Box

1650–1700

Artist unknown (American, 17th–18th century)
Eastern Massachusetts

The most common object in a colonial home, a small, lidded rectangular storage box would have held personal articles, such as household items, writing implements, or a Bible. They were decorated simply, usually only on the front, with stylized plants or vegetation and geometric lines. The Art Institute’s box is segmented by an upper band of intersecting lunettes with intervening foliate leaves and a lower border with repeating floral S-scrolls. The initials “M P,” carved in the center of the box, are presumably those of the original owner (although his or her identity is unknown).

Status: On View, Gallery 165
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Artist unknown
Title: Box
Place: Eastern Massachusetts (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1650–1700
Medium: Red oak and eastern white pine
Inscriptions: Initials "MP" carved in center front
Dimensions: 24.8 × 63.5 × 45.7 cm (9 3/4 × 25 × 18 in.)
Credit Line: Wirt D. Walker Fund
Reference Number: 1946.564
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/56095/manifest.json

“Antiques in Domestic Settings,” The Magazine Antiques XL, 5 (Nov. 1941), 288–91, 1 (ill.).
Lester Margon, Masterpieces of American Furniture, 1620–1840 (New York: 1965), 85 (ill.).
Robert F. Trent in Brock W. Jobe, et al., American Furniture with Related Decorative Arts 1660–1830: The Milwaukee Art Museum and the Layton Art Collection, (New York: 1991), 37, note 2.
Judith A. Barter and Monica Obniski, For Kith and Kin: The Folk Art Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2012) no. 3. (ill.).

The Fewkes Family, West Newbury, MA; Mr. Rogers, Byfield, MA; by descent to Mr. Frost, Haverhill, MA; sold to B. H. Davis of J. Saltzberg, antiques dealer of Ipswich, MA; sold to Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Behrend (1875-1932), Wellesley Hills, MA; sold by Mr. Behrend’s widow, Mrs. Dudley Phelps Sanford, through Israel Sack, New York, NY, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1946.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.