Notes
From (book):
Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. "The regional arts of the early South: a sampling from the collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts"/John Bivins and Forsyth Alexader. Copyright 1991 by Old Salem.
(similar piece p.90): The popular term "chest on chest" was not one used in early Low Country inventories. Instead, "double chest of drawers" was the accepted description of a large case piece such as this one. This example is a showcase of classic Charleston details. The cornice is made up of an ogee crown, a Doric dentil, and a cove, a format repeated on a number of related case pieces. The stronly architectural nature of this chest is typical of Charleston, including the engage, stop-fluted pilasters, the cove-and-ovolo bed molding, and the inset base. Its drawer construction also is normal to the Low Country and floows London practice in the use of full-bottom dustboards and two-part drawer bottoms divided from front to rear by muntins, a feature that lessened possible damage from radically shifting humidity levels. The fret pattern in the frieze below the cornice is one popularly known ass the "elfe" fret, after the cabinetmaker thomas Elfe, to whom many pieces of furniture with this decoration have been attributed without documentation of any sort, thoush a very similar fret pattern was used in the Elfe shop.