A new Bedford masterpiece.

Sometime in the mid- to late 1780s, the cabinetmaker Cornelius Allen inscribed his name on a drawer rail of the striking mahogany chest-on-chest shown in Figure 2. For more than two hundred years, as the chest passed from owner to owner, the relatively faint graphite signature lay hidden in plain view. Only recently, when the present owner saw Allen's clear signature on the maple chest-on-chest in Figure 3, was he able to decipher the one on his own.

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But who exactly was Allen? The design and construction of the chest-on-chest indicate that he trained in the Newport shop tradition, but no list of makers from that city includes his name. (1) If not Newport, where did he work? The answer lies in the chalk inscription "Long-plain" on the top of the lower case, along with graphite inscriptions on the backboard of the maple chest-on-chest reading "Longplain," "N. Bedford," and "Barnstable" (Fig. 3a). Biographical and physical evidence indicates that Allen, who was born in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, made the mahogany chest-on-chest in cooperation with, and under the direction of, his older brother, Ebenezer Allen Jr. Their story is a fascinating one, for even though the chests-on-chest they made resemble Newport examples, the Allen brothers worked during the 1780s and early 1790s in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in the Longplain section near the Friends Meeting House. Yet their ties to the Newport cabinetmaking tradition were strong, for Cornelius Allen and Ebenezer Allen Jr. were nephews of the renowned cabinetmaker John Goddard (1724-1785).

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New Bedford (see Fig. 1) offered opportunity for talented cabinetmakers like the Allens in the Federal period. Originally part of the larger town of Dartmouth, Bedford Village was first settled in the 1760s as a prospective whaling port. In 1787 it separated from Dartmouth and was renamed New Bedford. Because of its location, harbor, and commercial ties, it was well situated to flourish after the Revolution, and by 1790 it had grown from a small village to a burgeoning whaling center with a population of more than three thousand. (2) That as refined a piece as the Allens' mahogany chest-on-chest was made in New Bedford indicates the shift that took place in the local trade for high-end furniture after the Revolution. (3) Before the war, wealthy citizens of Bristol County often commissioned formal furniture from Newport and Boston. For example, in the early 1760s Jerathmael Bowers furnished his house in Swansea, Massachusetts, with objects from Newport, including a massive Goddard-Townsend dining table with claw-and-ball feet. (4) After the war, although they still ordered fine furniture from Newport and Boston, and later New York City and Philadelphia, the elite of Bristol County increasingly depended on skilled local makers for their furnishings.