Images(3)

Clothespress

Date1750-1760

Attributed to Robert Walker

OriginAmerica, Virginia, King George County

MediumMahogany and yellow pine.

DimensionsOH: 78 3/4"; OW: 48"; OD 21 3/16".

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1951-205

DescriptionAppearance:
Large two door press. Compound molded cornice with applied fret in key design. Two paneled doors, each in two sections, the upper panel has indented corners. Beaded molding on right door for overlap, pierced brass keyhole escutcheons on both doors. Doors are hinged at three points each, right door has top and bottom sliding bolts inside. Four stationary shelves inside, made of yellow pine faced with mahogany. Clothespress has base molding and four ogee bracket feet. Backboard is made up of horizontally laid boards.

Construction:
Single board mahogany sides are dovetailed to the single-board top and two-board bottom, both are of yellow pine faced with 2½” mahogany that is rabbeted to receive the doors. The back consists of five horizontal yellow pine boards nailed into rabbets in the sides, to the edge of the top and bottom and to the back edge of the shelves with small cut nails. The joint of the second board from the top is lapped with a bead on the bottom edge and nailed.

The top molded element of the compound cornice, and the separate “wall of Troy” fretwork molding below it, are glued to a block, the lower half of which is coved. The molding is mitered at the front corners. The block is nailed to a series of 2”x 2 ½”x6-9” blocks (mitered at the front corners) spaced ½” apart, that are in turn glued and in some cases nailed to the top.

The four stationary shelves are of yellow pine faced with mahogany astragal molding and set in dados in the sides from the back.

The mitered bottom molding is glued to a series or rectangular support blocks that are in turn glued to the underside of the bottom. All but two of these blocks are original and the composite support blocks for the feet (replaced) and their flanker blocks (mostly replaced) are glued to the underside of them.

The double-ply (mahogany laminated to yellow pine) ogee bracket feet are glued to the composite feet and their flanker blocks and nailed and glued to the underside of the bottom molding. The miter joints of the front bracket feet are nailed. The bottom 1½-2” of the mahogany portion of all of the bracket feet has been replaced. The rear facing bracket feet are nailed to the composite feet and the support blocks.
The rails of the two-panel doors are tenoned into the stiles. The conforming quarter-round molding that surrounds and secures the raised panels is integral on the front of the doors with the exception of the indented corners where it is cut on two mitered pieces and glued. Mitered quarter round molding on the back of the doors is nailed to the stiles and rails. Original hinges are inset in the doors and stiles (three per door). Sliding locks are surface mounted at the top and bottom of the center stile of the proper right door, with corresponding relieved areas in the top and bottom. The hinge screws, door locks and escutcheons are replacements.

Note: It has been suggested that some evidence of wear on the sides and shelves might indicate the possibility of now missing trays. This possibility seems unlikely as the wear is more random than would be with the consistent use of trays.
InscribedNone
MarkingsNone.
ProvenancePurchased from Mrs. Kirby and once owned by Miss Anne Galt of Williamsburg.