Slant-lid desk

1800-1820

Measurements

44 in x 39-1/4 in x 20-1/2 in.

Materials

Walnut, walnut and light wood inlay; tulip poplar (drawer bottoms, small interior drawer sides, back boards of case), hard pine (all else)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Mrs. Maxwell P. (Mildred Hargadine) Harrington.

Accession Number

1987.41

Inscription

The label of “W L Pritchett,” a funeral director and dealer in antiques in Dover, Delaware, is pasted to the upper center of back.

Condition Notes

The brasses are replacements.  The case bottom board and top backboard exhibit some wood rot and insect damage (now inactive).  The lowermost backboard and the back half of the case bottom are replacements.  All feet and glue blocks are replacements.  The lowermost part of the side facing of the right rear foot is missing.  Strips of wood have been added to the four backboards at each seam.

Provenance

According to a memorandum from Scott T. Swank of Winterthur to the Odessa Properties Committee dated April 23, 1985, the desk was purchased by the donor’s father before 1920 from a Mr. Harmon of Frederica, Delaware.

Comments

The walnut slant lid desk has four graduated drawers and stands on ogee bracket feet.  The drawerfronts are solid walnut with line inlay forming a rectangle with inset quarter-round corners and cockbeading around the edges.  The beaded edges of the lopers, which look like cockbeading, is cut from the solid. The front corners of the case are chamfered and have three vertical line inlays suggesting columns.  The case never had dustboards between the drawers. The desk lid has mitered battens and line inlay forming a rectangle with inset quarter-round corners.  It opens to a prospect door having a line-inlaid rectangle with an arched top.  The door opens to two valanced pigeonholes above two drawers.  Flanking column drawers have five vertical inlaid lines on each, suggesting columns.  To the outer side of each are three valanced pigeonholes above two stacked drawers.

Assuming this desk had not traveled far before its acquisition by Winterthur for exhibit in Odessa, it was likely made in the Frederica area of Delaware.  Materials and construction are consistent with early nineteenth century furniture-making in Delaware as well as nearby regions in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.  No physical features suggest manufacture by any known furniture-making schools or individuals.

See also a drop-leaf dining table, accession no. 1981.38, that came from the same source.