Object Notes

Dressing tables were often made in conjunction with high chests. Placed in a bedchamber, the high chest held linens and apparel, while the dressing table contained smaller personal items such as combs, jewelry, hair ribbons, and cosmetics.

In Still Life with Striped Gourd, Otis Dozier paints a vibrant assemblage of freshly harvested gourds spilling over a tabletop in a country home.

Arguably Harry Carnohan’s most celebrated work, West Texas Landscape depicts an isolated, barren wasteland. While seemingly uninhabited, the scene’s elements of desertion and emptiness do hint at a once lively human presence.

This bold baroque soup tureen and stand was made in London in 1728 by the well-known German silversmith Charles Kandler, who trained at the Saxon court in Dresden in the early 18th century.

This tureen-on-stand is a magnificent example of a Chinese adaptation of a European prototype. Although the actual model sent to China could have been made of pottery, wax, wood, or pewter, the ultimate inspiration was likely a French silver tureen in the late rococo taste.

Although details such as the shell carvings and distinctive banding around each drawer front suggest Boston associations, design features such as the shape of the legs and the compressed oval openings in the pediment indicate this chest was made in Essex County, Massachusetts.

Tubular skirts are worn with the top edge folded over to the waist or below. For this reason, the upper and lower areas of the cloth are the focus of the design. This skirt is embellished with stylized skeins of thread alternating with protective lizards.