Important Mahantongo Chest of Drawers
Attributed to Jacob Maser, Mahantongo Valley, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Dated "1836"
Ht. 52 ¼”, W. 44 ¾’, D. 22 ¼”
Above four graduated drawers, each with a red and yellow border in a green ground with yellow and red spandrels, the center of each drawer with facing red and yellow birds holding worms and flanking stylized vines of tulips and flowers extending from red and yellow hearts. The stiles, terminating in turned feet, on a blue ground, are decorated with alternating red and yellow rosettes. The sides, with recessed panels, are decorated with large, central compass point designs also with facing birds, flowers, spandrels and rosettes.
Provenance: 1926 A. H. Rice, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; George Lorimer, Pennsylvania; Arthur Feeman, Jonestown; Ralph Esmerian, New York, 2002; Private New York collection.
Literature: Nutting, Furniture Treasury (1928), no. 295; Weiser and Sullivan, “Decorated Furniture of the Schwaben Creek Valley,” Ebbes fer Alle-Ebber, Ebbes fer Dich (Something for Everyone, Something for You), Vol. XIV (1980), p. 362, fig. 29; Reed, Decorated Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley (1987), p. 90.