Desk

Date1800-1825

Possibly by John C. Halliburton

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Person County (probably)

MediumAll components of yellow pine.

DimensionsOH: 31 1/2" OW 33" OD: 23"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1966-474

DescriptionAppearance: Unpainted yellow pine slant-top desk on four Marlborough legs with box stretchers.

Construction: The lid consists of a wide main board with a butt-joined extension at the top that is additionally secured with cut nails driven though the leading edge. Wrought-iron butterfly hinges with die-cut screws secure the lid to a single top board that is nailed to the frame. A book molding and thin end battens are flush-nailed to the lid, while a thin decorative molding is nailed across the top board. The bottom board, which consists of two boards butt-joined and additionally secured with a central wooden dowel, is nailed into rabbets on the underside of the desk section. The rails are tenoned into the legs and are secured with two small pins at each joint. The tops of the front legs are angled to correspond to the slant of the lid. The molded stretchers are tenoned into the legs and secured with single pins.
Label TextIn addition to desks-on-frame, southern furniture makers also fashioned desks with permanently affixed, mortised-and-tenoned legs. More expensive versions were made of black walnut or cherry and fitted with drawered interiors, while cheaper models were of yellow pine. This unpainted example with an undivided interior typifies the latter. Unlike the many southern desks and desks-on-frame meant to be used while the writer was standing, the low stance of this piece indicates that it was intended to be used with a chair. The overall shape of the desk is reminiscent of seventeenth-century tabletop desks, differing only in having a molding across the top and a narrow bookrest on the lower part of the lid. While relatively austere in terms of ornamentation, the desk is adorned with ovolo moldings on the leading edges of the legs and stretchers.

Found in Halifax County, Virginia, just above the North Carolina border, the desk has no known modern history. "John E. Ervin's / Desk bought of / John C. Halliburton / Dec. 1st. 1821" written in ink on the underside of the lid provides the best clue to its origin. It is unclear whether the inscription documents the name of the original maker and owner or simply is a record of a later sale. There are no instances of a John Ervin and a John Halliburton living in the same or adjacent counties in Virginia records. Beginning in 1820, however, a John Halliburton (also spelled Haliburton and Hallyburton) appears in the records of Person County, North Carolina, which is contiguous with the Virginia county in which the desk was found. Slightly later census records also list a John Ervin (also Irving and Irvine) in adjacent Granville County, North Carolina. In style, this desk parallels furniture made in that part of the state, so an attribution to Person County is logical.

A post-1800 date of manufacture is indicated by the use of various types of cut nails. Small cut sprigs secure the molding to the top board and the book rest to the lid. Cut nails also to attach the thin butt-joined extension at the top of the lid. The more expensive hand-wrought nails available during most of the eighteenth century were rarely used so liberally. Also demonstrating nineteenth-century production is the use of die-cut rather than hand-filed screws for fastening the iron butterfly hinges to the lid. Finally, the maker laid out the joints on the desk with thin pencil lines instead of the more conventional marking or scratch gauge. While not conclusively associated with any particular date, penciled construction marks instead of chalked or scribed lines are more commonly found on later southern forms.

Inscribed"John E. Ervin's / Desk bought of / John C. Halliburton / Dec. 1st. 1821" is written in ink on the inside of the lid.
MarkingsNumerous illegible marks and the letters "B" and "MK" are scribed into the surface.
ProvenanceThe desk was acquired in 1966 from Williamsburg antiques dealer William Bozarth, who reported having found it in South Boston, Halifax Co., Va.