This mahogany double chest is signed "Thomas Gross / Maker." When the graphite inscription was discovered on a drawer bottom, his name was found in the section of the Philadelphia directories reserved for free Blacks. Born in Philadelphia, Gross maintained a cabinetmaking shop in the city’s racially diverse Cedar Ward, centered around the present-day Washington West neighborhood. The size of his shop is unknown, and like most cabinetmakers, he supplemented his business by being an undertaker.

The straightforward design of the double chest—literally a chest on chest—is time-honored. The natural figure of the mahogany provides the chest’s ornament, while the height of the feet and the bold cornice hint at its date. Unusually, the mid-molding of Gross’s double chest is nailed to the bottom of the upper case instead of the top of lower case.

Furniture makers did not typically sign their work, and this is only known work of art documented to Gross.