Chippendale Bombe Chest-on-Chest Sells For $1.7 Million In Skinner's Americana Auction.
Skinner made history in its November 1st American Furniture & Decorative Arts auction, when it sold an 18th century Chippendale Mahogany Carved Scroll-top Bombe Chest-on-Chest for $1,766,000. This chest-on-chest was particularly rare and desirable, as it was made in Boston or the North Shore of Massachusetts, and remained in very fine condition, retaining its old surface and original brasses. Stylistically, the piece most closely resembles one in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg.
Also notable is the provenance of the chest. Family papers verify that the piece once belonged to Robert “King” Hooper, prominent Marblehead merchant and one of the wealthiest men in 18th century America. Hooper, through a series of provident events and strategic decisions, became a powerful force in the colonial fishing industry in Massachusetts, playing a vital role in providing cargo essential to the British “Triangle Trade”. A Loyalist during the American Revolution, Hooper subsequently lost the fortune he had amassed, but in the middle decades of the 18th century, his lifestyle and the home and furnishings he enjoyed had reflected that of British high society across the ocean.
In commenting on the chest, Stephen Fletcher, director of Skinner’s American Furniture & Decorative Arts Department and popular appraiser on the PBS-TV series Antiques Roadshow, had this to say: “Simply put, it’s the finest example of American furniture I had ever found in 35 years of working in this business, and Skinner was truly privileged to have the opportunity to offer it at auction. It seems only fitting to me that after more than 200 years, it was auctioned in Boston -- the city in which it was likely made.”
According to renowned furniture expert and conservator Robert D. Mussey, Jr., “for balance harmony and architecturally derived proportion, few Boston cases exceed this one. It blends the flat planes of the upper case facade and sides with especially successful curves of the bombé lower case, ogee bracket feet, and beautiful serpentine shaping of the scrolled pediment.”
