Samuel McIntire billed Salem cabinetmaker Jacob Sanderson $4 for 'Carving Bellows top' in 1807. Charging at the same time only seventy-five cents for carving and reeding the legs of a worktable, it may be inferred that McIntire's carving on the bellows as painstakingly detailed such as the carving on this example illustrates (Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), p. 429; Swan, 'Samuel McIntire and the Sandersons' Essex Institute Historical Collections (Salem, 1934), p. 19). McIntire's son, Samuel Field McIntire also carved 'bellows tops' as he noted in an 1815 advertisement, but the quality and fine detail of this bellows points to the hand of the elder McIntire.

The basket of fruit, flowers and swags with tassels carved on this bellows are all motifs associated with the vocabulary of Salem carvers particularly Samuel McIntire. A more expensive option than embellishing bellows with painted decoration, the carving of bellows boards stemmed from a tradition of elaborately carved examples from seventeenth century England (New England Begins II (Boston, 1982), no. 282).

A bellows of striking similarity was in the collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair in 1934 (does the MMA have this now??????) and is illustrated in The Magazine Antiques (February 1933):45; (October 1934):131 (Winterthur Decorative Arts Photographic Collection). Other carved bellows associated with Salem are illustrated in Montgomery American Furniture (New York, 1966), nos. 429-30; Sack, American Furniture From Israel Sack Collection IV (1974), p. 1037, P3844; IX (1989), p. 2482, P6116.