Eastern Shore of Virginia, 1765-1780
Black walnut with yellow pine
Catalog no. 122
This remarkable clothespress was the product of a finish carpenter rather than a cabinetmaker as was true of most eighteenth-century case furniture from the rural Eastern Shore of Virginia, a peninsula isolated from the mainland by the Chesapeake Bay. The similarity between the paneled surfaces of the press and the paneled walls of contemporary Eastern Shore houses is obvious. Structural details followed those of house paneling as well. The carcass is not dovetailed. Instead, the fully assembled paneled facade was simply nailed to the front edges of the sides. Dovetails were used in only four of the five drawers, which were built in the standard way. The fifth drawer, although original to the press, was nailed together like a box.