Images(13)

Desk

Date1700-1720

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania

MediumBlack walnut, yellow pine, and northern white cedar

DimensionsOH: 41 3/4"; OW: 39 7/8"; OD: 23 3/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1960-173

DescriptionAppearance:
Desk: flat top, dovetailed into sides; slant lid with flush mitered cleats on sides; interior of desk section fitted with 8 small drawers (3 stepped on each side and 2 at bottom center) and 10 pigeonholes (arranged in 2 rows of 5 each); early turned pulls on drawers; top drawers at each side have oval brass escutcheons; sliding panel in bottom of interior reveals large well below with a sliding section across the front, behind which are 3 small drawers; exterior of slant lid contains a contemporary shaped escutcheon plate of engraved brass at top matching those on 4 larger drawers below; near bottom of lid is an applied molded strip serving as a rest for reading matter; lid rests, when down, on a pair of "square" lopers with brass pulls; lid is hinged with a pair of strip or knife hinges mitered into side of lid and into slot in interior sides of desk; 3 metal bolts fasten hinge to desk on each side; Front of main case has plain front to secret section and 2 small drawers over a pair of graduated, full length drawers; drawer sections are divided with single crown moldings; edges of side pieces have fluted section beside well compartment and single crown moldings below; heavy plinth molding around front and sides; 4 ball feet; full dust boards and drawer dividers both in interior drawers and those below. The brasses on the lower drawers seem contemporary, but the 2 large drawers had other pulls at one time.

Construction:
The three board walnut top is mitered on the front edge and half-blind dovetailed to the three board butt joined walnut sides. The two board butt joined yellow pine bottom is dovetailed to the case sides. The back consists of three vertical butt joined yellow pine boards nailed into rabbets in the top and sides and butt joined and nailed to the edge of the bottom.

The walnut front rail, which extends the writing surface of the fallboard, is probably joined to the sides with sliding dovetails (possibly dados). Yellow pine drawer blades that are probably joined to the case sides with sliding dovetails are butt joined to northern white cedar dust boards that extend to within three inches of the back and rest in dados that extend to the back. The yellow pine bottom of the well below the writing surface also rests in dados. The yellow pine drawer divider for the two top drawers is tenoned into the upper surface of the drawer blade and the underside of the well bottom. Butt joined behind it, a full height and depth yellow pine drawer guide is nailed to the well bottom from above and the drawer blade from below. Moldings are nailed to the exposed edges of the sides, drawer blades and drawer divider.

The fallboard has mitered end battens and is supported with forged knife hinges that are screwed into relieved slots in the fall board and riveted into relieved slots in the interior sides of the desk. The unusual rivets have three exposed heads ( ½” diameter) on the exterior of each side. The book rest is face nailed to the exterior surface of the fallboard. When closed, the fallboard rests in rabbets cut in the case sides.

The exposed walnut front panel of the well is nailed to the well bottom from the underside and rabbeted on the top edge to hold the leading edge of the front rail to which it is glued. Inside the well, full height front-to back-dividers are nailed to the bottom of the well from the underside approximately 3 ½” from the sides and parallel to them. The resulting compartments house the lopers for which square notches have been cut in either end of the front panel. (The fallboard tilts slightly when opened. This may have been intentional or it may be that the front panel was mistakenly installed upside down. Were the panel reversed, the lopers would be positioned ¾” higher allowing the fall board be supported by the full length of the lopers rather than just the loper ends and causing the fallboard to be level.)

Inside the desk, on each side a walnut board, 8 ¾” wide, is butt joined to the writing surface behind the front rail to the back. The boards are dadoed into the sides and nailed at the back with one nail to aforementioned front-to-back dividers in the well which support them. They are rabbeted on the inside edge, and a rectangle formed by miter joined quarter rounds is nailed to the surface above overlapping the rabbets to form a pocket for the sliding top of the well.

Inside the well, a compartment that houses three secret drawers is formed by dividers that are dadoed into the front-to-back dividers and nailed to the back edge of the front rail and from above to the extended writing surface. A vertical removable sliding panel connects the dividers to close the compartment.

The desk interior is structured with three stepped drawers on each side separated from a center section of pigeon holes over two drawers by shaped dividers set in dados in the underside of the case top and in the upper side of the extended writing surface which also supports the bottom drawers on each side. Walnut drawer blades for the upper side drawers are butt joined and glued to yellow pine full depth dust boards that are set in dados in the case sides and shaped dividers. Immediately behind the well opening, drawer supports of the same construction as the drawer blades rest in dados in the dividers. Pigeon hole dividers are dadoed into the shaped dividers and the top and each other. Valances are glued to the top row pigeon hole dividers.

Under the bottom, full depth ¾” boards 5” wide are nailed to the bottom at on each side with a connecting board nailed to the front, all flush with the edge of the bottom. Holes are drilled through these boards and the bottom into which the turned bun feet are secured. A single piece mitered base molding is nailed to the exposed edges of the bottom and boards.

The exterior and interior drawers are of dovetail construction with walnut drawer fronts and yellow pine sides and backs. Front to back grained northern white cedar bottoms are nailed from the underside to the edges of the front, sides and back.

The “hidden” drawers in the well differ from the other drawers in that the fronts are of yellow pine and are open dovetailed as opposed to the half-blind dovetailed walnut fronts of the exposed drawers. The exposed drawers have brass pulls, while the well drawers have forged tacks that held linen pulls, of which a small fragment remains.

Woods: Primary: walnut; Secondary: red cedar and white pine.