Description:
Chippendale block-front desk-and-bookcase owned by the Reverend John Marsh (1742-1821) of Wethersfield, Connecticut, who in 1775 married Ann Grant (1748-1838), the daughter of Ann Ellsworth (1712-1783) and Ebenezer Grant (1706-1797), one of the leading citizens of East Windsor, Connecticut. According to family tradition, it was among the furnishings bought by Ebenezer Grant, a prosperous merchant, for their wedding. The desk-and-bookcase was made by a Boston craftsman, complete with the carved and gilded flame finials in the best Boston manner, blocked facade, secret compartment, and candle slides below the bookcase doors for nighttime work. The desk-and-bookcase descended through the Dana family to Helen Dana, the second wife of Richard Henry Dana III (1851-1931) and was auctioned in 1934 in New York after Helen's death. It was bought by Richard's son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (with Richard's first wife, Edith Longfellow Dana, daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), who sold the secretary to Ginsberg & Levy in 1947 and from whom the Flynts bought it in 1947. The desk-and-bookcase has three gilded flame finials, each pierced with three circular openings, over a broken-arched pendiment with two molded volutes terminating in carved rosettes; over a molded and dentiled cornice; over two hinged doors with ogee-molded panels, and flanked by flat reeded pilasters. The hinged slant lid covers serpentined and blocked small drawers, shell carvings, small center door, pigeon holes, and one "secret" compartment - a shallow drawer that fits into the bottom of the larger interior drawer and is drawn from its back. The lower block-front case has four graduated drawers with large brasses and framed in narrow moldings, scalloped apron, and four bracket feet. HD has also two side chairs (57.235 and 57.235A) given as wedding presents by Ebenezer Grant, a coat of arms done by Ann Grant (1391), and photographs of Ann and John Marsh portraits (0282.2-.5).
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+0282.1 |
