SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA, CARLISLE OR CHESTER COUNTY, 1760-1780

With an elaborately rendered interior section featuring a projecting prospect drawer against a richly scalloped configuration with stepped drawers and two partitions with carved bird heads, this distinctive desk can be attributed to a shop working in Carlisle, Cumberland County or Chester County. As noted by Kindig in his 1981 invoice, four other desks with similar interiors have histories in Carlisle-area families. Another closely related desk has been attributed to Chester County (fig 1; Margaret Berwind Schiffer, Furniture and Its Makers of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Exton, Pennsylvania, 1978), fig. 140).