Natural Shaker Oval Storage Box with an illustrated lid – SOLD
New Lebanon Bishopric | c. 1845
Maple, pine, copper, and transfer decal
Original varnish surface
2“ h. x 5 ¼” w. x 3 ¼” d.
Provenance: Watt & Jan White, Stamford, CT
A compelling example of a New Lebanon Bishopric Oval Storage Box in its original natural finish. The lid is embossed with a decal transfer of Union College (Schenectady, NY), illustrated by Joseph Jacques Ramée. Ramée’s Architectural Plans are in the collection of Union College. The underside of the lid retains numerous signatures in ink and, in the center, a signature burnished into the pine:
D. HAVEN THAYER,
Williams College
Reverend David Haven Thayer (1824-1882) attended Williams College from 1845 to 1847. He went on to graduate from Union College in 1849 and study theology at Yale Divinity School before being ordained as pastor of the congregational church at Mount Carmel, Connecticut, in 1853. For much of his career, he was instated at the congregational church in Windsor, Connecticut, until joining the Catholic Apostolic Church in Enfield. Reverend Thayer was married twice and had eight children—four sons and four daughters.
Handwritten dates on the interior of the Box read: “1849” and “1853.” 1849 was the year Thayer graduated from Union College, and 1853 was when he finished his studies at Yale and was ordained. If the Box was a memento he received or had commissioned when transferring from Williams to Union, (which is logical given the inscription and the proximity of Schenectady to the Shaker community of Watervliet), it was a keepsake that he treasured through life’s milestones to come.
With two, well-proportioned lappers on the base and one on the lid fixed with vertical lines of copper rivets and brads, this unique Box is of classic construction and in an excellent state of preservation.
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