Clothespress

Dateca. 1775

MediumBlack walnut, yellow pine, and tulip poplar

DimensionsOH: 76 1/2"; OW: 43 1/4"; OD: 22"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1991-107

DescriptionAppearance: Clothespress in two parts. Upper case with a molded and dentiled cornice above two recessed flat paneled doors, interior with dadoes in case sides for three shelves or clothing trays (two tulip poplar shelves currently installed). Lower case with an ogee mid-molding above two short drawers above two full width equal height drawers; drawers beaded on edges; quarter round base molding and shaped straight bracket feet; all drawers have inset brass keyhole escutcheon and one or two shaped back-plate and bail drawer pulls.

Construction: Upper case: top and bottom dovetailed to sides; yellow pine top rail notched around (and possibly nailed to) front edges of sides; cornice molding, formed of one molded board with a separately formed dentil strip, is nailed to faces of sides and front rail; interior of case has three sets of dadoes in the case sides possibly for clothing trays or shelves (current shelves are not original). The dadoes are equally spaced from each other but unequally spaced from the case bottom; rails of doors are tenoned through the stiles; door rails and stiles have molding on interior front edges around panel; floating panel slightly chamfered on back to fit into dadoes in inner edges of rails and stiles; proper left door has a scratch bead along outer front edge of center stile; both doors have inset brass keyhole escutcheons: the proper right is a blank escutcheon for symmetry; four butt joined vertical backboards are nailed into rabbets in the case sides and to the edges of the top and bottom boards; two pieces of lathe are situated under the case bottom along the sides.

Lower case: walnut top is half blind dovetailed to the sides with a mitered front edge that abuts a walnut strip with a corresponding miter that is nailed to the front faces of the sides; the yellow pine bottom board with a c. 1 1/2" facing of walnut along its front edge is dovetailed to the sides; almost full dustboards sit in dadoes in the case sides; 1 3/4" deep walnut drawer blades are either in dadoes or in sliding dovetails in the case sides; the vertical divider between the top two small drawers is formed of a walnut face backed by a half depth yellow pine drawer guide set into dadoes in the underside of the top board and the top of the drawer blade and dust board; two drawer stops per drawer are glued to the tops of the dust boards at the front; horizontal lapped or tongue and groove backboards are nailed into rabbets in the case sides and top and to the back edge of the bottom board; to the underside of the bottom board are attached boards along the front, sides, and rear at each end; the base molding is nailed to the edge of the bottom board and the boards below; the bracket feet are mitered (front feet only) and glued to support blocks consisting of one square block with a chamfered inner corner (chamfered on front feet only) flanked by two horizontal chamfered glue blocks and supported by one vertical block.

Drawers are of standard dovetail construction; bottom boards are glued into rabbets along the front and sides and nailed to the underside of the backboards; lathe strips forming runners are nailed to the underside of the bottom along the front and sides filling the height difference between the bottom board and the bottom edges of the front and sides.
ProvenancePer a memo to the object file from Sumpter Priddy (June 29, 1984), the "clothespress was purchased in Petersburg from the "Antique and oddity Shop," and had been obtained at auction from a Petersburg estate in 1982. Gordon Crumpler had originally owned the piece, and he purchased it, supposedly, in The Valley of Virginia some 30 years ago."