carving attributed to the "Garvan Carver", 1760-1770, in figured mahogany with scrolled pediment and elaborately carved tympanum, the lower case with carved shell drawer and carved ruffled skirt, carved cabriole legs and ball and claw feet, inset fluted quarter columns, poplar, yellow pine, and white cedar secondary, 100 x 45 x 22-1/2 in.

Note: This extraordinary high chest is on par with the most fully developed examples of the late Baroque style in Philadelphia. Two very closely related examples are known to exist. The first comparable form is the famous high chest in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection at Yale. The Yale example is in walnut, but the same hand is evident in the carving- a still anonymous craftsman that has been called the "Garvan Carver". The example offered here had its pediment cut early in its history, and the restoration of the pediment was accurately accomplished by casting the closely related ornaments on the Yale example. This is documented by a letter to the Yale University Art Gallery dated 1946, when the owner John Schneck had it restored by Robert Eastburn of Wilmington Delaware, at the suggestion of Fiske Kimball.

The second example is the walnut example in the Winterthur Collection (Joseph Downs, cat. no. 197). In the Winterthur example, the drawing of the carved ornaments are nearly identical to those of the chest offered here.

Among surviving examples of the form in Philadelphia, this example stands among the most exuberant and fully developed known.

Provenance: Collection of John Schenk, New Jersey; Sotheby's New York, October 1983 lot 315; The Important Private Collection of a Rocky Mountain Couple

swan's necks, cartouche, and finials replaced. Lower part of tympanum retains its original applied carving- the applied shell is replaced. Brasses are probably original. Side moldings are replaced. Cracks at rear legs and feet, with repair at one rear foot and small loss at the other. Typical minor repairs at drawer lips and escutcheons. Dry alligatored varnish. An early photograph shows the high chest in pre-restored condition. (see website photos- we are indebted to Alan Miller for sharing this early photograph).