Connecticut furniture: "sunflower" chests

part 1 of many perhaps

Most of my work these days is splitting apart that oak log and either planing boards or shaving chair parts. And repeating the process the next day. So if that’s what I write about, it would get pretty repetitious. As I work at the bench, out of the corner of my eye I see this carved sample I made -

It’s based on some work from Connecticut - so that’s today’s subject. 17th-century Connecticut was at first two colonies (much like Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies) - the Connecticut Colony was along the Connecticut River and the coast at its mouth and west of there, along the coast - the New Haven Colony. I’ll start with Connecticut - specifically some chests and cupboards seemingly from Wethersfield, a town along the river, south of Hartford. Here’s a “standard” one - based on the frequency of surviving examples - a chest with two drawers. This one’s probably stripped & refinished, it happened a long time ago.

Metropolitan Museum of Art #10.125.689