Starting a New Project - E. Chapin High Chest of Drawers - Trip to Yale Furniture Study & Planning Step 1

I have selected my next project.  After completing a couple of smaller projects, I have decided to take on a very large project.

I really like working with cherry and many of the Connecticut Valley pieces are made with cherry as the primary wood.

In particular, Eliphalet Chapin's work is so outstanding that it started an entire movement and of course copied by other craftsman at that time.  I have built two Chapin pieces so far, an arm chair and chest of drawers.  This piece with certainly challenge my skills.

I first found the chest in New England Furniture In Winterthur by Nancy Richards and Nancy Evans
Below is a picture from the book.

Winterthur has many of their objects digital on-line.  Here is a photograph I pulled off of their site. It is an excellent straight on picture.

I converted the picture to a PDF and scaled it to full size on my engineering plotter.  Here are two parts of the chest on my shop wall.  From the full size prints I could measure and determine the dimensions.  I also made some templates.

I also made a line drawing in half size and a side view in quarter size.

But I did not have any thicknesses. I could guess at many but I really would like to study the piece in person. There are four of these chests that are known to exist in museums.   Fortunately for me the Yale Furniture Study has one of these pieces.  I contacted Yale and made an appointment to study the highchest.
So here I am at the Yale Furniture Study in New Haven, CT.
There are rows and rows of furniture, literally hundreds of pieces of furniture.  I wish it was a lot closer to Ohio, I would be there all the time.  It is about an eight hour drive for me.
Here is the piece that I came to study.

I was able to take out drawers to study their construction as well as the internal construction of the chest.

The back was unusual since it was chamfered and fit into a groove.

Drawer sides are 3/8 inch with a 1/32 inch bead, which I have never seen before.

The drawer bottoms of the large drawers have also a ramp which I have never seen before.

So the trip to the Yale Furniture Study was very rewarding.  I now had all of the dimensions that I need to create a material list.
I went to Irion Lumber and purchased a matched set of 4/4 curly cherry with some 17 inch boards, 8/4 curly cherry and 12/4 curly cherry.  The material is outstanding.

Then I went to Groff & Groff Lumber an purchased Eastern White Pine  for all of the secondary wood. There is quite a bit in the drawers, drawer bottoms, drawer runners, chest back, etc.

Now I have most everything that I need to get started on the high chest.  I think I will start on the four legs and the ball and claw feet.

Here is today's video: