Chest of Drawers

1760–90

Attributed to John Cogswell
American, 1738–1819
Boston

This serpentine-front bombé chest, one of only six known, is an exceptional example of this rare form, and it has retained its original finish and brasses. Though seemingly plain in design, the bombé chest was quite complicated and costly to produce because it took an excellent craftsman to curve the drawer sides, mahogany front, and the interior dovetail joints to match the swell of the case. While most American furniture forms were derived from European sources and were disseminated throughout the colonies, some forms like the Boston bombé chest are now known to have been produced only in their specific regions.

Status: On View, Gallery 167
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: John Cogswell
Title: Chest of Drawers
Place: Boston (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. 1760–1790
Medium: Mahogany with white pine
Inscriptions: Mark: chalk inscription on base possibly reading "Bottom"; sticker back left upper corner with printing: "No./Property of/Edith Cluett"
Dimensions: 79.7 × 91.8 × 50.8 cm (31 3/8 × 36 1/8 × 20 in.)
Credit Line: Helen Bowen Blair Fund
Reference Number: 1979.499
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/58399/manifest.json

Milo M. Naeve, “American Bombé Furniture,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 74, 2 (1980), 17 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, “Daring Design From Boston,” Antiques World 2, 7 (May 1980), 82–83 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report, 1979–1980 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1980), 13, pl. 43.
Marvin D. Schwartz, “Americana Collection Growing at Art Institute,” Antique Monthly (May 1980), 21a (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture (American Association for State and Local History, 1981), 22, no. 34.
“Design/Today: Expanded Art Institute Traces Decorative Arts History,” Furniture/Today (Sept. 26, 1988), 22 (ill.).
Tom Armstrong, “The New Field–McCormick Galleries in the Art Institute,” The Magazine Antiques 134, 4 (Oct. 1988), 822–35, pl. 4.
Marvin D. Schwartz, “New Wing Presents Design, Colonial Period to Present,” Antiques and The Arts Weekly (Dec. 30, 1988): 38–39 (ill.).
Harold Sack, “The Bombé Furniture of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts,” The Magazine Antiques 135 (May 1989): 1178–1189, pl. 16.
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture, 2nd ed., (American Association for State and Local History, 1989), 10, no. 35
Robert Massey and Anne Rogers Haley, “John Cogswell and Boston Bombé Furniture: Thirty-Five Years of Revolution in Politics and Design,” Furniture in America (1994): figs. 21 (detail), 22, (detail), 41, 42 (detail).
Judith A. Barter et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 82–84, no. 24.
Robert Massey and Anne Rogers Haley, “John Cogswell and Boston Bombé Furniture: Thirty-Five Years of Revolution in Politics and Design,” The Chipstone Foundation, reprint of Furniture in America (1994), accessed May 20, 2020, http://www.chipstone.org/article.php/32/American-Furniture-1994/John-Cogswell-and-Boston-Bomb%C3%A9-Furniture:-Thirty-Five-Years-of-Revolution-in-Politics-and-Design, figs. 21 (detail), 22, (detail), 41, 42 (detail).

New York, American Art Galleries, Loan Exhibition of Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Furniture and Glass, 1929, cat. 631.

Israel Sack, New York City, by 1920; George Cluett Collection, c. 1925; by descent to Mr. and Mrs. Walker, West Hartford, CT, 1955; Israel Sack, New York City, by 1979; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1979.

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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.