Description:
Slant-front desk with an interior writing compartment and a flat-blocked front with four graduated drawers, made by Benjamin Frothingham (1734-1809). A paper label pasted to the underside of the interior right drawer under the pigeonholes, which reads: "Benjn. Frothingham/Cabbinet Maker/in/CHARLESTOWN. NE" which was engraved by Nathaniel Hurd (1730-1777) of Boston in the late 1760s and has his initials, "N.H. ScP." A hand-written note in the object file states: "To whom it may concern: This desk belonged to Colonel Churchill Williams of Philadelphia Penn and had been in his family's possession for many years. Marion Virginia Williams January 1st 1962." Benjamin Frothingham's working dates, 1762-1775 and 1783-1809, were interrupted by two period of military service. He choose a highly figured mahogany for the blocked facade and desinged an interior of three reverse-blocked sexctions with carved fans separated by a single blocked drawer and two pigeonholes. This arrangement is typical of Boston furniture of the 1770s and suggests that the desk was made prior to the Revolution. Unfortunately, during the nineteenth century, someone recarved the slant lid and central door of the interior; both now have been replaced; the brasses and the front four inches of the bottom are also replacements. The hairy claw feet are original.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+62.181 |
