As I was adding the last few details to the first of the three panels, it dawned on me why the pattern seemed so familiar. I am building a “Hadley chest.”
A “Hadley chest” by definition is a style of chest made circa. 1700 in Massachusetts or Connecticut, having front rails and panels carved in low relief with elaborate tulip, sunflower, and leaf patterns.
The name given to this style of furniture was coined by Henry Wood Erving (1851-1941), a Connecticut antique collector. Erving purchased a chest in Hadley, Massachusetts as an antique in 1883. He wrote that “in talking with friends [about his collection of chests, he] always spoke of the first as my ‘Hadley Chest,’ a description others took up.” The term “Hadley chest” became the accepted name for this type of furniture.
Now, if the sun will just peek through the clouds, casting a modicum of light into the shop, I can start carving the tulip-panels!
The center panel looks great! Will the other panels feature the same carved pattern?
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Thanks, Michael. The next two panels will be stylized tulips.
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I think the finished chest will be a real standout!
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Thank you, Liz. You are too kind.
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A Hadley chest is definitely on my list of somedays. Are you going to paint it quasi-psychedelic like the originals?http://www.chipstone.org/article.php/596/American-Furniture-2009/Early-Polychrome-Chests-from-Hadley,-Massachusetts:-A-Technical-Investigation-of-their-Paint-and-Finish
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Thanks, Paul. No paint for this one … just some boiled linseed oil and turpentine!
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I’ve been wondering as I’m watching the patterns take shape whether you were going to stain the chest.
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Thanks, Liz. No stain either … just boiled linseed oil and turpentine.
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It will develop its own patina as it wishes, then?
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Yes! In a mere 400 years it will look awesome … LOL!
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