From Pennsylvania to Waterloo - A Biographical History of Waterloo Township

Item Name	Chest of Drawers	Image1
Owner(s)	Eby, John B.
Category	Artifacts
Year	Early: 1825 - Late: 1850
Description	This practically constructed pine chest of drawers is painted red and has six drawers of graduating sizes. The drawers are dovetail constructed, while the unit is butt joint constructed fastened with square head nails. The unit's skirting is an applied piece of moulding with ebonized bracket feet. Wooden knob hardware and an inlay brass escutcheon. The piece is signed by " John B. Eby cabinet maker".
Maker\Attribution	John B. Eby cabinet maker
Provenance	The piece is signed by " John B. Eby cabinet maker". He was born in Waterloo County, (Ontario, Canada) in 1823 and it was perhaps a secondary trade he combined with farming. Little is known of this craftsman. Unfortunately, census records fail to document the secondary trades that many Mennonites combined with farming. John B. was likely the son of "Saddler Sam" Eby, originally of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Collection	Joseph Schneider Haus Museum Contact : 466 Queen St. S. Kitchener 519-742-7752 www.region.waterloo.on.ca
Accession No.	1982.014.001-.007
Curatorial Comments	The chest of drawers can be seen as an evolution from the storage trunk. Throughout much of the 19th century, the bedroom in the Germanic household was the setting for three pieces of storage furniture - a trunk, a chest of drawers, and a clothes cupboard - which were all in use. Both Continental and Pennsylvania-German traditions produced and used chests of drawers made within the mainstream of Anglo-American styles: Chippendale, Sheraton, Hepplewhite and Empire. The only Germanic nuances were those of detail, as in common use of lapped drawer mouldings, ebonizing, or ornamental embellishment by means of decorative paint work, carving or inlay.

Region of Waterloo

Fraktur design based on Family Register by Jacob Shoemacher in Joseph Schneider Bible, 1821.