A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY CHEST-OF-DRAWERS

Compact and elegant, this chest-of-drawers displays exquisite blind fretwork and illustrates practices favored in New York City during the Chippendale era. As noted by Michael Flanigan, the squared ball-and-claw feet, lack of scrolls on the returns and gadrooning without fillets are all features indicative of its New York origins. The use of lambs'-tongue flourishes on the chamfered corners on high style Chippendale furniture reflects British influences and is also seen on Charleston furniture; in contrast, this feature is seldom seen on expensive Pennsylvania furniture of the latter eighteenth century. The City's penchant for British forms is also seen in the chest's squared proportions (J. Michael Flanigan, American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection (New York, 1986), p. 84; for a related chest-on-chest, see Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1985), pp. 225-226, cat. 146).