High Chest

Details

Descriptive Terms

chests of drawers
case furniture
japanning
eastern white pine (wood)
red oak (wood)
red maple (wood)
brass (alloy)
Chest Of Drawers

Label

A gold and dark brown landscape of birds, Chinese architecture, bridges, human figures, large fantastical animals, and an abundance of flowering plants plays across the drawer surfaces on the façade of this Boston high chest. The decoration is known as “japanning,” and was done in imitation of Asian lacquer furniture. The craftsman, or japanner, perhaps also inspired by French boulle furniture of the period, first decorated the surface with vermillion streaked with lampblack to imitate the appearance of tortoiseshell. Then he created raised figures with gesso and coated them with gold and black paint. Josiah Quincy (1710-1784), a wealthy merchant originally owned the piece. It was rescued from house fires, not once, but twice, before 1770. The japan work is thought to be that of Robert Davis, an English-born japanner who worked in Boston until his death in 1739.
This high chest, owned originally by the well-to-do merchant Colonel Josiah Quincy, is a remarkable survival for being saved from a house fire not once, but twice. In 1769, after the second fire, Quincy wrote in his account book "the greatest part of my furniture [was] by the timely assistance of our friends and neighbors, secured from the devouring flames."Decades later, Josiah's great-granddaughter, family historian Eliza Susan Quincy, wrote the story of this high chest's survival on a small paper label which she pasted inside a drawer. Today the chest is valued not only for its rare decoration called “japanning,” which imitated Chinese lacquer, but for its well-documented history. It is on display at the Quincy House in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Associated Building

Original to Josiah Quincy House (Quincy, Mass.),

Maker

Possibly Davis, Robert, d. 1739 (Artist)
Possibly Whiting, Stephen, 1720-1789 (Artist)

Dimensions

84 7/8 x 42 1/2 x 23 1/4 (HxWxD) (inches)

Credit Line

Gift of Edmund Quincy

Accession Number

1972.51

Places

Massachusetts (United States)
Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)