High Chest

Artist/Culture American 19th century

Dateabout 1770

Mediummahogany, pine, poplar, chestnut, and maple

Dimensions208.3 x 101.6 x 52.1 cm (82 x 40 x 20 1/2 in.)

ClassificationsFurniture

Credit LinePartial Gift of the Son and Daughters of Rebecca Wilder White and partial purchase through the Stoddard Acquisition Fund

Object number1986.36

Label TextWith its elegantly crafted forms and mahogany veneers, this high-style chest of drawers was used to store clothing and linens. It also functioned as a conspicuous sign of its owner's wealth.

Furniture makers and their clients on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean prized mahogany for its durability and swirling woodgrain patterns. This demand—coupled with the growth of sugar plantations—had decimated the mahogany forests of Jamaica by the 1770s and, susequently, in Honduras and other areas of the Caribbean. Enslaved Africans were used to harvest and process the trees for export to furniture-making centers, such as Newport, Rhode Island, where this chest was likely made.

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