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Chest

Thomas Dennis American
1663–80
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 708
The richest and most vigorous early colonial carving is that associated with the work of William Searle (1634–1667) and Thomas Dennis (1638–1706) of Ipswich. Paired leaves, with a naturalistic, three-dimensional quality rare in American furniture of the period, dominate the panels of this chest; the panels are carved in the popular seventeenth-century design of a stalk of flowers and leaves emerging from an urn, of which only the opening is indicated here. Searle and Dennis came from Devonshire, England, where a tradition of florid carving, using many of the motifs seen on this chest, flourished in the early seventeenth century.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Chest
  • Maker: Possibly William Searle (died 1667)
  • Maker: Thomas Dennis (1638–1706)
  • Date: 1663–80
  • Geography: Made in Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: White oak, red oak
  • Dimensions: 29 3/4 x 49 1/8 x 21 3/8 in. (75.6 x 124.8 x 54.3 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1909
  • Object Number: 10.125.685
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Room from the Hart House, Ipswich, Massachusetts, Wood, oak, pine, American
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Chest, the Searle-Dennis shop tradition American, Red oak, white oak, American
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Chest, the Searle-Dennis shop tradition American, Red oak, white oak, hard maple, white pine, American
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