Fall-front desk and bookcase

1845-1860

Maker

Thomas Thompson Enos (1817-1889)

Measurements

75 3/4 in x 38 in x 17 3/4 in

Materials

Mahogany, cherry; tulip poplar (backboards, large shelves), ash or chestnut (desk interior shelves).

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation

Accession Number

2015.57

Inscription

"Made by T T Enos” in black ink and “Conard [V]andergrift” in blue ink are written on an early twentieth-century label affixed to the lower rail of the left bookcase door.

Provenance

The desk and bookcase was acquired from the c. 1854 John Zelefro Crouch house on Main Street, Odessa, where reportedly it had been use for generations.

Comments

This fall-front desk, a form known in the United States since the early 18th century, has an integral bookcase section above.  Highly figured and matched mahogany veneers decorate all of the flat surfaces of the front.  Strips of machined mahogany molding highlight the glazed bookcase doors as well as the top of the elaborately scrolled pediment.  The case sides are made of cherry, a wood sympathetic in appearance to mahogany but cheaper.  Inside the hinged lid, the desk interior is fitted for account books and other business-related objects.

Thomas Thompson Enos lived in Odessa.  An 1868 atlas identified his home on Fifth Street between High and Main Streets.  Another property, probably his shop, was on Main Street across from Front Street, a short distance from the Corbit House.  Enos is known to have made a range of furniture, including the set of six chairs, acc. no. 1981.70.

Bibliography

Zimmerman, A Storied Past, 176-177.