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.