Featured Robert Crosman Pine Box

A Crosman paint decorated pine box is up for grabs at Skinner in a couple weeks, I expect there will be a lot of interest even though box is in terrible condition.
Robert Crosman was a drum maker in Taunton Mass (1707-1799) who happens to hold the world record for a single piece of paint decorated American furniture. A 1729 chest of drawers that sold a few years ago for a staggering 3 million USD.
There is just enough left of this box to attribute it to Crosman, there will probably be institutional interest on this one as there are only 22 Crosman pieces known, most in museums.. Est. 15k-25k
https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/3307M/lots/157

 

Even if they did purchase it; would a museum put a piece in such rough condition as this on display for the general public? I can imagine the comments that people would make about the institution even if the box is incredibly rare and valuable.

 

Absolutely, just that name, Robert Crosman, is magic in the early american furniture world, right up there with Thomas Dennis and Goddard & Townsend.
And, with only 22 pieces extant, it's not like you get many chances at this sort of thing. Important piece of Americana, no doubt.

 

Here is the chest of drawers, dated 1729 that serves as a Rosetta Stone for all 22 pieces built by Crosman. It is the only signed piece known and, the only chest of drawers he built. Sold for a cool 3 million in 2006.
A short video about this chest from Christie's
https://www.christies.com/Features/Wishlist_John_ChestofDrawers-5647-3.aspx

The chest


The back of chest

 

That chest is really something, James!

 

It's a beauty for sure.

 

Yeah is, incredible survivor, everything is original, the paint, brass pulls, moldings, feet, etc.
Nevermind all that, just a little background on who Crosman was, a very gifted early american painter.
The question is, how much is box going to sell for? Don't forget as Joe pointed out, "rough condition"! I agree, TERRIBLE condition, will it matter for this piece?

 

Time will tell..................

 

That chest is a lovely fanciful piece. It's amazing it still is in such beautiful condition. Is it the birds that gave the box away? Birds are his signature?

 

Well, not sure about signature but he was into birds yes. The squiggle lines, the
tree with red balls at end of branches plus the birds all give it away. Very little doubt that it was built/painted by Crosman.
Here is a similar form box of his in much better condition
" It was a prized belonging of renowned fork art collectors Bertrum and Nina Fletcher Little and ornaments the guest bedroom at their summer home, Cogswell's Grant."

 

Most of the known Crosman pieces are blanket chests, this chest below i went after in 2011 at auction. It was once owned by Esther Stevens Fraser, the scholar/historian who first discovered Robert Crosman and, in 1933 published "The Tantalizing Chests of Taunton". This is an early chest of his and the decoration is more restrained, an almost child like quality to the design, perhaps built by Crosman as a teenager.
I thought i might have a chance because the lid was replaced and entire chest was painted green in the 19th century, Fraser had the paint removed. Some small
in-painting on the drawer done as well. With these condition issues,
estimate was 2k-4k, FAT CHANCE! It sold for 15k to a dealer who flipped it the next day for 30k.
and notice, no birds on this chest

 

Recently, The Decorative Arts Trusts gave a grant to Emelie Gevalt to study these chests as a group, there has been no scholarship on these Crosman chests since Esther Stevens Frazer in 1933.
Among the questions Gevalt seeks answers are:

" Due to the early work of pioneering antiques scholar Esther Stevens Frazer (1898-1945), these splendidly painted objects have historically been attributed to the hand of a single maker: Robert Crosman (1707-1799), a drum-maker and member of a family of craftsmen working in the eponymous town in southeastern Massachusetts from approximately 1727 to 1742. Since the time of Frazer’s seminal 1933 article, “The Tantalizing Chests of Taunton,” curators and scholars have analyzed selected chests, but an extensive consideration of the full group – expanded more than two-fold since the 1930s – has never been published. As a result, neither Frazer’s original findings nor her Colonial Revival viewpoint has been systematically addressed. Multiple questions remain about the chests: most notably, was Frazer correct in her attribution to Robert Crosman? Is there now further evidence to strengthen or perhaps refute her claims? Who, in fact, was Esther Stevens Frazer, and how might elements of her personal and cultural circumstances have influenced her scholarship and our subsequent understanding of the Taunton group? Finally, how can the chests’ changing interpretations over time inform our own present day understanding of these objects’ importance? This project will seek to answer these questions by undertaking a systematic examination of the surviving twenty-six Taunton chests, re-investigating the chests’ significance across an extended timeline by considering Frazer as both a secondary and primary source. Ultimately, as this thesis will show, Frazer’s attribution remains credible, with some of its weaknesses strengthened significantly by the consistency of the expanded body of Taunton chests and by the discovery of new evidence linking Crosman definitively to the cabinet-making trade. Nonetheless, a consideration of Frazer herself as a historical subject also reveals the extent to which her scholarship was influenced by personal and cultural proclivities. A re-investigation of Frazer’s work as a primary source emphasizes the shifts that have taken place in the interpretation of Taunton chests over the centuries, with twentieth-century owners casting the objects as symbols of a simpler time while leaving aside the chests’ original evocations, to the eighteenth-century eye, of abundance and sophisticated international taste."

Gevalt with a couple chests during her investigation

 

Well, the Crosman chest below answers that question pretty well I'd say, it's located & displayed at the
Art Institute Chicago

 

The problem for old furniture collectors is, on some pieces the furniture crosses over into other collector interests, in Crosman's case, "folk art" collectors being the main competitors. Makes it difficult to get a handle on what objects like that will sell for. You have people bidding who don't view it as an old furniture type object.

 

I found on the Art Institute's website that this piece is currently in a special exhibit:
Photography + Folk Art: Looking for America in the 1930s, Sep 21, 2019–Jan 19, 2020, no cat. (Not sure why the Crosman would be in an exhibit about the 1930s. If I figure it out will let the group know. Maybe a similar piece is in one of the 1930s photos in the exhibit.)

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/56087/chest-over-drawer

Thanks for posting this, @James Conrad ! I'll be in the Chicago area in a few days and may be visiting the Art Institute during my visit, weather permitting. I'll try to get there. The location link to Gallery 1 on the page above goes to a page showing all digitized items that are currently in that gallery... both photography and "folk art." Looks fun!

https://www.artic.edu/galleries/2147476637/gallery-1

 

Probably a bit of miscommunication there, Crosman was not discovered until the 1930s by furniture scholar Esther Stevens Fraser so guesses that is where 1930s come in.
THAT'S the problem with "folk art" people getting involved with old furniture, they basically muck it up! ditto at auction!
Yeah, if you get a chance to visit museum, I'd say that chest is worth a look see, condition isn't great though, far from it, as per photograph.

 

Little doubt it is in fact a Crosman piece though, the tree (tree of life?) the squiggles (earth?) and of course the birds. Unusual in that the background seems to be blue, not his usual color palette. They acquired that chest in 1946 looks like so not long after Stevens discovered him.

 

Thanks! Your reasoning makes sense to me. I'm sure they will have an explanation on the information cards in the exhibit.

 

Today is the day this box hits the sales floor, may the "folk art" people stay the heck away from this box! and i get at least 1 or 2 bids in before being run over by deep pocketed old furniture people!
Guesses 17.5k for this box even though condition is TERRIBLE!

 

Fingers and toes crossed for you!!