Desk

Date1749-1753

Artist/Maker Willis Williams

Artist/Maker John Wright

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Southampton County

MediumBlack walnut, yellow pine

DimensionsOH: 42"; OW: 39 1/4"; OD: 20 1/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2001-818

DescriptionAppearance: A slant-front desk on four turned ball feet, the case containing two long drawers below a tier of two short drawers and an interior concealed by a fallboard with mitered cleats that provides access to a well below a sliding panel and an arched-paneled prospect door securing a single pigeonhole with drawer below flanked by molded document drawers, a pair of pigeon holes above a single drawer, and projecting tiered drawers below a wide pigeonhole.

Construction:
The two board sides are half-blind dovetailed to the two board top. The sides are nailed from below into rabbets on the edges of the bottom. The four board horizontal grained back (bottom board a replacement) is nailed with wrought nails into rabbets in the sides and top and to the edge of the bottom. The drawer blades are joined to the sides from the front with sliding half-dovetails; drawer supports are nailed to the sides immediately behind them. The vertical drawer divider between the two upper drawers is nailed from above to the desk compartment floor and joined to the upper drawer blade with a sliding dovetail backed by a dado. The center drawer support is nailed from below into the drawer divider and from the back to lath which is in turn tenoned and nailed from the rear into the underside of the desk compartment floor. The drawer guide behind the vertical divider is nailed to the top of the center drawer support. The ball feet (replacements) are joined to the bottom with round through-tenons.

The frame of the desk’s interior writing surface is comprised of a front and side framework with the front and sides dadoed to the case sides. The front ¾” of the front frame member extends through a notch in the sides in front of the dado. The frame sides are lapped over a rabbet in the rear edge of the frame front and at the back rest on top edge of the inner rear rail which is in turn nailed from the underside to the compartment floor and joined to the case sides, possibly with nails or dovetails into the rabbet in the rear edges of the sides (method of joint is hidden by the case backboards). The inner rear rail forms the back of the interior compartment.

A single board sliding shelf slides in dados formed by double beaded moldings nailed over rabbets on the interior edges of the frame sides Double bead molding identical to that on the sides is nailed to overlap the front edge of the sliding shelf and overlap the rabbeted edge of the frame’s front.

The side panels of the frame extend under the interior side drawers to the back and support a rear board that is glued to the upper surface of the side panels (at the edges). The prosect and central section drawers are supported by this rear board. A bead molding is glued to the exposed front edge of the rear board.

The floor of the desk compartment is dadoed into the sides. A series of five wrought nails are nailed into the proper left (PL) underside of the bottom at the edge of the dado. Four nail holes indicate now missing nails on the PR side. The floor is butt joined to the back of the compartment with four nails similarly nailed to the underside, only one of which is connected to the back at this time. The PL loper slides on a 1” wide support board glued to the upper side of the outer edge of the bottom and to the adjoining side; a loper guide is held in place by 3” high lath that is glued to the board and reinforced with two rectangular glue blocks to the bottom. Evidence shows that a similar support and guide are missing from the PR loper.

The dividers and shelves in the desk interior are dadoed into the case sides and top, side and rear frame boards and each other. The pigeon-hole valances are joined to the dividers and sides with rectangular glue blocks. Interior drawers are of dovetail construction with the top edges rounded and miter joined. Drawer bottoms are glued into rabbets in the front, back and sides. Nails from the underside reinforce the glue at the front and back of the two longer drawers and at the front of two other drawers. The sides of the document drawers are nailed to the back and bottom and into rabbets in the front panel. The front is comprised of a half-round molding nailed to a backing molding.

The prospect door consists of a single board to which stiles and rails have been nailed to simulate a flat-panel door. The brass “H” hinges are nailed to the divider between the prospect compartment and the adjoining document drawer.

The front panel is glued and pegged from above to the underside of the front frame (writing surface) member of the desk interior, glued, and possibly originally nailed, to the upper surface of the desk compartment bottom and butt joined to the sides. It is notched for the lopers, which pass through it. Small overlapping panels are glued to the front of the lopers and further secured with brass pulls that screw into the lopers.

The mitered cleats of the fallboard are tenoned to the center section on the sides and butt joined to it at the top. The rounded edges of the cleats are rabbeted to overlap the desk sides. The iron hinges are inset as is the brass lock, all original with iron screws.

The mitered waist molding is nailed to the case sides and the front edge of the desk compartment floor. The bottom molding is nailed to the sides and the edge of the case bottom which it overlaps. Rectangular glue blocks reinforce the overlapping areas along the underside of the bottom.

The case drawers are of dovetail construction and like the interior drawers, the top edge is rounded and miter joined at each corner. Drawer bottoms are nailed into rabbets in the front and sides and to the edge of the backs from the undersides. Runners have been added to the underside of the sides with modern wire nails.

Brasses appear original but bails are replacements.
All exposed surfaces including feet are black walnut. Drawer and document drawer fronts are black walnut, sides, bottoms and backs are yellow pine. Drawer blades and vertical divider are yellow pine faced with black walnut. Desk compartment interior, bottom, and all interior secondary woods are yellow pine.

Condition: very good, bails replaced, strip added to fall board, lower backboard replaced, ball feet and proper right base molding replaced.
Label TextThe ball feet and elaborate writing interior of this desk suggest a date of manufacture between 1680 and 1720 when the early baroque style was most fashionable in America. Styles persisted in many rural areas longer than in neighboring cities, however. "Southampton County in Virginia," as cabinetmaker Willis Williams inscribed the desk, was one such region. The county was not formed until 1749, placing the desk's manufacture between that date and the demise of Williams' partner and brother-in-law, John Wright, four years later.

Williams and Wright were members of an extended family of Quaker joiners, cabinetmakers, and shipwrights who had settled in the Norfolk area during the mid seventeenth century. The style and design of this desk may have been following earlier examples produced in Norfolk.
InscribedSigned in chalk on side of left document drawer: obverse "Willis Williams/ Southampton/ County in/ Virginia"; reverse "Willis Williams." Signed in chalk on back of left small drawer in case "...hn Wright / ..18[?]"

Interior corners of drawers are numbered on sides and back (and possibly front) in chalk.
ProvenanceThe desk was purchased from Sumpter Priddy III of Alexandria, Virginia by The Chipstone Foundation, January 18, 2001 at the Winter Antiques Show in New York City. It had previously been owned by collector Richard A. Mones who purchased it from a couple who had found it in Ontario, Canada.

Exhibition(s)