$3,198
Shaker Red-Painted Pine Writing Box, New Lebanon, New York, c. 1830, rectangular box with hinged lid with breadboard ends on dovetail-constructed case, the sides with red wash surface, the interior with yellow wash is inscribed "Angeline Cook" in pencil on the underside of the lid, and along the top edge of the back of the case, (imperfections), ht. 4 7/8, wd. 16 5/8, dp. 11 in. Literature: Gather Up the Fragments , p. 194. This writing box is pine and finished with a chrome yellow wash (inside), red wash (case sides), and clear varnish (top). "Angeline Cook" is written in script on the underside of the lid and along the top edge of the back of the case. She was admitted at Mount Lebanon on July 5, 1865 and Shaker records indicate that she came from Watervliet to evade her father. Brother Isaac Newton Youngs recorded the construction of a number of writing boxes in the Church Family's Domestic Journal: "March 1836 One dozen writing boxes were brot into the house, made & lately finished by Nicholas Bennet. They are well made, and Nicholas says they are worth $6.00 apiece, & that he has been near 6 days apiece making them. He began them some where about the 20th of January. The boxes were mostly for young Sisters, writers, &c." This box may be one of Brother Nicholas's, but could also have been made by Brother Orren Haskins or Brother Elisha D'Alembert Blakeman, both of whom are known to have constructed writing boxes.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2014-06-15
