Blanket chest

DateApril 2, 1793 (dated)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Shenandoah County

MediumBlack walnut, yellow pine, and sulfur inlay.

DimensionsOH: 22 3/4"; OW: 49 3/4"; OD: 21 1/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1994-51

DescriptionAppearance: Six-board chest with interior till; ogee molded top; exposed carcass dovetails; dovetailed straight bracket feet with C-shaped insteps; sulfur inlaid front panel.

Construction: The two-board butt-joined lid is edged with mitered moldings that are pinned in place. The lid is held to the case with riveted iron strap hinges. In the traditional manner, the lid on the till has wooden pintles set into holes on the front and rear case panels. The side and bottom boards of the till are set in dadoes on the front and rear case panels as well. The front, back, and side panels of the chest are open-dovetailed together; some of the dovetail pins are wedged. The two-board case bottom is butt-joined at the center, and the resulting assembly is flush-joined to the lower edge of the case back with wooden pins. The case bottom also is pinned into rabbets along the front and sides. The rabbets were created by the application of the integral foot and base molding boards, which are also pinned in position. The front feet are dovetailed. Some pins have medial wedges. The rear feet are butt-joined and pinned together with a small lower lap joint pinned from below.

Materials: Black walnut lid, front, sides, back, applied moldings, exposed parts of feet, and joint pins; yellow pine bottom boards, rear faces of rear bracket feet, and till.
Label TextThe design and construction of the chest underwent marked alterations after about 1725. The rudimentary flush-nailed carcasses and wooden pintle hinges on earlier chests were generally supplanted by more technically sophisticated dovetailed cases and forged iron hinges. Later chests were also fitted with applied feet and base moldings akin to those on this western Virginia example.

Regional patterns of chest ownership also evolved during this period. By the 1750s, gentry householders in the coastal South had largely relegated the chest to lesser bedchambers and second floor passages. In its place, they increasingly used newer and more specialized storage forms like the chest of drawers and the clothespress. In contrast, western Virginians, particularly those of German and Swiss descent, continued to use chests in the parlor, the principal bedchamber, and other, more formal, parts of their houses. This backcountry practice, which continued well into the nineteenth century, was paralleled in rural Pennsylvania, the area from which many western Virginia settlers had emigrated.

The continuing importance of chests in the backcountry South is revealed by the inscriptions and the ornamentation with which they were often endowed. The front of the present chest features sulfur inlays with the words "John Siron / Mad[e] April 2 / 1793." Likely a reference to the owner rather than the maker, the inscription is flanked by a pair of lily- or tulip-like flowers, a common German decorative motif and religious metaphor.

Siron apparently belonged to the Dunkards, later known as the Church of the Brethren, one of several sectarian communities whose members left Germany in the face of rising religious and political persecution during the first half of the eighteenth century. Many Dunkards settled in eastern and central Pennsylvania. One of the largest Dunkard communities was established at Ephrata Cloister near Lancaster. A rift in the Ephrata congregation in the 1740s led some Pennsylvania Dunkards to found a community on the New River in southwestern Virginia. From this center several satellite communities were created, including one led by Samuel Eckerlin at Sandy Hook in present-day Shenandoah County.

Shortly after the establishment of Sandy Hook, Eckerlin requested that Simon Siron, an Ephrata potter, join the group to establish a potting enterprise. Siron responded in 1761 by sending one of his sons together with a potting wheel and the tools necessary to fabricate a kiln. The John Siron who first owned the CWF chest was a member of that family, likely a descendant of the potter. By 1792, he lived in Pendleton (now Highland) County, Virginia, at Siron's Mill, about seventy miles southwest of Sandy Hook. Census records confirm that a John Siron resided in Pendleton County as late as 1830.

It is unclear whether Siron's chest was made in the Sandy Hook area or near his rural residence in Pendleton County. In either case, design and construction details indicate that the maker was versed in a wide range of woodworking techniques, a common trait for German-American artisans in the backcountry. Georg Heinrich Sangmeister (1723-1784), a Dunkard who trained as a joiner in Germany, was called on to build everything from fine furniture to log houses upon his arrival in Sandy Hook. Siron's chest is intimately linked to German-American woodworking traditions through its exposed construction, which is in sharp contrast to the hidden joinery often found on eastern Virginia pieces. Attaching the hinges to the lid with conspicuous top-mounted rivets is one example of this approach. The dovetails used to construct the case and the bracket feet are fully exposed and many are wedged in place. In a similar fashion, the numerous wooden pins that secure the lid and base moldings have produced an undulating dot pattern across the top and bottom of the case. Frequently seen in western Virginia furniture, these details reflect the deeply rooted pride of workmanship expressed by many German-American artisans.

Inscribed"JOHN SI RON / MAD APRIL 2 / 17 93" is inlaid in composition on the front of the chest.
MarkingsNone.
ProvenanceThe chest was purchased by CWF in 1994 at the estate sale of a Cumberland Co., Va., collector.