of line, whose curves and graces sharply conflicted with Spain’s characteristic robustness and simplicity.”
What some furniture aficionados considered a loss for Spain was a gain for colonial Cuba. While eighteenth-century foreign influences are considered a dilution of the integrity of traditional Spanish furniture, most Cuban baroque furniture forms are exuberantly vernacular interpretations. Cuban artisans blended some of the traditional elements of furniture from Europe with exotic local influences to create furniture with bold proportions and dramatic ornamentation (see Pl. V).
By the mid-eighteenth century, sugar had replaced tobacco as the source of Cuba’s wealth, and with these riches came imported furniture in the style of Louis XV from France, and Chippendale furniture from England, which was deemed more prestigious than the local product. However, the relatively soft woods of European furniture were no match for the humidity, tropical woodworms, and termites of Cuba. As a result, locally made reproductions and interpretations of the European imports came into fashion (see Pl. IX).
Among the elite the sacristy chest was considered the finest of all furniture forms to give to their local church and to adorn their private chapels. The smaller freestanding form of these extravagant chests with their undulating block front facades is believed to have possibly originated in Mexico or Brazil, but recent research points to a Cuban origin. These smaller chests were used in bedrooms and drawing rooms (see Pls. VI, VII). Adapting and commissioning what was originally a religious form increased the self-importance of the owner.
Originally, the block front was carved from a single thick piece of mahogany. As the eighteenth century progressed Cuban cabinetmakers created ever more exaggerated serpentine fronts, with the design continued on the sides and the feet protruding farther forward (see Pl. X). only in the nineteenth century was the raised surface glued onto a thinner board.
The Cuban sacristy chest inspired craftsmen throughout the New World to copy it. Portuguese rococo sacristy chests are found in Brazil; Dutch bombe examples are found along the northern coast of South America; and many examples are found in Mexican cities. Although it is documented that Cuban sacristy chests were shipped throughout the Caribbean, it is not known if they were the prototypes for the Mexican and South American examples. In an article about the decorative arts of Mexico, David B. Warren has written:
“During the second half of the nineteenth century, the ubiquitous storage trunks began to be replaced by wardrobes and chests of drawers. The one shown … is unusual in that banks of large drawers are concealed behind a pair of doors that comprise the undulating façade. The origin of this motif in combination with conforming ogee bracket feet is not clear. It seems to come ultimately from Chinese furniture and may have been introduced to Mexico either directly from China, or through furniture imported from Holland, itself influenced by Chinese examples. The stylistic kinship with the undulating facades of the block front furniture that evolved in Newport, Rhode Island, is intriguing, but at the moment inexplicable.”
North American scholars claim that the block front originated in Newport, Rhode Island, in the 1760s with the cabinetmakers John Townsend (1732-1809) and John Goddard (1723-1785). However, research by R. Peter Mooz has placed the earliest known block front in Boston in the late 1730s. as serpentine block front sacristy chests were made in Cuba as early as the 1730s, the North American origin of the form seems dubious. An ingenious theory was put forth in 1928 by William Brownell Goodwin (1866-1950), who visited Havana and saw the sacristy chest in the cathedral. He wrote:
“My theory naturally is that John Townsend himself or John Goddard or both of them shortly after 1741 visited Havana for the purpose of choosing and selecting fine mahogany for their work, and at that time visited the Cathedral, saw this piece, and recognized t