High chest of drawers

This high chest is related to a group of furniture known to have been made in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the second and third quarters of the eighteenth century. Ipswich, Salem, and Newburyport all possessed fine cabinetmaking shops, but unfortunately, no piece from this group can currently be attributed to a specific shop in Essex County. Pieces from this group all have similar construction techniques and stylistic characteristics. Study of the entire group has revealed that numerous customizing options were available to the purchaser.

The original owner of this high chest, Ipswich merchant Daniel Staniford (d. 1757), chose spectacular crotch-grain veneers of black walnut for the drawer fronts as well as a pair of richly carved shells instead of inlaid ones, and decided not to have them gilded, as others had done. These options added expense, and other customers chose to leave the drawer fronts plain. Staniford requested that drops be added to the skirt instead of rounding them off. An arched pediment instead of a flat one completed the well-proportioned piece. At Staniford's death, his estate of £570 included a "Mansion House[,] Barn & Garden in Ipswich Town." The "Hall Chamber" contained this "Case of Drawers" with a matching dressing table; they were the items of greatest value in his house.