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Sugar desk, 1800–1820, cherry, primary wood; tulip poplar, secondary wood. Made in the Bourbon County, Ky., area. Gift of Hattie Bishop Speed, by exchange.

Sugar chest, 1805–1825, walnut, poplar, other woods. Lincoln County area (possibly), Ky., 341/8  by 25¼ by 14 inches. Gift of Edith and John Brewer.

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Sugar desk 1810–1840, likely Mason County area, Ky., cherry and unidentified veneer, poplar, 315/8  by 29¼ by 137/8  inches, private collection. —Bill Roughen photo

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Sugar chest, 1795–1815, collected in Estill County, Ky., walnut, poplar, 321/8  by 25½ by 18½ inches. Private collection. —Bill Roughen photo

MUST RUN 10/5

SPEED ART MUSEUM PRESENTS ‘FOR SAFEKEEPING: THE KENTUCKY SUGAR CHEST, 1790–1850’ w/4 cuts

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LOUISVILLE, KY. — The Speed Art Museum is hosting “For Safekeeping: The Kentucky Sugar Chest, 1790–1850” through December 2.

The first exhibition devoted to Kentucky sugar chests, this exhibition presents more than 40 outstanding examples of chests, desks and similar forms. One of America’s most distinctive groups of furniture forms, sugar furniture (sugar chests, desks, boxes and related types), arose during the very late Eighteenth Century in America’s postpioneer Western frontier.

In all of their various forms, this furniture was devoted to protecting sugar, a costly commodity in the region at the time. These beautiful pieces would be placed in the dining room or parlor of a home for all to see. The iconic sugar chest kept the expensive sugar close at hand for sweetening the tea, coffee, mixed drinks and alcoholic punches that lubricated the social rituals of the day.

Whether sugar chests or butter knives, specialized objects used for social activities like drinking and dining became more common during the 1800s. For middle- and upper-class consumers, owning these specialized goods indicated one’s knowledge of the latest rules of fashion, refinement and proper etiquette.

Nowhere were sugar chests and related forms more universally embraced than in antebellum Kentucky. Even though sugar furniture faded from use in the 1840s, the forms remain enormously popular today among collectors, scholars of American and Southern furniture, historians of early American life and the general public.

This exhibition was curated through the voluntary efforts of Clifton Anderson and Eastern Kentucky University professor Marianne Ramsey.

The Speed Art Museum is at 2035 South Third Street. For information, 502-634-2700 or www.speedmuseum.org.