The Pickering Family William and Mary Figured Walnut and Maple Flat-Top High Chest of Drawers, possibly by Theophilus Pickering, Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1725

This high chest has a history of ownership in the Pickering Family of Salem, Massachusetts from Deacon Timothy Pickering (1702-1778) and his wife Mary (Wingate) (1708-1784), who married on October 2, 1728. It was believed to have been made by Rev. Theophilus Pickering (1700-1747), Deacon Pickering’s brother. He graduated from Harvard College in 1718 and was ordained in 1725 and became the second minister of Chebacco Parish (Essex) that same year. In 1730, he built a house at 9 Western Avenue in Salem, which he designed himself. He is said to have carved all of the moldings and paneling for the house as well as make much of the furniture.1The high chest descended to Timothy and Mary Pickering’s son, Timothy Pickering (1745-1829), who served as Secretary of State under Presidents George Washington and John Adams. He was also a Revolutionary War Colonel, Adjutant General and Quartermaster General of the Continental Army, Postmaster General, Secretary of War, and United States Senator and Congressman from Massachusetts. The high chest descended through successive generations of the Putnam branch of the Pickering family to Charles W. Putnam (1890-1973), who sold it out of the family in the twentieth century. It was in the collection of Israel Sack by January of 1970 when it appears illustrated in their brochure.² In 1993, it appears illustrated as a “Masterpiece” in The New Fine Points of Furniture by Albert Sack, who described it as “a jewel” that “excels in compact proportion, condition, and magnificent patina.”³

Retaining its original engraved tea drop brasses, this high chest is representative of a type of William and Mary high chest made in the Boston area, with an elaborate veneered surface, trumpet turned legs and flat serpentine stretchers. It displays striking book-matched panels of walnut with herringbone borders. The delicately turned trumpet legs and sides are made of maple. The stretchers follow the outline of the apron which retains its beaded borders. A closely related William and Mary high chest of drawers attributed to Theophilus Pickering was sold in These Rooms, Important Americana, January 17 and 19, 1997, sale 6957, lot 779. The latter high chest was originally owned by Sarah Wade of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Both high chests share several distinctive features including leg turnings, stretcher shape, molding contours, skirt design and unusual drawer construction in which the sides are secured to the front with nails instead of dovetails. Both also share diminutive proportions and similar dimensions. Another nearly identical William and Mary high chest was a Pickering attribution was offered in These Rooms, from the Collection of Gloria and Richard Manney, Fine Americana, June 24, 1993, sale 6444, lot 405.

For additional related examples, see a William and Mary high chest of walnut and maple that sold in These Rooms, The Highly Important Americana Collection of George S. Parker II from the Caxambas Foundation, January 19, 2017, sale 9605, lot 2025, one with crotch walnut veneers currently at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and one with similar veneering at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.⁴

¹ Essex historic houses, 17^th and 18^th Century houses of Essex County, Massachusetts, historicmassachusetts.org/essex

² Brochure number 18, January 1970. Reprinted in American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, volume 3, no. 1417, pp. 628-9.

³ Albert Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture (New York: Crown Publishers, 1993): 182.

⁴ See Brock Jobe, et al, American Furniture with Related Decorative Arts, 1660-1830 (New York, 1991) no. 26, pp. 78-80. See Richard Randall, American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965): no. 50, pp. 62-4.