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Desk and bookcase
About 1755–70
Object Place: Newport, Rhode Island, United States
Medium/Technique
Mahogany, chestnut, red cedar, white pine, yellow-poplar
Dimensions
258.44 x 101.6 x 66.04 cm (101 3/4 x 40 x 26 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Bernon E. Helme and Nathaniel Helme
Accession Number40.790
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsFurniture – Case furniture and boxes
Although related in form to the other desk-and-bookcase in this gallery, this example varies in its details from that piece and other members of the group. For instance, it is the only example with a single finial, without quarter columns in the upper case, and with un-carved centers of the shells on the lid of the desk. James Helme left this desk to Elijah Reynolds Potter of South Kingston, Rhode Island, who in 1835 bequeathed it to his son, Thomas Mawney Potter, a noted antiquarian.
Catalogue Raisonné
Randall 62
DescriptionSix-shell blockfront desk and bookcase
ProvenanceTraditionally belonged originally to Elisha Potter, Sr. of Kingston, R.I., in whose family it descended; 1940, gift of Bernon E. Helme and Nathaniel Helme (Accession Date November 14, 1940)