Desk-on-Frame

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Desk-on-Frame
Datec. 1730–1800
Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumBlack walnut; yellow-poplar, red oak, Atlantic white cedar, chestnut, eastern white pine, and black walnut
DimensionsClosed: 42 1/2 × 38 1/2 × 21 in. (108 × 97.8 × 53.3 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.61.82
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This desk-on-frame, the visual successor to the previous example (B.71.10), exhibits the subsequent stage in the form’s development. Here, the writing box is supported by a table with a drawer that introduces additional storage. The form relates to the dressing table, and, indeed, one group of Philadelphia desks is characterized by a deeply arched skirt and a series of small drawers reminiscent of Early Baroque dressing tables. Bayou Bend’s desk presents the alternative format, consisting of one deep drawer and a scalloped skirt. A striking contrast with its relatively plain exterior is a lively interior composed of double tiers of serpentine drawer fronts flanking an arched, field-paneled prospect door.

Technical notes: Black walnut; yellow-poplar (backs and sides of two principal drawers, drawer guides in upper case, bottom board of upper case), red oak (sides and backs of interior serpentine drawers), Atlantic white cedar (serpentine drawers’ bottoms), chestnut (sides and backs of prospect drawers), eastern white pine (lower case drawer runners, glue blocks), black walnut (upper case drawer guide). The stiles have chamfered corners and are secured with unusually large pins. The dividers are dovetailed in. The sides are dovetailed to the top. The interior serpentine drawers have their bottoms let in and rest on the sides. When opened, the prospect door reveals two stacked drawers and a pigeonhole. The hardware, while of the period, is not original. Inscribed on the prospect door: “George D. Mason.”

Related examples: Holloway 1928, pl. 13; Sack 1969–92, vol. 1, p. 40, no. 124; Mooney 1978, p. 1036; Christie’s, New York, sale 5594, June 16, 1984, lot 331. Sotheby’s, New York, sale 6051, June 27–28, 1990, lot 386. Related interiors are pictured in Downs 1952, no. 220; Antiques 130 (September 1986), p. 544.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1988.


ProvenanceDescended in Hamilton family of Philadelphia [1]; [David Stockwell (1907–1996), Wilmington, Delaware]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, November 9, 1961; given to MFAH, by 1966.

[1] The family noted that the desk may have belonged to the attorney Andrew Hamilton (c.1676–1741).
Exhibition History"Miss Ima Hogg & Modernism," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, July 27–November 3, 2019.

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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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
Desk
c. 1700–1730
Black walnut, undetermined burl veneer, and eastern white pine; eastern white pine, black walnut, yellow-poplar, cherry, Cuban oyster wood (Gymnanthes lucida), and chestnut
B.69.42
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1750–1780
Black-mangrove; black cherry, Atlantic white cedar, black walnut, yelow-poplar, and eastern white pine
B.69.64
Desk and Bookcase
c. 1760–1790
Mahogany; eastern white pine, soft maple, chestnut, red cedar, poplar-aspen or cottonwood, white oak, and Spanish cedar or cedrela
B.69.22
c. 1740–1800
Black walnut; southern yellow pine, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, and spruce
B.66.15
Eight-day Clock
Peter Stretch
c. 1730–1740
Black walnut; southern yellow pine, eastern white pine, and Atlantic white cedar
B.86.4
Dressing Table
c. 1760–1800
Black walnut; black walnut, yellow-poplar and Atlantic white cedar
B.69.78
Desk and Bookcase
Edmund Townsend
c. 1765–1785
Mahogany; eastern white pine; chestnut; yellow poplar, and cedar
B.99.24
Chest-on-Chest
c. 1760–1800
Mahogany; mahogany, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, white oak, and southern yellow pine
B.69.74
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
Tall Clock
Edward Spalding
c. 1765–1785
Mahogany; chestnut, white oak, black cherry, eastern white pine, southern yellow pine, and cherry
B.59.83