Attributed to James McAlester
Goochland County or Louisa County, Virginia, 1800-1815
Cherry with mahogany, yellow pine, bone and mother of pearl
Catalog no. 128
During the eighteenth century, medicinal supplies were sometimes kept in compact multidrawered cabinets well suited for the separate storage of substances that were expensive, potentially dangerous, and usually sold in small quantities. Attributed to James McAlester of Goochland or Louisa County, this cabinet has lockable doors that conceal nearly forty small drawers in which papers containing dry ingredients could be kept. The large drawer above the doors has twenty additional compartments of varying sizes for vials of liquids, scales, a mortar and pestle, and other equipment.
First owned by wealthy Piedmont planter Alexander Spottswood Payne and his wife, Charlotte Bryce Payne, the cabinet structurally and stylistically mirrors a signed desk with tambour doors made by McAlester in Louisa County in 1818. Little is known about McAlester's operation or where he served his apprenticeship, although the complexity of ornamentation and structure in his work strongly suggests familiarity with urban cabinetmaking traditions.