Cupboard, 1685—90
Ipswich or Newbury, Massachusetts Oak and maple Lent by The Currier Gallery of Art, Gift of William G. Berry This important cupboard retains restorations which date from two different points in the 1800s. The door in the upper case is in the style of neoclassical furniture from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and probably was a replacement of about 1810. Several drawer fronts and many other repairs and replacements date to about 1880 and reflect the owners’ fascination with their ancestor Meschach Weare (1713—1786), the first "president" of the legislature of New Hampshire during the Revolution. One of the replaced drawer fronts was even carved with Weare’s initials. However, we now know that the cupboard probably was made not for Meschach Weare but for his parents or grandparents. The Weare cupboard has been included here not despite, but because of the alterations it has experienced. Furthermore, the radical architecture composition and complex assembly of the cases are unparalleled in any other New England tradition and have no immediate English antecedents.