Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State

United States of America flag

Web Property of the U.S. Department of State

Chippendale Carved Mahogany Chest of Drawers

Home / Explore The Collection
Close

Object Details

Maker
Attributed to Samuel Prince (American, active New York ca. 1760-1776)
Date
ca. 1760-1775
Geography
United States: New York: New York City
Culture
North American
Medium
wood; mahogany; eastern white pine; yellow-poplar
Dimensions
Overall: 33 1/2 in x 38 in x 20 in; 85.09 cm x 96.52 cm x 50.8 cm
Provenance
Philip Livingston (1716-1778); by direct descent to Elinor Livingston Wetmore; to Ginsburg & Levy, Inc., New York, about 1956; to Dorothy Marsh McGavack of New York, New York; to Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, Sale 3522, May 19, 1973, Lot 495; to the Fine Arts Committee through purchase
Inscriptions
Letter taped inside the first drawer, "This chest has always been/ in the family of Philip Livingston; signer of the Declaration of Indep-/ dence--of whom--I am a/ direct descendant/ Elinor Livingston Wetmore/ Feb. 28, 1956;" label on back, "Ginsburg & Levy, Inc./ Antiques/ 815 Madison Ave./ New York."
Credit Line
Funds donated by Mrs. George Revitz
Collection
The Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.
Accession Number
RR-1973.0038

Object Essay

Four-drawer chests with straight fronts were the norm in New York Chippendale furniture. Rather than the blocked, bombé, or serpentine shapes that enriched facades in other colonies, New York chests kept ornamentation around the perimeters of the front. Often this included fluted chamfers on the corners, molded cornices, occasionally with fretwork, and ball and claw feet separated by a strip of gadrooning. Despite their relatively plain exteriors, a surprising number of New York chests contain a dressing drawer with various compartments, slots, a mirror, a writing surface, and on occasion, even a wig stand. Chippendale illustrated such fitted drawers in plate LII of the 1762 edition of his Director.

Chests of this design are documented in New York City as early as 1753, when a George Peters advertised a shoot with the prize of “a good Mahogany Chest of Drawers, with Eagle’s Claw Feet, a Shell on each knee, and fluted Corners, with good Brass Work and Locks.”1Gottesman 1938, 122. A four-drawer New York chest of this type, without the shell carving, remains at Clermont, the home of Robert R. Livingston on the Hudson River.2Biddle 1963, fig. 48. The chest of drawers in the Department of State’s collection descended from his younger brother, Philip Livingston (1716–1778), and is simpler in design, without the fluted corners.

Construction analysis shows that the Collection’s chest of drawers is virtually identical to a chest in the Brooklyn Museum originally owned by Dirck Lefferts (1719–1799).3Brooklyn Museum, acc. no. 55. 225. All the construction details of the two chests of drawers relate closely to labeled examples by the New York City cabinetmaker Samuel Prince.4The author is indebted to Wade Lawrence for sharing his research of Samuel Prince’s construction based on analysis of the labeled furniture. If these two unlabeled chests of drawers do not come from Prince’s shop, they are certainly from the same shop tradition and were probably made by one of his apprentices, such as Thomas Burling.

An such, Livingston is interesting as an early proponent of the American Revolution. In 1765, he opposed the Stamp Act as a member of the Provincial Assembly and was one of five delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia where he signed the Declaration of Independence. When the British captured Philadelphia, he journeyed to York with the Congress. There he fell ill and died. 

Gilbert Tapley Vincent

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.