| Object ID |
1983.242 |
| Object Name |
Chest, Blanket |
| Dimensions |
H-41 W-39.5 inches |
| Early Date |
1800 |
| Late Date |
1830 |
| Made By |
Possibly Thomas Matteson |
| Description |
Country cabinetmakers often painted their simple pine furniture with decorative designs or to resemble the grain of mroe exotic and expensive woods. This chest, which is almost identical in size and form to one signed "Thomas Matteson/S. Shaftsbury, Vermont/1824" in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum, and is painted in the style of several other chests found in Southern Vermont, may have been made by the same craftsman.
Whether Thomas Matteson was the owner or maker of the Henry Ford Museum's chest is difficult to assess. There are three other related painted blanket chests which are signed: "By J. Matteson/August 1 A.D. 1803," (collection of Historic Deerfield, Inc.), "Benoni Matteson to B. Burlingame Dr./To Paint $2.70/To Paint & Grain Chest 2.00/$4.70" (private collection), and "Thomas G. Matison/South Shaftsbury/V.t [sic]/1824" (ex-collection of Henry Ford Museum). The inscriptions on these chests suggest that a number of members of the Matteson family of South Shaftsbury were making and/or painting furniture, and might have owned it. Searches through local church and land records, Bennington County's 'Vermont Gazette' and probate inventories have as yet failed to provide any conclusive evidence about the maker(s) of this furniture.
The construction of the museum's chest with its thick, rough cut, pine boards and irregular dove tails, suggests that it was not the product of a trained cabinetmaker, but perhaps, was made by a carpenter or partime woodworker who filled the long winters constructing and decorating furniture. Like many rural craftsmen, the maker of this chest appears to have had little interest in keeping up with fashion. The blanket chest was a traditional form, more common to the 17th and 18th centuries than the 19th. |
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