NEW HAMPSHIRE CARRIAGE-MAKER'S APOTHECARY CHEST, SALMON PAINT

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NEW HAMPSHIRE CARRIAGE-MAKER'S APOTHECARY CHEST, SALMON PAINT

About the Item

The term "apothecary chest" once applied to a piece of furniture used by physicians and druggists to store medicines and related ingredients. Like many words, the term has grown in scope to include most stand-alone chests with numerous small drawers, no matter what their intended purpose. This one was owned by a man named George Avery, born in 1837, who worked as a carriage painter in New Ipswich, New Hampshire. It is evident that he stored at least some of his pigments that he used to mix paint in these 20 square drawers, because there are strong remnants of powder-form green, mustard, tomato red, and other hues.

The chest itself in constructed of pine boards and cut nails. There are no circular saw marks, which suggests that the chest may have been made before the invention of the circular saw in the mid-1830's. I suspect it was made between 1820 and 1860, so it may have been inherited by Avery, or it might have been made when he entered the trade. The paint surface is a wonderful, dry salmon, apparently original to the case. Some of the brass, Hepplewhite pulls are original and some are period replacements. One drawer has a giant, cut-nail spike as a make-do pull. Unlike some apothecary-style chests, the drawers of this example are set in solid pigeon holes. The dust boards that separate each make sense for a chest that would have held ingredients, so as to keep the powder in one drawer from mistakenly falling into a drawer below it.

Small, identified, American apothecary chests like this one are few and far between, especially in such an agreeable size and with early painted surface.

Dimensions:
Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 36 in (91.44 cm)Depth: 10 in (25.4 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Pine
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1820-1860
Condition:
Condition: Generally excellent with less-than-expected wear. Some replaced brasses.
Seller Location:
York County, PA
Reference Number:
Seller: apt-0041stDibs: U08062484978

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