A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY BLOCK-FRONT DESK-AND-BOOKCASE
A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY BLOCK-FRONT DESK-AND-BOOKCASE
A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY BLOCK-FRONT DESK-AND-BOOKCASE
4 More
A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY BLOCK-FRONT DESK-AND-BOOKCASE
7 More
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF GLENN AND PATRICIA RANDALL, CLARENDON COURT, NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY BLOCK-FRONT DESK-AND-BOOKCASE

BOSTON, 1760-1790

Details
A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY BLOCK-FRONT DESK-AND-BOOKCASE
BOSTON, 1760-1790
appears to retain its original hardware
96 in. high, 42 in. wide, 22 ½ in. deep
Provenance
According to tradition:
General Arad Hunt (1743-1825), Vernon, Vermont, and Hinsdale, New Hampshire
Thence by descent in the family
Mrs. John H. Harwood, Brookline, Massachusetts
Wayne Pratt, Inc., Woodbury, Connecticut, 1996
The Rosebrook Collection
Christie's, New York, 21 January 2015, lot 165
Literature
'The Furniture Collection of Mrs. John H. Harwood,' The Magazine Antiques (September 1946), p. 165.
Johanna McBrien, 'A Sense of Place', Antiques & Fine Art (Winter/Spring 2008), p. 209.

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Lot Essay

This sophisticated piece showcases the solid, clean lines of classic block-front design and the refinement of late eighteenth-century Boston cabinetmaking. Its quality suggests that it was made in one of the leading shops of the time, such as those of Benjamin Frothingham (1734-1809) or George Bright (1726-1805).

According to tradition, this desk-and-bookcase descended in the Hunt family and was originally made for General Arad Hunt (1743-1825) of Vernon, Vermont and Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Born July 31, 1743, the youngest of four sons to Samuel and Anna Ellsworth Hunt, Hunt led a rich life as a militia officer and a land speculator. He served in Vermont's Cumberland County Militia, commissioned on January 4, 1776 for the First or Lower Regiment alongside his brother Jonathan, which seems to have cemented a lifelong partnership between the two. Father Samuel Hunt was active in establishing new territories around New Hampshire, and in time, both Arad and Jonathan also became speculators in vast amounts of land, purchasing acreage around Vermont, New Hampshire, and what is now New York state. Hunt never married or had children of his own, but left his estate, including land, property and furnishings to his brother’s family. He was also one of the major early benefactors of Middlebury College in Vermont, donating 5,000 acres to the school in 1813, thus cementing the institution’s long term viability. For more information on Hunt family wills, land deeds, and probate inventories, see Thomas Bellows Wyman, Genealogy of the Name and Family of Hunt (Boston, 1862-3).

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