Provenance: The dentist, author and art collector Mr Alfred Bramsen (1851–1932). Thence by descent.

The Danish dentist and author Mr Alfred Bramsen graduated from high school in 1868 and became qualified as a dentist the following year. He then studied medicine and dental art at the Missouri Dental and St Louis Medical College in America. He practiced in Copenhagen from 1872.

This block front chest of drawers is a sophisticated example of New England furniture made in Massachusetts during the Chippendale period. It incorporates a block fronted rectangular top above a conforming case fitted with four long graduated drawers. The whole is supported on shaped bracket feet. The sides of the pine-lined drawers have distinctive grooves to the top surfaces which is a feature in American furniture of this period.