Salem Witch Bureau
Oak and white pine with maple and walnut moldings, by an unidentified furniture maker in Eastern Massachusetts, late seventeenth century.
106.6 cm (height) x 114.2 cm (width) x 52.5 cm (depth)
In his will, Gen. William H. Sumner describes this late 17th-century chest of drawers as "the Witch Bureau, from the middle drawer of which one of the Witches jumped out who was hung on Gallows Hill, in Salem." This chest of drawers is similar in design and construction to a number of chests made in eastern Massachusetts, some of which are attributed to the Symonds workshop of Salem. John Symonds was a joiner from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England, who emigrated to Salem, where he set up his shop. He trained his two sons and a number of other apprentices, and it is possible that one of them made this chest.
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