$24,150
Federal Mahogany Veneer Bow-front Chest of Drawers, Boston area, early 19th century, the figured mahogany top with lunette inlaid edge overhangs a conforming case of cockbeaded veneered graduated drawers over a serpentine veneered skirt flanked by flaring French feet, the drawers include cross-banded mahogany veneer bone-inlaid escutcheons and predominantly original brass, old refinish, (veneer losses), ht. 35 3/4, wd. 41 1/8, dp. 22 1/2 in. Provenance: Descended in the family of Kirk Boott (1790-1830), a Boston merchant who in 1822 was appointed the first agent of the Merrimack Company to oversee every aspect of the industrial and community development of Lowell, Massachusetts. He is credited with the economic success of Lowell as an important textile producing city. Boott collected a number of pieces of furniture for his house in Bowdoin Square, Boston. His daughter Francis married William Wells who conducted a school at their home in Cambridge on Brattle Street, at the corner of Fayerweather. Among his pupils were James Russell Lowell and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Their daughter, Francis Boott Wells, married the Reverend William Newell in 1835. They and their children lived in the Brattle Street home with the family furniture. Reverend Newell was the minister of the First Parish Church in Cambridge for forty years. Their daughter married James Moore and the furniture has remained in the Moore family to this day.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2001-02-24
