Chest, 1663–80

Attributed to William Searle (American, d. 1667) or Thomas Dennis (American, 1638–1706)
Ipswich, Massachusetts
White oak, red oak

Nearly every seventeenth-century family owned at least one chest for storing linens, personal belongings, and household goods. On this example, the low, horizontal proportions and frame-and-panel construction are hallmarks of the seventeenth-century style. The three central panels are carved in the popular period design of a stalk of flowers and leaves emerging from an urn. The likely makers of this chest, William Searle (1634–1667) and Thomas Dennis (1638–1706), came from Devonshire, England, where a tradition of florid carving, using many of the motifs seen on this chest, flourished in the early seventeenth century.

Source:Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art