Block-fronted case furniture-that is, pieces with façades that vary in the plane of their relief by extending forward at the sides and receding in the center-decorated with carved shell ornaments, has long been among the most admired of 18th-century American furniture. The sophisticated examples of such pieces were presumed to have been made in Newport, Rhode Island, particularly by members of the Townsend and Goddard families. However, recent scholarship convincingly hypothesizes that some of the finest pieces of this type of furniture were, in fact, made in Providence, Rhode Island-many of them, such as this chest, for members of the Brown family, inhabitants of that city. This piece was probably made for either Nicholas Brown (1729-1791) or, more likely, his son Nicholas Brown Jr. (1769-1841). The museum's chest-on-chest can be related stylistically and technically to other Providence pieces, but it is not yet clear who made them. Members of two cabinetmaking families, the Carliles and the Rawsons, are among the most likely candidates.
Date
1795
date QS:P571,+1795-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium
Mahogany
Dimensions
Overall: 235 x 108.6 x 62.3 cm (92 1/2 x 42 3/4 x 24 1/2 in.)
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.enCC0Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedicationfalsefalse