Desk

Date1780-1795

MediumBlack walnut, yellow pine, and tulip poplar

DimensionsOH: 43 7/8"; OW: 44 1/8"; OD: 22 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2001-764

DescriptionAPPEARANCE: Slant front desk with four graduated drawers, scratch beaded drawer fronts flush with carcas, inset brass escutcheons and bail and rosette drawer pulls (most missing); top drawer flanked by full height scratch beaded lopers with brass pulls; ogee bracket feet; interior desk arrangement: Central prospect door flanked by vertical document drawers with molded fronts; on either side are four pigeon holes with shaped valences and dividers over two small drawers, over one large drawer.
CONSTRUCTION: Top and bottom boards are dovetailed to the two piece case sides. Half-lapped dovetails are exposed on the top. Half-lapped vertical backboards (3) are nailed into the rabbeted case sides and top, and flush nailed to the bottom. The fallboard has mitered tongue and grove end battens. Fallboard is attached with door hinges and utilizes a drawer lock. The lopers have quirk (scratch) beading and brass knobs, and have a conventional dowel stop. The dividers framing the lopers are tenoned into the underside of the writing surface and to the drawer blade. The drawer blades are set into dados. Drawer runners are mortised into the drawer blades and nailed to the sides except for the blade under the top drawer which is a dust board that runs almost full depth. Drawer guides between the top drawer and fallboard supports are nailed to the dustboard. The base molding is nailed into place. The mitered front feet are nailed to the bottom of the base molding and secured with vertical glue blocks. The side faces of the rear feet are nailed to the base molding and dovetailed to receive the back faces. The back faces are nailed to plinths nailed to the underside of the case. The bracket feet are further supported by horizontal glue blocks shaped to match their contours.
Drawers are of typical dovetail construction with drawer bottoms beveled and set into dados in the front and sides and flush nailed to the back. Due to shrinkage the bottoms no longer reach the front and are supported by modern blocks glued to the drawer front. Early drawer stops are nailed to the top drawer blade; early drawer stops had been glued to the case sides at the rear of each of the other drawers including the fall board support. (Modern drawer stops are now attached to each of the drawer blades.) Mitered desk locks are used on all drawers.
On the desk interior, the writing shelf is half-lapped to a dust board and both are dadoed into the case sides. The dustboard supports the interior drawers. A walnut strip is glued to the front of the dustboard and finished to form a molding under the interior drawers. Drawers have dovetail construction, with bottoms glued into rabbets on all four sides. The dividers are set in upper and lower dados and similarly joined to the case sides. Instead of conventional drawer stops, rabbets have been cut into the underside of the dustboard above each interior drawer. The drawer fronts extend about 1/8" above the sides and back and catch in the rabbet to provide a drawer stop. "Hidden" document drawers are opened via finger holes at the back of the compartment behind the prospect door. (Modern brass knobs were added later.) The side panels of the document drawers are pinned into rabbets at the front, flush pinned at the back with the bottom glued in place. A drawer stop is glued to the back of each document drawer.
ProvenanceThe desk was acquired by Hugh Weaver along with the house where it was owned in 1976. Greenview Plantation is located in Prince George County, Virginia.