards, case sides, and front stiles. The dustboard below the drawers is similarly attached. The front part of the top board on the lower section is dovetailed to the case sides, and the pins are secured with bisecting wedges. The rear half of this board is flush-mounted and nailed through the case sides and backboards. Like the joined facade on the lower part of the dresser, the upper stiles and rails are flush-nailed in place. The stiles are dadoed into the top board on the lower section and nailed to the shelves, which are flush-nailed inside of the upper section. The alternating plate rails were originally tenoned into the side boards and nailed to the central stile. All of the metal fasteners in the piece appear to be cut nails.

The drawer sides are nailed into the rabbeted drawer fronts, while the backs are nailed into dadoes on the drawer sides. The bottom boards are flush-nailed as well.

Materials: All components of yellow pine.

Label TextJacob Sanders and his namesake son produced a variety fo case furniture, most in colorfully painted pine. Here they stained the case red and picked out decorative elements in red, white, and blue paint. Darkened after two centuries, the colors were brilliant when new.

First owned by George and Elizabeth Simmons Allen of Troy, North Carolina, the dressers ornate upper section highlights its display function. Filled with the Allens' best table wares, it was a statement about their taste and means.

The younger Sanders met a tragic end in 1864 while visiting Elizabeth Allen's brother, Pleasant Simmons. A band of anti-Confederate sympathizers broke into Simmon's smokeouse, and while trying to protect his property, both Simmons and Sanders were murdered by the band.
Inscribed"George M. Allen" is written in pencil on the left shelf support in the lower section.
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceGeorge M. Allen, whose name is written inside the dresser's lower compartment, was the brother-in-law of Pleasant Simmons (ca. 1789-1864), a resident of northern Montgomery County. (Allen married Simmons' sister, Elizabeth Simmons, in 1813.) According to a letter printed in the February 27, 1864, issue of The Daily Conferderate (Raleigh, NC) , Jacob L. Sanders and Pleasant Simmons were murdered in Simmons' farmyard by deserters from the Confederate army on February 17 of that year. A February 28 letter from Simmons' son, Archibald, to Simmons' widow, Christian Leach Simmons, confirms the event. (Copies of the account from the newspaper and the letter are in the object file.)

CWF acquired the dresser in 1936 from Mrs. Bessie Brockwell of Petersburg, Va., a prominent dealer in southern decorative arts.

Exhibition(s)