This chest, or caja, exemplifies the furniture-making tradition that flourished in colonial New Mexico in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Located over one thousand miles north of Mexico City, the capital of New Spain, and at the northern frontier of the Spanish empire in the Americas, New Mexico was a border region where Spanish missionaries and settlers waged a contested existence alongside Indigenous groups that had called the region home for millennia. The chest, with its heraldic designs carved in shallow relief epitomizes Hispanic culture in this remote area, which was tethered to New Spain via the trade route known as El Camino Real, or the Royal Road. Chests of this style may have appealed to wealthy Spanish families who settled in the largest colonial towns northward along the Rio Grande River, such as Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Santa Cruz, as the symbolism and regimented facades of the objects harken back to traditional forms of Hispanic and European furniture. Chests like this example were typically used for storing textiles, clothing, and smaller valuables, such as papers, tobacco, and currency. Many were painted in vibrant colors, echoing the colorful imported textiles and locally made blankets that were stored inside or displayed within the adobe block homes and buildings in the region. Although little is known about the makers of these chests, the construction details—such as complex dovetail joints, applied moldings shaped by a molding plane, and low-relief carving—indicate a familiarity with traditional Hispanic joinery and wood-working techniques. The paucity of surviving early colonial records makes a fuller understanding of this furniture tradition elusive; however, rare examples such as this chest provide extraordinary material evidence of life in colonial New Mexico under Spanish rule (adapted from text written by Dennis A. Carr).