Meeks Dresser
A fine example of early 19th-century furniture, this dresser has a hidden drawer.
This stately dresser is the second piece of furniture acquired by HNOC in the past five years bearing a paper label from the Chartres Street warerooms of J. & J. W. Meeks, prominent New York furniture manufacturers. Known for producing fine furniture in neoclassical styles, the Meeks family, headed by Joseph Meeks Sr., was selling furniture directly to the New Orleans market by 1822. Joseph’s sons, John and Joseph W., took over the business after their father’s death, in 1836. Another son, Theodore Meeks, was dispatched to New Orleans to run the retail outlet on Chartres Street. Although that store closed in 1839, Theodore remained in New Orleans, serving as an agent for the family company in addition to operating the Verandah Hotel. Later in life, he was unanimously elected mayor of the suburb of Carrollton.
Meeks furniture was elegant, stylish, and expensive. It could be found in upper-class homes across the country and was especially popular in the Greek Revival plantation houses of the Gulf South. The Meeks outlet on Chartres Street brought this fine furniture directly to wealthy southern customers. In addition, the shop outfitted steamboats and other prominent public spaces—such as the first St. Charles Hotel, upon its opening in 1837—with fashionable furnishings. This dresser, with three large drawers, a narrower drawer hidden in the undulating molding at the top, and a mirror supported between two pillars, would have been a sought-after addition to a bedroom or dressing room in an urban or rural home.
The paper label in the top drawer of this dresser is in good condition and is very rare. The firm’s name, New York address, and Chartres Street location indicate that the label and the dresser date between 1836 and 1839. Finding original labels on antique furniture is exciting and uncommon; only half dozen of these labels from the Meeks store on Chartres Street are known to exist. Of the six, HNOC now owns two, one attached to this dresser and the other associated with a green velvet–covered sofa (2014.0381).
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