This chest-of-drawers is a remarkable survival of early painted furniture. Pristine in condition, it retains its original painted surface. Wooden pins join the chest and the turned feet are tenoned up into the case through cleats secured by clinch nails. This chest is all the more unusual as it is a chest-of-drawers rather than a chest-with-drawers.

The use of paint as decoration is well documented in early architecture and furnishings. Exteriors and interiors were embellished with brilliant contrasting colors as were select objects within the house. Unfortunately, much of this evidence has been destroyed, and therefore surviving examples, such as this chest, are extremely important documents to past traditions, decorative schemes, and interior decoration.

The paint used on this chest is casein, a skim milk and lime based paint. This paint was often used on woodwork, hence it application to furniture, and was quick setting and became very hard. The chest is enthusiastically covered in a blue/black ground with white, orange, and blue colors. The geometric decoration on the case is systematically applied with stamps while while the polka dot accents are painted free-hand. The orange fleur-de-lys motif relates to a joined oak chest from Connecticut sold at Christie's on October 10, 1987, lot 245. The cornice, base moldings and drawer dividers are painted, as are the upper and lower frieze. The stiles are painted in white and covered with orange painted molding strips, adding depth and a playfulness that embodies the character of this chest.

The construction of this chest is also an important document to period techniques. The feet, turned on a pole lathe, have tool marks which reveal the chisel grooves that shaped the foot characteristically only on the down stroke. The board used for the tops, sides, bottom, and back are all sawn sequentially from teh same plank. Interlocking compass circles on the inside of the board mark the points of juncture. The backboards are set into the rabbeted edges of the sides and reinforced from the back and sides with wooden pins as well. The drawer bottoms also appear to have been sawn from the same large tree. The drawers are dovetailed at the front and secured with wooden pins along the bottoms, backs and sides.

Painted surface finish conversation consisted of carefuly removing a layer of dark alligatored spirit varnish that covered the esurface without disturbing the casein layer below. A soft, synthetic, conservation grade Paraloid product was applied in a thin coating over the casein to enhance visibility; this coating is completely reversible without risk to the casein. A small 4" x 4" patch at the lower right corner of the right side of the chest was left untreated for comparative purposes.

Sold at Christie's on June 23, 1993, lot 139, $99,550.