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Description
This butternut blanket chest was made by a Shaker craftsman – most likely in the Shaker community in New Lebanon, New York – around 1840. The chest retains its original Prussian blue paint. The interior contains a small container, called a till, made of pine. An architectural framing plan for a post-and-beam building is drawn in ink on the lid of the till. The building shown in the plan may be the blacksmith shop built in the New Lebanon Shaker community in 1846, which still stands today (now a private residence).