PHILADELPHIA, 1750-1770

With its graceful swan's neck pediment, richly figured wood and skillfully carved elements, this high chest-of-drawers is a superb example of pre-revolutionary Philadelphia cabinetmaking. It is closely related to a card table originally owned by Judge Jasper Yeates (1745-1817) and illustrated in William MacPherson Hornor, Jr., Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture (Washington, D.C., 1935), pl. 33. Both pieces exhibit distinctive carving on the knees and masterfully carved claw-and-ball feet. It is likely that both the present lot and the card table were made in the same shop and possibly embellished by the same carver. While no direct link can be made, it is also conceivable that the present lot was made en suite to the Yeates card table.

For a similar high chest that also displays canted and fluted corners terminating in lambs' tongues, see American Art Galleries, Girl Scout Loan Exhibition of Colonial and Early Federal Furniture, Portraits and Glass (New York, 1929), no. 651.