Advanced Search 
Chest with two drawers
1750–1800
Object Place: Possibly Rhode Island or Massachusetts
Medium/Technique
Wood with straw-work marquetry
Dimensions
34.3 x 43.8 x 19.7 cm (13.5 x 17.25 x 7.75 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Nancy F. Kendall
Accession Number2001.562
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsFurniture – Case furniture and boxes
DescriptionSmall six-board chest with two drawers with all-over straw-work marquetry decoration; center panel of chest section with large compass-work star flanked by panels of herringbone inlay flanked in turn at the outside with 'flamestitch" inlay; each of the superimposed drawers divided into five simulated panels with stars and herringbone inlay on the upper drawer and stars alternating with flamestich on the lower drawer; case sides and top similarly decorated; small interior lidded till with added drawer below
InscriptionsLengthy modern pencil inscription on underside of bottom drawer detailing line of descent:
"This chest was left to me by Mary Dean of Providence RI
It once belonged to
Althea Kent who married Wm Brown -- Barrington RI
1739-1802 1737-1817
Kent Brown
Nathaniel [ditto]
Julia Francis Brown m. Henry Cram
Mary Brown Cram Dean -- died 1950
then
Evelyn W Kendall Morse Hill Farm Sharon Mass -- Oct 1950"
Inscribed on outside of the back of the upper drawer: "X"
Inscribed on outside of the back of the lower drawer: "XI"
"This chest was left to me by Mary Dean of Providence RI
It once belonged to
Althea Kent who married Wm Brown -- Barrington RI
1739-1802 1737-1817
Kent Brown
Nathaniel [ditto]
Julia Francis Brown m. Henry Cram
Mary Brown Cram Dean -- died 1950
then
Evelyn W Kendall Morse Hill Farm Sharon Mass -- Oct 1950"
Inscribed on outside of the back of the upper drawer: "X"
Inscribed on outside of the back of the lower drawer: "XI"
ProvenanceAlthough thought to have been brought over on the Mayflower in 1620 by Mary Chilton this chest was not made until the mid to late eighteenth century. The original owner is unknown; it may possibly have been Althea Brown of Barrington, Rhode Island. It descended directly in the family of the donor.