High Chest of Drawers

This piece was made for George Foust (1756-1836) and Barbara (Kivett) Foust (1761-1837), members of the German Reformed community, whose families migrated from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century. George was a successful blacksmith and farmer who, at the time of his death in 1836, owned large tracts of land, 23 slaves, and furnishings like this chest of drawers with sulfur inlay. To create the inlaid decoration, including George and Barbara’s initials and the 1796 date of construction, the craftsman poured molten sulfur into carved channels.  This high chest is part of a regional furniture group identified by its decorative use of sulfur inlay. Of the surviving pieces from the group, the Foust high chest is the most elaborate.