Clothes Press
Maker
Oliver Parsell
Period1802 - 1818
MediumCherry, mahogany veneer, tulip poplar, and pine
Dimensions83 × 48.75 × 21.75 in. (210.8 × 123.8 × 55.2 cm)
SignedA printed paper label with clipped corners is glued to the inside of the right door and reads "OLIVER PARSELL, / CABINET MAKER, / CHURCH STREET, / NEW BRUNSWICK."
ClassificationsStorage Furniture
Credit LineMarshall P. Blankarn Purchasing Fund, 1968
Object number1984.546
DescriptionA clothes or linen press in two parts. The upper section features a molded cornice above a band of flame mahogany veneer, two panel doors with double cyma curved top rails, and brass escutcheons, along with chamfered and fluted front corners. The lower section includes three graduated drawers with pairs of round stamped and gilded brasses ornamented with eagle motifs, small oval brass escutcheons, and four gracefully splayed French bracket feet below a narrow skirt molding.Curatorial RemarksAlso known as a linen press, the clothes press was a particularly practical piece of furniture that offered a large amount of storage space. The upper section usually contained several shelves or sliding trays for storing clothing, while the drawers in the lower section could hold linens or other folded textiles. The clothes press combined the open storage feature of a Dutch kast with a chest of drawers. The furniture form may imitate English prototypes, or be a local adaptation as the clothes or linen press was especially popular in Central New Jersey. This example stands on delicate French bracket feet, and is enriched further with a band of boldly figured mahogany veneer just below the cornice.NotesOliver Parsell was not a New Jersey native, nor was he trained in the Garden State. Born in Ravenswood, Long Island, in 1757, he married Lucretia Williamson in 1788, with whom he had six children. Parsell worked in New York City from 1794 until 1797, when he bought a farm in Neshanic, Somerset County, NJ. Shortly after 1802, he began working in nearby New Brunswick. His furniture label states that his cabinet shop was located on Church Street, where he worked until his death in 1818. Parsell, a member of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Brunswick, was buried from that congregation. The two youngest of his five sons, Peter and Nicholas Williamson Parsell, remained in New Brunswick and carried on the family trade of cabinetmaking, which they most likely learned from their father. The label used by Oliver Parsell has unusually wide margins. Several other pieces survive that bear it, including a sideboard, a sewing stand, and a two-drawer table.
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