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Lot Essay
This diminutive chest-of-drawers is a masterful survival of painted decoration and the key piece of evidence linking the entire group of similarly embellished chests to Robert Crosman (1707-1799) of Taunton, Massachusetts. Painted in red, white and green (and a trace of blue), its delightful facade depicts baby chicks amongst vines and flowers, the lively composition organized by a series of compass-drawn scrolls, which meander from one drawer to the next. From these scrolls stem a multitude of smaller curled branches with leaves, berries and floral motifs that cover almost every available surface. In contrast, the decoration on the case sides is comparatively restrained with each board centered by a full-grown bird in flight. It is one of twenty-two known chests with paintwork that appears to be by the same hand, yet is distinguished from the rest of the group by the quality and condition of its painted designs, its sophisticated form and its revelation of the maker's identity.
Signed Taunton RC 1729 on the back, this chest is the sole source for the attribution of this group of chests to Robert Crosman. Upon seeing this chest at the 1925 exhibit in Boston, Esther Stevens Fraser, an early scholar of painted furniture, dutifully executed sketches, which she filed away. However, the painted inscription on the back inspired her to investigate further. As she states, "with ever increasing insistence, the R.C. on the labeled piece kept haunting me" and after considering whether the initials stood for the owner or the maker, speculated that they could have been the same individual as the "carefully painted label seems to express a certain pride both in ownership and accomplishment." And, with all its unique characteristics, it is possible that this chest was a very special commission, perhaps made by the craftsman for his own use or as a "masterpiece" by an apprentice upon the completion of his training. Fraser identified only two individuals with those initials living in Taunton in the early eighteenth century, a Robert Crosman who died in 1736 and his grandson of the same name who died in 1799. Fraser rejected the first as she was aware of the chest now at Winterthur dated 1742 (fig. 6); the second, however, seemed a likely candidate. Born in 1707, the younger Crosman hailed from a family of woodworkers, firearm repairers and drum makers. He himself was also a drum-maker and three of his drums survive (fig. 5). Supporting this attribution, three of the chests in the group have dates and owner's initials painted on the front that correspond to Crosman's sisters and the years in which they married and another descended in the Crosman family. Furthermore, of those that bear dates, all were made between 1729 and 1742, a time period that coincides with Crosman's completion of his apprenticeship and the early years of his career. Later in life, like many successful artisans, Crosman appears to have given up his craft to pursue the more lucrative profession of innkeeper. In possession of a large house, fine carriage and luxury items such as an eight-day clock, he died at the age of ninety two, a well-to-do member of his community. See Esther Stevens Fraser, "The Tantalizing Chests of Taunton," The Magazine Antiques (April 1933), pp. 135-138.
The twenty-two chests attributed to Crosman can be divided according to form and decorative motifs into smaller groups that suggest both a development of the craftsman's style and the range of products, with varying levels of cost, offered by Crosman to his clients. Consisting of six small chests with one drawer and two larger chests each with two sham over one drawer, those in the first group appear to be the earliest and are painted predominantly with isolated floral sprays. Only two feature birds, and, standing and separated from the foliage, they contrast with Crosman's later birds, which are either in flight or embedded in the vines. None from this group are dated and only one bears an owner's initials. The second group, with three larger chests with two sham over one drawer and two miniature chests with one drawer, includes the two types of birds seen on the Blair Collection chest, full-grown birds in flight and baby chicks in the vines. With discrete clusters of foliage but birds overlapping applied moldings, the group demonstrates a tentative effort to have the decoration flow from one drawer to the next. Two in this group are dated 1729 and thus represent forms contemporary to the Blair Collection chest (figs. 1, 2). The third group, with dates ranging from 1731 to 1742, represents the final development of Crosman's style. Comprising five larger chests with two sham over one drawer (figs. 3, 4), one smaller chest with a drawer (fig. 6) and two blanket chests with one drawer, all these forms display a similar layout of composite scrolls that freely flow across applied moldings. The chicks set amidst the vines are gone and instead of a multitude of smaller branches, larger floral motifs of tulips and daisies emanate from the vines. The resulting effect is of a lighter, less crowded design.
In several ways, the Blair Collection chest is unique. Considering the group as a whole, it is the only example with painted sides, the only signed by its maker, the only of its form (a chest-of-drawers), and the only with turned rather than bootjack feet (for a chest of similar form, but with painted decoration that appears to be by another hand, see Northeast Auctions, The Monahan Collection, August 4, 2001, lot 62). Stylistically, it fits in between the second and third smaller categories and is most likely one of Crosman's earliest efforts to render vines that cross over drawer divisions. Nevertheless, in addition to the work of the same paint decorator, there are many points of similarity with other chests in the group. The brass escutcheons, with the circular and crescent shaped gouges, appear identical to those on a chest dated 1732 (fig. 4) and another at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Furthermore, a close comparison with the construction of the chest at Winterthur Museum (fig. 6) confirms their manufacture in the same shop. Both display the same drawer construction, with dovetailed joints and bottom boards set with the grain running from front to back, each fitted into a groove in the front and nailed to the underside of the back. Most unusual and indicative of the same craftsman, is the use of a single wooden pin to join the drawer bottom board to each drawer side. Also, seen on the interior of the Winterthur case only, but on both the interior of the case and the exterior of the drawer sides on the Blair Collection chest, penciled Roman numerals are inscribed to assist in the chest's assembly. A difference between the two chests is the use of oak drawer bottom boards in the Winterthur example. Like other Crosman-attributed chests, the Blair Collection chest is made of white pine.
As mentioned, several of the chests have been linked to their first owners. In all such cases, the chests were made for young women around the time of their marriage and it is very likely that in at least some instances, the chests' decoration was an intentional and symbolic reference to the beginnings of a new family. Particularly evident in the chests in figs. 1 and 2, the birds are drawn and positioned to resemble a nest of chicks with pairs of adult birds nearby in flight. The Blair Collection chest features a similar scheme. With spiky crown feathers, the smaller birds amidst the vines are clearly chicks and contrast with the full-grown birds, shown in flight on the case sides. See William N. Hosley and Karen Blanchfield, catalogue entry, in Nancy B. Tieken et al., American Art from the Currier Gallery of Art (New York, 1998), cat. 34, p. 88.
Mrs. Blair purchased this chest form Herbert R. Lawton shortly after its display in the 1925 exhibition at Boston's Park Square Building. She also owned a second Taunton chest (fig. 3). Both were loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1939 and from Joseph Downs' listing, it is clear that both had been displayed in Mrs. Blair's Museum Room II (the Queen Anne Bedroom; see p. ?, fig. 5) along with other colorful items such as the easy chair with its needlework covering (p. ?, fig. 1). While she gave the larger chest to the Metropolitan Museum in 1945, Mrs. Blair requested that chest-of-drawers be returned to furnish her apartment in New York City in 1949 (Joseph Downs to Marshall B. Davidson, November 13, 1939 and memo, February 11, 1949, Metropolitan Museum of Art archives).
The painted surfaces of the chest were recently analyzed by Janice Carlson, Jennifer Mass, Catherine Matsen, and W. Christian Petersen, staff at the Scientific Research and Analysis Laboratory at Winterthur Museum. The conclusion of their Analytical Report (no. 4774), October 12, 2005, p. 11 is reproduced here in full:
Most of the pigments found in design areas of this chest (vermilion, lead white, and verdigris), as well as the reddish-colored background wash (most likely red lead and iron oxides) are those typical of historic painted objects dating from long before and well after the 1729 date of the chest. The exception is the blue azurite which has now turned black. Typical blues found on other eighteenth- and nineteenth-century painted wooden and paper objects are Prussian blue and indigo. It may be that in 1729 Prussian blue was not yet available to this artist.
Evidence of modern paints, zinc white and lithopone, were found in a few areas - particularly the moldings separating the drawers. Such paints were probablyl used to touch up areas which were particularly susceptible to wear.
Except for the blue and green pigments, which are bound primarily in oil, a mixture of protein and oil and/or a natural resin was used as the binding medium. The surface of the chest also showed evidence of a resin coating and wax residues.
No additional evidence of writing or design changes were discovered beneath the label area on the reverse of the back.
An overall reddish-colored background wash was applied to the chest and this same finish is present on the front, proper right front foot.
The other known chests attributed to Crosman are as follows:
Six undated chests with drawers (Colonial Williamsburg, in Barry A. Greenlaw, New England Furniture at Williamsburg (Williamsburg, 1974), cat. 72; The Art Institute of Chicago (initialed HB), in Helen Comstock, no. 80; Bayou Bend, in David B. Warren et al., American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection (Princeton, NJ, 1998), F30; Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, vol. I (New York, 1926), p. 49, fig. 39; Fraser, figs. 1, 3).
Two miniature chests (Fraser fig. 5; Dean A. Fales, Jr., American Painted Furniture, 1660-1880 (New York, 1976), fig. 44).
Ten chests with two sham over one drawer (figs. 1-4; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in Fraser, fig. 4; a private collection (dated 1731), Independent Appraisers and Auctioneers Greenwich Fine Arts Auction Associates, The Mallory Sale, June 16-17, 2001; Fraser, figs. 2, 8 (dated 1731); Detroit Institute of Art (dated 1736) in Fraser, fig. 10; Fales, fig. 45).
A chest with two drawers (fig. 6);
Two blanket chests with one drawer (Brooklyn Museum of Art, in The Magazine Antiques (December 1976), pl. II, p. 1295; Skinner's, June 8, 1997.
Signed Taunton RC 1729 on the back, this chest is the sole source for the attribution of this group of chests to Robert Crosman. Upon seeing this chest at the 1925 exhibit in Boston, Esther Stevens Fraser, an early scholar of painted furniture, dutifully executed sketches, which she filed away. However, the painted inscription on the back inspired her to investigate further. As she states, "with ever increasing insistence, the R.C. on the labeled piece kept haunting me" and after considering whether the initials stood for the owner or the maker, speculated that they could have been the same individual as the "carefully painted label seems to express a certain pride both in ownership and accomplishment." And, with all its unique characteristics, it is possible that this chest was a very special commission, perhaps made by the craftsman for his own use or as a "masterpiece" by an apprentice upon the completion of his training. Fraser identified only two individuals with those initials living in Taunton in the early eighteenth century, a Robert Crosman who died in 1736 and his grandson of the same name who died in 1799. Fraser rejected the first as she was aware of the chest now at Winterthur dated 1742 (fig. 6); the second, however, seemed a likely candidate. Born in 1707, the younger Crosman hailed from a family of woodworkers, firearm repairers and drum makers. He himself was also a drum-maker and three of his drums survive (fig. 5). Supporting this attribution, three of the chests in the group have dates and owner's initials painted on the front that correspond to Crosman's sisters and the years in which they married and another descended in the Crosman family. Furthermore, of those that bear dates, all were made between 1729 and 1742, a time period that coincides with Crosman's completion of his apprenticeship and the early years of his career. Later in life, like many successful artisans, Crosman appears to have given up his craft to pursue the more lucrative profession of innkeeper. In possession of a large house, fine carriage and luxury items such as an eight-day clock, he died at the age of ninety two, a well-to-do member of his community. See Esther Stevens Fraser, "The Tantalizing Chests of Taunton," The Magazine Antiques (April 1933), pp. 135-138.
The twenty-two chests attributed to Crosman can be divided according to form and decorative motifs into smaller groups that suggest both a development of the craftsman's style and the range of products, with varying levels of cost, offered by Crosman to his clients. Consisting of six small chests with one drawer and two larger chests each with two sham over one drawer, those in the first group appear to be the earliest and are painted predominantly with isolated floral sprays. Only two feature birds, and, standing and separated from the foliage, they contrast with Crosman's later birds, which are either in flight or embedded in the vines. None from this group are dated and only one bears an owner's initials. The second group, with three larger chests with two sham over one drawer and two miniature chests with one drawer, includes the two types of birds seen on the Blair Collection chest, full-grown birds in flight and baby chicks in the vines. With discrete clusters of foliage but birds overlapping applied moldings, the group demonstrates a tentative effort to have the decoration flow from one drawer to the next. Two in this group are dated 1729 and thus represent forms contemporary to the Blair Collection chest (figs. 1, 2). The third group, with dates ranging from 1731 to 1742, represents the final development of Crosman's style. Comprising five larger chests with two sham over one drawer (figs. 3, 4), one smaller chest with a drawer (fig. 6) and two blanket chests with one drawer, all these forms display a similar layout of composite scrolls that freely flow across applied moldings. The chicks set amidst the vines are gone and instead of a multitude of smaller branches, larger floral motifs of tulips and daisies emanate from the vines. The resulting effect is of a lighter, less crowded design.
In several ways, the Blair Collection chest is unique. Considering the group as a whole, it is the only example with painted sides, the only signed by its maker, the only of its form (a chest-of-drawers), and the only with turned rather than bootjack feet (for a chest of similar form, but with painted decoration that appears to be by another hand, see Northeast Auctions, The Monahan Collection, August 4, 2001, lot 62). Stylistically, it fits in between the second and third smaller categories and is most likely one of Crosman's earliest efforts to render vines that cross over drawer divisions. Nevertheless, in addition to the work of the same paint decorator, there are many points of similarity with other chests in the group. The brass escutcheons, with the circular and crescent shaped gouges, appear identical to those on a chest dated 1732 (fig. 4) and another at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Furthermore, a close comparison with the construction of the chest at Winterthur Museum (fig. 6) confirms their manufacture in the same shop. Both display the same drawer construction, with dovetailed joints and bottom boards set with the grain running from front to back, each fitted into a groove in the front and nailed to the underside of the back. Most unusual and indicative of the same craftsman, is the use of a single wooden pin to join the drawer bottom board to each drawer side. Also, seen on the interior of the Winterthur case only, but on both the interior of the case and the exterior of the drawer sides on the Blair Collection chest, penciled Roman numerals are inscribed to assist in the chest's assembly. A difference between the two chests is the use of oak drawer bottom boards in the Winterthur example. Like other Crosman-attributed chests, the Blair Collection chest is made of white pine.
As mentioned, several of the chests have been linked to their first owners. In all such cases, the chests were made for young women around the time of their marriage and it is very likely that in at least some instances, the chests' decoration was an intentional and symbolic reference to the beginnings of a new family. Particularly evident in the chests in figs. 1 and 2, the birds are drawn and positioned to resemble a nest of chicks with pairs of adult birds nearby in flight. The Blair Collection chest features a similar scheme. With spiky crown feathers, the smaller birds amidst the vines are clearly chicks and contrast with the full-grown birds, shown in flight on the case sides. See William N. Hosley and Karen Blanchfield, catalogue entry, in Nancy B. Tieken et al., American Art from the Currier Gallery of Art (New York, 1998), cat. 34, p. 88.
Mrs. Blair purchased this chest form Herbert R. Lawton shortly after its display in the 1925 exhibition at Boston's Park Square Building. She also owned a second Taunton chest (fig. 3). Both were loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1939 and from Joseph Downs' listing, it is clear that both had been displayed in Mrs. Blair's Museum Room II (the Queen Anne Bedroom; see p. ?, fig. 5) along with other colorful items such as the easy chair with its needlework covering (p. ?, fig. 1). While she gave the larger chest to the Metropolitan Museum in 1945, Mrs. Blair requested that chest-of-drawers be returned to furnish her apartment in New York City in 1949 (Joseph Downs to Marshall B. Davidson, November 13, 1939 and memo, February 11, 1949, Metropolitan Museum of Art archives).
The painted surfaces of the chest were recently analyzed by Janice Carlson, Jennifer Mass, Catherine Matsen, and W. Christian Petersen, staff at the Scientific Research and Analysis Laboratory at Winterthur Museum. The conclusion of their Analytical Report (no. 4774), October 12, 2005, p. 11 is reproduced here in full:
Most of the pigments found in design areas of this chest (vermilion, lead white, and verdigris), as well as the reddish-colored background wash (most likely red lead and iron oxides) are those typical of historic painted objects dating from long before and well after the 1729 date of the chest. The exception is the blue azurite which has now turned black. Typical blues found on other eighteenth- and nineteenth-century painted wooden and paper objects are Prussian blue and indigo. It may be that in 1729 Prussian blue was not yet available to this artist.
Evidence of modern paints, zinc white and lithopone, were found in a few areas - particularly the moldings separating the drawers. Such paints were probablyl used to touch up areas which were particularly susceptible to wear.
Except for the blue and green pigments, which are bound primarily in oil, a mixture of protein and oil and/or a natural resin was used as the binding medium. The surface of the chest also showed evidence of a resin coating and wax residues.
No additional evidence of writing or design changes were discovered beneath the label area on the reverse of the back.
An overall reddish-colored background wash was applied to the chest and this same finish is present on the front, proper right front foot.
The other known chests attributed to Crosman are as follows:
Six undated chests with drawers (Colonial Williamsburg, in Barry A. Greenlaw, New England Furniture at Williamsburg (Williamsburg, 1974), cat. 72; The Art Institute of Chicago (initialed HB), in Helen Comstock, no. 80; Bayou Bend, in David B. Warren et al., American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection (Princeton, NJ, 1998), F30; Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, vol. I (New York, 1926), p. 49, fig. 39; Fraser, figs. 1, 3).
Two miniature chests (Fraser fig. 5; Dean A. Fales, Jr., American Painted Furniture, 1660-1880 (New York, 1976), fig. 44).
Ten chests with two sham over one drawer (figs. 1-4; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in Fraser, fig. 4; a private collection (dated 1731), Independent Appraisers and Auctioneers Greenwich Fine Arts Auction Associates, The Mallory Sale, June 16-17, 2001; Fraser, figs. 2, 8 (dated 1731); Detroit Institute of Art (dated 1736) in Fraser, fig. 10; Fales, fig. 45).
A chest with two drawers (fig. 6);
Two blanket chests with one drawer (Brooklyn Museum of Art, in The Magazine Antiques (December 1976), pl. II, p. 1295; Skinner's, June 8, 1997.