Desk and Bookcase

Public Domain

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Images(4)

MakerProbably Edmund Townsend(American, 1736/7–1811)American, 1736/7–1811

CultureAmerican

Titles

Desk and Bookcase

Datec. 1765–1785

Made inNewport, Rhode Island, United States

MediumMahogany; eastern white pine; chestnut; yellow poplar, and cedar

Dimensions98 1/4 × 43 3/8 × 25 1/2 in. (249.6 × 110.2 × 64.8 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of the estate of Marian M. Britton

Object numberB.99.24

Current Location

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens

Newport Room

On view

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Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

FURNITURE

DescriptionThe block-and-shell motif carved on the doors of this desk and bookcase is most closely associated with Newport, Rhode Island, though cabinetmakers used it in other colonial American locations as well. The likely maker of this desk, Edmund Townsend, was part of an extended family of Newport Quaker cabinetmakers; his father was a joiner and carpenter, two of his brothers were cabinetmakers, and two of his sisters married woodworkers from the Goddard family.
ProvenancePossibly owned by Raymond H. J. Perry (1789–1826), Newport, Rhode Island; […]; [George (1901–1988) and Benny Arons (1898–1978), Ansonia, Connecticut], by 1920s; [Ginsburg and Levy, New York, 1943]; purchased by the family of Julia Perry (née Esty); purchased by [Israel Sack, New York, 1973]; purchased by Marian M. (d. 1998) and James L. Britton, Jr. (1908–1988), Houston; Estate of Marian M. Britton; given to MFAH, 1999.
Published References "Ginsburg and Levy, Inc., advertisement," The Magazine Antiques 44, no. 4 (October 1943): 155, ill. American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Highland House Publishers, 1957–1989), vol. 4, pp. 852–853, 971–973, no. P3755, ill.; vol. 6, p. 6, no. P3755, ill.; vol. 8, p. 2145, ill., ill. "Israel Sack, Inc., advertisement," The Magazine Antiques 103, no. 6 (June 1973): ill. inside cover. Elisabeth Donaghy Garrett, "A Houston Collection of American Antiques," The Magazine Antiques 108, no. 3 (September 1975): 504, ill. Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984), 342–43, pl. 18, fig. 8.27, 8.27a. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed: "3," " 4," and "5," in graphite, on backs of fronts of prospect drawers; "1," "2," "3," and "4," in chalk, in corners of fronts, sides, and backs of exterior drawers; "1" and "4," in graphite, on interior front and sides of larger interior drawers; "1" through "6," in graphite, on interior backs of valance drawers; V-shaped notches numbering one through five on top interior edges of valance drawers

[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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