Images(3)

Chest of drawers

Date1768-1774

Artist/Maker Philip Bell

OriginEngland, London

MediumMahogany, oak, deal, brass, and iron

DimensionsOH: 38"; OL: 36" OD: 20"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1973-323

DescriptionAppearance: Chest of drawers with top with molded edge, two small drawers above two slightly graduated larger drawers, rounded base molding above shaped straight bracket feet. Drawers cockbeaded and have bail and rosette brass drawer pulls and inset brass escutcheons. Paper label of Philip Bell glued into bottom of proper left top drawer.

Construction: Mahogany sides dovetailed to top and bottom boards; deal top veneered in mahogany; mahogany molding glued and possibly nailed to front and sides of top board; base molding glued and possibly nailed to bottom edge of sides and front of bottom board, backed by uneven segmented blocks glued to underside of bottom board around front and sides, and at ends of back; mahogany bracket feet supported by vertical glue blocks, triangular in cross section, and horizontal flanking blocks glued to underside of segmented blocks; mahogany veneered oak drawer blades in dados (or sliding dovetails) in case sides, backed by full depth deal dustboards of thinner stock in narrower dados, strips of wood under edges of dust board against case sides; drawer stops nailed to tops of drawer blades/dust boards; vertical divider dovetailed into top dustboard and lower edge of top (dovetail covered in veneer); drawer guide nailed behind vertical divider to top of dust board; vertical backboards nailed into rabbets in case sides and to rear edge of case bottom; top edges of backboards chamfered and in groove in underside of case top; drawers of standard dovetail construction; oak drawer fronts veneered in mahogany with mahogany cockbead glued in rabbets around fronts; front to back oriented drawer bottoms in rabbets in drawer sides and fronts with runners glued to bottom board around front and sides, bottom boards nailed in rabbet in front and to underside of drawer back; rear corners of drawer where sides and back joined slightly chamfered at corners; original brass bail and rosette drawer pulls; iron locks with inset brass escutcheons.

Woods: Mahogany and mahogany veneer with oak drawer sides and bottom, deal backboards and dust boards.
Label TextPhilip Bell was one of the few English cabinetmakers whose work can be documented as being imported into Virginia. Martha Custis patronized Bell prior to her marriage to George Washington and the Washingtons continued that tradition through the 1760s.
MarkingsLabel in the top left drawer:
"Philip Bell / Cabinet Maker and Upholder, / at the White Swam / Against the South Gate in / St. Paul's Church Yard / London, / N.B. Funerals / Perform'd./ MDarly- Invr & Sculp." Text within a rococo cartouch surmounted by a swan, flanked by coats of arms, with an upholstered armchair and firescreen to the proper right, and a pagoda-topped cabinet to the proper left.