The latest project we will undertake is a John Townsend four drawer block and shell chest. This is a very formidable project, from two angles; the blocked drawer fronts and the carving skill required to for the two concave and single convex shells.

This particular chest is from the book ‘Master Craftsman of Newport, the Townsends and the Goddards‘ by Michael Moses and Israel Sack. The chest is featured on a full page color plate (#3) in the book, the photography is wonderful, this is one serious book, the detailed photographs are amazing (both color and black and white).

Anyway, we modeled the complete chest as usual in SketchUp, the exception was the three shell carvings, I must confess that I could not figure out a way to model the shells… The chest is going to be constructed from South American Mahogany that we sourced from Irion Lumber, the secondary wood is going to be Yellow Poplar.

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John Townsend four drawer chest shell carving

Now onto the most iconic feature of the Goddard-Townsend Ne
John Townsend four drawer chest drawer front construction

The John Townsend four drawer block and shell features thre
John Townsend four drawer chest case top

After the foot construct tour de force, its kind of nice to

John Townsend four drawer chest foot construction

We are now at the foot construction phase of the project, t
John Townsend four drawer chest bottom case molding

The bottom case molding on the John Townsend four drawer bl
John Townsend four drawer chest case jointery (case top)

After the drawer blades have been prepared, we then need to