MARYLAND, 1790-1810

This desk and bookcase relates to several other known Maryland examples of the form, including a china cabinet with a nearly identical upper case that is inscribed "Laws" (possibly William Laws of Montgomery Country). The fenestration of the doors, the turned finial on an inlaid tablet plinth, and the small, inlaid rosettes of the scroll pediment are very similar, and the design of the pierced pediment of both examples appear to be rendered from the same template. (See Albert Sack, Fine Points of Furniture (New York, 1993) p. 174). Another related example, attributed to the shop of John Shaw of Annapolis, is illustrated in William Voss Elder III and Lu Bartlett, John Shaw, Cabinetmaker of Annapolis (Baltimore Museum of Art, 1983) p. 120 and also in Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America (New York, 1926) vol. I, p. 268, fig. 292.

This desk-and-bookcase may have belonged to Anna M. Fulton (b. 1878) of New Castle, Delaware.