Important Piedmont Walnut and Poplar Pitch-pediment Chest on Frame, Jesse Needham (c. 1774-1839)...

Important Piedmont Walnut and Poplar Pitch-pediment Chest on Frame, Jesse Needham (c. 1774-1839), Randolph or Guilford County, North Carolina, c. 1810. The case is crowned by a three-part cornice applied to front and side edges: the internal board forming a peaked pediment and ogee molding along bottom, overlaid with beveled dentil molding, and finished with a beaded cavetto, the tympanum decorated with a distinctive flower or fleur-de-lys motif flanked by two carved quarter fans. The case has a rectangular top blind-dovetailed to the sides and contains nine drawers arranged in a three-over two-over four configuration. A concealed shelf is built into the shallow recess behind cornice and retains one original secret drawer. The split and graduated drawers also retain original locks and die-struck brass escutcheons and bails impressed 'W.J.' in the center. Each drawer rests on an internal frame with dividers and back rails tenoned into the mortised side walls, whose front edges are finished with applied quirk molding. Four horizontal rabbeted boards and a blind-dovetailed panel enclose the back and bottom of the case. The carved and joined frame has two support braces blind-dovetailed to the apron rails. The tops of the front rail and stretchers are covered by applied cavetto molding, counterbalancing the coved cornice on the case. The apron is carved along the bottom with a spurred cyma-curve profile and is joined with double pegs to the stiles of shapely cabriole legs raised on angular, chamfered slipper feet, the rear legs being truncated at the knee to conform with the flat back. wd. 45, dp. 23 1/4, ht. 80 1/2 in. Footnotes: Provenance Frances Elizabeth (Kale) Forrest (1918-2000) of Mebane and Durham, North Carolina, inherited circa 1971. Emma (Carpenter) Kale (1892-1961) and Russell Henderson Kale, Sr. (1889-1969) of Gaston and Alamance County, North Carolina. Pattie Fedora (May) Newcomb (1890-1963) and Howard A. Newcomb (1886-1950), a treasurer of the Durham Furniture Company, Durham, North Carolina, purchased from Leach Estate, circa 1940. Theodocia (Leach) Thayer (1878-1958) and Whitmund Lafayette Thayer (1879-1957) of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, inherited circa 1930. Mahala Ann (Brown) Leach and Rev. Martin J. Leach (1839-1914) of Randolph County, North Carolina, inherited circa 1886. Catherine (Blue) Leach (1795-1886) and John Leach (c. 1793-1857), of Glasgow, Scotland, and Randolph County, North Carolina. A letter from W.L. Thayer to H.A. Newcomb, dated 1 February 1940, reads: 'Dear Sir: The Highboy or chest of drawers purchased from us was originally the property of John Leach and Catherine Blue Leach, who came to America from Scotland about the year 1799. In years, it became the property of M.J. Leach + wife Mahala Ann Leach. It has been in the Leach family for more than 100 years, probably 125 years or more. This is about all the history I can give you concerning it.' Literature Robert Leath, 'Friendly Furniture: The Quaker Cabinetmakers of Guilford County, North Carolina, 1775-1825,' Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 38 (2017). June Lucas, ''The Neat[est] Pieces...of Any Description': Piedmont North Carolina Furniture, 1780-1860,' Antiques & Fine Art (23 April 2011). Ronald L. Hurst and Jonathan Prown, Southern Furniture, 1680-1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection (Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1997), cat. no. 108, 116. Michael H. Lewis, 'American Vernacular Furniture and the North Carolina Backcountry,' Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 20/2 (November 1994): 1-37. John Bivins and Forsyth Alexnder, The Regional Arts of the Early South: A Sampling from the Collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (Winston-Salem: Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 1991), cat. no. 47. John Bivins, Jr., 'A Piedmont North Carolina Cabinetmaker: The Development of a Regional Style,' Antiques 103/5 (May 1973): 968-73. Paul H. Burroughs, 'Queen Anne Chest of Drawers on Frame, North Carolina c. 1740-60,' in Southern Antiques (New York: Bonanza Books, 1967 [1931]), plate IV, p. 146. Note A distinctive form produced in North Carolina's 'Quaker Crescent' between 1775-1825, the pedimented chest on frame blends characteristics of southeastern Pennsylvania and New England furniture in the heavy stock of native walnut and poplar. Following the 2017 discovery of his account book, the Guilford County cabinetmaker Henry Macy (1773-1846) is now more closely identified with the vernacular furniture of Guilford and Randolph County than Jesse Needham, to whom John Bivins attributed most contemporaneous Piedmont case furniture, including four pitch-pediment chests, in the early 1970s. Scholars had previously dated these chests to the mid-eighteenth century on account of the Queen Anne style of the slipper-foot frame. This fine example, descending exclusively from North Carolina collections, was last on the market in 1940. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing