Images(7)

Writing Cabinet

Date1790-1815

OriginAmerica, Maryland or Virginia

MediumMahogany, yellow pine, maple, bone, brass and glass

DimensionsOverall: 21 1/4 × 17 3/4 × 9 1/4in. (54 × 45.1 × 23.5cm) Other (case at feet): 42.9 × 23.2cm (16 7/8 × 9 1/8in.)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, TIF Foundation in memory of Michelle A. Iverson

Object number2019-116

DescriptionAppearance: Small cabinet with rectangular top overhanging all sides; pair of glazed geometric doors with light and dark wood banding forming frame and muntins of doors; pair of oval bone inlaid escutcheons on center stiles of doors; proper right door has a brass lower thumb bolts to secure door to case; proper right door has a lock centered on the inner stile; light (maple) and dark wood banding around front and side skirts; scalloped front and side skirts with French feet; center drop of front skirt inlaid with the lower half of a two-toned star within an extended demi-lune lightwood veneer; interior of cabinet has two long drawers over three valanced pigeon holes, over two graduated long drawers each with two brass knob pulls; drawers outlined in lightwood stringing; pigeon holes outlined in light (maple) and darkwood banding with maple scalloped valances; interior backboards and dividers of pigeonholes stained with red wash.

Construction:
The front and back boards of the sub-top are half-blind dovetailed to the sides and screwed from the underside to the single board top. The yellow pine board bottom with front edge of mahogany is half-blind dovetailed to the sides. The mahogany front edge of the bottom board is rabbeted to create a doorstop.

The backboard is screwed to the rear edge of the sub-top, the bottom board, and into rabbets in the sides.

The two drawer blades (top and bottom) rest in dados in the sides as do the front to back drawer supports which are butt joined to them. Modern vertical rectangular drawer stops are glued to the sides at the rear.

The separately constructed central compartment is contained between full depth upper and lower boards that rest in dadoes in the sides. A small wedge on the proper left side tightens the fit between the case side and compartment sides.

The compartment sides are miter joined to the compartment top and bottom boards. Two vertical partitions are set in dados in the top and bottom boards to form the three equally sized pigeonholes. Valances in the pigeonholes are secured to the compartment top and sides from the rear with quarter round glue blocks.

The case doors are joined to the sides with inset butt hinges. The door rails are through tenoned to the stiles. The muntins are tenoned to the stiles, rails and each other, with the “X” intersections lap joined. The glass is glazed into rabbets in the muntins, stiles and rails,

The front feet are integral with the shaped front and side skirts. They are miter joined at the front corners. The rear feet are butt joined to the side skirts (they may have originally been integral). The skirts/feet are joined to the bottom with rectangular glue blocks chamfered on the exposed corner.

The four drawers have standard dovetail constructed with bottoms chamfered to fit into dados on the front and sides. Drawer bottoms are pegged to the underside of the drawer backs. Segmented blocks are glued in the bottom chamfer along the sides.
Label TextDesks and secretaries traditionally contained what Thomas Sheraton called “nest of drawers and letter holes” to hold writing equipment and correspondence. This rare neoclassical cabinet filled with elegant mahogany veneered drawers and decoratively contrasting maple “letter holes” was possibly used by someone who either desired portability for their personal correspondence or who didn’t own a traditional desk yet wanted a dedicated storage form. Used in conjunction with a table as a writing surface, this cabinet could serve as a substitute for the larger desk or secretary form.

This rare form was produced at least two more times by an unidentified Virginia or Maryland cabinetshop. One of the other examples is in the collection of the Museum of Southern Decorative Arts (#974) and has an ownership history in the later 19th century in Orange County, Virginia in a family with Fauquier County, Orange County, and Caroline County ancestry. Another more elaborate example in a private collection was advertised by Israel Sack in 1979 and 1983. And a related cabinet with a different interior design and construction details, possibly from a different shop or maker, has a history in a Caroline and Fauquier County, Virginia family.
ProvenancePurchased by vendor from an estate sale in Spring Valley, a NW Washington, DC neighborhood.