Secretary and Bookcase

Date1805-1815

OriginAmerica, Maine or Massachusetts or New Hampshire

MediumMahogany and white pine and mahogany veneer

DimensionsOH: 87 1/2"; OW: 38"; OD: 19 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-151

DescriptionAppearance: Neoclassical secretary and bookcase with tripartite pediment and rectilinear plinths; classical cornice over cross-banded frieze and thin astragal molding; glazed doors with diamond shaped panes; fall in front secretary section with cross-banded and veneered lid; writing interior with tall ledger slots at either end, upper ranks of four drawers on either side of central cross-banded and veneered prospect, eight lower pigeon holes with arched and filleted brackets; tall waist molding on lower case; four graduated cross-banded and veneered drawers; shaped aprons over flared French feet.

Construction: On the bookcase, the veneered pediment frame is open dovetailed together and further secured with chamfered corner blocks glued in place. The upper gallery section on the pediment is similarly mounted to the cornice molding, which in turn is flush-mounted to the case sides. The top board is half-blind dovetailed to the solid case sides, and the backboards are nailed into rabbeted sides and flush-nailed at the top. The beaded dividers inside the bookcase are dadoed to the case sides, top board, and medial shelf and are miter-dadoed to one another. The thin astragal mid-molding is integrated with the blade for the medial shelf and is both nailed and glued in place. The dividers on the writing interior are dadoed at the top and bottom, and the shelves are miter-dadoed in place. The pigeonhole brackets are attached with thin chamfered glue blocks. Traditional dovetail construction is found on the interior drawers, which have beveled bottom panels set into grooved sides and fronts and flush-nailed at the rear. The veneered and cross-banded prospect door consists of a board with tongue-and-groove battens at the top and bottom. The prospect conceals a pair of interior drawers, the sides of which are dovetailed at the front but only flush-nailed at the rear. The veneered and cross-banded fall board has tongue-and-groove battens and rotates on brass butt hinges set into a horizontal batten flush-mounted to the bottom leading edge of the bookcase and backed below by chamfered glue blocks. The bottom board is inset several inches on extended dovetails to create a cavity at the bottom of the case.

On the lower case, the waist molding is flush-mounted and probably nailed from below. The veneered and cross-banded top board is nailed from below to an open frame consisting of front and rear battens dovetailed to the tops of the case sides, thin side strips nailed in place, and a central front-to-rear batten open dovetailed into the front and rear battens. The backboard is nailed into the rabbeted case sides and flush-nailed at the top and bottom. The drawer runners are nailed into dadoes, with thin wooden drawer stops glued inside the backboards. The drawer blades have veneered fronts and are dovetailed to the case sides. The joint is covered on either side by thin vertical strips. The bottom board is half-blind dovetailed to the case sides, and the base molding is both glued and nailed into a shallow rabbet. Relatively thin aprons and feet are backed by chamfered glue blocks. The vertical foot blocks are topped by wide but short flankers mitered at the corners and glued to the underside of the case. The rear diagonal faces of the rear feet are dadoed into the vertical glue blocks that support the side faces of the rear feet but are simply flush-mounted to the underside of the case.

The traditionally dovetailed drawers have beveled bottom panels set into grooves at the sides and front and flush-nailed at the rear. The drawers have veneered and cross-banded fronts. They are additionally adorned with nailed-on cock beading.

Materials: Mahogany moldings, case sides, drawer blades, shelf facings, exposed parts of feet, pigeonhole brackets, secretary drawer fronts, pediment plinths, lower batten on front of bookcase, pediment veneers, case drawer front veneers, cross banding, prospect door veneers, veneer on front half of lower case top board, and runners for bookcase attached to top of lower case; white pine all other elements.

Label TextPersistent interruptions in American trade with Great Britain after the Revolutionary War were responsible in part for a dramatic increase in commercial activity between the industrializing North and the agrarian South. Manufacturing centers like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia not only served local and regional clienteles, but also fed a national market that included the coastal South. Among the goods exported to southern ports in great quantity after 1790 was furniture. This coastal New England secretary and bookcase, originally owned in North Carolina, epitomizes the northern furniture shipped southward during this period.

"Alexander Johnston / Fayetteville / NC" is incised on one of the interior drawers. Johnston first appeared in the North Carolina census records in 1790 and continued to live in Fayetteville until at least 1820. Little is known about him, but his ownership of New England furniture is readily explained. Fayetteville is located at the head of navigation on the Cape Fear River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean at the port of Wilmington. Like other fall-line towns, Fayetteville was an important regional economic and political center in the late eighteenth century. By 1790, the town was home to a small but productive cabinetmaking community whose neoclassical wares merge sophisticated urban-inspired designs with more idiosyncratic inland elements. At the same time, as Fayetteville became part of the national economic system that had begun to develop in the United States, its residents gained access to fashionable, affordable furniture imported from the North.

Johnston's New England secretary and bookcase may have been specially ordered from a particular northern artisan, although that was rare. It is more likely that the piece was shipped south as venture cargo and then sold at dockside. Johnston could just as easily have purchased the secretary from a furniture warehouser in Fayetteville or Wilmington. In the pre-Revolutionary South, urban furniture shops frequently had separate retail "warerooms" where finished pieces were sold. By the end of the century, however, "wareroom" or "warehouse" took on a different connotation. Still a separate space for retailing local goods, the wareroom was increasingly stocked with imported furniture as well. By 1818, John W. Baker had opened a "CABINET WAREHOUSE" on Fayetteville's Bow Street where he offered both local goods and imported wares.

That the CWF secretary and bookcase was inexpensive venture cargo is suggested by its rather plain exterior. Most northern secretaries and bookcases typically have at least some stringing and other contrasting inlays; the simple mahogany cross banding on the drawer fronts and fall board are the only surface ornaments on this object. Moreover, the glazed bookcase doors were not backed with a green textile like those on most other contemporary pieces, but by cheaper green-painted paper. Even the brass finials so common on northern pediments of this form were omitted.

The Johnston secretary was made in the Piscataqua region, which is composed of coastal New Hampshire and southern Maine, or in nearby Newburyport, Massachusetts. The overall design--and especially the skirt profile--is typical of case furniture from these areas, as is the prominent use of cross banding. Also consistent with export goods from this region is the structural quality of the piece, which is slightly below that of furniture from larger cities like Boston and Salem.

Records confirm that Piscataqua and Newburyport artisans shipped large quantities of furniture to the South. An 1807 advertisement by Gautier & Co., a Wilmington furniture warehousing firm, announced that they had "established a regular Packet, to ply between Newbury-Port, Boston and this place." Among the goods imported by Gautier & Co. were "almost every article furnished by the Eastern States . . . [including] Furniture, White Pine Boards, Oil, [and] Paints," as well as "Full setts Dining Tables, Single do. do., High Post Bedsteads, Chairs, different kinds, Side Boards, Secretarys, Bureaus." Several New England secretaries and bookcases with histories of ownership in Wilmington attest to the arrival of northern furniture in the Cape Fear basin. That imported New England goods also influenced coastal North Carolina cabinetmakers is further confirmed by a mahogany, tulip poplar, and yellow pine secretary and bookcase with doors and a writing interior strikingly similar to those on the CWF piece (MESDA accession 3279).

Inscribed"Alexander Johnston / Fayetteville / NC" is scratched on the left side of the top drawer behind the prospect. "TWB" is penciled on the base of the second and third case drawers. "Bottom" is written in chalk on the bottom of the bottom drawer. "4525/2" and "4525/7" are written in yellow chalk on the top of the lower case and the bottom of the bookcase, respectively. There are illegible inscriptions on the top board of the lower case and the bottom of the bookcase and chalk inscriptions on the backboards, "H 9" on the backboard of the upper case and what looks like "075" on the backboard of the lower case.
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceThis piece was purchased by the Foundation from Bessie Brockwell, a prominent dealer in southern furniture and centred in Petersburg, Virginia. An Alexander Johnson (sometimes recorded as Johnston) is listed in Cumberland County, where Fayetteville is located, in the North Carolina census records during the early decades of the nineteenth century. This secretary and bookcase represents the type of relatively modest New England furniture that was being shipped as venture cargo to southern centers in the early national period and that was available in places like Fayetteville and nearby Wilmington.

Exhibition(s)