Tea chest

Date1790-1805

MediumMahogany; yellow pine, lead foil, and blue paper.

DimensionsChest: OH: 6 1/2"; OL: 12 1/16"; OW: 6 3/16". Canisters: H(without covers): 4 7/16"; L: 5"; W: 3 7/16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2001-1,1

DescriptionTea chest of rectangular form, hinged, cove- molded lid with the lid interior lined with blue paper; interior of the bottom portion is divided into three compartments, each containing a removable wooden box lined in lead, with dovetailed sides, and with a wooden knob handle on top. The exterior of the chest is enriched with inlay, stringing and lightwood crossbanding. The coved top with an oval-inlaid patera in the center and along with bottom edges of the top as well as the cove-molded edges of the top, is a "barber pole" inlay design; the facade and each side cross-banded with a rectangular cross-banded border of lightwood veneer contrasting with the with the inner mahogany veneer; at each corner inside the rectangle is an inlaid quadrant; the central decoration of the facade is an oval-inlaid patera which matches the one on the top; the bottom edges of the base are inlaid with the elongated "dot and dash" inlay associated with Baltimore furniture of the Federal period.
ProvenanceThe tea chest is accompanied by papers that document the history of ownership in the Calvert family and Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Also see newspaper clipping regarding "family heirlooms from the home of Emma and the late R. G. Hunter, Verona, which descended from Mary Calvert (b. 1780)." in object file. Papers with chest assert that it descended from Mary Calvert through her son the Reverend Samuel Stephen Roszel and then to his son Richard Dulany Roszel of Glen Welby, Fauquier County, Virginia, and then to his sister's son Asbury Griswol Hunter, of Verona, Virginia, at Green Valley Auctions, Mt. Crawford, Virginia 22841 on March 18, 2000.