Walnut high chest, attributed to John Bradbury, Sr., York, ca. 1740
Contributed by Old York Historical SocietyDescription
Walnut with pine secondary bonnet-top high chest is attributed to cabinetmaker John Bradbury, Sr., (1697-1778). Bradbury was born in Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts and likely trained with a cabinetmaker in Essex County. His great-grandfather, Thomas Bradbury (1611-1695) had been an agent for Maine Proprietor Ferdinando Gorges, and had managed the earliest tidal sawmill in New England on Old Mill Creek, York River, in the 1630s. John Bradbury moved to York in the 1720s, where, with business partners, he invested in the mill and timber rights at Old Mill Creek.
Bradbury made the high chest for his business partner, Jeremiah Moulton, Jr., and wife Hannah Sayward Moulton around 1740.
The chest follows Boston area furniture design but is more massively constructed than Boston examples.
View additional information about this item on the Maine Memory Network.