CAPEN PERKINS CHEST (1685)

This elaborate 1685 chest of drawers acquired by The Brick Store Museum in 1999 has elicited tremendous interest among scholars of American decorative arts. The chest was a gift of three sisters, descendants of the original owners. On the basis of the three initials and the date carved on the drawer fronts, as well as the genealogical data, the chest has been traced back to the Reverend Joseph Capen (1658-1725) and his wife Priscilla Appleton Capen (1657-1723) of Topsfield, Massachusetts.

Parson Capen, a young Harvard graduate from Dorchester, was called to the ministry at Topsfield in 1682. Shortly thereafter, he married Priscilla, daughter of one of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of nearby Ipswich. The house built by the Capens in 1683 was constructed with funds from Priscilla's dowry, on a 12-acre parcel of land granted to the Parson by the town. The house still stands in Topsfield where it is operated by the Topsfield Historical Society.

The chest is one of six attributed to an unidentified but prolific joinery shop located in either Ipswich or Newbury, Massachusetts.

The Capen Chest is historically important because of its superb condition and elaborately carved and applied ornament. The only other chest with this much ornamentation is the famous Staniford-Heard chest of drawers in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware.

The Brick Store Museum's chest was featured in a major article in the journal, American Furniture 2001 published by the Chipstone Foundation and distributed by University Press of New England. The chest was borrowed by the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2001 for a special exhibition that highlighted the re-opening of that museum's renovated American Art galleries. Currently the Capen Perkins Chest is on display back at The Brick Store Museum.