AFA 22nd Anniversary

Antiques & Fine Art 101 2022 CHEST MADE FOR PETER BRAUN Painted across the facade of this chest is a most unusual scene—at the right, a hunter aims his gun at two leaping deer, which are being chased by a dog (Figs. 1, 2). Trees, rocks, rolling hills, and a picket fence provide a serene backdrop to the action-packed foreground; across the top, bold yellow letters with red accents on a striking black ground announce the name of the chest’s owner, Peter Braun, and date of its manufacture, 1834. On the back, the decorator tested out the stippling technique he would then use to embellish the visible sides of the chest, executed in red to contrast with a green background (Fig. 3). Affixed to the back is also an old label from antiques dealer A. H. Rice of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who in 1926 advertised this chest along with ten other pieces of Mahantongo Valley furniture, boasting that he had personally collected them “in Remote Sections of Pennsylvania.” 2 Earlier that year, Rice had also exhibited three of these pieces— including the Braun chest—at the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, whose purpose was to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Despite Rice’s emphasis on the remoteness of the Braun chest’s origins, a house blessing on the underside of its lid challenges that notion (Fig. 4). Made just a year or so before the chest, this broadside was printed in Allentown, Pennsylvania—more than eighty miles east of the Mahantongo Valley. There are also many other examples of birth and baptismal certificates filled out for Mahantongo Valley families that were produced by printshops in Reading, Harrisburg, Lebanon, and other urban centers (see fig. 6). A strong indication that the broadside is contemporary with the chest is the yellow rosette at the top of the paper, made by the same stamp used to decorate other Mahantongo Valley furniture (see figs. 5 and 8). The chest’s owner, Peter Braun (1811–1878), was the son of Michael and Catharina (Scherer/Shorry) Braun. Fig. 2 : Detail of the chest illustrated in figure 1. Photo by Gavin Ashworth. Fig. 4 : House blessing inside the chest illustrated in figure 1. Printed by Augustus Gräter and Alexander Blumer, Allentown, Lehigh County, Pa., ca. 1832–3. Photo by Gavin Ashworth. Fig. 3 : Label on back of the chest illustrated in figure 1. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.