![]() ![]() The line-and-berry inlay patterns of these small chests were often very intricate. ![]() The cornice and base moldings are glued and tacked to the cabinet top and base frame. A separate frame forms the base, and the ball feet are attached to it with wedged tenons turned on lop of the feet. I was already aware of the spice-box form and the line-and-berry inlay, but the variety of work in this show-inspired me to further study.Īs in most traditional casework, the spice box shown here is dovetailed together, and the interior partitions are inserted into dadoes in the case ends after the carcase has been glued up. Lee Ellen Griffith, an antique dealer and guest curator, had put together a show and catalog of 58 spice boxes encompassing the popular styles from William and Mary of the late 1600s to Hepple-white of the late 1700s. Home to the Chester County Historical Society in 1986. A third secret compartment located behind the cornice molding can be accessed only by moving the back panel. This William-and-Mary spice box has more drawers than first meet the eye: Tiro are concealed behind shallow convention-al drawers, with one, the dual drawer, attached to a sliding partition. Because of this regional popularity, most of the examples surviving today were probably built in the Chester County area, or as one collector put it, "within a 50-mile radius of the statue of William Penn atop the Philadelphia City Hall." Although I grew up in Pennsylvania, I didn't pay any attention to the local furniture forms until I enrolled at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, where students learn woodworking by building furniture in traditional 18th-century English and American styles. The spice box was most popular in Europe and the Colonies during the early part of the 1700s, but it continued to be in fashion in Pennsylvania well into the early 1800s. Some spice boxes were scaled-down versions of high chests others, like the William-and-Mary chest below, were decorated with elaborate inlays. The people affluent enough to buy spices would commission local craftsmen to build exquisite little chests of drawers for storing their spices and other valuables. In Colonial times, the spices we take for granted today were rare commodities brought to America at great expense on sailing vessels.
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