A William & Mary carved oak "Hadley" chest with drawer Attributed to Ichabod Allis (1675-1747) or Samuel Belden (1657-1734), Hampshire County, MA, circa 1715

The carved front panels bear the initials "L" and "A."

H: 36 1/2 in. W: 49 1/2 in. D: 19 3/4 in.

This chest is very similar to the chest made for Lydia's sister Abigail in the collection of Memorial Hall Museum, Deerfield, Massachusetts.

Literature: Rev. Clair Franklin Luther, The Hadley Chest (1935) p 69, illustrated and identified as the "L.A. Chest No.7"

Philip Zea and Suzanne L. Flynt, Hadley Chests, Exhibition Catalogue (1992)

Provenance

According to the history associated with the piece, the chest was made for Lydia Allis (1702-1737), daughter of Ichabod (1675-1747) and Mary Belding Allis (1679-1724) of Hatfield, Massachusetts. Lydia married Daniel Dickinson (1693-1768) in 1736 and had no children. Daniel Dickinson remarried and the chest likely became the property of his son, Aaron Dickinson (1749-1827) and his wife Experience Phelps Cooley Dickinson (1761-1847), thence to their daughter Hannah Dickinson (1791-1867) who married John Parmenter (1781-1855) in 1808, and inherited by their son, author and historian, Charles Oscar Parmenter (1833-1913). The chest was likely given to Parmenter's nephew, Cooley B. Dickinson (1858-1933), and became the property of his widow, Myra Dickinson Schreiber (1865-1954).

In 1929, the chest was in the possession of James T. Roche and Henry B. Stoddard.

An Ohio estate.