A CHIPPENDALE MAHOGANY BLOCK-FRONT SLANT-FRONT DESK

BOSTON OR SALEM, 1760-1790

Details

A CHIPPENDALE MAHOGANY BLOCK-FRONT SLANT-FRONT DESK
Boston or Salem, 1760-1790
The rectangular top above a blocked and thumbmolded slant lid opening to a central prospect door flanked by document drawers with applied colonettes flanked by valenced pigeonholes over short drawers and each further flanked by three stacked short drawers above a conforming case fitted with four blocked and graduated long drawers with cockbeaded surrounds over a conforming molded base with central pendant drop, on blocked bracket feet with shaped returns
42in. high, 40.1/8in. wide, 22in. deep

Provenance

Jess Pavey, Birmingham, Michigan

Lot Essay

One of the most favored decorative options in late eighteenth-century Boston, the block-front facade adorns a large number of surviving caseforms and desks. The blocking on the lid, however, appears to have been a more expensive detail and as few such lids survive today, rarely employed by the region's cabinetmakers. Blocked lids are often considered a feature of Salem craftsmanship, but other construction details indicate that this object may have been made in Boston. The drawer sides are embellished with double-beaded molding and the molded base is joined to the base boards with a large dovetail, a hallmark of Boston cabinetry and not as common in Salem furniture. For other examples of blocked-lid furniture, see Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Furniture and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, 1988), cat. 174, pp. 333-335; Lovell, "Boston Blockfront Furniture," Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century (Boston, 1974), pp.120-127; Sack, Fine Points of Furniture: Early American (New York, 1950), p.150.