an Essex County chest with drawer

great views of the "HT 1685" chest for sale

Another Essex County chest with drawer is coming up at an auction next month in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Bob Trent sent me a note about it - turns out it’s one I posted here in old photos earlier this year. https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/northern-essex-county-1-drawer-chest-dated-1685-350-c-0ea4cbcb8a?objectID=193729879&algIndex=upcoming_lots_lotNumber_asc_prod&queryID=f9940742edb8e5764b0f4984096be9d0

HT 1685 chest w drawer

First thing I want to note is the excellent photos this auction house posted of the chest. It’s always a pleasure when I run into one that’s shot well - it’s often the opposite case. I copied them to post here…

This unidentified shop had a great output - some readers will remember the cupboards I made in the past few years based on ones from this shop. When Trent, Alan Miller & I wrote about the cupboards in 2001 there were 12 or 13 existing cupboards - no two the same. The chests with drawers are equally varied - they’re instantly recognizable as work from this shop - but don’t repeat verbatim.

This one has the initials & date “HT 1685”

detail “T 85”

When I previously wrote about these, I included some photos of this chest before it was restored - this photo is from Trent’s compilation anthology of articles from the Magazine Antiques Pilgrim Century Furniture - the photo is from 1938.

Alvin Story Brown chest, HT 1685, unrestored

And the present condition - a restoration from 1941. They were lucky there was something to copy - they didn’t have to make anything up.