{"type":"artobject","objectid":39817,"objectnumber":"PP690","sortnumber":"P       690P","displaytitle":"High chest of drawers","department":"American Art","classification":"Furniture","datebegin":1755,"dateend":1765,"datecomputed":1760,"daterange":"A.D. 1700-1800","displaydate":"ca. 1760","medium":"Mahogany, tulip, poplar, white cedar, and brass","dimensions":"238.5 x 109.5 x 60.5 cm. (93 7/8 x 43 1/8 x 23 13/16 in.)","dimensionsproposed":"","creditline":"Princeton University, Prospect House, Bequest of Mrs. Mary K. Wilson Henry","markings":null,"inscribed":null,"signed":null,"catalograisonne":null,"creditlinerepro":null,"restrictions":null,"nowebuse":"False","secondaryobjectnumber":null,"campuscollections":"true","on_view":true,"accessionyear":null,"newaccession":0,"titles":[{"title":"High chest of drawers","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"makers":[{"id":21325,"displayname":"Thomas Carteret","displaydate":"active 1741–1771; active Philadelphia, PA","datebegin":1741,"dateend":1771,"prefix":"probably","suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"probably Thomas Carteret, active 1741–1771; active Philadelphia, PA","displayorder":2},{"id":21324,"displayname":"Henry Cliffton","displaydate":"died 1771; active Philadelphia, PA","datebegin":0,"dateend":1771,"prefix":"probably","suffix":"and","role":"Artist","displaymaker":"probably Henry Cliffton and, died 1771; active Philadelphia, PA","displayorder":1}],"depicted":[],"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"The term \"highboy,\" like its cognate \"lowboy,\" is derived from a corruption of the French word \"bois,\" or wood. Both types of furniture were produced in substantial numbers in America beginning about 1730, often in matched sets. Highboys, whose multiple drawers are divided into upper and lower sections, developed in late-seventeenth-­century England from the simpler chest of drawers on a stand. Early American varieties in the William and Mary style feature flat tops and four or more turned legs on ball or bun feet, joined together by horizontal stretchers. Later versions, like this especially well-preserved and finely proportioned example from Philadelphia, rest on curved cabriole legs, often with the claw-and-ball feet typical of the prevailing Chippendale style, which reached its apogee during the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The finials and scroll-top pediment on this highboy create an upward visual thrust that, in combination with the graduated drawer sizes and rising design of the carved decoration and original brasses, lends an appealing air of lightness to the imposing furniture form. This example and its mate — a lowboy whose design, proportions, and carving exactly match, in appropriately diminished scale, those of the highboy’s lower section — are rare paired survivals of an unidentified, but clearly highly skilled, cabinetmaker. Both descended in the family of Andrew Kirkpatrick, Class of 1775, a lawyer, judge, and longtime Princeton trustee. ","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"American furniture in the Chippendale style, named for the London cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale(1718–1779), is characterized by robust, curvilinear, often elaborately carved forms. This high chest of drawers and dressing table are rare paired survivals from Philadelphia. The finials and scroll-top pediment of the high chest create an upward visual thrust that, in combination with the graduated drawer sizes and rising design of the carved decoration and original brasses, lends an appealing air of lightness to the imposing form. Traditional scholarship on colonial American furniture has focused on formal analysis and connoisseurship to determine maker, place and date of manufacture, and quality. Recent consideration of the environmental history of materials such as mahogany has expanded understanding of these objects, revealing them to be products of far-flung trade networks, enslaved labor, and the excessive harvesting of trees in the Caribbean, which led to their endangerment.\n","remarks":"AMER1_23-27_WLA   Day 1 Cataloguing- group chat for PP691 and PP690"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Andrew Kirkpatrick (1756-1831) [1]. Mary K. Wilson Henry; bequeathed to Princeton University, 1922.\n\n[1] Communication by the donor.","remarks":null}],"media":[{"id":61619,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/L1968-41","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":61620,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/L1968-41_OBL","isprimary":0,"rank":2,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"}],"hasimage":"true","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 230","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"}],"exhibitions":[{"exhibitionid":2818,"citation":"Princeton University Art Museum 10/13/2018–1/6/2019 \r\nPeabody Essex Museum 02/02/2019–5/5/2019 \r\nCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art 5/25/2019–9/9/2019 \r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2018-10-13","enddate":"2019-01-06","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/2818"}],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place made: United States, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia","code":"Place made","continent":null,"subcontinent":null,"country":"United States","region":null,"state":"Pennsylvania","city":"Philadelphia","county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":null,"locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":null,"location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"terms":[{"id":2160025,"term":"scrollwork","aatid":300010205,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2114483,"term":"claw-and-ball feet","aatid":300040616,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2114601,"term":"cabriole legs","aatid":300040831,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2038492,"term":"American","aatid":300107956,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2185236,"term":"finials","aatid":300002280,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2032594,"term":"Chippendale","aatid":300021214,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2064771,"term":"furniture","aatid":300037680,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2068190,"term":"high chests of drawers","aatid":300039072,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2068201,"term":"highboy","aatid":300039072,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2159385,"term":"acanthus","aatid":300164902,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2046578,"term":"mahogany","aatid":300012221,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2046578,"term":"mahogany","aatid":300012221,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2046901,"term":"poplar","aatid":300012363,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2047157,"term":"tulipwood","aatid":300012469,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2047330,"term":"white cedar","aatid":300012545,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2162050,"term":"brass (alloy)","aatid":300010946,"termtype":"Materials"}],"classifications":[{"id":2068190,"classification":"high chests of drawers"},{"id":2064771,"classification":"furniture"}],"cultures":[],"cultureterms":[{"id":2038492,"culture":"American"}],"periods":[],"periodterms":[],"attribute_groups":[{"id":2199325,"term":"North American Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"238.50"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"109.50"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"60.50"}],"packages":[{"packageid":213904,"name":"Gallery_23-27(Pavilion7)-American"},{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":268550,"name":"Web_CA_2025_North American"}],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/L1968-41"],"displaymaker":"probably Henry Cliffton and, died 1771; active Philadelphia, PA | probably Thomas Carteret, active 1741–1771; active Philadelphia, PA","displayculture":null,"displayperiod":null,"caption":"Probably Henry Cliffton and (died 1771; active Philadelphia, PA), probably Thomas Carteret (active 1741–1771; active Philadelphia, PA), High chest of drawers, ca. 1760. Mahogany, tulip, poplar, white cedar, and brass; 238.5 x 109.5 x 60.5 cm. Princeton University, Prospect House, Bequest of Mrs. Mary K. Wilson Henry (PP690)","captionhtml":"Probably Henry Cliffton and (died 1771; active Philadelphia, PA), probably Thomas Carteret (active 1741–1771; active Philadelphia, PA), <i>High chest of drawers</i>, ca. 1760. Mahogany, tulip, poplar, white cedar, and brass; 238.5 x 109.5 x 60.5 cm. Princeton University, Prospect House, Bequest of Mrs. Mary K. Wilson Henry (PP690)","published_date":"2026-02-11 11:00:54.422185","campusart":[{"campuscollections":"true","campusart":0,"neighborhood":null,"lat":null,"lon":null}],"extended_content":true}