Images(8)

Desk

Date1740-1765

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Southeastern

MediumMahogany, yellow pine, tulip poplar and light and dark inlaid woods

DimensionsOH: 43 ¼”; OW: 41 ½”; OD (open): 36 ¾”; D (closed): 22 ¾”

Credit LineGift of Eleanor and Bruce Knowles

Object number2016-200

DescriptionAppearance: Slant front desk with four graduated thumbnail molded lipped drawers; top drawer flanked by full height lopers; integral base molding and shaped straight bracket feet with incised line outlining feet and base molding; desk interior composed of a central prospect door with an inlaid light and dark wood eight pointed star flanked by fluted pilaster document drawers and four pigeon holes on either side with shaped valances all over one long drawer flanked by two small drawers all stepped forward from prospect plane with shaped divider extending from center of pigeon holes to divider between small and long drawers; when long bottom drawer is removed, a secret long drawer across the back of that cavity can be removed by pulling on two long sides that extend along the dividers between the long and short drawers; behind prospect door is one large compartment over a small drawer.

Construction: Large drawers – dovetail construction, yellow pine and tulip poplar, not all same wood, with bottoms rabbeted around front and sides and in dadoes front and sides, nailed along back with roseheaded nails. Side to side oriented bottom boards. Small drawers dovetailed construction, bottoms front to back in dados in front and sides, extend past back and are nailed to bottom edge of back; double scribe lines indicate position of back for nails. Secret drawer – sides dovetailed to front, back half-sliding dovetail into sides; bottom nailed onto bottom edges of front and sides. Document drawers – sides nailed to front and back. Lopers – tulip poplar lopers tenoned with open ends heightwise to mahogany ends with thumbnail molded edges. Base molding and feet are integral; front feet are mitered and blind dovetailed; rear brackets are half blind dovetailed to rear side brackets; No glue blocks; rear brackets also nailed with rosehead nail to underside of bottom board. Full depth and not quite full height dust boards in separate dados from drawer dividers in case sides; dustboards are wedged in two spots on each side that were purposely gouged out to receive primary wood wedges. Backboards vertical, nailed in rabbet top, sides, and to rear of bottom, and to rear of each dust board – also extend down past bottom board at ends overlapping rear bracket foot; scribe lines across back at dustboards and bottom board to line up nails; rosehead nails. Pigeon hole valances have glue blocks on backside. Vertical drawer dividers sliding dovetailed into drawer dividers. Facing strip over front end of side to cover construction. Toothing plane on interior of case sides and inside of drawer fronts. Top blind dovetailed to sides. Bottom half blind or just dovetailed to case sides and covered by base molding. Bottom drawer blade and drawer supports raise bottom drawer off case bottom. Brasses replaced; inset escutcheons replaced. Something once nailed to underside of feet – three nail holes in one foot.

Woods: There is some question whether the primary wood is mahogany or another unidentified tropical wood such as Sabicu since it is so dense and figured. Drawers are mostly yellow pine for sides and back, but tulip poplar bottoms; some tulip poplar backs on large drawers – mix of secondary woods in most drawers; one drawer bottom even was all yellow pine until changed to tulip poplar for last 3” or so. Tulip poplar dividers in desk interior behind mahogany

Label TextThis desk descended in the Littlepage family of rural New Kent and King William Counties and was probably made locally or in the nearby city of Williamsburg. The mottled figure of the dense and costly mahogany as well as the elegantly inlaid compass star on the desk’s interior prospect door elevate this from a basic, functional piece of furniture to an expensive commodity.

Initials inside the desk-- CBE, LL and CBL-- likely represent descendants of the original owners, Caroline Baker Ellett, her husband Lewis Littlepage (married in 1829), and their daughter Caroline Baker Littlepage.
Inscribed1) “Back” in large script on the inside backs of two large drawers; one of those drawers also had chalk “L” and “R” on the inside backs at either end of the drawer back.
2) “BCE”/ “LL” on one side of document drawer; “BCL” on other in alternative script in pencil
3) On other document drawer side in ink “…istereens/ ….Dollars do 16 Bits. Do. 60 half bits”
4) On bottom of secret drawer in pencil “Restored by /Edwards/ 314 W. Olney Road/ Norfolk, Virginia/ May 1933”
5) Roman numerals scribed inside small drawer sides

ProvenanceDescended in through the Littlepage family of Cumberland in New Kent County for donor. The desk was in Norfolk in the 1930s with donor's grandparents (?).

Initials of “CBE” “LL” and “CBL” inscribed on the document drawer suggest Caroline B. Ellett (1810-1864) who married Lewis Littlepage (1807-1863) in 1829. The “CBL” could be Caroline’s married initials, or her daughter Caroline Baker Littlepage. The B and L are formed in a different way from those on the other side of the drawer suggesting a new hand.

If the desk descended from the Ellett family to the Littlepage family, it may have come from King William County or Hanover County. Elizabeth Turner Ellett’s lineage is not yet clear, but her father may have been in Fredericksburg, Virginia (as well as South Carolina).