Chest of drawers with secretary

Date1797-1800

Artist/Maker Joseph Neall

Artist/Maker Jonathan Ozment

Artist/Maker James Wrightson

OriginAmerica, Maryland, Easton

MediumBlack walnut, yellow pine (by microanalysis), white cedar, and tulip poplar.

DimensionsOH. 38 1/2; OW. 40; OD. 22

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1995-114

DescriptionAppearance: chest of four drawers (secretary drawer above three graduated drawers) with cockbeaded edges; secretary drawer interior composed of a row of ten pigeon holes with scalloped valances over a row of five drawers; top with molded front and side edges; ogee bracket feet; bail and rosette brasses.

Construction: The top and bottom boards are dovetailed to the case sides, and the top molding is nailed directly to the front and side edges of the top board. The blade above the secretary drawer is tenoned into the case sides. All remaining drawer blades are dovetailed into the carcass, and the joints are concealed by facing strips glued and nailed to the front edges of the case sides. The dustboards extend to the full depth of the case. They are thinner than the drawer blades, are beveled on the front and side edges, and are set into thin dadoes in the case sides and drawer blades. Stop blocks for the drawers are wrought-nailed to the drawer blades. The kickers for the secretary drawer are nailed to the underside of the top board. Three horizontal tongue-and-groove backboards are nailed into rabbets at the top and sides and flush-nailed at the bottom. The base molding is run on two and one-half-inch-wide strips that are glued and nailed to the case bottom. The mitered bracket foot assemblies are glued to the underside of the base molding strips. Each is backed by a large, quarter-round, vertically grained block and two pairs of small close-set flanking blocks. Originally, thin wooden plates were glued and nailed to the bottom of each foot.

The large drawers have dovetailed frames. The riven front-to-back bottom boards have bevels on their front and side edges that are set into grooves and reinforced with multiple short glue blocks set about one inch apart. Each bottom board is flush-nailed at the rear. Cock beading is glued and nailed into the rabbeted edges of the drawer fronts. The secretary drawer is dovetailed at the rear corners, and its top board is dovetailed to the drawer sides and nailed to the drawer back. A two-board bottom panel is set into rabbets at the sides only and is reinforced with close-set glue blocks. The secretary's internal drawer dividers and partitions are dadoed into the top, side, and bottom boards. Two wooden spring locks are wrought-nailed to the bottom board to act as stops for the secretary drawer. The fall front is hung on two brass quadrant hinges and two brass table hinges. The small drawers within the secretary have dovetailed frames. The bottom panels are grained front to back, beveled on the front and sides, and set into grooves. The rear edges of these panels are flush-nailed.

Materials: Black walnut case top, case sides, drawer blades, drawer stop blocks, facing strips on case sides, top molding, base molding, secretary fall board and beading, front half of secretary drawer bottom, secretary drawer sides, small drawer fronts, pigeonhole dividers, pigeonhole valances, large drawer fronts and beading, and exposed parts of bracket foot assemblies; *yellow pine backboards, secretary drawer kickers, dustboards, case bottom, foot blocking, rear half of secretary drawer bottom, large drawer sides, large drawer backs, large drawer glue blocks, and top glue blocks; white cedar large drawer bottoms; tulip poplar small drawer sides, small drawer backs, and small drawer bottoms.

Label TextThis stylistically restrained chest of drawers with secretary is replete with structural details typical of cabinet work from Philadelphia and the Delaware River valley. Like the majority of eighteenth-century chests from that area, the CWF example has drawer bottoms made of riven white cedar planks installed with the grain running front to back. Dustboards within the case are thinner than the adjacent drawer blades, and dovetails used in the joinery of both the carcass and the drawer frames exhibit unusually long saw kerfs. Even the ogee bracket feet are strongly reminiscent of those made in Philadelphia, where the use of thin wooden bottom plates and large, quarter-round, vertically grained glue blocks was standard. Only the multiple inscriptions left by the chest's makers reveal that it was actually produced in Easton, a small town in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Relatively little Easton-made furniture has been identified, but it comes as no surprise that Philadelphia cabinetmaking traditions were present on Maryland's Eastern Shore. With the Chesapeake Bay immediately to the west and Delaware Bay less than fifty miles east, largely rural Talbot County and neighboring areas of Maryland enjoyed easy access to Philadelphia by both land and water. In addition to trade connections, the region's cultural ties to the Quaker City were further bolstered by the existence of a well-established community of Quakers, or Friends, which had been a prominent force on Maryland's Eastern Shore since the mid-seventeenth century.

Joseph Neall (1756-1800), master of the shop in which this chest was made and whose signature appears under the secretary drawer, was a member of a Quaker family long resident in Talbot County. Although it is not known under whom he trained, Neall may have apprenticed with a Philadelphia cabinetmaker as did several other Quaker furniture makers from eastern Maryland. However he acquired his Philadelphia-style cabinetmaking skills, Neall passed them on to his apprentices, at least two of whom also worked on this chest. James Wrightson (b. 1777), apprenticed to Neall in 1795, inscribed his name in three places on the chest, while Jonathan Ozment (b. 1782), whose indenture was signed in 1797, added his name just below Neall's. Although the chest is not dated and no bill of sale is known to survive, the beginning of Ozment's training in 1797 and the December 1800 death of master Neall neatly define the period within which the chest was made.

The production of this chest occurred during a period when Easton was experiencing rapid growth in commerce and population. Long known as Talbot Court House, the landlocked village was little more than a county seat until the last years of the eighteenth century. Change began in 1788 when the town was renamed Easton and designated the official satellite capital for the eastern portion of the new state. A modern street plan was devised and laid off, and by 1793 resident Jeremiah Banning asserted that Easton was no longer a "trivial place." The new Easton, he insisted, was graced with "spacious and elegant buildings, and with at least twenty stores, together with their bakers, butchers, market house, and tradesmen's shops of almost every description." Among the latter were a number of cabinetmakers, including Neall's brother James (w. 1775-1841), Quaker Tristram Needles (w. 1787-1798), and Henry Bowdle (w. ca. 1794-1799). After gaining his freedom, apprentice Ozment also remained active in the Easton cabinet trade until at least 1818, while Wrightson married his former master's sister in 1804 and was still there in 1820. That so many of these artisans were able to continue in business for long periods suggests that Easton's economy offered a stable environment in which artisans could prosper. By contrast, national economic uncertainties and growing competition from northern exports meant that many contemporary cabinetmakers in the South's larger seaports were unable to maintain their operations for more than a few years. The cabinetmaking community in Easton had apparently found its market.

Inscribed"Joseph Neall / Jonathan Ozment Easton Maryland" is written in ink on the bottom of the secretary drawer. "James Wrightson" is scratched into the bottom of the second drawer, and "James W" is written in red crayon on the blade beneath that drawer. "James Wrightson / Maker" and another illegible word or words are scratched into the bottom of the bottom drawer." Top" is written in red crayon on the underside of the top board; "bottom" appears in red crayon on the top of the bottom board. Various assembly marks appear in red crayon on several parts of the case interior.
MarkingsNone.
ProvenanceThe chest was purchased in 1995 from Richard Miller of Warrington, Pa., who had recently acquired it from the Philip H. Bradley Co. of Downingtown, Pa. No prior history is known.