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Secretary and bookcase

Date1815-1820

Maker Charles C. Parkes

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Lynchburg

MediumMahogany, birch, tulip poplar, and yellow pine

DimensionsOH: 99 3/4" OW: 42" OD: 21 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1994-95,1

DescriptionAppearance: Neoclassic secretary and bookcase, with glazed upper section capped by pediment with multiple reverse C-scroll shaping, applied rosettes, and horizontally reeded urn finials; central fixed interior shelf with adjustable shelves above and below; quarter round waist molding; lower case with veneered front half on top board; secretary drawer with lower pigeonholes surmounted by small drawers, yellow broadcloth writing surface, crossbanded and veneered lid; veneered drawers with cockbeading and brass knobs; veneered apron with short turned feet.

Construction: On the bookcase, the removable cornice frame is secured to the upper case with iron screws. They penetrate three blocks that have chamfered edges and are glued to the interior surfaces of the side and front rails. The cornice consists of half-blind dovetailed rails with an applied frieze and cock beading. Above this frame is a thinner shaped gallery decorated with applied rosettes and removable finials. Square corner blocks and rectangular segmental glue blocks secure this gallery, as does a larger rectangular block behind the central finial.

The top board of the upper case is half-blind dovetailed to the sides; the mahogany-faced bottom board is similarly joined. Nailed to the underside of the bottom board are waist moldings that are mitered and half-lapped at the front corners. The vertical backboards are nailed to the top and bottom boards and to the central bookcase shelf. The outer and central boards of the back assembly are chamfered to fit into grooves on corresponding boards that are dadoed on the inner edges to receive the central fixed shelf. The glazed doors have mortised-and-tenoned frames. An astragal molding is flush-mounted to the leading edge of the right door to cover the central seam between the two doors. The glass panes are set into rabbeted muntins and secured from behind with putty. The central fixed shelf is set into dadoes on the case sides, while the top and bottom shelves rest in dadoed case sides and are adjustable. The bookcase is secured to the lower case with large iron screws that penetrate the bottom board. There is no evidence of interior curtains.

On the lower case, the top board is veneered on the edges and on the exposed parts of the top. It is screwed at the rear to a dovetailed cross-batten and at the front to the topmost drawer blade. The drawer blades are tenoned into the case sides and faced with veneer. The drawer runners are flush-nailed to the case sides, and thin drawer stops are glued on the inside of the backboards. The bottom board is half-blind dovetailed to the case sides. The back assembly is like that of the upper case. The carcass is supported by a frame that consists of veneered rails tenoned into the leg stiles, rabbeted on the upper front edge to receive a thin cock bead, and secured to the underside of the case with segmental glue blocks.

The dovetailed case drawers have veneered and cock-beaded fronts. Their thick bottom panels are rabbeted and set into grooves on the side and front panels and flush-nailed at the rear. On the secretary drawer, the dovetailed case has butt-joined side extensions at the front that are compass-hinged to the veneered and cock-beaded fall board. The top board is faced with mahogany along the front. The backboard is flush-nailed at the top and bottom, beveled on the sides, and nailed into rabbets. Vertical dividers are set into dadoes on the writing shelf and on the thin top board, which is flush-joined to the underside of the top board on the lower case. The shelves are miter-dadoed to one another. The dovetailed interior drawers have veneered fronts. The bottom panels are slightly rabbeted and set into the grooved sides and front, and flush-nailed at the rear.

Materials: Mahogany pediment, finials, moldings, case sides, doors, shelf facings, feet, exposed sides on secretary drawer, drawer blade veneers, drawer front veneers, and apron veneers; tulip poplar glue blocks and interior drawer secondaries; birch interior drawer fronts and pigeonhole brackets; yellow pine bookcase shelves, top and bottom boards for both cases, case drawer secondaries, apron frame, and backboards.
Label TextAs soils in the coastal plain wore out, Virginia tobacco culture moved west during the last half of the eighteenth century, causing considerable growth in the riverfront towns of the Piedmont. Lynchburg, one of the most prosperous, was founded on the upper James River in 1786. Local newspaper advertisements show that a diverse artisan community, including at least three cabinetmakers, had been established by 1800. However, real growth in the local furniture trade came after 1810, when numbers of cabinetmakers began to arrive from coastal and fall-line cities. Thomas Crandall of Richmond, for example, was in Lynchburg from 1813 to 1817, while Chester Sully of Norfolk was present in 1814-1815 and Robert Patterson of Charleston, South Carolina, worked in town in 1816-1817. Many remained in Lynchburg only a short time, but their movement to the Piedmont demonstrates that they perceived the economic potential of new inland markets. It also reflects the stiff competition then facing coastal artisans in the form of cheaper northern imports.

Charles C. Parkes, who made and signed this secretary and bookcase, may have been a Lynchburg native since his surname is common in the area. He probably was a partner in the short-lived cabinetmaking firm of Hockaday & Parks [sic], which was formed in 1817 and advertised for journeymen as far away as Richmond. Parkes also appears on the Lynchburg personal property tax lists for Lynchburg in 1818 and 1819, but no other local references to him are known. He may be the "Charles Parks" listed in the Richmond census for 1810 but not afterward. It should be noted that the turning pattern for the feet on the CWF secretary is the same as that used on a desk and a sideboard made in Lynchburg in 1813 by Thomas Crandall, also formerly of Richmond.

The only known example of Parkes's work, the CWF secretary and bookcase reveals the hand of a skilled artisan. Parkes was highly attentive to detail even in places where his work was concealed from view. He attached the cornice assembly to the bookcase with screws set into meticulously chamfered blocks, and he backed the pediment with neat, evenly sized, carefully spaced glue blocks. Parkes employed complicated mitered half-lap joints at the corners of the waist molding, and he fabricated partially paneled backs for both upper and lower cases. He also supported the substantial weight of the carcass on a sturdy mortised-and-tenoned frame.

At the same time, Parkes followed the lead of many other early nineteenth-century inland southern artisans, by abandoning some of the structural refinements associated with earlier regional products. Instead of using dustboards to support the drawers and stabilize the lower case, he flush-nailed thin runners to the case sides. Parkes also rejected the beveled bottoms and numerous glue blocks of traditional drawer construction, relying instead on thick panels rabbeted at the sides and front and set into corresponding grooves. This approach characterizes the widespread movement away from the freehand use of molding planes toward the more highly specialized use of fenced planes and corresponding jigs.

Several distinctive ornamental elements on the Parkes secretary have few known parallels. The glazing pattern on the bookcase doors appears to be unique and may have been Parkes's own creation. The cornice, with its pattern of broad, shallow, voluted scrolls and horizontally beaded finials, is equally unusual. Similar scrolls appear on the crest rails of contemporary New England sofas, but are little known in applications of this kind. The writing interior is more typical of secretary design in this period. Like many northern examples, the small drawer fronts and pigeonhole brackets are birch and were originally bright yellow to contrast with the dark mahogany of the surrounding elements. Yellow broadcloth lined the writing surface and was undoubtedly chosen to heighten the effect of the birch.

After 1810, Parkes and other Lynchburg artisans typically made furniture of more fashionable and far more costly imported mahogany solids and veneers instead of black walnut, cherry, and other local woods that had been popular earlier. The Lynchburg cabinetmaking firm of Winston & Diuguid boasted in 1818 that "their materials are selected in New York, by one of the first judges."

Despite such claims, it is clear that most of the furniture made in Piedmont towns like Lynchburg during the first quarter of the nineteenth century was not fully in step with the standards of taste established in the older cities to the east. Yet objects like this secretary and bookcase must have been considered both innovative and fashionable in the Piedmont households for which they were made. As such, they indicate the way in which taste evolved as people moved west.

InscribedThe central shelf on the secretary drawer is signed "Charles C. Parkes" in red pencil. Along the upper edge of one of the interior drawer fronts are letters that appear to be "WHP."
MarkingsA roman numeral "II" is chiseled into the back of the secretary drawer, and the same construction markings are found on the cornice and top board of the bookcase.
ProvenanceThe secretary and bookcase was reportedly acquired in the early 1980s by antiques dealer Dorothy McKenney of Mint Springs, Va., from "the early house where it had always been" in Springwood, Botetourt Co., Va. The piece was then sold to antiques dealer Robert Beard of Roanoke, Va., who in turn sold it to a Richmond collector in 1988. CWF acquired the object from the collector through Sumpter Priddy III of Richmond, Va.