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Walnut chest, four graduated cockbe

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:15,000.00 - 25,000.00 USD
Walnut chest, four graduated cockbe
Walnut chest, four graduated cockbeaded and dovetailed drawers, double-line inlay across skirt, domed kite escutcheon inlay, vertical yellow pine tongue-and-groove backboards with cut nails, yellow pine secondary, inscription in faded red on inside of back "J?L Long 1801," signed on bottom of top drawer in script and "1801" in faded red, elaborate script signature on bottom of largest drawer, possibly "WL," 42 x 37 x 19 in. Old refinishing, various stains, chips and separations, backboards with chips, losses and worm damage, skirt with separations and losses. Provenance: Griffin Collection. The Swisegood/Long School of cabinetmaking of Davidson County, North Carolina, is one of the best documented groups of furniture in the Piedmont region. The work of John Swisegood (1796-1874) and his apprentice Jonathan Long (1803-1858) was part of a larger body of work produced by at least 15 cabinetmakers in the Davidson and Rowan County region working 1800-1850. The present chest, with partially legible script signatures in faded red crayon with two clear dates of 1801 and three initials followed by a clear “Long,” may be the work of an as-yet-unknown cabinetmaker. One Jonathan Long chest is marked “Jonathan 1832.” The Swisegood/Long blanket chest offered in this auction (Lot 0052) is marked “April 3rd 1835.” Other documented cabinetmakers in the area, Mordica Collins and Jesse Clodfelter, were born in 1785 and 1804, respectively. To date, this chest is the earliest known signed and dated example from this school of back-country cabinetmaking. The Bethany United Church of Christ in Davidson County, North Carolina has in its graveyard a bronze plaque for a Johann Long who died in 1789 and a marker for his son John Long 1782-1857 who may be an early as yet undocumented cabinetmaker. See MESDA File No. S-2613. Exhibited: North Carolina Furniture 1700-1900, North Carolina Museum of History, 1977. Literature: The Swisegood School of Cabinetmaking, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1973. Reserve: $10,000