On View
Not on viewFront panel from joined chest
Artist
Thomas Dennis
1636 - 1706
Artist
William Searle
1667
Date1665-1680
Terms
- Chests
- Oak
- Ipswich
Dimensions44.5 x 26.3 x 0.4 cm (17 1/2 x 10 3/8 x 3/16 in.)
Credit LineFront panel from joined chest, attributed to William Searle or Thomas Dennis, Ipswich, Ma, 1665-1680. Concord Museum Collection, Gift of Cummings E. Davis; F300.
Object numberF300
DescriptionAttributed to William Searle or Thomas Dennis. Front panel from joined chest, carved with floral motif. Repainted red and black, though traces of original paint still visible.
The thin (approximately 3/8 inch) panel is deeply chamfered on all four sides of the reverse. The front is extensively carved, and the background of the carving is picked out with red and black paint. A later coat of varnish covers the entire surface. The bottom edge of the panel has suffered from insect infestation. On the reverse of the panel, a nineteenth-century collector inscribed the date "1650," once in whitewash and a second time in black paint.
The panel undoubtedly was saved from a derelict chest made by either of these workmen. The carving represents an abstract flower emerging from a ring that suggests the mouth of a vase. On most Searle-Dennis chests, the facades have three such panels, although the central panel usually differs from those on either side. Of all the published chests, those that have central panels that relate directly to the Concord Museum example include a chest with drawer (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and a chest in a private North Carolina collection. The Concord panel also closely resembles the side facade panels of Thomas Dennis's chest made for his own use (Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin), but not closely enough to warrant an attribution to Dennis himself.
An important feature of the Concord panel is the preservation, under later reinforcement coasts, of the original red and black painted decoration. Tests of these pigments suggest that the red is a standard vermilion or red brick earth, while the black is lampblack. The red may have been mixed in a glue vehicle, while the black undoubtedly was ground in an oil vehicle due to its greasy nature.
The thin (approximately 3/8 inch) panel is deeply chamfered on all four sides of the reverse. The front is extensively carved, and the background of the carving is picked out with red and black paint. A later coat of varnish covers the entire surface. The bottom edge of the panel has suffered from insect infestation. On the reverse of the panel, a nineteenth-century collector inscribed the date "1650," once in whitewash and a second time in black paint.
The panel undoubtedly was saved from a derelict chest made by either of these workmen. The carving represents an abstract flower emerging from a ring that suggests the mouth of a vase. On most Searle-Dennis chests, the facades have three such panels, although the central panel usually differs from those on either side. Of all the published chests, those that have central panels that relate directly to the Concord Museum example include a chest with drawer (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and a chest in a private North Carolina collection. The Concord panel also closely resembles the side facade panels of Thomas Dennis's chest made for his own use (Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin), but not closely enough to warrant an attribution to Dennis himself.
An important feature of the Concord panel is the preservation, under later reinforcement coasts, of the original red and black painted decoration. Tests of these pigments suggest that the red is a standard vermilion or red brick earth, while the black is lampblack. The red may have been mixed in a glue vehicle, while the black undoubtedly was ground in an oil vehicle due to its greasy nature.
Collections
- Furniture
Object number: COS64.27.2.2