SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, 1760-1780

First described in William MacPherson Hornor, Jr.’s Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture as owned by "the Late Capt. William Wayne," this desk-and-bookcase was likely purchased by the descendant of famed Revolutionary War general ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne (1745-1796) during the remodeling of the ancestral home known as "Waynesborough" in Paoli, Pennsylvania. William Wayne II (1855-1933) hired Colonial Revival architect Thomas Mellon Rodgers (1857-1928) to restore the home to its original appearance and undo many of the changes made by his father, William Evans Wayne (1828-1902), who favored the popular Victorian style. The desk-and-bookcase stood on the first floor of the house until "Waynesborough" was sold out of the family in 1965.

The present lot, along with a small high chest-of-drawers, a pair of chairs, dressing table, as well as Anthony Wayne’s gold medal awarded to him by the Continental Congress, were inherited by Anthony Wayne Ridgeway, the son of William III’s sister Edith Sarah Fox (Wayne) Ridgeway (1874-1943) and were sold at Sotheby Parke-Bernet in 1978.