Built-ins & Bookcases · Georgian & Colonial Revival
Boston Desk and Bookcase (c. 1780)
A mahogany desk and bookcase made in Boston around 1780, nearly eight feet tall, with a slant-front desk below and a paneled bookcase with a pediment above.
Design characteristics
In the 1700s, a desk and bookcase was among the most expensive pieces of furniture a household could own, used to store papers and books in a back parlor or hall. This Boston example stacks a slant-front desk under a two-door bookcase topped with a pediment and gilded finials. Its proportions are a ready guide for a built-in home office: deep drawers at the bottom, a writing surface at standing or sitting height, and taller storage above.
Classification
- Category
- Built-ins & Bookcases
- Motifs
- Pediment, Raised panel
- Date
- c. 1780
- Recorded medium
- mahogany and pine, brass hardware, gilding
- Dimensions
- Overall: 241.9 x 106 x 56.5 cm (95 1/4 x 41 3/4 x 22 1/4 in.)
- Evidence
- Documented historical object
- Source
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Architectural context
Symmetry, classical proportions and refined raised-panel woodwork. Britain and colonial America · original c. 1714–1830; revival c. 1876–1955.
