Chest of Drawers
Period1760 - 1800
MediumCherry, tulip poplar, and white pine with light wood inlay
Dimensions36 × 40 × 22.5 in. (91.4 × 101.6 × 57.2 cm)
ClassificationsStorage Furniture
Credit LineMarshall P. Blankarn Purchasing Fund, 1966
Object number1984.536
DescriptionRectangular top with applied molded edges on the front and sides. Four graduated drawers have light wood stringing along all four edges which are not molded, pairs of brass bail pulls with round backplates, and central oval brass escutcheons. The front corners of the case are ornamented with quarter columns that have three flutes. Ogee bracket feet are found on both front and back corners below applied front and side moldings. The brasses have been replaced, but appear to be the same style as the originals.Curatorial RemarksThe chest of drawers is an example from a group of furniture influenced by Delaware Valley cabinetmaking practices but probably made in Freehold, Monmouth County, by an as-yet unidentified joiner. A second virtually identical chest of drawers from the Throckmorton family of Freehold (accession number 1991.542) and this one from the Reid family of Freehold were clearly made by the same person. They share the same pattern for the ogee bracket feet, both have three flutes in the quarter columns, and the capitals and bases of the columns match exactly. Unlike drawer construction in the Middletown school, Freehold cabinetmakers made the drawer back dominant, meaning that the upper edge of the drawer sides stop before the rear surface of the drawer and the drawer back extends to the outer surfaces of the sides. This unknown Freehold craftsman also used thinner drawer stock and a larger number of smaller dovetails than those found in case furniture from the Middletown area.NotesAssociation accession records indicate that this cherry chest of drawers first belonged to Aaron Reid (1756 - 1839) of Freehold, Monmouth County. It then descended in the family to his son James A. Reid (1789 - 1867); to his daughter Mary E. Reid Parker (1838 - 1918); and finally to her daughter Miss Lydia Reid Parker (1871 - 1966).
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