BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1730-1750

Details

A QUEEN ANNE WALNUT DESK-AND-BOOKCASE
Boston, Massachusetts, 1730-1750
The broken scroll pediment centering a flame finial above two bevelled glazed doors with star-cut decoration opening to a fitted interior with a row of pigeon holes over seven bookshelves and four small drawers, all above two candle slides; the lower case with slant lid opening to a tiered and blocked interior, above two short drawers over three graduated long drawers, on straight bracket feet, one, and possibly both glazed panels replaced
95in. high, 40½in. wide, 22in. deep

Lot Essay

English inspired, tall and narrow desk and bookcases with straight bracket feet were popular in Boston in the second quarter of the 18th century. Mirrored, or "glazed" doors were an extremely expensive alternative to paneled doors, sometimes doubling the price overall. A glazed door desk with very similar high-arched bonnet top, arched doors, and simple bracket feet is illustrated in Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection (Vol. 2), p. 383. Another related desk and bookcase signed by the cabinetmaker Job Coit, Sr., and dated 1738, shares the narrow stance, glazed doors, bracket feet and broken-arch pediment of this example (see Richards and Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur (Winterthur, 1997), cat. no. 205.

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