The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 20, 2024
Desk and Bookcase
c. 1780–95
attributed to John Townsend
(American, 1732–1809)
Overall: 240 x 108 x 64.8 cm (94 1/2 x 42 1/2 x 25 1/2 in.)
Location: 204 Colonial American
Did You Know?
This desk and bookcase was likely made for Oliver Wolcott Sr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later governor of Connecticut.Description
In the 1700s, Newport, Rhode Island, was the fifth largest city in North America and one of the most important centers of shipping and trade along the Eastern Seaboard. Orders for furniture from its celebrated cabinetmakers came in from far and wide. This desk and bookcase was likely made for Oliver Wolcott Sr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later governor of the State of Connecticut. Eventually, the desk passed down through his family to Dorothy Draper, an important 20th-century interior decorator, and ultimately to her daughter, Penelope Draper Buchanan, whose husband gave it to the museum after her death—a rare, unbroken line of succession.Large desks were designed to hold all the necessary components of a gentleman’s office under lock and key: books, papers, pens and ink, and important documents. To serve such a function desks also became complicated masterworks of the cabinetmaker’s art, incorporating many parts from small drawers to large panels cut from a single tree, making them among the most expensive types of furniture available. This desk and bookcase exhibits the characteristic traits of classic Newport furniture—“plum pudding” mahogany, cupcake-like finials, and a carved shell on the inside of the desk.
- probably 1785Oliver Wolcott, Sr [1726-1797], a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, commissioned from the maker.1785-2012Thence by descent through the Wolcott, Tuckerman, Minturn, Draper, Buchanan families.2012-The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 53 no. 02, March/April 2013 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 23 archive.orgBidwell, Frederick E. and Leslie Cade. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with New York, NY: Scala Arts Publishers, 2014. Mentioned & reproduced: p. 137 library.clevelandart.orgCleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 20
- No existing exhibition history.
- {{cite web|title=Desk and Bookcase|url=false|author=John Townsend|year=c. 1780–95|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.43