Cupboard

Unknown

1683 · Oak, maple, yellow poplar, with oak and pine · The American Wing

Large two-stage oak cupboards were the most elaborate pieces of furniture in seventeenth-century New England homes. They were used for storing textiles, silver, and other valued objects. Their scale and ornamental richness bespoke the prosperity and status of their owners. This superlative example was made by an unidentified shop in northern Essex County, noted for its complex joinery and decoration, featuring ebonized turnings that freely interpret classical columns and channel-molded drawer fronts with applied bosses arranged in rhythmic linear patterns across their length.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1683

Medium

Oak, maple, yellow poplar, with oak and pine

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Purchase, Rogers Fund; Sage Fund, by exchange; Sansbury-Mills Fund; Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Gift, in honor of Morrison H. Heckscher; and Friends of the American Wing Fund, 2010