Attributed to John Kimball, Derryfield or Concord, New Hampshire
The top section features a cove-molded cornice above two thumb molded short drawers and three graduated long drawers, set into the lower section having a central shallow short drawer flanked by deeper drawers, all resting on cabriole legs ending in pad feet raised on platforms, joined by a deeply valanced apron with two turned drop pendants.
Item Date: Circa 1765
Measurement: Height: 63.75"; top case width: 34"; top case depth: 18; bottom case width: 36.25"; bottom case depth: 19.5"
Material: Curly maple and white pine, original painted finish, original brass hardware.
Item Condition: This rare and outstanding diminutive highboy remains in a superb state of preservation, including original Spanish brown painted surface; first set of brass hardware…paint restoration to bottom case; waist molding replaced. When found the upper case had been separated from the lower case and stored separately on the same property.
Reference: For additional references to John Kimball see John F. Page, “Documented New Hampshire Furniture, 1750-1850, The Magazine Antiques, May 1979, p. 1008, Pl. V and fig. 9, and William C. Ketchum Jr., American Cabinetmakers: Marked American Furniture, 1640-1940 (New York: Crown, 1995), 195. The attribution of this rare small, painted high chest to cabinetmaker John Kimball (1739-1817) is based on the idiosyncratic dovetails that extend beyond the backs of drawers, narrow proportions, the composition of the deeply cut skirt, and the attenuated nearly straight legs are closely related [identical] to the signed Kimball high chest in the collection of The Manchester Historic Association, Manchester, New Hampshire. Kimball came to prominence as the maker of a maple slant front desk in the collection of The New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire that bears the signature “February / 23.d 1762 / John Kimball”, and a maple flat-top high chest mentioned above that bears the signature “Derryfield / May ye 26. / 1762 / John Kim’l”. Both signed Kimball pieces have refinished surfaces but were initially painted in a manner like the original finish on this high chest. The aforementioned signed Kimball desk and high chest are illustrated and discussed in Donna-Belle Garvin, James L. Garvin, and John L. Page, Plain & Elegant, Rich & Common: Documented New Hampshire Furniture, 1750-1850 (Concord, NH: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1979), cover and pages 46-49, wherein the authors state on page 48 that “This high chest was made by Kimball for the John Stark family of Derryfield, now Manchester. Together with a desk made in the same year (no. 13), it provides evidence that Kimball, a prominent Concord joiner, worked briefly in Derryfield on his way up the Merrimack Valley from his birthplace in Essex County, Massachusetts. The signatures on these pieces are identical to those on documents which Kimball later signed in Concord.
Provenance: By descent in the Stone Family of Dumbarton, New Hampshire; Gary Yeaton; Peter Sawyer; Private Collection; Skinner, June 4th, 2006, lot 112, sold for $76,375; David A. Schorsch, Antique Associates at West Townsend, Marian, and Donald Woelbing. Thence again to Gary Yeaton, again to Antique Associates to a Private New England Collection.
SKU 843-549
For More Information, Please Contact David Hillier at 978-597-8084 or email drh@aaawt.com.
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