To pick up where I left off the other night, http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/a-couple-of-new-england-17th-century-board-chests/
Here’s one more board chest, made in Plymouth Colony…late 17th century. Hard to pin a date on such a thing.
board chest w drawers
Lots of added junk inside to house the drawers. Runners nailed to the inside for the drawers to ride on, (pictured) and a divider between the two narrow, side-by-side drawers.
drawer runner
Very simple cut-out to form the “feet” of this chest. Note the decorative end of the lid’s cleat. I like this sort of treatment and use it way more than I see it on old chests and boxes. It’s hard to resist.
side view
Simple rabbeted nailed drawer. Note the sawmill’s tally mark scribed on this drawer side. The board’s been planed, but not deeply enough to get all the way past the race knife marks. Is it the number of board feet in each board? I don’t know for sure how it’s employed.
drawer and sawmill tally mark
Here’s the juncture of the moldings outlining the ”frames” on the chest front.
applied moldings, with saw-tooth decoration
Another view of one of the drawers. Nailed-on bottom board. Running side-to-side.
another view of a drawer
All in all, a great chest, but pretty simple. All white pine, maybe the moldings are Atlantic white cedar, I’m not sure. There’s a till on the inside; the chest lid’s been repaired with a new strip at the back edge where the hinges busted out.
November 16, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Any idea as to the dimensions?
November 17, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Drew: I have them somewhere, but generally let’s say about 48″ wide. 30″ high? something like that…
November 16, 2012 at 10:20 pm
I was wondering what all the “drawings” were on the end of the chest in the third picture. I didn’t notice them until I looked at the enlarged picture. They look like they were scratched in with the tip of a nail or pointed tool. There are lots of circles that seem to be from a tool of some sort since they were too perfect for scratching in by hand. Also, there are quite a few geometrical shapes scratched in with multiple parallel lines and some diagonals and a triangle. I also noticed in the fifth picture that the front has many scratches.
Was someone doodling, or maybe someone was designing something to build? Maybe there was a lack of writing surfaces or this is the equivalent of kids writing on the walls. Possibly this is a common thing that you have seen many times. Curious.
November 17, 2012 at 4:05 pm
Lots can happen over 300 years of use & dis-use. I often see compass-generated markings on walls and other surfaces in period work. Some have meaning, some don’t. see http://blogs.plimoth.org/rivenword/?p=1649
November 17, 2012 at 11:42 am
Wow,
Nice chest… do you think this chest was ever painted..??
Is there anyway you can post pic’s of the inside and bottom of chest, maybe even a few detail shoots of how the front was made…? :)
November 17, 2012 at 4:08 pm
They are often painted. Wouldn’t surprise me at all. Earth colors; red, yellow, brown. No more photos, I shot those about 10 years ago, in a hurry. Not sure what you mean “How the front was made” – it’s just a board chest. The moldings are just nailed to the front to mimic framing.
December 31, 2012 at 4:41 pm
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