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"WA" Chest with Drawer

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Furniture such as this joined, or "Hadley," chest, can reveal information about the owners and the times in which they lived. An expensive piece of furniture, the carved chest is held together with mortise and tenon joints secured by wooden pins. Resembling a house in its construction, but with a lift top and one drawer, it was built by a craftsman called a joiner. The decoration of vines and leaves, carved with the aid of a template, is only on the front panels. The center panel includes the initials "WA," believed to be for William Arms who lived from 1692 to 1774. Flat textiles were stored in chests like these and they were probably placed in the same rooms as the beds.

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