Desk and Bookcase

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Desk and Bookcase
Datec. 1760–1790
Made inNewport, Rhode Island, United States
MediumMahogany; eastern white pine, soft maple, chestnut, red cedar, poplar-aspen or cottonwood, white oak, and Spanish cedar or cedrela
Dimensions99 3/4 × 44 1/4 × 26 1/4 in. (253.4 × 112.4 × 66.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.22
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Drawing Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The monumental block-front desk and bookcase is one of Newport’s acknowledged masterpieces. Commissioned by entrepreneurial merchants and accomplished attorneys, these impressive objects proclaim their owner’s professional achievements and testify to their position within society.

None of the desk and bookcases is dated or identified by its maker; however, two possess tangential associations with the Newport cabinetmaker John Goddard (1723 / 24–1785). That this group of furniture was produced in more than one shop is perceptible by comparing its writing interiors’ minor variations, such as the presence or lack of rosettes, or an open or closed pediment. The Bayou Bend writing section’s distinctive shell-carved drawers, rather than the typical scalloped pattern, are set within relieving arches, while the bookcase harbors a tier of three drawers with cyma-sculptured fronts reminiscent of the great tea and card tables.

Related examples: Bayou Bend’s Newport desk and bookcase is one of eleven known examples, including three made for the brothers Nicholas (1729–1791), John (1736–1803), and Joseph (1737–1785) Brown of Providence (Christie’s, New York, sale 6844, June 3, 1989, lot 100; Ward 1988, pp. 45, 339–44, no. 177; Ott 1965, pp. 106–7, no. 67). Seemingly related to the Browns’ desks is one published in Hipkiss 1941, pp. 30–32, no. 19. The remaining six desk and bookcases, including Bayou Bend’s, form a second group: Downs 1952, no. 232; Randall 1965, pp. 84–86, no. 62; Heckscher 1985, pp. 282–84, no. 184; Monkhouse and Michie 1986, pp. 96–99, nos. 39, 40. A privately owned example is referenced in Jobe and Kaye 1984, p. 46. Other Rhode Island desk and bookcases are known with a pair of shells carved on the bookcase doors (Moses 1984, pp. 342–43). Another desk and bookcase, with three shells on the lid, is said to be by Grindal Rawson (1719–1803) of Providence (Ott 1965, pp. 104–5, no. 66) and related to one with three shells on the fall board and two on the bookcase doors (Christie’s, New York, sale 8578, January 18, 1997, lot 278).

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


ProvenanceFrank Partridge, London, after 1930; […]; Charles F. Montgomery (1910–1978), for the Winterthur Museum, Delaware; […]; [Israel Sack, Inc., New York]; purchased by [John S. Walton, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1952; given to MFAH, 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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scan from file photograph
c. 1730–1800
Black walnut; yellow-poplar, red oak, Atlantic white cedar, chestnut, eastern white pine, and black walnut
B.61.82
Desk and Bookcase
Edmund Townsend
c. 1765–1785
Mahogany; eastern white pine; chestnut; yellow poplar, and cedar
B.99.24
Card Table
John Goddard
c. 1755–1785
Mahogany; soft maple, eastern white pine, and red cedar
B.69.88
Writing-arm Chair
Ebenezer Tracy
c. 1770–1803
Eastern white pine, yellow-poplar, soft maple, white oak, chestnut, and butternut
B.69.409
scan from file photograph
c. 1760–1800
Black walnut; red gum, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, and eastern white pine
B.69.527
Chest-on-Chest
c. 1760–1800
Mahogany; mahogany, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, white oak, and southern yellow pine
B.69.74
Bureau Table
Thomas Spencer
c. 1780–1785
Mahogany; mahogany, eastern white pine, chestnut, soft maple, and yellow poplar
B.92.6
Cupboard
c. 1670–1700
Red oak and red maple; white pine and western red cedar
B.93.11
Sideboard
Joseph Meeks & Sons
c. 1825–1835
Gilded mahogany and mahogany veneer; white oak, soft maple, ash, eastern white pine, and yellow-poplar
B.67.6
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany and red gum; black cherry, eastern white pine, and Atlantic white cedar
B.69.23.2
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany and red gum; black cherry, eastern white pine, and Atlantic white cedar
B.69.23.1
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1760–1800
Mahogany; mahogany, Atlantic white cedar, cedar, southern yellow pine, and yellow-poplar
B.69.75