CORYDON, Ind. (AP) – A cabinet made by the younger brother of Daniel Boone is expected to fetch top dollar at an upcoming auction in southern Indiana.
The cherry corner cabinet was made by Squire Boone Jr. around 1799 and has his name carved on an inside door.
The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., reports the cabinet belongs to the estate of former Corydon businessman Frederick Griffin. He received the cabinet as a gift nearly 70 years ago from a descendant of the Boone brothers.
Griffin died in 2008, and the contents of his home on Corydon’s downtown square are being liquidated in a Sept. 3 estate sale.
The auction features antique furnishings, paintings and Civil War-era weapons, including a silver derringer that dates to the 1840s and a small cannon that Gen. John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate troops captured after crossing into Harrison County in 1863. But the cabinet’s ties to the Boone family make it one of the prized pieces of 18th century American furniture, historians say.
“In my estimation, it’s going to go real high,” said Grady Manus, chief of interpretation at Historic Daniel Boone, an educational center at Lindenwood University. The university operates Daniel Boone’s home near Defiance, Mo.
Griffin typed a sheet of paper explaining the link to Squire Boone and taped it to the cabinet. There is no other account or Boone family document that mentions the furniture, which is signed “Squire Boon, 1799.” But Manus said its authenticity isn’t in question because Boone historians have known about the cabinet and also knew the family gave it to Griffin.
Manus said the Boones often spelled their last names without the “e.”
“People didn’t care too much about accuracy in spelling,” he said.
Squire Boone was 10 years younger than his famous brother. Both were born in Berks County, Pa., near Reading – Daniel in 1734 and Squire in 1744.
Squire moved to southern Indiana around 1806 to build a grain mill and farm after losing his Kentucky property to legal disputes. He died in 1815.
In 1915, the Historical Soceity of Berks County placed an engraved marker at The Daniel Boone Homestead, which is a designated Historical Site. It is maintained by The Friends of the Daniel Boone Homestead.
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Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com
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