The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is a treasure house that boasts remarkable collections of early American furniture, including some incomparable pieces by Goddard and Townsend, the famous Colonial-era Rhode Island furniture makers. Norm is drawn to a simple chest that is undergoing laboratory investigation at the museum. Known as the Taunton Chest, the piece was named for the Massachusetts town where Robert Crosman (1710-1799) built it nearly 300 years ago. This highly decorated small chest is one of only a handful of Crosman originals that remain intact today. Norm builds his version out of poplar and calls on decorative artist Natalie Gardener to precisely copy the paintwork of the original design.
