VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT QUEEN ANNE LOWBOY

Newport, Rhode Island, Circa 1771.
Attributed to Thomas Townsend (1742-1827)
Signed in graphite Nicholas Easton, August 28, 1771, his dates are 1752-1825.

Primary Wood: Mahogany. Sabicu
Secondary Woods: Tulip Poplar, White Pine, Red Cedar (by micro-analysis)

Reference: This lowboy is documented in The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery, RIF6562.

A labeled Thomas Townsend chest on chest made for the Gardiner family now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is also inscribed in graphite “Nicholas Easton, 1772.” See Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2016), page 58 n25; page 286, 287 n5; page 454, fig. 22.

For a similar example with two long drawers see The John Brown House Loan Exhibition of Rhode Island Furniture, May 16-June 20, 1965, published by The Rhode Island Historical Society, Illustration No. 64, pages 100-101.

Exhibited in Vanity & Elegance: The Dressing Table and Tall Chest in America 1685-1785, Bernard & S. Dean Levy, Inc., January 22-February 15, 1992 and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, page 30, number 25.