1808
High Chest of Drawers
George DyerAmerican, active 1804 - 1846
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Cabinetmaker George Dyer incorporated the latest furniture designs into this high chest, which would have held textiles and other belongings. Lightwood inlay forms long ovals on the front of each drawer, while the drawers are framed by a geometric pattern inlaid above and below the drawers and the columnar insets at the sides.
Most distinctively, two eagles on the uppermost long drawer are formed in light-colored and variously dyed woods and red wax. Borrowed from the art of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome, the eagle was adopted for the United States seal in the 1780s, and it was displayed proudly in works of art like this chest.
Dyer, who signed and dated this chest, was of German descent, but this chest’s design and ornament would have been fashionable in the houses of people of many backgrounds who lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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