IMPORTANT QUEEN ANNE BLOCK-FRONT DESK

With shell carved interior.

Boston   Circa 1745

Primary Wood: Mahogany
Secondary Wood: Pine

Height: 43 1/2 inches
Width: 36 3/4 inches
Depth: 20 inches

Reference: This desk is part of an important group of early Boston blockfront furniture. It was made in a shop that was in direct competition with Richard Walker, the maker of the Quincy desk and bookcase at Winterthur, and a desk and bookcase in the Layton Collection that is illustrated in American Furniture with Related Decorative Arts 1660-1830: The Milwaukee Art Museum and the Layton Collection, entry 45.

For a complete discussion of Walker and his work please see Philip Zimmerman and Frank Levy, An Important Blockfront Desk by Richard Walker of Boston, The Magazine Antiques, March 1995. Other furniture made by this as yet anonymous maker include a desk and bookcase that descended in the Edward Jackson family of Boston that sold in the January, 1996 sale of the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Henry Meyer, lot 218, another desk and bookcase illustrated in Bernard & S. Dean Levy, Inc., Gallery Catalog VIII, and a cupboard on chest illustrated in The Magazine Antiques, January 1978, page 14.

Item Number: 4482.1